Look at the Lord Jesus, a victim, on the cross?

His suffering was intensified by that brutal mob and the hardened spectators that stood beneath His cross. 

Look, through His eyes, and see, what He sees.

Psalm 22:7-8   "All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him." 

Some criminals have been so detested that they have been taken from jail and lynched by a mob. But while the criminal was being executed, the mob would disperse. Tempers were cooled, and emotions were assuaged. 

But not this crowd! 

The lowest thing that has ever been said of religion was said of these Pharisees when the Lord Jesus Christ was dying:

"And sitting down they watched Him there" (Matthew 27:36). 

One has to be very low to do that. 

One cannot get any lower than that! 

The venom and vileness of the human heart were being poured out like an open sewer as they remained there and ridiculed 

the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. 

After a snake has put its deadly fangs into its victim and emitted its poison, it will slither away in the grass. 

But not this crowd.

Not the human heart that is in rebellion against God.

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do …" (Luke 23:34). 

If our Lord had not said that, this crowd would have committed the unpardonable sin. 

But they did not  -  Our Lord asked forgiveness for their sin. 

We know that the centurion in charge of the execution was saved; and also a whole company of Pharisees, including Saul of Tarsus, who were in this crowd, were saved.

There are those today who misunderstand our Lord when He was on the cross and  He said, 

"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do …" (Luke 23:34). 

Many seem to wrongly think that the Lord Jesus Christ was dismissing all of the sins of these people.

Those who think like that are wrong. 

All our Lord was saying was, 

"Father, forgive them for this particular sin of crucifying Me. They do not know what they are doing." 

That crime was not to be held against them, but they were still all sinners.

And they would all, individually, have to come to God as sinners, as one of them did  -  Saul of Tarsus.  

He had to come to Christ and receive forgiveness of his personal sin.

Somebody may remark that Stephen when he died said, 

"… Lord, lay not this sin to their charge …" (Acts 7:60). 

That is true. 

Stephen is exhibiting the attitude believers should take. 

Apostle Paul expressed it: 

"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19). 

What is the Christian spirit? 

The Christian spirit is this:

avenge not yourself. 

Does that mean that nothing is to be done about it? 

No.

God says this to us as believers: 

"Have you been harmed or hurt?

Do NOT hit back.

I want you to turn that over to Me.

I will handle it. 

Vengeance is Mine; I will repay." 

God says that He will not let anyone get by with sin. 

When you and I take matters into our own hands, we are forsaking the walk of faith. What we are really saying is, "Lord, I can’t trust You to handle this. I’ll handle this myself." 

But God says, we are to walk by faith  -  turn the matter over to Him  -  for He is the God of justice." 

Dear reader, we ought never to forget that Justice must prevail. 

It has to prevail because God is Just.

This earth is going to be ruled in righteousness and justice is going to prevail. 

We as followers of Christ Jesus, ought to strive, being filled with the Spirit, as He strives,  in this world, to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.

Our Lord Jesus told us to remember that,

John 16:4   "But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 

The Holy Spirit is in this world and He today convicts the world in the same way that a judge or a prosecuting attorney presents evidence to bring a conviction. The Spirit of God wants to present evidence in our hearts and bring us to a place of conviction, and that, of course, means a place of decision. 

There must be a conviction in the heart before we can turn in genuine faith and trust the Lord Jesus.

In His present ministry the Holy Spirit will convict the world of 3 things:

sin, righteousness, and judgment. 

Our Lord explains for us what that sin means. "

Sin, because they believe not on Me.

People who today, whoever they may be,  reject the Lord Jesus Christ, are, in the sight of God, the greatest sinners. 

Those who crucified Christ rejected Him 

that He was indeed the Christ, the Messiah.

Remember that the Lord Jesus said, 

"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin" (John 15:22).

Everyone who has ever heard the gospel is responsible for their decision concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. 

To reject Christ is the greatest sin.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit will convict the world of righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification (see Romans 4:25). The Lord Jesus Christ returned to the Father because He had completed His work. 

When He died on the cross, He died a judgment death. 

He took our guilt and He died in our deserved place. 

He was delivered for our offenses. 

He was raised for our justification. 

He was raised from the dead that we might not only have our sins subtracted, but so that we might have His righteousness added. 

That is very important because you and I need His righteousness. 

It is not enough to have our sins forgiven. We cannot stand in God’s Presence if we are nothing more than pardoned criminals. 

Christ has made over to us His righteousness. 

That is the righteousness Paul spoke of:

"… that I may win Christ, And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Philippians 3:8–9). 

He not only subtracts our sin, but He adds His righteousness. 

If we are to have any standing before God, we must be in Christ.

He is our righteousness.

When we are born-from-above His righteousness is imputed to us at our conversion.

Either we have as much right in heaven as Christ Himself has, or we have no right there at all. He was delivered for our offenses, and He was raised again for our justification (righteousness).

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit  convicts the world of judgment. 

"Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." 

The prince of this world, is Satan, and He has been judged. 

It is difficult for many believers to understand that we live in a judged world. 

One hears people say that they’ll take their chances. 

They act as if they are on trial. 

Dear reader no one is on trial today.

God has already declared everyone 

a lost sinner, and 

He has already judged every person.

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). 

We live in a world that has already been judged and is like the man waiting in death row for his execution. 

The judgment against all of us is 

"Guilty"

because all our own righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of God. 

If we had to stand before God in our own filthy rags, we would not only be ashamed of ourselves, but we would also see how guilty we really are.

Remember that Paul reasoned with old Felix concerning judgment to come. That frightened him. 

Today many people don’t like to hear about judgment, and they resent it.

The lost world hates many things about God: for instance, His omnipotence. They don’t like the fact that it is His universe and He is running it His way. 

They don’t like it that God saves by grace, alone, and that man has already been declared lost. 

These are the 3 things of which the Holy Spirit convicts the world today

of sin, righteousness and judgment.

Romans 3:26   "To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Romans 8:29-30   "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified."

On this side of the cross we do not need to bring a sacrifice, but we are to trust in Christ and His blood.

Matthew 10:25-32   "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? 

Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven."

We are not to worry about what people think and say about us if we are being faithful to the Lord Jesus. They did not say nice things about Him. 

If the Lord Jesus Himself received ill-treatment, 

His disciples can hardly expect to fare better. 

Dear reader, our lives are going to be turned upside down. God’s ultimate judgment will someday vindicate believers and deal with persecutors; so we had better have the inside of our lives looking as attractive as the outside. 

I have learned that when we fear God, we do not have to fear anyone else upon this earth.

God loves us!

The Lord Jesus loves us more than our own mother.

Did your mother ever count the hairs on your head?

But God knows the exact number! 

Think of that  -  if God knows where the sparrow is, He knows where we are. 

We will never get to the place where He does not know where we are.

We read in 

Revelation 6:9–10   "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" 

A cry for vengeance is not contrary, 

to the New Testament. 

Justice must prevail. 

God is just and because He is just all things must be made right.

His Righteousness, imputed to us,  means that we are to live right.

How deeply do you feel about evil? 

Do you hate a mad dog that comes into your  yard to bite and devour  your child? 

If you don’t love your children (or other believers for that matter) then you wouldn’t mind even bringing the mad dog into your home and urging the children to pet him on the head. 

But if you love your child, you will hate that mad dog.

It is said of our Lord when He comes the next time: 

"Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness …" (Ps. 45:7). 

No one can love righteousness without hating wickedness. 

It is just not possible!

No one can love God without hating Satan. 

We cannot love that which is right without hating that which is wrong. 

How deeply, do you feel about evil, dear reader?

Do you long for justice upon this earth.

Psalm 137 records the tragic yet tender experience of Israel during the seventy years of captivity. We find in this psalm bitter hatred and deep love. We  find a people really overwhelmed and overpowered by their emotions. They felt very deeply indeed about what was happening and they cried out for justice.

"O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall He be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall He be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones" (Psalm 137:8-9).

This is the law of retribution.

It is still a principle for the child of God today. 

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). 

He won’t reap something else, he will reap the identical thing he sowed.

What these people were saying is, 

"O God, let that thing happen to them that happened to us." 

This is the law of retribution. 

Our Lord Jesus said: 

"They that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matt. 26:52).

An Israelite, sitting by the canals of Babylon, dejected, despondent, being jeered and taunted to sing, says, "I can’t sing." His mind goes back to the destruction of his beloved city and of God’s temple. He thinks again of what took place. He can see that Edomite in the cheering section, urging the Babylonians on. He sees how the Babylonians had destroyed his city. And then happened that frightful, awful thing. His wife was holding their precious little one and that great big brutal Babylonian soldier came to her, wrestled the baby out of her arms, took it by the heels, and  -  with her screaming  -  hit its head across the rock, dashing its brains out! Remembering that, he says, "Because there is a just God in heaven, somebody will do that to the Babylonians."

Whether we like it or not, it is already a matter of history that Cyrus the Great through his general did exactly to the Babylonians what the Babylonians had done to the people of Jerusalem.

Is this psalm for the Dark Ages? 

Is it outmoded in this enlightened day? 

Has man grown more civilized and loving so that this psalm is no longer relevant?

Today on every continent strife is being fomented.

And the most tragic casualties are the children. 

Man’s inhumanity to children, to abuse them in the most frightful ways makes this psalm very up-to-date. 

And there is coming a day when all hell will break loose in this world. I thank God there is a God in heaven who is a God of justice and righteousness, and He is going to put an end to sin. 

Also I am OH SO VERY THANKFUL, that HE IS A GOD OF MERCY, that He is not like men, but is merciful. 

The cross of Calvary reveals His deep love for mankind.

The cross of Calvary reveals His holiness. 

My Savior took upon Himself my sin. 

God so loved me that He gave His Son to die in my place, because He must judge sin.

Oh, today, in this day of grace God is merciful. 

But do not be deceived dear reader, He is Holy, and True and Righteous. 

He will reveal all truth and settle every single account.

Not a single child of His will ever get by with sin.

Hebrews 12:6-13   "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."

Now those who will not receive Christ Jesus as their personal Savior, those who spurn at His grace, those who turn their backs on His mercy, will be judged. 

God makes no apologies to us in this century for doing that, because He has been patient with us for a very long time. He has been very gracious.

Have you availed yourself of His mercy dear reader?

Oh the love that drew salvations plan,
Oh the grace that brought it down to man,
Oh the mighty gulf that God did span,   

at Calvary!

Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty 

at Calvary.

Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified,
Knowing not it was for me He died 

on Calvary.

Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty 

at Calvary.

By God's Word at last my sin I learned;
Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned,
Till my guilty soul imploring turned,  

to Calvary.

Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty 

at Calvary.

Special Thanks: Heavenlymidis 2

Amen!

When we trust Christ, receive Him as our Saviour, we get everything God offers in salvation. And the Holy Spirit actualizes, or makes real, the love of God in our hearts  -  that is, God’s love for us. Oh today how we all need to be conscious of the fact that God loves us. We need to be assured of that in their lives and only the Spirit of God can make real to us God’s love.

Notice how Paul explains the love of God.

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6).

Christ died for the ungodly sinners  -  those who were His enemies, those who hated Him without a cause, those to whom He said when they were crucifying Him,

"… Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do …"

And, you and I dear reader were numbered with the ungodly.

But God does not save us by His love.

God is more than love;

God is Holy and He is Righteous, and He is Just and He is True to His Word.

God cannot open the back door of heaven and slip sinners in under the cover of darkness, and He cannot let down the bars of heaven and bring sinners in. If He does that, He is no better than a crooked judge who lets a criminal off.

God had to do something for the guilt of sinners.

There must be judgment for sin.

However, God does love us. Regardless of who we are or what we have done, God loves us and we can come to Him at any time. The Holy Spirit patiently prompts us to come to Him when we are broken hearted and we can confess our sin and we can know for sure that He will not turn us away.

I used to sing these wonderful choruses when I attended Sunday School years ago perhaps you will also remember them and let us praise God right now for all those who faithfully teach Sunday School. Today I know what it means to have my sins washed away and what it means to have The Joy of the  Lord Jesus Christ, down in my heart.

We can we know that Jesus saves us, can we know?

Be assured each moment, everywhere we go?

We can we know our sins are all forgiven, washed away,

That our path is leading to God's perfect day?

Oh yes - we- can know - can know our sins are washed away,

We can know - can know are sins are washed away:

Chapter one, verse twelve of John - is the ground we stand upon!

We can we know our sins are all forgiven, washed away,

That our path is leading to God's perfect day?

Amen!

All my sins are gone, All because of Calvary

Life is filled with song, All because of Calvary

Christ my Saviour lives, Lives from sin to set me free

Someday He's coming ,O wondrous blessed day

All, yes, all because of Calvary.

Amen!

Gone, gone, gone, gone!

Yes my sins are gone

Now my soul is free and

in my heart's a song

Buried in the deepest sea,

Yes, that's good enough for me

I shall live eternally,

Praise God my sins are gone

Amen!

I've got the joy of Jesus down in my heart,

Down in my heart,

Where?

Down in my heart.

I've got the joy of Jesus down in my heart.

Glory to His name.

Amen!

We today cannot keep God from loving us. Now we can get to the place where we do not experience the love of God. For instance, we cannot keep the sun from shining, but we can get out of the sunshine. We can put up an umbrella of sin, an umbrella of indifference, an umbrella of stepping out of the will of God, which will keep His love from shining on us. Although all these things will remove us from experiencing God’s love, He still loves us.

The Word of God says,

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

God saves us by His grace, not by His love.

Does the verse say?

‘God so loved the world’ that He saved the world?

Oh, no  -  He could not do that.

A Holy God has to be true to His character. But He did this:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).

God demonstrated His love for us.

He gave His Son to die for us.

We all deserved death.

He paid the penalty for our sin, and now Holy, Righteous and Just God can save us if we but  come to Him and we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him as our personal Saviour from sin. He is the only way of salvation.

But we have to come His way  -  the Lord Jesus Christ way.

Today there is a mistaken idea that we can come to Him our way.

This is not our universe; it is His universe.

You and I do not make the rules.

He makes the rules.

And He says that no man comes to the Father except through Christ (see John 14:6).

Our Lord made it very clear that those who belong to Him are not forced into doing His will. He said,

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them (and I drive them out! Oh, no) and they follow Me" (John 10:27).

They are the ones who are safe and secure;

the ones who follow Him.

They are led by the Spirit of God.

They hear His voice because they have a new nature, the nature of the Father, and they desire to follow Him.

They dont try to pull Him to where they want Him to go.

They go where He wants them to go.

I'm following Jesus,
One step at a time;
I live for the moment,
In His Love divine.
Why think of tomorrow,
Just live for today;
I'm following Jesus,
Each step of the way.

The pathway is narrow,
But He leads me on;
I walk in His shadow,
My fears are all gone.
My spirit grows stronger,
Each moment, each day,
For Jesus is leading
Each step of the way.
Amen!

Our Lord Jesus has warned us that

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you" (John 15:18).

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:17).

Apostle Paul tells us that he bore the brand marks of the Lord Jesus upon his body and upon his life.

Galatians 6:16-18   "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen."

I believe that in our day the Lord Jesus still stoops to write, not upon the shifting sands of the temple floor, but he writes upon the lives of those who are His own.

His branding iron is on our hearts for eternity. 

Are you dear reader  willing to bear reproach for Lord Jesus’ sake?

If we are His children,  He assures us of the fact that all the true children of God will suffer with Him.

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me

All His wonderful passion and purity

O Thou Spirit divine all my nature refine

Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.

Amen! 

In this world we DO have trouble when we follow Christ Jesus.

The true Christ Jesus is now rejected by this present world.

One day every knee will bow before Him but not now.

"Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9–11).

Those who love the Lord Jesus Christ today pray for His kingdom to come.

We long for God's will  to be done on earth.

It involves the putting down of evil and the putting up of good.

It means we have a desire in our own hearts for God’s will in our own lives.

It is useless to mouth the words of the disciples prayer without meaning them.

The Scriptural concept of the kingdom is both an eternal kingdom and a temporal kingdom. It is a universal kingdom and a local kingdom. It is immediate, and it is mediated. Generally speaking, it is the reign of heaven over the earth.

It is the rule of God over the earth.

It is a prayer for the recovery of the earth, to bring it back under the rule of God.

I hope you don’t think that God is ruling the earth today.

If He were, we would not have heartbreak, tears, disappointments, nor wars.

The kingdom we are praying for will only come about in God’s way. It will come through divine protocol, and the divine aspects will be adhered to.

Man will not be able to build this kingdom here on this earth;

Only the Lord Jesus Christ can establish His kingdom here on earth.

"Thine is the kingdom."

The scepter of this universe will be held by a Man with nail-pierced hands. He is the One who is yet to rule.

When our Lord Jesus, after He had risen from the grave, appeared to His disciples in His glorified body, we read 

John 20:19-20   "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had so said, He shewed unto them His hands and His side." 

Notice, that even though He has a glorified body, there are the nail prints and the pierced side.

There is a strange similarity to that body which had been nailed to the cross. The scars are there. 

God promised to David a kingdom.

David would be raised up to rule over that kingdom.

War would cease, and there would be peace on the earth.

All the prophets spoke about that  -  the coming of the Day of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord must be understood in contrast to the other days which are mentioned in Scripture.

You and I are living today in what Scripture calls man’s day.

It began with Nebuchadnezzar, and the Lord Jesus labeled it "the times of the Gentiles."

He said,

"… Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24).

We are living in a man’s day.

Man is the one who makes the judgments today.

We appeal to the Supreme Court, but

we do not appeal to God.

We have forgotten Him altogether.

His name is just a word to swear by and to blaspheme.

We are living in the day of man. Humanism abounds today. Man believes he can solve the problems of the world, but what has man really done? He has gotten the world into an awful mess right now. Every new politician who comes along thinks he has the answer. Dear reader, they dont have the answer; man cannot solve the problems of this world.

Man is incapable of solving the problems of the world.

Scripture speaks of another day that is coming  - 

the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Apostle Paul wrote in

1 Corinthians 1:7–8   "So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

What is the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ?

It is the day when He will come to take His church out of this world, and then the church will come before the judgment seat of Christ.

My life's verse is

Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

He is going to keep me until that day when He takes us out of the world and we appear before Him to see whether we receive a reward or not.

We will not go through the Great tribulation that is to come upon this earth.

Apostle Paul has assured us, the believers, that we will not go through the Day of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord is a dark, gloomy, and difficult day.

The Hebrew viewpoint was that they would enter immediately into the kingdom—that life would be a breeze with no problems at all.

But the prophet Joel says that the Day of the Lord begins with night, with darkness.

That darkness is the Great Tribulation Period.

It will be like this locust plague that has come with its four bands of locusts like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse who will ride in the Great Tribulation Period.

Then the Day of the Lord will include the coming of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom.

Then His people will enter into the sunshine of His presence.

That was the Old Testament hope; that was the thing the Old Testament taught.

Dear reader, you can see how important it is to study all of the Bible.

Oh how thrilling it is to study the Word of God and to show ourselves approved unto Him who is our Saviour, our Lord and our Master. It is His Holy Spirit who is our teacher and it is He who takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us, makes them exciting and very real indeed, to our hearts.

How will the day of the Lord come? 

2 Peter 3:10   "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire."

The day of the Lord  is an expression with which all of us should be familiar. It is an Old Testament expression used by the first of the writing prophets and continuing down through the prophets. It refers to a time of judgment that is coming upon this earth; it refers to the beginning of that awful day known as the Great Tribulation, continuing even through the Millennium and all the way to the Great White Throne of Almighty God. All of this period is "the day of the Lord" because God is moving in to straighten out the affairs of this world.

Believers today,  who are in Christ Jesus, will not go through the Great Tribulation period.  This is one period through which we will not have to pass through. There is a time of great trouble coming upon this earth, and the world is moving into it just as a boat moves into a tornado or a typhoon at sea. 

Believers today have been promised that they are going to be delivered from that time of trouble.

We are not looking for the Lord to come as a thief.

When we are on the look out for a thief we we barricade our doors, and place extra locks on them, to keep the thief out. 

But believers today are looking out and longing for our Lord to come and for Him to receive us unto Himself.

"We are looking for that blessed hope." 

Christ is our a blessed hope. 

This is something against which the believer does not lock his door  - we open our doors and we welcome His coming.

But He will come as a thief in the night to an unbelieving world that wants to shut Him out and would shut Him out if it were possible.

Believers are also looking for a new heaven and a new earth.

"But according to His promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace" (2 Peter 3:13–14).

Righteousness does not dwell in this earth today. 

It is not at home in this earth.

It is not at home in any of the capitals of the world. 

It is not at home in your hometown today.

But righteousness will dwell in the new earth and in the new heavens.

It is going to be wonderful. I have always enjoyed trading in our old car and getting a new car. God has a new model of the earth, and I sire will be glad when it arrives. It will be a wonderful earth because it will be characterized by righteousness, His righteousness, and it will be an earth in which righteousness will actually dwell. God is going to settle every single account for He is a just God. Every false judgement is going to be made known and we shall see each other as we really are and we shall see Christ Jesus as He is.

And because we look for such things, we ought to realize how important it is to live a  life of godliness here and now on this earth today. We are to live a holy life down here, a life separated unto God. 

After all, what is really worthwhile in this earth today?

What are your goals?

Are you a productive Christian moving toward a worthwhile goal?

Somebody says, "I want to raise my family." That’s worthwhile. Somebody else says, "I want to make a good living for my family and to educate my children." That’s worthwhile. Although these things are worthwhile, what is really the object of your life? 

Is it to live for God? 

If you live for God, all of these secondary issues,  I believe, will take care of themselves.  

Believers today are to yield to Christ Jesus and they are to allow the Holy Spirit of God to live the life of Christ in and through them in this present Christ rejecting world. 

This world is a Christ rejecting world, today and it is because God, is rich in mercy, and He is longsuffering, patient and kind and it is because of His mercy and His compassion that we are not consumed (Lamentations 3:22). 

Today is the day of His marvelous grace and whosoever will come to Him, may come to Him. We can come to Him for salvation today because He says to us today behold now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation (see 2 Corinthians 6:2). Today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart (see Hebrews 4:8).

1 John 12   "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."

Notice that this is for "them that believe on His name." And always with the word "believe" there is a preposition. Faith, as the Bible uses it, is not just head knowledge. 

Many people ask, 

"You mean all that I have to do is to say I believe?" 

Yes, that is all you have to do, but let’s see what that implies. 

With the verb "to believe" there is always a preposition  -  sometimes en (in), sometimes eis (into) or sometimes epi (upon). You must believe into, in, or upon Jesus Christ. 

Let me illustrate with a chair. I am standing beside a chair and I believe it will hold me up, but it is not holding me up. Why? Because I have only a head knowledge. I can only say, "Yes, it will hold me up." Now suppose I believe into the chair by sitting in it. See what I mean? I am committing my entire weight to it and it is holding me up. 

Is Christ holding you up today dear reader? 

Is He your Savior?

Are you in Christ Jesus today?

It is not a question of standing to the side and saying, 

"Oh, yes, I believe Jesus is the Son of God." 

The question is have you trusted Him, have you believed into Him, are you resting in Him? This chair is holding me up completely. And at this moment Christ is my complete Savior. I am depending on Him; I am resting in Him. He died in my deserved place to save me and He lives in heaven to keep me saved.

"  ...  if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Dear reader we can always tell where Christ has come into the heart of a person and until He has come in into our hearts, there will be no real change in our lives.

We have to realize that it is our personal sin that nailed Him to the cruel tree of Calvary.

"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (John 1:11).

But to as many as received Him at that time He gave the authority to become sons of God.

Well, when the Spirit is poured out, they (that is, the remnant) are going to receive Him.

And they will wonder, saying,

"Where did you get those wounds in your hands?"

Our Lord Jesus Christ will answer,

"I was wounded here when I came the first time."

He came to His own people, the Jewish race (remember that the woman of Samaria at the well recognized Him as Jew).

These were His people, and only a remnant received Him at that time.

And, actually, it will only be a remnant that will receive Him at His second coming.

"And one shall say unto him" probably refers to the spokesman for the remnant, just as Peter spoke for the other apostles when he said to Jesus,

"… Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).

To know Him is life eternal.

The apostle Paul at the end of his life wrote,

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" (Philippians 3:10).

Nevertheless it is true that they, His own people did not know Him when He came the first time.

This matter of mistaken identity has been the source of plots for writers of both comedy and tragedy down through the years. Shakespeare used it in The Comedy of Errors. Dickens used it in The Tale of Two Cities. Many dramatic productions are based upon this idea—Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, for example.

But it becomes even more tragic when it is a real life story.

I read of a mother who had not seen her daughter for seventeen years, and when she went to meet her in New York, she walked right past her. It took some time to meet again because the mother didn’t recognize her own daughter.

However, I think that the greatest tragedy of the ages is expressed in just eleven words:

He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."

What a picture!

John the Baptist elaborated upon it when he said,

" … I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not" (John 1:26).

And the Lord Jesus Himself said that they knew not the time of their visitation  -  what a tremendous statement!

And apostle Paul wrote:

"But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth [notice that!] the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart" (2 Corinthians 3:14–15).

Notice the veil is upon their heart  - 

but when the heart is right,

they can turn to Him.

Our Lord was a stranger to them back then and He is only a stranger to those who do not know Him as their personal Savior today.

The prophet Zechariah speaks of this.

At His first coming they did not know Him.

There is a striking contrast between the first and second comings of Christ.

Redemption is the high word of His first coming;

Revelation is the high word of His second coming.

It was reconciliation at His first coming and recognition at His second coming.

It was the Incarnation at His first coming and identification at His second coming.

It was the mystery at His first coming, and it will be manifestation at His second coming.

At His first coming it was propitiation; at His second coming it will be proclamation.

What a picture this gives of Christ!

Whosoever heareth,? shout, shout the sound!
Spread the bless tidings all the world around;
Spread the joyful news wherever man is found;
Whosoever will may come?

Whosoever will, whosoever will,?
Send the proclamation over vale and hill;
Tis a loving Father, calls the wanderer home:
Whosoever will, may come?

Whosoever cometh need not delay,
Now the door is open, enter while you may;
Jesus is the true, the only Living Way;
Whosoever will may come?

Whosoever will,? the promise secure,
Whosoever will,? forever must endure;
Whosoever will,? ?tis life forevermore:
Whosoever will may come?

Thanks: The Ames Hymn Collection stargate.net

Amen!

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THIS PAGE UPDATED:  `10-6-2009.