Unity #
39: The Obedience of the Nations
Dear Father,
You, O Lord, abide forever, and Your Name to all generations. You will
arise and have compassion on Your people; for it is time to be gracious to her,
for the appointed time has come. Surely Your servants find pleasure in her
stones and feel pity for her dust. So the nations will fear the Name of the
Lord and all the kings of the earth Your glory. For You have built up Your
bride; You have appeared in Your glory. You have regarded the prayer of the
destitute and have not despised their prayer. (Ps 102:12-17). You are the God
of deliverance and from You comes escape form death (Ps 68:20).
In Jesus Christ’s Name,
Amen
Dear Beloved,
His
judgment is here, and it has started in the house of God. In the time ahead
there will be persecution like never before in our nation. It comes by the very
hand of God and will result in fiery refinement of the people of God. In order
that God may create a distinction between His people and those who walk in darkness,
He will cause the agencies of the world to set themselves up against us. Many
of us will be weakened, but only in an earthly sense. Spiritually, He is
preparing us, even now, that we may be refined, purged, and purified until the
time of the end; because it is still to come at the appointed time (Dan 11:35).
Oh dear saint, He alone will enable us to
stand firm until the end.
This
letter is about the obedience of the
nations. Our father Jacob prophesied that the
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his
feet, until Shiloh comes, and to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples (Gen
49:10). These peoples are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for God’s own possession, so that they may proclaim the excellencies of
Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once we were
not a people, but now we are the people of God; we had not received mercy, but now
we have received mercy. (1 Pet 2:9-10) He is able to establish us according to
the Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is
manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment
of the eternal God, and has been made known to all the nations, leading to the
obedience of faith; to the only wise God, though Jesus Christ, be glory
forever. Amen. (Rom 16:25-27) This Gospel of God was promised beforehand though
His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a
descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God
with power by the resurrection from the death, according to the Spirit of holiness,
Jesus Christ our Lord, though whom we have received grace and apostleship to
bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles for His Name’s sake,
among whom we also are the called of Jesus Christ. (Rom 1:1-5)
Let the
priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let
them say, “Spare
Your people, O Lord, and do not make Your inheritance a reproach, a byword
among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17) He knows their works and their
thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues and they shall
come and see His glory (Is 66:18). He will set His glory among the nations; and
all the nations will see His judgment which He has executed and His hand which
He has laid on them (Ez 39:21). God told us to ask of Him, and He will surely
give the nations as our inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as our
possession (Ps 2:8). He will shake all the nations; and they will come with the
wealth of all nations, and He will fill His house with glory (Hag 2:7). The
nations will see His righteousness, and all the kings His glory (Is 62:2) The
Lord extends peace to the nation of Israel like a river, and the glory of the
nations like an overflowing stream (Is 66:12). They will be to Him a name of
joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of
all the good that He does for them, and they will fear and tremble because of
all the good and all the peace He makes for them (Jer 33:9). They will swear, “As the Lord lives” in truth, in justice and in righteousness; then
the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory (Jer 4:2).
At the
end the nations will walk by the Lord, the Temple of glory, and the kings of
the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no
night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and
the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices
abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are
written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Rev 21:24-27). They sang a new song,
saying, “Worthy are You to take
the book and to break its seals; for You were slain and purchased for God with
Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev 5:9) For by common confession, great is the
mystery of Godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the
Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations believed on in the world,
taken up in glory (1 Tim 3:16). Tell of His glory among the nations, His
wonderful deeds among all the peoples (1 Chron 16:24).
Dear saints, we are aliens and strangers
here. Beloved, we are urged by God and one another to abstain from fleshly
lusts which WAGE WAR AGAINST OUR SOULS. We must keep our behavior excellent among the peoples, so that in the
things in which they slander us as evildoers, they may because of our good
deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Pet
2:11-12). These fleshly desires are truly waging war against our souls. Our
enemy seeks to destroy our soul by fleshly desires. Many who professed faith in
Christ, even having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift and
having been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted the good Word
of God and the powers age to come, and then having fallen away. It is
impossible to renew such people again to repentance, since they again crucify
to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks
the rain which often falls on it brings forth vegetation useful to those for
whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God, but if it yields
thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being
burned. (Heb 6:4-8)
I heard a
brother in the Lord exhort his fellow brothers saying, “If you do not overcome your battle with lust, you are going to be
damned”. He indicated that he was not referring to pure perfection of
victory, but rather, if a man’s love for forbidden pleasure, in the end,
destroyed his conscience and hardened his heart, as it surely would if the
Spirit does not achieve progressive victory, he will be destroyed. If a mere sinful thought is deemed
as the very act in the sight of God, and if He has promised us that no immoral
persons will inherit the Kingdom of God, we must be warned that immorality is
the secret pollution of the heart. It is the exaltation of self rather than God
in the heart. The obedience of the nations is not simply outward moral
reformation, but it is an inward purity of heart, a sincere devotion to Christ.
A young lost women asked a group of young men what they thought about that fact
that she was a “pure virgin”. An atheist replied to her, “Just because you are a virgin does not mean that you are pure”.
Ultimately, if we do not overcome evil with good, if we do not master the
fleshly desires that wage war against our souls by the strength of His might,
we would be damned. May the Lord help us to seek Him while He may be found, to
not harden our hearts today as we hear His voice. We must know Him as He
revealed Himself through His great sacrifice of love!
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation to all men,12 instructing
us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly,
righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed
hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior,
Christ Jesus, 14 who gave
Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify
for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Tit 2
Love in Christ,
Preethi
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