Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Revelation 4: 2,3. - Exploring Revelation
Jun 14th, 2020
Exploring RevelationArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Prophecy;Book Study

We read in verse two, "And, behold, a throne was set in Heaven, and one sat on the throne."

My friends, I m here to tell you, God is still on the throne, the Sovereign God is still on His throne in Heaven. In our day, a whole generation has been educated and indoctrinated to believe there is no God. God did not create man or his world, there is no God! A whole generation has bought into Darwins myth.

Dostoyevsky wrote, "Anything is permissable if there is no God." A whole generation has rejected the idea of God and has plunged into unrestrained evil. "Values Clarification," has permeated our educational system. Basically it just tears down God s Law, God s Standards and God s Word.

My friends God is still on the throne. Men can shake their fists in God s face. Men can deny God exists. Men can disobey God s Word and God s Laws. Men can plunge into all kinds of evil, BUT - God is still on the throne in heaven!

We read in Psalm 11:3 "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" David s Kingdom had come apart at the seems. Absalom has won the hearts of the leaders of the nation away from David. Absalom has been placed on the throne. Some are seeking David to kill him, he has to flee for his life.

The very foundations of David s kingdom are destroyed, but even as David hides in the wilderness, the question will not go away. David, what can you do? David your throne is gone, many of your leaders have defected. The foundations of your kingdom are destroyed. David what can you do? We read in verse 3: "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

I suspect as his loyal followers pressed him for an answer, I suspect David said, "I really do not know what I am going to do." But I know this (verse 4), "the Lord is in His Holy Temple, the Lord s throne is in Heaven---"

Today things look dark! All hope seems to be gone! This may be the enemies hour, but, oh! listen! God has not lost control, in fact God is just as much in control now as He has ever been. God is at work today in what to us are very adverse circumstances, (verse 4): "His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men."

The men today who seem to have usurped God s Law, God s Plan, God s Word, God s Earth and God s Kingdom, these men are just being allowed by God to expose themselves as worthy of His Judgement. God is still on the throne. We read in verse 6, "Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup."

As these dark days grow darker, we need to look into the throne room of heaven, and we need to see"God on the throne." Who is on the throne? Rev. 4:8, "(The) Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

We come to verse 3 and we read, "And He that sat was, to look upon, like a jasper and a sardine stone: "We learn here that this one who sat upon the throne was a Holy God. The sardine stone was a deep fiery flashing red. It reminds us that our "God" is a "Consuming Fire."

The fire on Israel s altars was a unquenchless fire. Its flames were to never die out. they were to burn on and on, day and night, year in year out, generation to generation. So long as sin exists in the universe, God s attitude toward it is burning holiness.

We need to stand and gaze into the throne room of Heaven and see God in His Holiness. We need to see God s Burning Anger against sin. O that the world might see God in His Holiness! "For the wrath of God is revealed (stored up in) from Heaven against all ungodliness, and the unrighteousness of men,---Rom. 1:18. "For our God is a consuming fire."Heb.12:29.

"and there was a rainbow round about the throne,---vs.3. A rainbow comes when the storm is past. We need to be reminded there is a day coming, when we will be in God s presence and the Storm of Sin will be passed forever. the Day of Evil, the Day of Man s Rebellion against God will come to an end.

When we come away from our gazing into the Throne Room of Heaven, we shout "HALLELUJAH" we are on the winning side! Brothers and sisters relax, God is still on the throne. (Please read Palm 73:)

Our God Shall Come - Psalm 50:3
Jun 14th, 2020
Morning MeditationF. B. Meyer
Categories: Meditation;Inspirational;Book Study

The years pass as snowflakes on the river; and as each drops into the mighty past, it cries, God will come! Each Advent season, with its cluster of services, herald-voices, reminiscences and anticipations, lifts the message clear above the turmoil and tumult of mankind, God will come! The disappointments of our fairest hopes, the overcasting of our sunrises, the failures of our politicians, statesmen and counsellors, to effect a permanent and radical improvement of man's nature, all take up the word, Our God shall come!

"Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices
Call to the saints and to the deaf and dumb;
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices,
Glad in his coming, who hath sworn, I come."

Dear heart, get thee often to thine oriel window, and look out for the breaking of the day. Did not the Master assure us that He would soon return? Hearken, He saith again to-day, "Surely I come quickly." The little while will soon be over, and He will come first to receive his saints to Himself, and afterwards to come with them to the earth. Why are we disconsolate and dismayed? The perplexities of the Eastern problem, the gradual return of the Jews to Palestine, the despair and lawlessness of men, the unrest of nations, the preparedness on the part of the Church - like so many minute guns at night - keep the heart awake. Oh, let your eyes flash with the glow of thanksgiving! Be glad and strong, confident and calm. Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning. Through heaven's spaces you shall detect the advent of your God; and when He comes He will break the silence of the ages with words of majesty and might.

Looking into the Word
Jun 14th, 2020
CommentaryArt Sadlier
Categories: Exhortation;Inspirational

This Life or the Life to Come

“Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright,” Genesis 25:34

The book of Genesis is full of seed things. These great truths are more fully expanded upon and taught in the New Testament.

Esau was older, by a few seconds or minutes, than his twin brother Jacob and was entitled to the birthright. In this chapter we learn truths from the lives of these two boys. We learn first, truths about the heart of the natural man. We learn also about the heart of the man of faith. These two are contrary the one to the other.

The natural man places no value on the things of God. To the natural man the things of God are vague, valueless, powerless things. The reason for this attitude is because God is not known by the natural man; he has no relationship with God. To the natural man it is the present, visible things that carry weight and influence in his eyes.

What the man of the flesh sees with his physical eyes he holds to be of value. He thinks this way, because he is moved by sight and not by faith. To him the present is everything; the future is not influential in his thinking. The future is only a matter of curious speculation.

That was Esau. Listen to his reasoning in verse 32, “And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” Consider his perverse thinking, “The present is slipping under my feet, therefore I will forget about the future altogether.”

I have watched this attitude working its way out in the minds and hearts of loved ones over the years of my life. Time is fading from my view, I will therefore forget about my interest in eternity. Oh, with what frustration I have observed this, in the hearts of friends and family.

“Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

“Yea, they (Israel) despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word,” Psalm 106:24.

“And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD,” Zechariah 11:13. Judas chose between the unseen hope of eternal life and the silver he could see and hold in his hand.

“But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise,” Matthew 22:5. They had no interest in the unseen blessings Jesus promised. Material things were as far as they could see.

The natural man has no desire for the things of God. The present is all that fills his vision; the present is everything to him. In Esau’s case, a mess of pottage was better than the title deed to the Promised Land. The very reason Esau rejected his birthright was the very reason he ought to have sought it with great fervency.

The man of faith is the opposite of Esau, the more clearly he sees the vanity of his life the more he clings to the God of the future. “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” 2 Peter 11-13.

The present life is quickly passing away; therefore I will seek the God of the future and His promise of an eternal future. The choice is always between this life and the life to come.

David said, “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity,” Psalm 5:5. That explains the verse that says, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” Romans 9:13. After God has sought the sinner in love and mercy, after the sinner has finally rejected God’s love and mercy and has set his heart and his course away from God. God hates that sinner and separates him from His presence forever. Jacob loved God and sought His blessing, and God responded in love toward him. Esau hated God and turned his face away from God and God in response hated Esau.

Do not fashion a God that does not exist. Do not fashion a God to your own liking, a God who will never stop loving you, even though you would persist in your sin and disobedience to Him. The scriptures clearly teach that God hates sin and God always judges unrepentant sin. That message is on every page of the Old Testament and is also the heart of the message of Christ.

How wonderful to have a relationship with the God of the future; and to have the promise of all the future blessings He has pledged.

Is your focus on this life or on the life to come? "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple," Luke 14:33.

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). "

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).