Tag: wrath

Posted in grace, love, salvation, wrath

I was not saved by a loving Jesus wooing me

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I wasn’t saved by love. The Gospel was not attractive to me. It was not made attractive to me by smiling Christians. I didn’t suddenly melt because of all the syrupy love Jesus flowed down onto me. I was saved by wrath.

This is NOT my Jesus

Glorious Jesus who was and is and is to come did not woo me to the cross. No one fulfilled my felt needs. No one befriended me and cajoled me into loving Jesus. He battered my head with a 2X4, dragging me kicking and screaming to the cross, where He made me face my sin. Once I saw my sin, I saw how ugly it is. I saw His coming wrath for it.

I repented.

THEN I loved Him. After He opened my eyes I saw all His loveliness and grace and mercy and long-suffering and patience and grief over sin and sinners. But I was not wooed, nor was I loved onto Mt Moriah. It is not true that “Jesus won’t come where He isn’t welcome”. It is not true that “Jesus won’t force Himself on anybody.” People who say that never read of Paul’s conversion!

He is sovereign God! He goes where He pleases! (Psalm 24:1). He drop-kicked Saul/Paul to the ground AND blinded him! He didn’t ASK Mary if she’d like to become pregnant and an object of ridicule and rumor the rest of her life. No, He sent an angel to TELL her how it was going to be. (Luke 1:30-37)

He isn’t wringing His hands in heaven hoping that Jane or Tom or Mary will believe in Him, and maybe they will, if He just sends the Spirit to soften the pew cushions … or energizes the preacher with a louder “WOO!” … or if the musician plays one more verse of “Just As I Am.” Maybe if He can make church “exciting” then Harry will repent and believe. No.

It was the sovereign wrath that convicted me and convinced me. It is why I love passages like this from 2 Thessalonians-

The Great Day of His Wrath, John Martin

GOD’S RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT

This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. Since it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give rest to you who are afflicted and to us as well at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, executing vengeance on those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed⁠—for our witness to you was believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10)

Let us begin the marveling now. Marvel at a Savior who saves by His sovereign election, will, purpose, and plan! Marvel at He who is wrath and judgment and holiness and fierce anger! Be afeared of His anger over your sin. Marvel that El Shaddai… El Elyon …sent His Son to take on all anger for His elect’s sins. Marvel that He is also Jehovah Rapha, and Jehovah Jireh, the LORD that heals, the LORD will provide. Marvel at the wrath. It makes marveling at the grace all the more sweet.

Posted in theology

For who knows the power of God’s wrath?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In my Bible reading the other day I read the following:

Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? (Psalm 90:11).

God has fear due Him? Let’s unpack this.

One of God’s expressions of displeasure is wrath. It is the ultimate expression of his displeasure, some would say. I feel it is my duty to present to you honestly and forthrightly, all of God. That means, that even though I am a ministry aimed at women, I do not hide the more “unpalatable” attributes of God in favor of the lovey ones. (As if God could in any way be unpalatable). His anger, His wrath, His displeasure over sin is part of who He is. We should not hide from that. God is all in all, He is every attribute that is holy, wrapped up into one God in Three Persons. In fact, the more the evangelical world focuses on “God is love,” the more I feel compelled to remind that He is also wrath.

You cannot swing a cat in the Psalms without running into His wrath, His anger, or His displeasure. I read Psalm 90. verse 11 states,

Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? (Psalm 90:11).

The ‘fear that is due you’ caught me. Here it means the awe-inspired reverence due our God because of who He is.

Matthew Henry’s Whole Commentary on the Bible says,

"They are taught by all this to stand in awe of the wrath of God (v. 11): Who knows the power of thy anger? 1. None can perfectly comprehend it. The psalmist speaks as one afraid of God’s anger, and amazed at the greatness of the power of it; who knows how far the power of God’s anger can reach and how deeply it can wound? The angels that sinned knew experimentally the power of God’s anger; damned sinners in hell know it; but which of us can fully comprehend or describe it?"

"Few do seriously consider it as they ought. Who knows it, so as to improve the knowledge of it? Those who make a mock at sin, and make light of Christ, surely do not know the power of God’s anger. For, according to thy fear, so is thy wrath; God’s wrath is equal to the apprehensions which the most thoughtful serious people have of it; let men have ever so great a dread upon them of the wrath of God, it is not greater than there is cause for and than the nature of the thing deserves."

"God has not in his word represented his wrath as more terrible than really it is; nay, what is felt in the other world is infinitely worse than what is feared in this world. Who among us can dwell with that devouring fire? Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 876)".

Charles Spurgeon said–

Verse 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Moses saw men dying all around him: he lived among funerals, and was overwhelmed at the terrible results of the divine displeasure. He felt that none could measure the might of the Lord’s wrath. Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

Holy Scripture when it depicts God’s wrath against sin never uses an hyperbole; it would be impossible to exaggerate it. Whatever feelings of pious awe and holy trembling may move the tender heart, it is never too much moved; …What the power of God’s anger is in hell, and what it would be on earth, were it not in mercy restrained, no man living can rightly conceive.

Modern thinkers rail at Milton and Dante, Bunyan and Baxter, for their terrible imagery; but the truth is that no vision of poet, or denunciation of holy seer, can ever reach to the dread height of this great argument, much less go beyond it.

The wrath to come has its horrors rather diminished than enhanced in description by the dark lines of human fancy; it baffles words, it leaves imagination far behind. Beware ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. God is terrible out of his holy places. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah! Remember Korah and his company! Mark well the graves of lust in the wilderness!

Nay, rather bethink ye of the place where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. Who is able to stand against this justly angry God? Who will dare to rush upon the bosses of his buckler, or tempt the edge of his sword? Be it ours to submit ourselves as dying sinners to this eternal God, who can, even at this moment, command us to the dust, and thence to hell.–-end Spurgeon

The false teacher will want to redirect your thinking from these sad but essential truths. Payment for sin must occur. Jesus took God’s wrath bodily on the cross for the sins of all who would believe. Those who refuse to repent of their sins will pay for it themselves. This is something we must keep in mind every day- the untenable position of the ungodly. For who can stand when God’s wrath is unleashed?

A balanced view of God is necessary for proper worship. We who are saved have escaped that wrath by the grace of God and through no merit of our own. Yet millions are still under that dark cloud of hellish expectation. What will it take to remove that cloud and replace it with the beams of holy light? The GOSPEL.

Sharing the truths of His wrath and moving toward the glorious majesties of His character in mercy, grace, and love will do it. But don’t forego the first part! For who can stand when God’s wrath is finally unleashed in full? The dregs, O the dregs,

Psalm 75:8, For a cup is in the hand of Yahweh, and the wine foams; It is full of His mixture, and He pours from this; Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs.

Posted in theology

Christians rarely speak of or teach about God’s Wrath – and that is a problem

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

After salvation, I related to God from the beginning in an unusual way. Many people recommend reading John’s Gospel first because the Apostle of Love would ignite the seeker or the new believer’s heart with love for such a God as we have in return. God is love, is the approach.

As a person on the autism spectrum I don’t relate to the emotion of love in the same way as other people. I don’t have a relationship with my emotions that other people have. In fact, I’m unskilled at identifying the emotions I do have. This is called alexithymia. It isn’t a medical diagnosis and it’s not a disorder, according to health professionals. It’s just a condition some people have. So the emotional approach to a relationship with God wasn’t the path He laid out for me. I was like, ‘God is love, so what?’

I do have a strong sense of justice, as many high functioning autistic folks do. I thrive where there are very clear rules (the Bible is a relief!), strong logic, and a robust sense of fairness and justice.

Therefore God’s wrath for sin is very attractive to me. I often speak and write of it, and I look forward to the Day when He rights all wrongs. Injustice is an agony to me. Broken rules, unfairness, and chaos are upsetting. I was like, ‘God is justice?! HALLELUJAH!’

That God will enact His justice through a potent wrath that will strike the souls in heaven silent and will be infinite enough to torment sinners in hell forever does not bother me. It never did. It does bother me if a person won’t repent, or when they reject Christ. But the fact of the existence of holy wrath seems a logical counterpoint to His holiness and love. It’s a natural extension of His justice. Sin needs punishment. I am fully aware that apart from His grace, I’d be one of the people dwelling in hell forever, enduring the torment the Lamb pours out, and justifiably so. I was a terrible sinner. His wrath and justice for sin must be executed.

And far from the lovey-dovey hippie Jesus who hung out with sinners and would never torment these poor victims of satan, Jesus is the one doing the tormenting! Jesus is fully involved with His justice.

Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9-10, cf Revelation 20:10)

But today people hardly speak of wrath at all. To do so invites scorn, ridicule, a peppering of questions and accusations, and rejection. I agree with the writer below. When I read Dustin Benge’s Twitter thread on wrath I was pleased to see this important topic addressed. Here is his thread-

Dustin Benge @Dustin Benge wrote

God’s wrath is a foreign topic nowadays.

Even to mention God’s wrath is to evoke rejection by our hearers: “God would never be that harsh… I thought God was love, not wrath… Surely God wouldn’t send anyone to hell… Doesn’t God say that he loves sinners?” 1/7

Our problem with God’s wrath springs from the fact that we consider wrath in human categories rather than divine. That is, we conclude that God must be like us when he expresses his wrath, a morally monstrous and vindictive person who threatens, “You just watch out!” 2/7

But this is not the God of Scripture, for God’s wrath is in perfect accord with his perfect righteousness, holiness, and justice. God can’t be divided into various parts, as if he had multiple personalities. 3/7

Since God is both infinite mercy and infinite justice, this requires that every single one of our sins committed against his infinite holiness be punished. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). 4/7

While some divide God into a wrathful Old Testament “tyrant” and a benevolent New Testament “daddy,” a consistent reading of both Testaments discerns that the presentation of God’s wrath is wholly consistent throughout Scripture. 5/7

There is no greater portrait of divine love than when God poured his wrath out upon his beloved Son at Calvary. On the cross, God unleashed his holy fury upon our sin-bearer and substitute, Jesus Christ, who became for us “a propitiation by his blood” (Rom. 3:25). 6/7

God so loved the objects of his wrath that he gave his only Son that through his perfect blood he would make provision for the removal of his wrath. Christ so wholly satisfies God’s wrath that those who were once objects of his wrath are now beloved children. 7/7

To ignore the wrath because it makes a believer uncomfortable to talk of, or because he cannot ‘defend’ it, is doing the unbeliever an injustice. Unbelievers will suffer the wrath forever and ever. They are at risk at every moment of being cast into the fires of hell at their death, which may always come at any time. Jonathan Edwards preached,

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.

This is a fact. Wrath is real. Many millions and billions are enduring it now. Please, dear reader, inquire of the Spirit to expand your mind to learn more about God’s wrath as the executing vehicle for His justice. We don’t want to focus excessively on love to the exclusion of the conclusion of the reality in front of the unbeliever. The unrepentant will live an infinitely long life in hellish eternity. And such were some of you- sinners dangling over the fires of hell before the grace of God took pity on you (and me) and rescued us through Jesus’ blood. Remember that, and talk of it.

Posted in bible jesus, hell, punishment

Back to Basics: What is hell?

Posted on by elizabethprata

This “Back to Basics” series explores some of the more basic doctrines of the Bible Believing faith of Christianity. After the rapture there will be millions of new believers who must come to grips, and quickly, with the basic tenets of our faith. This series is a primer. Other entries in the series are

Hello, Holy Spirit!
What does it mean to be born again?
What’s the Gospel?
What is prayer?

Hell is real. The current American culture doesn’t want to believe that hell is real. Liberal Christians all around the world don’t believe it is real either. Rob Bell wrote a book called “Love Wins” in which he says “A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.” It should be noted that Mr Bell has become apostate by now.

Of course, Mr Bell is completely wrong, at least about the doctrine of hell being a misguided teaching. Jesus taught it. Was Jesus misguided? Certainly not.

Continue reading “Back to Basics: What is hell?” →
Posted in theology

Our greatest need

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

It’s troubling times. Our nation just went through a national convulsion from the pandemic, presidential election, and post-election transfer of power. We’ve been experiencing a year-long string of natural disasters, riots, and unexpected tragedies. It’s been tough.

Even the strongest Christian is wobbling from being buffeted back and forth. Pagans are in terror most of the time, whether they will admit it or not.

During troubling times, our natural instinct is to extend sympathy. To put a hand on a shoulder, to cry with those who are crying. We speak a soft word, we exude mercy and grace to those who are suffering, afraid, or scared. We tend toward the “kindness” qualities in our relationships. As we should.

During troubling times it’s also a natural inclination to swing the pendulum too far to the other side. We tend to exclude speaking of our greatest need. We feel it’s ‘not the right time’ to bring up what all humans need, especially to the unsaved.

Continue reading “Our greatest need” →
Posted in prophecy, theology

Is America under wrath?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The year 2020 has been a hard one. There hasn’t been a lot of good news. In fact it has been a grief to see countries close and cities lock down, churches shuttered, and missionaries booted out, making it difficult to personally gather to worship Jesus and share the Good News. Time has passed and we’re now looking at 2021, but no one except God knows if the upcoming year will be any better for us here in America or elsewhere.

People are asking, “Is the wrath of God upon us?” “Is the wrath of God about to be poured down?” “Is judgment here?”

Yes. But it has been since the Garden. Let me explain the different kinds of wrath related to different kinds of judgment. Because there are different types of wrath and except for the eschatological wrath due to come at the end of the last days, the other kinds of wrath have always been in play.

When we think of ‘God’s wrath’ or ‘Judgment’, we think of the stark example of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah (and Admah and Zeboiim) in Genesis 19. Those sinful cities serve as an example of what happens when a town gives itself over to indulging in immorality, like widespread homosexuality. (Jude 1:7). God rained down fire and brimstone, destroying the cities and all flesh that were within them.

But there are actually different types of wrath. Some are unseen because they’re internal, others are seen but difficult to identify specifically as wrath or simply a ‘natural’ a consequence of the Fall. Some wrath of God abides on the ungodly every day, and it always has since Genesis 3.

Thomas Hooker, a Puritan preacher of the 1600s, said in his book The application of redemption by the effectual work of the word, and spirit of Christ, for the bringing home of lost sinners to God (don’t you love their lengthy titles, lol? And their antiquated spelling? )

who shal comfort, who can releeve what ever he doth, wherever he is, the wrath God abides upon him, thou art not within the Mercy nor the compass of that Redemption?

Jonathan Edwards said the word “wrath” 52 times in his famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He said “anger” 6 times. He preached,

The Wrath of God burns against them, their Damnation don’t slumber, the Pit is prepared, the Fire is made ready, the Furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the Flames do now rage and glow.

What IS the wrath? Most people, if they think of God’s wrath at all either think of Jesus exhausting it on the cross for forgiven sinners, or the last day when Jesus returns in wrath, blood, fire etc to pour His wrath out on unforgiven sinners.

The wrath of God is not an easy topic. It is not a popular topic. It is not often directly preached from pulpits, nor spoken of on social media or in conversation. But it is an important topic. Upon death, the final state of all humans who were not saved during life will be to endure horrific wrath forever. The wrath hangs over every unsaved person while they are alive.

The wrath is an attribute of God. And though we love to think of Jesus the babe meek & mild, especially during Christmas season, He is also wrathful. He will return to deliver His stored-up wrath one day.

John MacArthur preached on this a number of times, here is a paraphrase / excerpt from one of the sermons. Please note that MacArthur took the biblical evidence of wrath and placed them in a descriptive list.

1. Eternal wrath – because it is the punishment that God brings upon unbelieving sinners forever in hell. (Matthew 25:41-46, many other verses).
2. Eschatological wrath, that is the wrath of God that is released at the end of the world described by some of the Old Testament prophets, described by Jesus Christ Himself in the Olivet Discourse, and clearly laid out for us in the book of Revelation. (Luke 21:23, Romans 2:5, Revelation 6-18).
3. Cataclysmic wrath, like a tsunami, a volcano, a hurricane, an earthquake… Noah’s Flood and the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, & Zeboiim are examples of this wrath. Cataclysms are a reflection of the judgment of God. (Numbers 16:31-35).
4. Consequential wrath. Consequential wrath is the sowing and reaping wrath, you live a certain kind of life and you set in motion certain forces that will produce judgment. The resulting wrath can be reflective of the consequence of the sin-choice a person makes. (Acts 5:4-5, 1 Corinthians 11:29-30). AIDS was a consequential wrath for indulging in homosexuality.
5. The wrath of abandonment. It is that wrath exhibited by God when He turns His back on a group, society, or individual. (Romans 1:24, 28, 28).

We should be careful though, not to attribute any particular event as an example of a specific kind of wrath. The tornado-wind that destroyed Job’s house was not wrath. (Job 18:18). The man born blind was not experiencing a lifetime of infirmity due to sin. (John 9:2-3). The Tower of Siloam fell over because the Tower of Siloam fell over. (Luke 13:4). Someone whom God has seemed to have turned over to their sin in a wrath of abandonment could become the unlikeliest convert (Saul/Paul).

Unlike in Edwards or Hooker’s time, in today’s Christianity God is talked of as a kindly grandfather in the sky, or Jesus is treated as a romantic boyfriend or buddy. However, God’s wrath is real. It is already present and it is also to come. Humans may not live any way we want and God will sit idly by smiling upon His wayward children. He has high moral standards and a high holy standard. Departure from His standard will result in wrath. Since none of us can attain these standards on our own, it means we are all due to experience His wrath. This presents a problem because none is righteous, no, not one. We are all separated from God. Yet He desires communion with His creatures.

Graciously, Jesus lived a perfectly holy life, died on the cross as the sacrifice, having exhausted all of God’s wrath for those whom He will save, and after laying dead in the tomb for three days, God raised Jesus to life. Those who repent of their sins and turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior will never experience His wrath. Praise God for that.

We do seem to be experiencing a wrath of abandonment here in America at present. I’ll write about that tomorrow on why I think so and explore Romans 1 as the biblical foundation for why I believe it.

Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! (Romans 5:9).

Repent now, while there is still time.

After the arrest of John, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15).

wrath verse

—————————————–

Further Reading

Delivered By Grace: The Wrath of God

GotQuestions: What is the biblical understanding of the wrath of God?

Posted in jesus, theology

Jesus drank the waters of fury

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

God rebuked sinful man. His anger was higher than the mountains, deeper than the lowest valley. He covered the planet with His wrath, in the flood.

The waters were high, deep, angry, and overspread all that existed. All. All that water was God’s wrath for sin. He enshrounded the earth with judgment, covering it with water as a garment. (Psalm 104:6). His water was the judgment robe that spread over the earth as a mantle. Continue reading “Jesus drank the waters of fury” →

Posted in discernment, theology

Are you drifting toward only wanting your ears tickled?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

This essay first appeared on The End Time in November 2010.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires…” (2 Timothy 4:3)

Do you notice that word “endure”? The verse does not say “they will not like sound doctrine…” It does not say “they will not enjoy sound doctrine…” It doesn’t even say “they will not accept sound doctrine.” It uses the word endure. When you endure something, you writhe. You wish you were not there in the midst of it. If anyone has ever undergone physical therapy, you know that you have to endure it but if you could you would shoot out of the gym so fast you’d be like a speeding bullet. If anyone has ever had to get a root canal, you know that you endure it. You do not seek it, you do not like it, and if you could, you go away from it.

That is the process by which lukewarm Christians, fake Christians, and unholy pastors feel about the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. To be sure, the true Gospel of the Risen Savior is full of warm fuzzies. He loves us. (John 13:1). He prospers us. (2 Corinthians 9:8). He sends angels to us. (Hebrews 1:14). But the True Gospel is also full of truth, the unpalatable truth that the iniquitous lawless cannot endure: we are sinners. (Psalm 51:5). Rejection of the remedy for your sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) means you will spend eternity in torment, apart from God. That there is nothing good in us. (Mark 10:18). That we are fallen, craven, and deserve judgment. No, they will not endure that. So they don’t.

Instead they seek teachers to tempt us with what the devil has always tempted us with, and tempted Jesus too: health, wealth, fame. (Luke 4:1-13). They may find it in some “preachers” and in some “churches”, but it is for a season. Hebrews 11:25). Most do not find prosperity in health, wealth and fame. The only ones becoming famous and rich are the false pastors who urge the hapless and desperate to send money.

In his series, “Toxic Television: Unmasking the Prosperity Gospel part 1” Bible teacher John MacArthur spends a few minutes below of his one-hour sermon (linked above) explaining why Joel Osteen is false, dangerous, and unholy. He also spends time explaining why the Trinity Broadcast Network is also false, dangerous and unholy. MacArthur says, Osteen “is a quasi-pantheist where Jesus is a footnote that satisfies his critics and deceives his followers.” As for Osteen’s book, MacArthur says ‘Your Best Life Now’, the title, is a dead giveaway. The only way you can have your best life now is if you’re going to hell.”

Toxic Television: Unmasking the Prosperity Gospel part 1

A watered down gospel removes the book-end to the parts that they seek love and only ‘love’. The missing book-end is judgment. They will not endure sound teaching of His holiness involving love but also including righteous judgment.

“I have sworn by Myself,
The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness
And will not turn back,
That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.
“They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’
Men will come to Him,
And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. (Isaiah 45:23-24)

A watered down gospel that removes the other book-end is less filling but it tastes great. The Bible shows us that the True Gospel tastes great, and also the watered down false Gospel tastes great. In the verses telling us of Ezekiel’s commission,

“Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.” (Ez 3:1-3).

The true word absorbed by submissive believers is sweet. But it is also sometimes accompanied by a bitterness felt by even the most beloved of followers, even the most obedient of disciples. Sometimes the true word is hard to hear and bitter even for believers, because it reveals to us the true state of our sinfulness, our sorrow over our sin, and the fate of those who refuse His hand, those mockers and scorners whom we mourn over-

“I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.” (Rev 10:10)

The only way to endure the knowledge of judgment that is coming is to rest on His truth and His promises. Those who do not rest in that truth, bitter as it sometimes is, do not endure it. Not only have they stopped asking the Spirit for wisdom, but they simply stop ingesting the sweet Words of the LORD and they flee away, being unstable in all they do.

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8)

But we do endure! Paul said to in 2 Tim 2:3, 10. Peter said to in 1 Peter 2:20. The writer in Hebrews 12:7 advised us to endure. Endure what? Hardship. Beatings. Wrongdoing. Life. Hardship. Persecution. And there are those today who cannot sit still in a chair or a pew and ‘endure’ the Word of the Living God who loves them. They seek tickling instead. They are gaining the world only to lose their lives forever.

Has solid preaching become an endurance test for you? Or are the hard but truthful words uplifting to you and filling in every way? If you have recently changed churches because the pastor is “a little too Bible thumping for my taste”, or have drifted away from regular worship lately because the sermons are too long, too convicting, or demand endurance on the part of your deceitful heart, then ask yourself if you are really just trying to accumulate a teacher in accordance with your own desires, and are wanting your ears tickled with a less filling but great tasting sermon. If so, you may be at risk.

Why at risk? Because we all live forever in eternity in one of two places. The day will come when the eternity you are beginning will either not have the word endure associated with it, which is heaven, or it will have the word endure associated with it, for an eternity!

You may try to avoid enduring a convicting sermon from a ticklish teacher today, but the end result will be that you will have to endure an eternity separated from Him in torment. O, faithful one, let it not be so!

 

Posted in prophecy, theology

The darkness deepens

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I have friends who are unafraid and unashamed to post the biblical truth on social media, like James White, Michelle Lesley, Justin Peters, and so on. We learned a few days ago that Amazon pulled books on the subject of conversion (homosexual) therapy. This week also, the American Institute of Graphic Arts who puts on the Circles Conference disinvited a staffer from Matt Chandler’s church who was to speak, due to his “organization’s” allegedly discriminatory attitudes towards women and gay people. It’s sad to see these things come to pass, but we expected the battle on those fronts. However, my friend Michelle also was just notified that a meme she posted on Facebook was hate speech. Here it is.

women pastors

Feminism and the Homosexual Agenda are two of the enemy’s favored doctrines. He is pressing them ever forward into American culture. As he does so, he is tightening the reins of how much truth will be tolerated. This is an example.

James White wrote about this recently, saying in his blog post Wisdom From Above–

what shall we do now that Google and Facebook and Twitter and Amazon are picking us off, one by one, for not saying Caesar is Lord?

James White continues in his short blog post with a few ideas about what we should do, as related to social media.

He also wrote, commenting about a recent incident from culture, that we are looking at Romans 1:32 being lived out in front of us.

It was quite a reminder that those who know God’s righteous judgment against their sin suppress that knowledge by inviting others to join them in their rebellion.

Here is the verse he mentioned, about those who participate in these sins heartily applaud those others who do as well.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32)

When God gives them over to a depraved mind, it means their mind can’t think straight. It’s warped, twisted, and literally cannot think rationally. A vivid example of this is claiming that the meme’s language is hate speech when it’s actually just a verse describing the qualifications of preachers.

In the generations gone by, He permitted all the nations to go their own ways. (Acts 14:16)

Thirteen years ago John MacArthur preached a message that stayed with me. It was piercing in its devastating truths. It’s called When God Abandons a Nation. We know that God is a God of love, but He is also a God of wrath. There are different kinds of wrath. One of them is the Wrath of Abandonment. We can’t know when God performs certain acts, but our minds are not futile and we rationally observe the culture. As we know the prophesied outcome of All Things and the general trajectory of life and society, (Genesis 6, Judges…) we can detect by our observations when or if God might have abandoned the USA. MacArthur gives the steps to see this process. I excerpted them below.

1. So you look at a society and ask, is it driven by sexual immorality? Romans 1:24
2. Rampant degrading passions.- Plain and simple, Lesbianism, homosexuality. Romans 1:26
3. First the heart is rotten and the body follows, and then the mind goes. What is a depraved mind? Well, the word literally means tested and found useless, disqualified for its intended purpose, a non-functioning mind. Reasoning is so corrupted that it is crippled. Romans 1:28.

God given-over minds are so warped their reasoning doesn’t make sense. If anyone has spent time on Social Media, you’ve seen this futile thinking. It’s uncritical, unreasoning, twisted, and belligerent.

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. It is also a terrible thing to be cast out of the hands of the Living God. Abandonment to one’s own desires is one of the worst things that can happen to a soul. When this occurs on a wide-spread scale, as in an entire society being given over, it’s horrible to watch.

I’m posting this not to ‘tut-tut’ the culture, but to encourage you to keep studying the word. We need to know what we believe and why. We should keep sharing the reason for the hope that is within us because as society darkens, the Light that is within us will be brighter. We need to prepare for alternative social media platforms as cultural intolerance appears to be increasingly rejecting Christ’s truths. Other platforms beside Twitter and Facebook exist, and James White mentions one or two. There are others.

MacArthur offers a hopeful conclusion in his sermon When God Abandons a Nation:

The key, listen to Me. Walk in My ways. The only hope for this or any other society is to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it, to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it. And I would suggest that this is not a good time for weak men preaching weak messages in weak churches. This is a time for bold and powerful strong biblical ministry that calls people to hear the Word of the Lord and respond. This is the only hope for any people for any individual.

All glory to God!

abandoned