I Will Recount

Christsfreeservant said:

Isaiah 63:7-9 ESV

“I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,
the praises of the Lord,
according to all that the Lord has granted us,
and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, ‘Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely.’
And he became their Savior.
In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”​

If we were to recount the steadfast love of the Lord to us, what would we say? There would be a lot to say, wouldn’t there be? For, he has been so kind, so loving, and so gracious to us, although we do not deserve it.

For, he being God, left his throne in heaven, came to earth, took on human form, suffered as we suffer, and was tempted in every way as we are tempted, yet without sin (John 1:1-18; Phil. 2:1-11; Heb. 4:15).

While he was on the earth he healed the sick and afflicted, raised the dead, delivered people from demons, comforted the sorrowful, fed the hungry, and performed miracle after miracle. And, he preached repentance and obedience to God for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God (Matt. 10:34-39; Jn. 6:35-66; Jn. 10:27-30; Lu. 9:23-26, 57-62; Jn. 14:23-24).

But, the religious leaders within the temple of God hated him because of his message, because of the things that he did, because of his temporary popularity among the people, because they were jealous of him, because they were threatened by him, because he claimed to be God, and because he confronted them with their sins, warned of judgment, and he called people to repentance and to obedience to him and to the Father.

So, they plotted and they carried out his death. But, it was the will of God that Jesus should suffer as he did, and that he should die on a cross, sinless as he was, for he took our place and our punishment for sin on that cross. And, he did that so that we, empowered of the Spirit of God, could die with him to sin and so that we could now live to him and to his righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24; Rom. 6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; Eph. 4:17-24; 1 Jn. 1:5-9).

But, our Lord did not do this for us because of our righteousness, for we are born into this world as sinners, separate from God, and unable within ourselves to be acceptable to God or to gain his righteousness (Rom. 3:23).

And, it isn’t as though, when he formed us in the wombs of our mothers, that he didn’t know the choices we would make in this life. He did. For, he knows the end from the beginning. He knew who we were going to be and what we were going to do even before he laid the foundation of the earth. But, he chose us anyway, but with the purpose in mind that we would be holy as he is holy, and that we would walk in obedience to his commands.

Isaiah 63:10-14 ESV

“But they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
and himself fought against them.
Then he remembered the days of old,
of Moses and his people.
Where is he who brought them up out of the sea
with the shepherds of his flock?
Where is he who put in the midst of them
his Holy Spirit,
who caused his glorious arm
to go at the right hand of Moses,
who divided the waters before them
to make for himself an everlasting name,
who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert,
they did not stumble.
Like livestock that go down into the valley,
the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
So you led your people,
to make for yourself a glorious name.”​

But, They Rebelled

Nonetheless, not everyone who has become a child of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, has remained faithful to their Lord. Many, at least here in America, have rebelled against the Lord, and they have grieved the Holy Spirit by their life choices, and by their lifestyles. Thus, they are living in spiritual adultery against their Lord. And, they have become worldly.

In America, at least, the vast majority of his church partnered with the US government, placing the government in a position of authority over the church, and they also partnered with the world and with big business to help them to grow their “churches.”

But, we don’t grow the church by worldly means and methods, because the church is not an organization of human origin, and it isn’t a building, or a church denomination, either.

For, Jesus Christ is the one who builds his church, and on his foundation, not on the foundation of man in his deceitful scheming. He sends his laborers (us) out into his harvest field to plant and to water, but it is HE who gives the increase. It is Jesus who adds to the church. And, he adds by people being genuinely saved from their sins, not by any other means or methods.

But, there is a machinery that is going on side-by-side with the true church, and which has been integrated into many of the gatherings of the church. And, it is of man, and it is of the government (global), and it is worldly. And, it is deceiving God’s people by the masses with its fake church, and with its fake (copy of) the true church and of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

And it has many, many Christians (and professing Christians) singing its song, which is really a song of unity, not with Jesus Christ, and not with the Word of God, but with the government, the world, big business and with wolves in sheep’s clothing who are out to kill, to steal and to destroy.

And, so many Christians (and professing Christians) are following after these wolves in sheep’s clothing who are disguised as true messengers of God, and they are, thus, not listening to the Lord Jesus and to His Word, and to what he is saying to the churches (to the congregations of the saints) right now. But, they are believing the lies which tell them they can live however they want, hold on to their addictions, and still have heaven when they die.

God’s Loving Discipline

And, so God is judging his adulterous church to get her to return to him as her only Lord and Savior, and to get her to repent of her sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery, and to get her to walk in obedience to her God.

His goal, too, is to get his adulterous and idolatrous people to once again honor God for the holy God that he is, and to remember all that he has done for them in saving them from their sins so that they can now walk in holiness and righteousness for the glory and praise of God.

His goal, as well, is to open blinded eyes and deaf ears so that they see all the deception, the trickery, and all the manipulations that they have fallen prey to over the years, and so they will now reject those wolves in sheep’s clothing, and so they will now reject the false church and the false gospel, and so that they will now embrace the true kingdom of heaven and its true gospel of salvation from sin.

It is to get his people now to follow his leading, the leading of his Spirit, and to follow now in the counsel of the Lord and of his Word, and no longer in the counsel of men in their deceitful scheming (see Eph. 4:1-24).

And, thus, this judgment (divine discipline and correction) is the Lord’s love being poured out on his people. It is God’s tenderness and compassion for his people that is the motivating factor for this divine correction. It is his mercy which has come running to his people to rescue them out of the claws of the ungodly so that they will now follow the Lord wholeheartedly.

So, during this time when we are all being forced to be apart from one another, and when our world we live in is being turned upside down before our eyes, and when we are being held prisoner in our own homes, and we are having our freedoms stripped away from us, let us take this opportunity to get alone with God very seriously in searching our own hearts.

Let us take this time, while we are living under circumstances reminiscent of a novel written many years ago, called “1984” – not recommended reading – to turn off our TV sets (if we have one), to close up our electronic devices, to take a break from social media, too, and to inquire of our Lord as to what is really going on in our world, and to ask him what he wants us to learn from it and how he would have us respond to all of it, as well.

Ask him to show you the difference between the false church and the true church, and to show you the difference between the false gospel and the true gospel, too. And, then follow him in obedience to his will for your life from this moment forward. For, he wants to rescue everyone from all manner of deception and to bring us all into his wonderful light (truth).

Eternal Father, Strong to Save

William Whiting

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm does bind the restless wave,
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.

O Savior, whose almighty word
The winds and waves submissive heard,
Who walked upon the foaming deep,
And calm amid the rage did sleep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.

O Holy Spirit, who did brood
Upon the waters dark and rude,
And bid their angry tumult cease,
And give for wild confusion peace;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.

O Trinity of love and pow'r,
Your children shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire, and foe,
Protect them where-so-e'er they go;
Thus, evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

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