Let us start by reading Psalm 5. It says in Psalm 5:1-12:
Give ear to my words, O JEHOVAH, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O JEHOVAH; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: JEHOVAH will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Lead me, O JEHOVAH, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue. Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, JEHOVAH, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
One of the things that I would like to look at is whether or not a child of God in this world that we are living in can have joy. Can we have joy? Can we have true joy and rejoicing in God? We are only six months away from the end of the world. Judgment Day will be here in a few months.
I remember during the church age, before any of this information was known, we thought that Judgment Day was way in the distant future; but we were wrong. We did not realize that Judgment Day was just around the corner. It is almost here now. There are only around 200 days left, not 200 years. It is only a little over six months, not six years.
Every day that goes by, we are getting closer and closer; and yet I believe that all of us have family members who are not saved. If you are a true believer, your heart goes out to them and you weep for them. Many, many, many people who are truly saved have wept before God for their loved ones. We weep before God, and yet we know that God’s perfect will will be done. For the true believer, this is what we rest in. Whatever God has done is absolutely true and right and just and good.
Before we get into Psalm 5, let us turn to Psalm 126 where we read a very familiar passage. As we go with the Gospel into the world, this is not welcome news for them. Mankind in his rebellion does not want to hear it, but this is what he needs to hear. He needs to hear that Judgment Day is almost here and that God is also saving a great multitude of people.
So let us look at the last two verses of Psalm 126. We read in Psalm 126:5:
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
As we go with the Gospel and share it with our loved ones and with the world, we are sowing the Gospel. As we sow, we go weeping because we know the rebellion of man.
At one point, we could have related to our unsaved loved ones or friends or to the people of the world because there was a time when we were not saved. Maybe someone shared the Gospel with you many, many times, and yet you rejected it. You thought that person was completely out of their minds; and yet, by God’s mercy, He has opened your eyes to truth.
So when we share the Gospel to someone who does not understand, we can relate to them. At one point, we also did not understand. We thought we had it all figured out and that we knew everything. What do we really know? We know nothing, and so we can relate to our fellowman who does not understand, because God has not given them “eyes to see.”
The only way anyone is going to understand the Gospel is when God has given them spiritual eyes to see and opened their hearts to God’s Word, else they cannot understand. They cannot believe of themselves in a saved way until God gives them the faith to believe. We can understand from this perspective that unsaved man cannot see, even though he hears the words. He hears what you are saying, but God has not given him a heart to understand.
So here in Psalm 126:6, it says:
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed…
We are bearing the seed of the Gospel. We are the sower, but we know that God is the One who has to give the increase. God has to bless His Word to the heart of an individual in order to save that person. We cannot make someone believe the Gospel. We cannot argue someone into the Kingdom of God. The believer is not to strive. We are not supposed to argue with someone about the Bible. We just have to leave them to God. We share the Gospel with them through a tract or over the radio with whatever means God has given to us, and then we leave the salvation of others in God’s hands.
Many of us have children and we love them. God gives us the responsibility to teach our children the Word of God; but at the end of the day, we cannot save them. We cannot save our children. God has to save them, if it be His will.
In our immediate families, even when we share the Gospel with them, we are mocked, we are vilified on one hand, we are persecuted in one way or the other for the sake of Christ, but this should not bother us at all. This is par for the course when we share the Gospel. We are going to be hated. We are going to be misunderstood, so do not be shocked when you are laughed at or you are looked upon as if you are crazy, like Chris mentioned earlier about Lot’s sons-in-law.
I remember when I first heard about May 21st. The first people whom you want to share the Gospel with are your immediate family, like Lot did with his sons-in-law. Lot went immediately to his sons-in-law and he told them. Did they listen? No.
This is what we do when we hear the Gospel. If we have a spouse or children who are not saved, because we love them, the first people that we will go to are them. We will go to them first with the Gospel, and yet we will be treated wrongly; but one thing we know that we can do is to pray. We can pray for our loved ones. We can pray continually. No one can stop us from doing this. If it be God’s will, He might open their eyes to truth.
However, in this world of woe, can the true believer rejoice? It just seems like the true believers have a burden to share the Gospel, a burden that God has placed upon us. On one hand, we realize that God is the One who has to save them. We also realize that time is running out. Time is of the essence, and yet we see our loved ones show no interest whatsoever in God’s Word, none whatsoever. They would rather be doing a thousand different things than listening to what the Bible says.
How can we rejoice? How can we rejoice in this, in our day, as we see what is about to happen to them? They are walking into the Day of Judgment with their eyes open, so to speak.
What God says, He will do. As we know, He is “no respecter of persons.” It makes no difference where you are from or what language you speak. God is not a respecter of persons. He tells us, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
God does not see us as we see ourselves. We know the closeness of this time and that time is really running out. There are only about 200 days left, a little over 200 24-hour days. Time is really, really going by quickly. The true believers see this.
So let us look at the last two verses of Psalm 5 again. We read in Psalm 5:11:
But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice…
Can we rejoice? Yes. God has put a joy in the heart of the true believers, but the only way that we are going to put our trust in God is when God saves us. He has to save us first, and then He gives us the faith to trust Him. “Salvation is of the LORD.” He has to do all of the work in us. He then gives the true believer the joy of knowing that they are truly saved.
So He says in Psalm 5:11-12:
But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, JEHOVAH, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
Let us turn over to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2:8 starts out:
(For that righteous man…
This relates to all true believers as we live in this wicked world. When we see sin multiplying, it grieves us, especially if we have a loved one who is living in rebellion against God. These things bring grief to the true believers.
Sin is never a joke. Sin is not funny. Sin is the reason that God is going to destroy us on that Day, and this is why 2 Peter 2 speaks about Lot. As the wickedness in Sodom and Gomorrah was going on in his day, it grieved his soul. His sons-in-law were just a part of this.
So we read in 2 Peter 2:8-9:
(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
What was going on in Sodom? We recognize the name of Sodom because of the homosexuality that was going on in that city, and this vexed Lot. It is the same in our day. As we see sin multiplying and the family being destroyed, this vexes us.
So where is the joy for the true believers? Where is the joy? How can we rejoice knowing what is ahead?
Let us look at another passage. We read in John 16:19-20:
Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
As we go into the world with the Gospel, we go weeping in a sense. We go weeping as we see man’s rebellion and how he is living his life, because we know that he is under the wrath of God and will be destroyed shortly.
So we read again in John 16:20:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
Then we read in John 16:21-24:
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
One of the examples that God uses in the Bible is of a woman who is about to give birth. She is in sorrow, but the day comes when the child is born and the sorrow is remembered no more.
This is as it is in this life. In this life, the true believer has sorrows and disappointments; but these things are only for a time. When our salvation is completed, all of this is forgotten on that Day. When we are with the Lord forevermore, the sorrow of this world will never enter into our minds anymore.
However, in this life, although the believers have joy, there is great sorrow as we see our loved ones living in rebellion against God and showing no interest whatsoever in the Bible. This brings grief to the heart of any true believer, because we love these people and we desire what is best for them.
In the meantime, as we live in this world, we have sorrow of one kind or another. This is just the way it is; but we know that in a few short months when the true believers experience the salvation of their bodies, even though we have salvation in our souls for now, the sorrows of this world and the things of this world will not enter into our minds. In the new Heaven and the new earth, this will all be forgotten. It will not even be a memory, because God is going to erase from the heart of the true believers this life. God tells us, “The former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
But even in this life, the true believers can rejoice. Serving God and doing God’s will brings great joy to the child of God, because we are showing great love to our fellowman by sharing the Gospel with them.
If they are rejecting the Gospel, we have to remember that they are not rejecting us; they are rejecting Christ. As they rail on you or as they laugh at you or mock you, do not take this personally. Do not take this personally. At one point before we were saved, before someone shared the Gospel with us, we might have acted the same way towards them. God, in His mercy, opened our understanding to His truth; and so we should never take this personally.
Look at Psalm 32. In Psalm 32:10, God starts out talking about the wicked. We read in Psalm 32:10:
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked…
We know that beginning on May 21st in 2011, after all of the true believers are taken out and are with the Lord in Heaven, God, so to speak, is going to turn His attention to those who are left behind. He is going to turn His attention to those who mocked the Gospel, to those who did not want to have anything to do with the Gospel while His hands were still open.
God’s hands will not always be outstretched in mercy, just like with Noah’s ark. The door of the ark did not stay open. Once the flood started, it did not stay open. The door was shut, which is the way it will be on May 21st, 2011. At that point, God’s hands will no longer be outstretched in mercy. His mercy will no longer be here anymore.
At that point, the physical sorrows of the wicked will begin as God begins to pour out His wrath upon the unsaved. God tells us in the Bible that there is going to be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. After God takes His people out, the ones who remain will be the unsaved. Then God will begin to pour out His wrath on those who remain. There are going to be many sorrows for the wicked. The wicked are all of the unsaved who are left on that Day.
Psalm 32:10 goes on to say:
…but he that trusteth in JEHOVAH, mercy shall compass him about.
This is referring to God’s elect.
Then it says in Psalm 32:11:
Be glad in JEHOVAH, and rejoice, ye righteous…
He is telling the true believers to be glad in Jehovah and to rejoice. We will see a little bit further why they rejoice. Why is it that the true believers can rejoice now, in this our day, when we see that Judgment Day is almost here? We are weeping and in tears for our loved ones and our friends, and yet we can rejoice. It continues:
…and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
We are “upright in heart” because God has given us a new heart, and so God is telling the true believers to rejoice.
Look now at Psalm 33, the next Psalm. We read in Psalm 33:18-20:
Behold, the eye of JEHOVAH is upon them that fear him…
This is referring to God’s people. Fearing God means that we will be obedient to Him. It continues:
…upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for JEHOVAH: he is our help and our shield.
Then we read in verse 21, Psalm 33:21:
For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
Remember that this is all God’s doing. He is the One who gives us the trust and the faith to rejoice in Christ. It is not of us. There is a true joy that God has placed within the true believer’s heart, the joy of salvation. We rejoice in Christ because He has done all the work of saving us. It is not a joy of the world.
Unsaved man is not happy at all. He really is not. When he looks at the TV shows and all of the things that are in this world to look at, they are a distraction to keep his mind occupied. This is why unsaved man wants to be entertained through Hollywood or through any of these other means. It is because he is not truly happy. True joy comes when God has saved someone. This is what true joy is.
No human being can make you happy. No one can do this for you. Salvation is when God has opened our hearts to truth. It is then that we know what true joy is. Before this, we think that we are happy and that all is going well; we are healthy, we have a great job, and we are looking forward to the future. All is well. We are contented. We think that we are happy; but no, unsaved man is not truly happy. He is not truly joyful. He does not even know what true joy is. We only know this when God has given us a new heart. This is true joy. This is true happiness.
Turn now to Psalm 119. This is what brings great joy to the true believer’s heart. It is not material things. It is not about what you do or do not have on the material level. No. The true believers rejoice in what? We rejoice in the Word of God. We rejoice in this because it is truth. We read in Psalm 119:111:
Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.
The true believers rejoice in the Word of God. Each one of us should ask ourselves the question of whether or not we are rejoicing in the Word of God. When you do not have anything to do, what do you turn to? Do you pick up the Bible and read it because this brings joy to your heart? What rejoices a true believer’s heart is God’s Word, because God has given us a new heart and we will rejoice in God’s commandments.
Then we read in Psalm 119:112:
I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.
Do you see what rejoices the true believer and what he has true joy in? It is when he is doing God’s will. The true believers have a great desire to do God’s will. We rejoice in God’s testimonies, statutes, laws, and commandments. We rejoice in these things.
The things of the world are not enjoyed by the true believers. These things are vanity. They are vain. They are empty. There is no meaning to them, as we read in the Bible, “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.”
God’s Word is alive. It is living. It is true. This is what the true believers delight in. We delight in the Word of God and not in anything else. We delight in being obedient to God’s testimonies.
Let us look at another familiar passage. Turn to Jeremiah 15:16. This is a beautiful verse. It says:
Thy words were found, and I did eat them…
Spiritually, we eat of God’s Word. It continues:
…and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart…
Although we are very near the end and God has opened our eyes to the truth that Judgment Day is almost here and although we go out into the world sowing the seed of the Gospel with tears, the true believers find true joy in the Word of God. It rejoices our heart, and so each one of us has to ask ourselves if we are rejoicing in the Word of God.
Children, do your parents have to ask you to read the Bible? Are you never doing this on your own? Do you ever pick up the Bible, get alone in your room, and read the Bible on your own? Or would you rather do a thousand different things than spend time in the Word of God?
If you really love the Lord, no one has to remind you to read the Bible. You do this on your own, because this is where your desire is, as it says here in this verse:
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart…
This is what our desire is. This is what makes the child of God happy. No one has to keep asking you to read the Bible. This is your new nature. It is your new nature to get alone with the Lord, pick up the Bible on your own, and read it. The more you read it, the more you want to read it. Whether you understand a verse or not, it is God who is speaking to us from the Bible. It is Almighty God.
Just think of that! I cannot put into words how wonderful it is that God has given the Bible to us. We cannot begin to appreciate this enough as we read the Bible and we think about who is talking to us.
Who is talking to you from the Bible? It is not your parents. It is God the Creator. It is His Majesty, King of kings and Lord of lords, who is speaking to you, one-on-one. It is God who is speaking to you from the Bible, the One who created this wonderful universe, the One who spoke and millions and millions of lifeforms came into existence. This is the same God who is speaking to you one-on-one when you are reading the Bible.
What more else is there to want? What novel or what book comes even remotely close to the Bible? There is nothing else, because this is what brings true joy to the true believers. It is spending time listening to God, like Mary did as she sat at the feet of Christ. She sat and listened to the words that were coming out of the mouth of God.
Are you so busy with your life that you do not take time out to listen to the Bible? This should not be, because God’s Word is for all of us. It is for the human race, and this is what we ought to delight in.
Turn to the book of Luke. It says in Luke 6:23:
Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
God is telling us that we ought to rejoice in His salvation. This is because if your sins were paid for and you know that you are saved, if you know that you are born again, all is well, is it not? We rejoice in this.
We ought to rejoice in the fact that God has given us salvation. Rejoice! This is a “joy unspeakable” for the true believers, and we desire this same joy for those with whom we are sharing the Gospel.
Look at another passage in the book of Luke. If you remember, this is when the seventy were sent out with the Gospel. Let us pick up the context in verse 17. Christ is now speaking to them, and we read in Luke 10:17-20:
And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding…
They went out and they were just filled with joy, but Christ is going to correct them. We read in Luke 10:20:
Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
Christ corrected them to rejoice that God had given them eternal life, that they were one of His elect.
For the true believers, although we are living in a world today that has much sin and rebellion as man shakes his fist at God, this grieves the heart of the true believers. He sees sin multiplying in his family and in society, and yet the true believer can rejoice. They rejoice in God’s Word. They rejoice because God has saved them.
God has saved them. What else is there to rejoice in? God has given them eternal life, something that none of us deserves, and yet God has saved them; and so the Bible tells us to rejoice in this. He says to rejoice, “because your names are written in heaven.”
It brings great joy to the child of God to obey God’s commandments, to do what He says. Many of us are going out into the world with the Gospel, as God has commanded us, and it brings great joy to walk in the footsteps of Christ.
This should bring great joy to us. There should be nothing else that we would rather be doing than to do what our Lord and Master, what our God has commanded us to do. However, we go weeping. We go weeping with the Gospel; and we go, as the Bible says, as “ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us.” It could be to your immediate family, to your husband, or to your children.
If you are not truly saved, Christ is appealing to you to cry out to Him for mercy. We know full well that the Day will come when salvation will no longer be available. The days are getting shorter and time is running out. What are you waiting for? If you know that you are not saved, it may be that God might save you.
I do not know who God’s elect are. No one knows this but God Himself; but if you know that you are not saved and you hear this warning, God’s hand is outstretched to you still. Again and again, you have been hearing the Gospel all of your life. You have been hearing and hearing the Gospel.
By God’s mercy, He has given us four children. They have been hearing the Gospel all of their lives. Many of the children here have been hearing the Gospel probably all of their lives, and yet they are still in their sins. The Gospel goes in one ear and out the other. It is God’s mercy that you children, especially the children in this fellowship, have been hearing and hearing the Gospel, over and over and over and over again.
But how long do you think that God is going to be patient with you? How long? You are hearing it, and yet this world is very attractive to you. All of the niceties of this life are very attractive. There is nothing wrong with technology, but they have come out with their games and with their movies and with their TV shows. The problem is that you would rather do these things than listen to the Bible.
Children, Judgment Day is going to affect you. Judgment Day is going to affect you, especially those of you who have been hearing the Bible over and over and over again. This Day of Judgment is not going to go well with you. You are going to experience the wrath of God in the worst way because you heard this again and again and again, and yet it did not matter.
Your parents have encouraged you to read the Bible and you are not listening. This is rebellion. Yes, you are rebelling against your parents, but you are also rebelling against God; and yet we know that God is still saving. No one is beyond salvation.
So we ought to go to Christ if we know that we are not saved. He is the only One who can help us. If your mom and dad are saved, they cannot save you. They cannot save you from the Day of Judgment, only God can. God holds each one of us responsible for our own lives.
Let us go back to Psalm 5 and look at the last two verses again. It says in Psalm 5:11:
But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
The true believers are going to love the Name of God. There is no question about this, no question. We are going to rejoice in Him. We are going to shout for joy because of what Christ has done.
This world is a vale of tears. We weep for our children or for our husband or for our wife as we tell them about May 21st of 2011 and they just walk away in pride and in rebellion. It takes great patience in this situation to live with a wife or with a husband, knowing full well that they do not understand. They just do not understand.
We know that the only way that they will understand is if it be God’s will. God has to give them understanding, and so we have to be patient and loving and kind to them. It grieves us to see that they are still yet in their sins and that they show no interest whatsoever in the Word of God, no interest; but all we can do is pray.
So we go to God again and again and again, and the beauty of this is that we cannot wear out our welcome. We can pray to God ten, twenty, thirty times a day. We can just keep going again and again and continue to bring forth a loved one to Him.
We should never stop. We should never grow weary of praying for our loved ones and for our children over and over and over and over again. We should never give up hope. The possibility is there if they are still alive. If the blood is still warm in their veins, never stop praying. We should never stop praying for our loved ones. How wonderful this is that we can go to God again and again about a loved one.
Then we read in Psalm 5:12:
For thou, JEHOVAH, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
Here God is speaking about how we are safe and secure in God when we become saved. It is like we are surrounded by God. He is our shield. He is our hiding place. He is all of this, and we cannot lose our salvation once God has truly saved us. We are secure in Him. He uses many words to tell us this.
If He is our shield, what are we shielded from? We are shielded from the Day of Judgment. The only way that we are going to avoid judgment is if God has saved us and we are safe and secure in Him.
Let us turn to Psalm 32 again. We read in Psalm 32:6:
For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found…
Salvation can still be found now. The possibility of salvation exists now. God is telling us that He can be found now. The time will come when He will not be found. Remember that God tells us in Isaiah, “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” God is near to us. He is still saving a great multitude, is He not?
We know that the Day will come when He will no longer be found. In the Day of Judgment, when Judgment Day comes and all of the true believers are taken out, the door of salvation will be closed and there will be no one else getting in, no one, which will be just like in the flood of Noah’s day. The time came when the door to the ark was shut. If you were outside of the ark, you perished; and so it is that He can be found now.
It continues on in Psalm 32:6 to say:
…surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
This is referring to judgment. The flood was used as a judgment in those days, but we are safe and secure in Christ.
It goes on to say in Psalm 32:7:
Thou art my hiding place…
God is the hiding place for the true believers. It continues:
…thou shalt preserve me from trouble…
On the Day of Judgment, we are preserved in Christ. Again, it continues:
…thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.
Do you see how safe someone is when God has saved them? We are safe and secure in Him. In the meantime, as we live in this world, it is a vale of tears.
Let us turn to Psalm 119 again. We read in Psalm 119:113:
I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
Then it goes on to say in Psalm 119:114:
Thou art my hiding place and my shield…
He is the hiding place for the true believers. Then it says:
…I hope in thy word.
Do you see where the hiding place is for the true believers, where his hope is? It is in God’s Word, the Bible.
Look at Psalm 46. The people of this world find their security in this life, in this world, which very shortly is going to be destroyed. This world is going to be gone very shortly, and so our hope ought not to be in this world. We should not be, so to speak, setting up shop here. We should not do this. Psalm 46:1-7 says:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her…
God is in the midst of His people. It continues:
…she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. JEHOVAH of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Oh! How God goes on throughout the whole Bible to tell the true believers how safe they are. If Christ has paid for your sins, all is well. In the meantime, in this life, God has given us our orders, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” We have to go into the world with the Gospel, and God will save His people.
We have a love for our fellowman, but those who are closest to us, those whom we are living with every day, seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day, if we know that they are not saved because they show no interest in spiritual matters, this grieves us even more so, because we love them. We desire the best for our children and for our loved ones, and so we pray with them and we pray for them; and yet it is as if there is a wall in front of them. They hear it, but the love for this world and for the things of this life is so strong. It is no wonder that God tells us, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Her heart was yet in Sodom.
Do you remember when the children of Israel came out of Egypt? Their hearts never left Egypt. They always wanted to go back there. Do you see where their hearts were? Their hearts were still in Egypt. They were not satisfied with Jehovah God who led them out. They murmured and complained. They were never contented.
But the true believers rejoice, even in this life, because our names are written in Heaven. We rejoice greatly in the Word of God, because it is our delight. We delight in the Word of God. We joy in that God is faithful to His promises and commitments and to all that He has said in His Word. We delight in this because this is true and because our salvation is safe and secure in Him. This is not even in question.
We are safe in Christ; but on the other hand, as we look at this world, how our hearts go out for them, because they do not understand that Judgment Day is just around the corner! The enemy is at the door, and the enemy is God Himself. He is the One who is going to destroy them forevermore. He is going to destroy the wicked. There is no question about this. There is no question about it. He is going to destroy those who have rebelled against Him.
Stop to think of how merciful God is. He has given us this Book, the Bible, and what He says is the absolute truth. He tells us “the end from the beginning.” He gives us a multitude of information in the Bible. We could all live ten lifetimes and we would never plumb the depth of the riches of the Word of God. He tells us these things and He tells us the end of the wicked also.
He is a God of judgment. He is also a God who delights in mercy. Wonderfully, in these last days, He is still saving people. Yes, we can rejoice in this. It could maybe even be one of our loved ones whom we have been witnessing to for years and years and years. We never give up hope for anyone, and yet all hope will be gone when this Day comes.
Let us close.