|
Weightier Matters |
Some may think that God is able to change His mind on lesser matters (as the scenarios presented above), but what of matters wherein the lives of men are at stake? A close study will prove that the dualistic, paradoxical wills in God is unlike faculties operable in men. After Moses obeyed God’s sending, he set out to travel to Egypt. While Moses was “by the way in the inn,” God was wroth with him because he failed to circumcise his son (born of Zipporah). Now pay close attention, please! We know that Moses was a “vessel of mercy” (Rom. 9:23), which means that he was loved with “an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3), or an uninterrupted love, therefore God had an eternal and unchanging will/desire/intention/purpose/counsel that Moses would live on, deliver Egypt, and be “faithful in all His house” (Heb. 3:5), and yet, “it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him” (Ex. 4:24). Could the LORD intend/desire/will/purpose to kill Moses and actively seek to accomplish this by smiting him with a sickness!? God was seeking/working according to His just and angry counsel/will “to kill him,” yet simultaneously, God had a contrary will/intent/desire/purpose to keep Moses alive! The sovereign will of God to keep Moses alive was actively working/seeking to fulfill this desire by mercifully softening his heart (Rom. 9:16, 18), thus Moses was granted faith to repent and obey God. Moses obeyed just in time, saving his life, but he had to force Zipporah to circumcise his son. As for this scenario, it is clear: One will in God is resistible and the other is irresistible (Rom. 9:19), but both are genuine and simultaneous! One is the will of God that is according to the ways of man, the other is the will of God according to the ways of God. Let it therefore be known unto us that the ways of God are unthinkable (Isa. 55:9), unknowable (Rom. 11:33), and incomprehensible (Job 38:2-4, 39:1-2, 42:3).
|
Modern and historical scholarship has built theological systems of biblically incorrect tenets that are logically consistent! It is the unbiblical premise that they hold to which misguides them – the premise that every tenet must be logically consistent. Before telling others about the Holy Scriptures, might I say, let us hear them first! And what do they say? They instruct us that we cannot understand GOD! And those things which we can understand, God’s condescension in the ways of man, are biblically distinct from those things that we cannot understand, God in the ways of God. Men presume that the scriptures are to be consistent with their logical understanding, and therefore men confine their interpretations to what they understand – what they deem as possible, logical, consistent, and right for God to think, say, and do, and they shun anything that they cannot understand.
|
My reader, thus saith God – “Declare, if thou hast understanding” (Job 38:4)! Will you answer God? Do you have understanding? Let every man say nothing! If we speak, we have “words without knowledge” (Job 38:2). If we cannot understand how the foundations of the earth were laid (Job 38:4), the time schedule for every individual animal to give birth (Job 39:1-2), and all other facets of the creation of God, how then shall we understand the Creator Who has infinitely condescended to “make a covenant” with us (Job 41:4)? Men speak against the sovereign ways of God as they are revealed in the Covenant, but they should rather say, as Job, “I will lay mine hand upon my mouth” (Job 40:4). Yea, God says to us, “Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus” (Rom. 9:20)? If we question God, we follow in the arrogant error of Job. A face-to-face meeting with God would rearrange your mindset, and as Job, you would say, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Men seek to keep the righteousness of God on the same logical level as their ways, the ways of men, but God infinitely exceeds the comprehension of men in all His ways! Therefore men unknowingly (in a zeal without knowledge) condemn God and disannul His judgments.
Oh man, “hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret” (Job 40:9-13). If we are not like God in arm or strength, majesty or excellency, beauty and glory, wrath and countenance, power and secrecy, how then could we have a mind like God’s to understand His wisdom/will/ways/works/justice/judgments/counsels? Will we condemn His ways because He has forbidden us to understand them? Will we seek to make God like men and bind Him to the logical righteousness which men seem to have in their own will or ways? Then we are disannulling His judgments – condemning Him – and this is gross pride against the wonderful things of God. When the humble wonder at the workings of God, the proud stumble and do rage with accusation, yet every written word in the Book of God should be attended to with a trembling of soul as if it was spoken out of a consuming fire with earth-rending thunder (Ex. 20). “Is not My word like as fire? Saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces” (Jer. 23:29)?
“Lean not on thine own understanding” (Prov. 3:5), “fear the LORD” (Prov. 8:13), and recognize that God is wisdom that we don’t have or understand. He says of Himself, “Counsel is Mine, and sound wisdom: I AM UNDERSTANDING; I have strength” (Prov. 8:14). “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment” (Prov. 8:20). It is wise for us to fear God that we might “hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not” (Prov. 8:33), but many a man does contend against the Sovereignty of God and seek to instruct men that God’s ways are only and always like men, or men contend that God cannot be anything but sovereign and they discount the condescension. God says, “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him” (Job 40:2)!? Cease, man, cease! Be not as the wicked whose crime was, God says, “thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes” (Psalm 50:21).
With holy severity God sought to kill Moses, and likewise God sought to kill another disobedient prophet named Jonah. When Jonah “rose up to flee” “from the presence of the LORD,” he fled by a boat to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). The sea was “raging,” even as the anger of God raged against Moses! God sought to kill Jonah and Jonah knew it. Jonah said, “I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you” (Jonah 1:12). The boat could not bring safety to Jonah. God’s wrath was so relentless that if Jonah had stayed in the boat, all the other men would have perished with him. The anger of God was as the waves of the sea, whose raging was in a perpetual unrest until Jonah was apprehended from the boat. God’s anger is pacified by the sacrifice of the sinner, and thus, the waves were at peace after Jonah was cast forth. Jonah was pursued by the curses of the Almighty. He was taught of God as Moses was, as it is written, “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; Thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together” (Psalm 88:7, 16-17). Jonah could have finished the psalm with a perfectly parallel lamentation, for Jonah did say in Jonah 2:3: “For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me.”
Oh man, “hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret” (Job 40:9-13). If we are not like God in arm or strength, majesty or excellency, beauty and glory, wrath and countenance, power and secrecy, how then could we have a mind like God’s to understand His wisdom/will/ways/works/justice/judgments/counsels? Will we condemn His ways because He has forbidden us to understand them? Will we seek to make God like men and bind Him to the logical righteousness which men seem to have in their own will or ways? Then we are disannulling His judgments – condemning Him – and this is gross pride against the wonderful things of God. When the humble wonder at the workings of God, the proud stumble and do rage with accusation, yet every written word in the Book of God should be attended to with a trembling of soul as if it was spoken out of a consuming fire with earth-rending thunder (Ex. 20). “Is not My word like as fire? Saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces” (Jer. 23:29)?
“Lean not on thine own understanding” (Prov. 3:5), “fear the LORD” (Prov. 8:13), and recognize that God is wisdom that we don’t have or understand. He says of Himself, “Counsel is Mine, and sound wisdom: I AM UNDERSTANDING; I have strength” (Prov. 8:14). “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment” (Prov. 8:20). It is wise for us to fear God that we might “hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not” (Prov. 8:33), but many a man does contend against the Sovereignty of God and seek to instruct men that God’s ways are only and always like men, or men contend that God cannot be anything but sovereign and they discount the condescension. God says, “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him” (Job 40:2)!? Cease, man, cease! Be not as the wicked whose crime was, God says, “thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes” (Psalm 50:21).
With holy severity God sought to kill Moses, and likewise God sought to kill another disobedient prophet named Jonah. When Jonah “rose up to flee” “from the presence of the LORD,” he fled by a boat to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). The sea was “raging,” even as the anger of God raged against Moses! God sought to kill Jonah and Jonah knew it. Jonah said, “I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you” (Jonah 1:12). The boat could not bring safety to Jonah. God’s wrath was so relentless that if Jonah had stayed in the boat, all the other men would have perished with him. The anger of God was as the waves of the sea, whose raging was in a perpetual unrest until Jonah was apprehended from the boat. God’s anger is pacified by the sacrifice of the sinner, and thus, the waves were at peace after Jonah was cast forth. Jonah was pursued by the curses of the Almighty. He was taught of God as Moses was, as it is written, “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; Thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together” (Psalm 88:7, 16-17). Jonah could have finished the psalm with a perfectly parallel lamentation, for Jonah did say in Jonah 2:3: “For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me.”
|
God’s fierce anger was burning bright,
To finish a purpose with no mercy in sight, But who can tell if the Lord will not repent and turn darkness into light, Saving men from a wrathful, just plight? When men do turn from sin, God may turn from the intent or spoken promise to kill men, But men must know the danger and working of a will, That burns and pursues sorrow-less sinners to kill, Even if there is a paradoxical, contradicting, perpetual, loving will, that is determining election, predestination, and causing salvation without exception. All this, is so that, when regenerate men are unrepentant still, They will not think solely of God’s sovereign, loving will, So as to keep them from seeking repentance by a solace of salvific promises still. |
Nevertheless Jonah “cried” in repentance (Jonah 2:2), made vows of obedience (Jonah 2:9), thus he did experience the saving power of God! “Salvation is of the LORD” (Jonah 2:9)! It happened to Jonah as it did happen to Nineveh, “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil… and He did it not” (Jonah 3:10). Jonah knew that God was “a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest” (Jonah 4:2) of wrath and impending destructions. Jonah experienced it himself! What is amazing is that God ensured the destruction of Jonah with deeds (angry consuming waves), and greater than that, God ensured the destruction of Nineveh with a prophetic promise of WOE. He said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4), without any condition or appeal for possible mercy. The people did not know God would have mercy. They said, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, and we perish not” (Jonah 3:9)? When God did repent, He changed His mind “of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them” (Jonah 3:10).
Therefore, as God was to individual persons (Moses and Jonah), He is to whole cities containing multitudes of persons. God said to righteous Hezekiah when he was sick, “set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live” (Isaiah 38:1). Could or would God go back on this word/will/counsel/desire/intention/purpose/work? “Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, and said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria: and I will defend this city” (Isaiah 38:2-6). The Lord changed His mind and word because of the faith Hezekiah evidenced by “prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared” (Heb. 5:7)! The Lord said to Hezekiah, “I have seen thy tears” (Isaiah 38:5)! And so He changed His mind/will/counsel and spoken word. Do you ever pray like this? Or, is your heart like an “adamant stone” against the wrathful warnings of God, so that they do never terrify you as they ought, so that you can never tell when they are nigh to fall upon you, for, you cannot even remember them, nor apply them, because you are inoculated from them? You have memorized all the promises of God! But you trample them underfoot by your disobedience! Do you have “the same spirit of faith, according as it is written,” “my flesh trembleth for fear of Thee; and I am afraid of Thy judgments” (2 Cor. 4:13, Psalm 119:120)!? Don’t you want to be like Jesus Christ, Who…
Therefore, as God was to individual persons (Moses and Jonah), He is to whole cities containing multitudes of persons. God said to righteous Hezekiah when he was sick, “set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live” (Isaiah 38:1). Could or would God go back on this word/will/counsel/desire/intention/purpose/work? “Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, and said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria: and I will defend this city” (Isaiah 38:2-6). The Lord changed His mind and word because of the faith Hezekiah evidenced by “prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared” (Heb. 5:7)! The Lord said to Hezekiah, “I have seen thy tears” (Isaiah 38:5)! And so He changed His mind/will/counsel and spoken word. Do you ever pray like this? Or, is your heart like an “adamant stone” against the wrathful warnings of God, so that they do never terrify you as they ought, so that you can never tell when they are nigh to fall upon you, for, you cannot even remember them, nor apply them, because you are inoculated from them? You have memorized all the promises of God! But you trample them underfoot by your disobedience! Do you have “the same spirit of faith, according as it is written,” “my flesh trembleth for fear of Thee; and I am afraid of Thy judgments” (2 Cor. 4:13, Psalm 119:120)!? Don’t you want to be like Jesus Christ, Who…
|
"Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that He feared" (Hebrews 5:7).
Sophisticated and “at ease” (Amos 6:1), the worldly-wise seminary professors teach without callused knees. In proud intellectualism they profess to be masters of grace, not knowing they are provoking God to His face. The wrath of God they do daily tease while the flesh of men they do please, by worldly morality and counterfeit spirituality the genuine guilt of a troubled conscience is put to rest and appeased. They teach that tearful prayers are extreme emotionalism, and hours of prayer are a misunderstanding of grace, But they do, with Jesus, create a schism; their passionless persona has made heresies of disgrace. Nay rather, I will come to the Garden and find my Lord, weeping tears of dreadful blood! In this school I will stay, the foolish, narrow path is the “babes’” (Matt. 11:25) biblical way. While others seek heady knowledge let us rather say, Lord teach us, Lord teach us, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Contend against these “doctors” of theology whose counterfeit grace is a satanic doxology. They forsake humble revelation and have created their own carnal amalgamation, Because devilish wisdom (James 3:15) darkens their own imagination (Jer. 7:24). Tearless and on a Titanic of deception, they make ready themselves for hell’s reception, Because the foolish ways of God are their rejection. Oversimplifying scripture to be seen solely in the spectrum of sovereignty teaches men not to fear. This solidifies confidence to the regenerate man even when his conscience is seared (Prov. 14:16). |
God does set His mind to destroy, wrath to this end He does deploy, but before the terror of this anger does accomplish the cause for which it was sent forth, men have a window of time to repent. The wrath of God was deployed and purposed against the wicked King Ahab, and God said, “Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel” (1 Kings 21:21). More than this, a specific word declared the fate of Ahab himself, saying, “Thus saith the LORD, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine” (1 Kings 21:19). This did come to pass (1 Kings 22:38), however, Ahab obtained a little mercy after he first heard this word from God. God is watchful at the response of men, and depending on His sovereign will, men may receive a little mercy. “And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before Me? Because he humbleth himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son’s days will I bring the evil upon his house” (1 Kings 21:27-29). The Lord did intend to cut off the house of Ahab while Ahab was yet alive so that he would be tormented with the experience of familial death. Yet in the mercy of God, because Ahab humbled himself, God did change His will/intent/desire/purpose with a drop of mercy for a “vessel of wrath” (Rom. 9:22). Such a “cool drop” of mercy may now be granted within the hours of every man’s allotted life span, but when the sands of time no longer sink, when time and flesh are swallowed up into a timeless eternity, a single will in God of endless, perfect hatred will disallow even one drop of cool water to interrupt the everlasting, conscious, tormenting affliction of flaming fire (Luke 16:24). A little fear now may afford a little pity from God; this is surprising love! But to be surprised by everlasting hatred who can bear!? “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burning” (Isaiah 33:14)?
- The noteworthy things that do affect and change the mind of God.
- The inner-wrestlings of a timelessly eternal, dually relational, condescending God.
The pursuing wrath of God (in the ways of man) would have killed Moses, Jonah, Nineveh, and Ahab. This will was pacified and repented of when God did observe repentance by men. As in bullet point number one: God’s will and purposeful emotion was changed as He experienced the regret and humiliation of men in their change of mind. The crisis of God’s judgment did affect them, thus God did reconsider His decision to reject them. Aside from what can be drawn from the events themselves, look at bullet point number two just above: God’s will to kill (God in the ways of man) was changed by the unchanging will of God to keep them alive (God in the ways of God), yet their sovereign election to live was manifest by God giving faith to their hearts (causing repentance) – repentance wrought when they beheld the genuine will of God to destroy them. These men repented while unconscious of the secret, sovereign workings of God. How did they repent? They repented by beholding, believing, and responding to the will of God in wrath (in the ways of man), but modern teachings of sovereignty exclude this will from being possible or experiential to a saved man. Thus, they strengthen the unrepentant hearts of men by “promising them life” (Ezek. 13:22), and yet repentance may come if such men saw a promise of death pursuing after them. Life could come through repentance – repentance wrought within a man by the sober instruments of death hanging over or impending upon them. “I will praise Thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned Thy righteous judgments. I will keep Thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly” (Psalm 119:7-8)! A sense of duty may motivate at diverse times, a sense of right may motivate in diverse manners, but when the “fleshly lusts” that “war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11) do overwhelm us, when they do gain an advantage over the will of righteous men, how can they resist, overcome, and obey? At such an hour, the secret of repentance can be found in the fervent emotion that motivated this cry – “O forsake me not utterly!” The ability to obey will come by a healthy fear, knowing this: if you don’t obey God, then He will utterly forsake you. For many it will be an uncertain fight for eternal life, a fight we may lose if there is no understanding of this kind of fear (1 Cor. 9:26). Many run for “an incorruptible” crown (1 Cor. 9:25-26) and yet fail to obtain it because the race is hard: “But I,” Paul says, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:27). Paul understood the castaway capabilities of God’s wrath and took heed, saying, “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air” (1 Cor. 9:26).
My reader, FACE IT! There are times when the saints are sleeping. They are as Lot when he was dwelling in a place or position that endangered his eternal life, and from here he heard the angel say – “we will destroy this place!” Then Lot “seemed as one that mocked” because of his careless ease. Unable to repent, his soul slept on… can you relate? Christians today are fast asleep in damnable conditions – in sin – plugging their ears into silence from the alarms of God’s holy Writ, alarms which declare sure destruction for their situation. The mercy of God deployed another warning to lingering Lot the next morning. “Then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city” (Gen. 19:15). Lot was first warned, and now again, but he lingers…and still the mercy of God more fervently followed him, even with forceful and final warnings – “And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city” (Genesis 19:16). Mercy forced him out to the edge of the city, and lo, Lot stands on the edge of salvation. Here he is revived to reach forth for a final and stedfast resolve – saving repentance! “Lest thou be consumed” was the message of God’s mercy to this beloved saint! And again the angel strives with righteous Lot using terror as his persuasion: “And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, LEST THOU BE CONSUMED!” (Gen. 19:17). Again the angel pleads, “LEST THOU BE CONSUMED,” therefore the mocking, lingering, at ease mentality was shaken out of Lot like one that awaketh out of sleep (Eph. 5:8, 14, Matt. 25:5)! Lot awakens to an acceptable repentance and keeps it from this point onward – FEARING – hasting to follow God’s warnings exactly. This haste, focus, and exact obedience in Lot saved his eternal soul! But sadly, his wife, who was exercised by the same mercies, looked back. “Lest thou be consumed” gripped Lot with the saving mind of racing faith, one that wins the prize (1 Cor. 9:24-27)! This consuming fire chased away this righteous man! And he knew that if it caught him, it would have burned him, now and forever, for it was “the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7) that never burned out, that is still burning today, begun on earth and now burning in hell! How do you minister to the elect of God, preacher? This is God’s wisdom, His stinging “goads,” “given from one Shepherd” (Eccl. 12:11), and “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations” better than us (2 Peter 2:9)! So narrow was the way of God, so scarce are they who hold to it, so terrifying are God’s merciful messengers, that God, in infinite wisdom, left for Lot’s generation a memorial statue of horror – Lot’s wife. Those who passed by this “pillar of salt” (Gen. 19:26) were compelled to stop, to steadfastly look, and they all did learn something of what Lot learned. Oh the “terror” (2 Cor. 5:11)! The terror which is necessary for saving repentance! Lot’s wife is left there for all to look upon! The woeful woman’s face is fixed in the expression of hellfire FEAR! We should “look diligently,” not back, but at them who looked back so as to learn from their error. We should look at the terror within Lot who fled from the consuming chaos of God’s destroying wrath. We should “look diligently,” brethren, even at the salt-fixed face of Lot’s wife frozen in terror, lest we, like her, “fail of the grace of God” (Heb. 12:15). These are two witnesses in the cloud (Heb. 12:1) which still speak today – crying out – in the force of trumpet-loud terror, because God is seeking to keep us from looking around. Look straight on to Jesus (Heb. 12:2); let us look diligently! “Looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God” (Heb. 12:15)!
God repented when He saw a circumcised son (Moses’ son), Jonah crying and vowing, Nineveh sitting in ashes, Hezekiah in tearful entreaties, and Ahab in sackcloth and fasting – these were the means by which the sovereign will of God was manifest and accomplished. Therefore men ought to judge their election by blameless obedience, looking carefully at their walk with God through the lens of God’s judgments and warnings. If Moses and Jonah had believed it was impossible that the arrows of God’s wrath were ever aimed at them, then they would not have been saved! What about you, Calvinist - are you sure God can never be angry at you now that you have been born again or purchased by the blood? If so, PLEASE, let me reason further with you, peradventure God would grant this poor man wisdom that “scaleth the city” of Calvinism, that “casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof” “(Prov. 21:22).
My reader, you may understand the applications that have been made thus far from these passages but still deny the applicability of these principles in the New Covenant, because the New Covenant, you think, is vastly different. I understand this thinking and intend to address it thoroughly. Please, keep studying with me as we make our way into the New Covenant. Indeed, we cannot take OT scenarios and apply them as NT experiences unless the NT applies them as NT experiences. To make our way there, let us overview some preliminary Covenants which will exercise our understanding in the language of the New Covenant – “A Priestly Covenant,” “A Kingly Covenant,” and “The Abrahamic Covenant.”
My reader, FACE IT! There are times when the saints are sleeping. They are as Lot when he was dwelling in a place or position that endangered his eternal life, and from here he heard the angel say – “we will destroy this place!” Then Lot “seemed as one that mocked” because of his careless ease. Unable to repent, his soul slept on… can you relate? Christians today are fast asleep in damnable conditions – in sin – plugging their ears into silence from the alarms of God’s holy Writ, alarms which declare sure destruction for their situation. The mercy of God deployed another warning to lingering Lot the next morning. “Then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city” (Gen. 19:15). Lot was first warned, and now again, but he lingers…and still the mercy of God more fervently followed him, even with forceful and final warnings – “And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city” (Genesis 19:16). Mercy forced him out to the edge of the city, and lo, Lot stands on the edge of salvation. Here he is revived to reach forth for a final and stedfast resolve – saving repentance! “Lest thou be consumed” was the message of God’s mercy to this beloved saint! And again the angel strives with righteous Lot using terror as his persuasion: “And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, LEST THOU BE CONSUMED!” (Gen. 19:17). Again the angel pleads, “LEST THOU BE CONSUMED,” therefore the mocking, lingering, at ease mentality was shaken out of Lot like one that awaketh out of sleep (Eph. 5:8, 14, Matt. 25:5)! Lot awakens to an acceptable repentance and keeps it from this point onward – FEARING – hasting to follow God’s warnings exactly. This haste, focus, and exact obedience in Lot saved his eternal soul! But sadly, his wife, who was exercised by the same mercies, looked back. “Lest thou be consumed” gripped Lot with the saving mind of racing faith, one that wins the prize (1 Cor. 9:24-27)! This consuming fire chased away this righteous man! And he knew that if it caught him, it would have burned him, now and forever, for it was “the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7) that never burned out, that is still burning today, begun on earth and now burning in hell! How do you minister to the elect of God, preacher? This is God’s wisdom, His stinging “goads,” “given from one Shepherd” (Eccl. 12:11), and “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations” better than us (2 Peter 2:9)! So narrow was the way of God, so scarce are they who hold to it, so terrifying are God’s merciful messengers, that God, in infinite wisdom, left for Lot’s generation a memorial statue of horror – Lot’s wife. Those who passed by this “pillar of salt” (Gen. 19:26) were compelled to stop, to steadfastly look, and they all did learn something of what Lot learned. Oh the “terror” (2 Cor. 5:11)! The terror which is necessary for saving repentance! Lot’s wife is left there for all to look upon! The woeful woman’s face is fixed in the expression of hellfire FEAR! We should “look diligently,” not back, but at them who looked back so as to learn from their error. We should look at the terror within Lot who fled from the consuming chaos of God’s destroying wrath. We should “look diligently,” brethren, even at the salt-fixed face of Lot’s wife frozen in terror, lest we, like her, “fail of the grace of God” (Heb. 12:15). These are two witnesses in the cloud (Heb. 12:1) which still speak today – crying out – in the force of trumpet-loud terror, because God is seeking to keep us from looking around. Look straight on to Jesus (Heb. 12:2); let us look diligently! “Looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God” (Heb. 12:15)!
God repented when He saw a circumcised son (Moses’ son), Jonah crying and vowing, Nineveh sitting in ashes, Hezekiah in tearful entreaties, and Ahab in sackcloth and fasting – these were the means by which the sovereign will of God was manifest and accomplished. Therefore men ought to judge their election by blameless obedience, looking carefully at their walk with God through the lens of God’s judgments and warnings. If Moses and Jonah had believed it was impossible that the arrows of God’s wrath were ever aimed at them, then they would not have been saved! What about you, Calvinist - are you sure God can never be angry at you now that you have been born again or purchased by the blood? If so, PLEASE, let me reason further with you, peradventure God would grant this poor man wisdom that “scaleth the city” of Calvinism, that “casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof” “(Prov. 21:22).
My reader, you may understand the applications that have been made thus far from these passages but still deny the applicability of these principles in the New Covenant, because the New Covenant, you think, is vastly different. I understand this thinking and intend to address it thoroughly. Please, keep studying with me as we make our way into the New Covenant. Indeed, we cannot take OT scenarios and apply them as NT experiences unless the NT applies them as NT experiences. To make our way there, let us overview some preliminary Covenants which will exercise our understanding in the language of the New Covenant – “A Priestly Covenant,” “A Kingly Covenant,” and “The Abrahamic Covenant.”