The Lord’s hand is not short that he cannot save you – the “good news”.
I find myself in constant turmoil, I am almost in complete despair, I am ready to give up on the notion that most people even have a chance to be saved! It’s not that I do not believe in God who can do anything, it’s not that I don’t see God as all-powerful, but it’s just that I don’t know what God will do, especially in a time and season such as this. (Psa. 77:8) Is his mercy clean gone forever? doth his promise fail forevermore?
As I observe the condition of men, I am ever more aware of the complete separation, the impassible gulf, the chasm, the impenetrable wall that is between man and God.
The heart of man is evil and deceptive from birth. Most in our religious community see God as coming and dying on the cross for them, loving them so much that he would have died to save one person. They flatter themselves with the non-scriptural notion that the God of the Old Testament is a God of judgement, and the God of the New Testament repented and decided to be nicer and more forgiving, to be a loving God, rather than an angry God. Salvation to most in our religious community is nothing more than a religious experience, goosebumps and all, where one confesses that they believe in God with their mouth before witnesses. As these new converts to religion progress in their lives, they remember their religious salvation experience, they go to the church building, they worship God with their mouths and are consoled by their positive group dynamics, by which they are confirmed: “in the faith”.
Religious experiences, goosebumps and all, confirmed with group dynamics are the opiates, the sleeping pills, the delusions and illusions of the religious masses!
There is only ONE God who created the heavens and the earth, and he does not change. The purpose and will of God for man has always been the same from the beginning of time. It has always been the desire, the plan, the purpose of God to have a people for himself that he can take pleasure in and show his mercy and favor upon. Many people who read the Old Testament portion of the Bible, see the God of yesteryear who commanded stoning for picking up sticks on the sabbath, a God who demanded animal sacrifices, a God who was partial to the Jewish bloodline, a God who told his people to kill man, woman, children, animals and punished his people with death and plagues when they failed to obey him. Most people, even religious people, would look at such a God with hatred who would do such things, they would exclaim, “I would rather be in hell than serve such a wicked God!”
I can promise you this, I am not the kind of person who will sit here and attempt to apologise to God! There is only ONE God who created the heavens and the earth, and he doesn’t change, he won’t deny himself, he IS and there is NO other! WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THAT STATEMENT OF FACT? Hate me and hate God? BRILLIANT!! – Your wicked heart is being exposed for what it really is!
Truth is, in man’s wicked heart he is always holding himself innocent and blaming God! So you think that God is evil by bringing the law by the hand of Moses? Let me ask you oh wicked man, who brought forward and allowed Lennon, Stalin, Hitler, Pol pot, who is responsible for ISIS and the women and children being raped and tortured? Who is responsible for the millions of babies being tortured and killed in their mother’s womb? Who is responsible for the fatherless children who grow up in our country's gangs and end up in prison? Who is responsible for electing fools and fatherless children to run the country into the ground?
Why of course it is collectively you and your wicked heart, you who can do no good whatsoever in yourself! So don’t point your little stubby finger at God and call him evil, because you don’t like the law of Moses! You haven’t even come close to properly accessing the righteousness of God, it’s you that are wicked, not God!
Truth is, if there were any outward law that could bring wicked man in the right relationship with God, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE OLD TESTAMENT LAW OF MOSES! YES! That is how deprived, separated, different, wicked your evil heart is from God! The only chance you have of being saved by following an outward law is found in the Old Testament. EVERY law, ritual, ordinance, and sacrifice must be perfectly carried out or you are worthy of death! So, you are going to stand before the throne of God and argue your case that you are righteous and God is evil? Certainly, you must know by the creation alone that God is not evil he is perfectly righteous, holy, and as far as the heavens are above the earth, his ways are higher than our ways, and his paths than ours.
The truth is – NO ONE was EVER justified by keeping the law of Moses, it was impossible due to the rebellion and wickedness of man’s heart. So, God sent his son, God himself, and laid down his own life for a better covenant than the old, making those who would obtain his mercy, free from the law of sin and death written in the OT by Moses. But we must not forget that it was the law of Moses where we learned of the complete chasm, gulf, and impenetrable wall separating us and our wicked hearts from God. It is the law, that schoolmaster designed to bring the natural children of God, the Israelites, to their Messiah, Jesus Christ.
I am convinced that religion is the opiate designed to keep religious people from the reality of Jesus Christ by blinding their eyes to settle for a false hope, a false peace and a false Christ!
So what must happen to a wicked person, so that they can be reconciled to God? What miracle must occur so that this gulf, this chasm, this impenetrable wall can be breached by these wicked doomed men, who can do no good in themselves?
This is the place and the point on which I am perplexed, experiencing inner turmoil, and feeling depressed and troubled. It’s because men already have their false hope, false peace, their false security, their opiate of religion, just enough to keep them blind in a stupor of delusion. They under-estimate their own wickedness and downplay the righteousness and holiness of God, bring God down and lifting themselves up.
HERE ARE THE WORDS OF JESUS, THE MESSIAH.
(Mat 5:2-13) And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
These are well known words of Jesus by most, but do they understand them? Do proclaiming Christians today understand what these things mean? No, they do not. Certainly, one must understand to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be merciful, to be peacemaker, to be righteous to the point of being hated and persecuted by those who are not, NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH MEN.
Can a bitter spring bring forward good water? Can a bad tree bear good fruit? Can an Ethiopian change his skin color or a leopard change his spots?
You must be transformed into a stream of living water and made sweet!
You must become a new tree like a branch cut off from the old tree and grafted into the new tree!
You must become a different race, a different animal!
You must be born into a new family; you must be born again!
Old things pass away the EVERYTHING becomes new, a very traumatic and dramatic change that can only happen by the grace and mercy of God. This change is not a one-prayer confession, it’s not a formula for repentance and baptism, it’s not church membership or religious affiliation, it’s not one’s ability to get better or become more moral than before, we don’t add God to our lives, we give up our lives and become transformed into his image. Salvation is not a one-night stand, but a day-to-day death to self, praying constantly, seeking the Lord with all our hearts leaning not to our own understanding, and learning the fear of God which is the beginning of all godly wisdom and knowledge.
It’s always been the Lord’s plan and desire to have a people on earth who are transformed into the image of his son, Jesus Christ, to show the praises and glory of God, who is the all-in-all, the Way, the Truth and the Life!
Finally we get to our main passage where I will end this talk, please read it carefully. This is what the Lord is saying to YOU and your religion that cannot save you!
(Isa 59:1) Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
(Isa 59:2) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
(Isa 59:3) For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
(Isa 59:4) None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
(Isa 59:5) They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
(Isa 59:6) Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
(Isa 59:7) Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
(Isa 59:8) The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
(Isa 59:9) Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
(Isa 59:10) We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
(Isa 59:11) We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
(Isa 59:12) For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
(Isa 59:13) In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
(Isa 59:14) And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
(Isa 59:15) Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
(Isa 59:16) And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
(Isa 59:17) For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
(Isa 59:18) According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands, he will repay recompense.
(Isa 59:19) So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
(Isa 59:20) And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
(Isa 59:21) As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever.
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