12-31-2017 year-end message Contemplation this week: Psalm 146: 1-10 Text: II Timothy 3: 16-17 The title of the Word: The Bible that records the eternal destiny chosen by man
God, who created the heaven and the earth and all things that live within it, has worked constantly for the past six thousand years to fulfill His will in heaven and earth. In order to make people aware of his will, the Trinity God has made his servants to record in detail of his will to be done in heaven and earth. The recorded book is in the hands of all of us today. Also, God, rich in mercy, has given free will to all people and allowed them to follow their chosen path. However, the result is supposed to be responsible by them. Whatever they may sow, they shall harvest.
God made the first man and gave him free will, so that they could choose whether to eat the life tree that is pleased by God to eternal life, or to eat the fruit of forbidden tree unto death. But they were tempted by the Satan that had rebelled against God long time ago so that they ate the fruit of forbidden tree, and from that moment they lost the identity of the Son of God and died not only himself, but also through the seed of death In the past six thousand years, all of his descendants have caused tragedy in this world to be born in sin, curse, and death.
God has planned to judge the fallen Satan long before the foundation of the world, and he gave free will to all, not just Adam, to make them his sons by giving life lost by Adam to those who overcome Satan’s temptations. Through them, God wants to be glorified before Satan. God was glorified through the faith of Job to allow the Satan to tempt him.
Not only did God allow his servants to record his Word through his servants, giving them a book of the Bible, which made them profitable in doctrine, reproof, correction, and discipline, but also overcoming the temptations of Satan It is that those who become God’s people are used in all good works of God.
He created heaven and earth in the beginning before God created man, but since Satan had fallen, heaven and earth have entered into chaos: ” And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Gen 1: 2)
God began his creation by making light on this earth, which was devastated by the rebellion of Satan, and began to make all things, and finally made man in his own image according to his own likeness. But because of the temptations of Satan rebelled in heaven, the sin of the first man has caused this earth to fall into sin, curses, and death, and once again into darkness. At this time, God wanted to destroy Satan, who made the world miserable through one Man..
Because of this, God, who created heaven and earth, will soon fulfill His will and make new heavens and a new earth, as written in the last book of the Bible. In other word, it is God’s will that there is no more Satan who has the power of death anymore, and heaven and earth without sin, curse, and death: ” And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” (Revelation 21: 1)
In addition, the Bible tells us about the new Jerusalem that is prepared for those born as sons of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, using free will: ” And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.“ (Revelation 21: 2)
God has been waiting for a thousand years as a day to make men stand on the side of God, not standing on the Satan, using the free will of all who were born for six thousand years of human history. Until the law of God was given, men heard from Adam and their ancestors the words spoken about God so that they might fear God following their conscience to stand on the side of God. but the scripture testifies, only one man feared the LORD God to believe in Him when 1,000 years had passed by since Adam :
” And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Again, another thousand years had passed by, God saw only one man that fear God, and rescued righteous Lot, and made Sodom and Gomorrah judged in a day by fire:
” Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;25And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” (Genesis 19: 24-25)
God spoke to the fallen Israelites like Sodom through the prophet Ezekiel about the sin of Sodom:
” Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.50And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.“(Ezek. 16: 49-50).
The Book of God also speaks unto the Jews and all the nations of people who are live today:
” I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.6And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, hehath reserved in everlasting chains underdarkness unto the judgment of the great day.7Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. “(Jude 1: 5-7)
Also, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will soon come to judge all nations that do not believe in him, and said to spiritually awaken those who are living today:
” But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. “(Matthew 24: 37-39).
The Holy Spirit, who came in the name of Jesus Christ, is still reproving the world and warns them to make the right choice before the final judgment that will come into the world sooner or later. Jesus said of this:
” And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
10Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;11Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. “(John 16: 8-11)
Reproving is to correct the thing that is wrong. Everyone believes that they can discern of good and evil through inheritance of the blood of their ancestors who ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They are judging what is sin by their own thoughts. But is the real time when they should realize that they shall be justified through believing Jesus Christ, true life tree that took away the sin of the world on the cross. Through the right choice, they are not going to be judged in the midst of the Great Tribulation together with Satan.
God judged the whole world by the floods in the day of Noah, as well as Sodom and Gomorrah by fire to give warning unto the world of the final judgment of the whole world that is coming. This final judgment will also be an opportunity for a final decision to repent and return to God for a small number of people. But the price shall be absolutely cruel. John, the Apostle, who saw those who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved at the time of the Great Tribulation, testified of the harsh cost: ” After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;10And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.……. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
16They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
17For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.“(Revelation 7: 9,10,14-17)
The last judgment God made is a whip of love that gives Jews, Gentiles, and nominal Christians a last chance. Therefore, by fearing all the words we hear today, we are to be saved by grace from sin, curse, and death inherited from our ancestors through making right decisions, and we can determine our own eternal destiny blessed by our free will .