JESUS IS A SECURE DOOR

Doors offer protection.  They are a way in for friends and family, but a way to close access by fiends and foes.  Jesus as our door offers us protection.

This suggests that there is PERIL.  Our text speaks of a thief come to steal, kill, and destroy.  Sheep are in danger of rustlers who will steal them and ravenous beasts who will slay them.  This symbolizes Satan and his henchmen.  Jesus warned in the Sermon on the Mount about false teachers—“wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

Remember the setting of this teaching.  Jesus has healed a man blind from birth, but because it was done on the Sabbath Day, the religious leaders attacked Jesus (see John 9:26-34).  Jesus condemned these religious teachers as being spiritually blind (9:39-41).  Elsewhere Jesus called them blind guides, leading those blind in sin—and both would end in a ditch of doom!

Their kind are still around today. They show up at your door peddling their poison or gain access to your mind through TV, radio, and the internet.  Sadly, some stand in pulpits. Be careful who you listen to! Don’t be led astray!

There is peril, but thankfully PROTECTION.  The true flock of God are said to recognize the shepherd’s voice and follow Him, while also recognizing a stranger’s voice and fleeing him (10:3-5).  By this inner witness—a spiritual alarm goes off when you hear deception.  You are kept safe.  You run to Christ as your refuge.

Satan has to go through Christ to get to you.  Whether you are in the fold or in the field, He is there to watch over you.  Christ is our protection—a secure door.

THE RESULTS OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS, Part 2

God’s faithfulness is for His glory, but also for our good. Yesterday, we learned that His faithfulness results in God saving and sanctifying us (1 Cor.1:9; 10:13; 1 Thess.5:23-24)

Today, we will note three additional results.  Because He is faithful:

• GOD SHAPES US.

“I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.” (Ps.119:75)

The troubles that come our way are not meant to harm us, but to help us. These problems are the pressures of life that the Potter uses to shape our human clay into the image of Christ.

• GOD SECURES US.

“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” (Lam.3:22-23)

We can be secure in knowing that God is faithful to extend to us mercies every morning. We are not consumed with the condemnation we deserve, because God is consumed with the compassion He desires. We may fail, but He will be faithful.

• GOD STABILIZES US.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (Heb.10:23). This does not mean that our faithfulness is insignificant, but that it grows out of God’s faithfulness to us. We can hold fast to our confession because God holds fast to His children. We may be unwavering in our stand for God is unmoving in His stability—and our feet rest on that Rock!  God’s faithfulness is the root of which our faithfulness is the fruit.

How wonderful is our Mighty God!  Great is His faithfulness. Again this morning I find mercies for the multitude of my sins. Compassions are abundant for my need is great. As the sun rises, God’s faithfulness dawns anew for me!

THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD: THE TRUST WE CAN HAVE

“For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37)

When God gives a promise, He delivers!

TRUST HIM TO SAVE YOU.  “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb.7:25). He lifts us from the “gutter-most” and saves us to the uttermost!  You are never so bad, He cannot cleanse you; never so far gone, He cannot reach you. Call on the Savior!

TRUST HIM TO SANCTIFY YOU. “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”  (Heb.2:18). The old boy said, “I can overcome anything except temptation!”  You may not, but God can. He will come  to your aid and fend away the foe, if you will cry to Him.
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TRUST HIM TO SECURE YOU. “concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.” (Heb.11:19).  Death is our gravest fear, and yet death is not match for the Lord of Life!

What do we have to worry about?

Our faith is too feeble because we do not meditate on the magnitude of His might.  Our prayers are too puny because our faith is too feeble to dare ask big things.  Our work is too weak because our prayers are too puny.  Consequently, the church today whines instead of wins, and has a siege mentality instead of a storm the gates of hell spirit.  Remember and rest in the assurance that nothing is impossible with our omnipotent God!

ABOVE THE STORM CLOUDS

Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.  (Revelation 14:1)

I remember flying out of Charlotte’s airport in the rain.  Black clouds enveloped the plane.  Powerful engines strained to lift the massive metal jet into the sky.  You couldn’t see anything outside the cabin window—all was dark and ominous.  Then the plane burst through the clouds into brilliant sunshine.  What had been dark clouds overhead became a bed of cotton balls below—bright blue sky all around.  That is what happens when you come to the fourteenth chapter of Revelation.  The previous chapter has featured flashes of lighting and peals of thunder—the storm of God’s wrath having broken on a Christ-rejecting world.  It is a scene dark with demons.  Suddenly, we gain a new perspective as we are taken into heavenly sunlight.  Never forget that as a child of God—no matter the storms of the present—there is a brighter day coming!

Above the clouds we see the glory of heaven (v.1).  Here are the 144,000 Jews who have been preserved through the tribulation and are now safe in heaven.  Though they are the specific ones named, we would not be amiss to see them prefiguring all the elect of God, secure in glory.  They, however, are the supporting cast, for the star of the heavenly scene is the Lamb standing on Mount Zion.  The spotlight is on Him.  That heaven will be an incomparably beautiful place is evident from the Biblical depictions, but what makes heaven to be glorious is that the Lamb is there!  It is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world who paves the way for us to join Him.  It is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world that purges the wickedness that would bar us.  One day we will bow before those nail-scarred feet and join the heavenly hosts singing, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!”

God has given a birthmark to His children—the seal of the Holy Spirit—that brands us as belonging to Him and guarantees our safe passage into the City of God.  In the previous chapter, we have seen Satan has a “Beast-mark” for those who follow the Antichrist.  This is a seal which secures their doom—666.  The reality is that all of us identify with one group or the other.  If I am sealed by God my eternal destiny is settled.  There were 144,000 sealed on earth and there are not 143,999 seen in heaven—all are there and not one was lost!  When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there!

No wonder heaven will be a place of mirth and music (v.2-3).  A sacred symphony of praise will permeate the atmosphere.  Note that there will be the singing of new songs.  Some of us don’t like new songs.  Will we enjoy heaven then?  Maybe we better start singing some down here.  This is the song of the redeemed and salvation is something to sing about!

Heaven will be more than a happy place—it will be a holy place (v.4-5).  The celibacy of the 144,000 may be a literal, physical reality, but it portrays a real, spiritual condition also.  These have been morally pure and fully devoted to Christ.  They persevered because God purchased them.  Their testimony was true.  Cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, we will stand faultless and flawless before God—O glorious day!

OUR KEEPER

The LORD is your keeper….  (Psalm 121:5)

God’s children are His special treasure.  He guards His gems.  Peter says we are, “kept by the power of God…” (1 Pet.1:5).  Recently, I saw a quote from Pastor John MacArthur that underscored this, “If you could lose your salvation, you would.”  God is our Keeper and that is good news!  It is also the theme of Psalm 121.

The Psalmist points to THE SOURCE OF HELP (v.1-2).  Look to Him.  When we look around us, we see nothing but problems.  When we look within us, we see nothing but inadequacy—or foolishly arrogant self-sufficiency.  When we look above us, we find a God mighty to save!  As the author would climb the hills to Jerusalem, at last on Mt. Zion, he would reach the Temple where dwelt the glory of God.  Surely the One who called into existence the universe by the sheer power of His spoken word can help us—no matter the seeming enormity of our need!

We can know THE STABILITY OF HEAVEN (v.3a).  Stand on Him.  There are many slippery paths.  There are stones aplenty to stumble over.  A fall can be disastrous.  Yet, our steps can be steadfast, for God steadies us.  He is the Rock—our firm foundation.

We are comforted by THE SLEEPLESSNESS OF YAHWEH (v.3b-4).  Rest in Him.  Why should I stay awake at night—tossing and turning with a mind filled with anxiety?  God stays awake, watching over me, so there is no point in both of us being up!  I think of a loving parent, rising in the darkness to look into an infant’s cradle, making sure the baby is alright.  That is what our Heavenly Father does for us.  “Now, I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord, my soul to keep.

We are given THE SHELTER OF GOD (v.5-6).  Run to Him.  The sun’s light need not scorch us by day.  The moon’s beams need not keep us awake by night.  He is the shelter we can find—twenty-four hours, through all the days of our life.  The sun and moon are symbolic for one day—and thus, we have all day protection.  The right hand is mentioned, representing human need.  God fills that empty hand with His provision.

We trust in THE SECURITY OF SALVATION (v.7-8).  Trust in Him.  No evil can destroy the child of God.  That does not mean we are exempt from pain—even our body may become sick and death can come.  True harm to the real you is not a threat, however, if you know Christ. Our soul will be preserved.  No power on earth or scheme of hell can touch the real man or woman we are—our redeemed soul—that dwells in this house of clay.  Actually, the body also will be ultimately preserved, raised in a glorified state in the resurrection.  When I leave home in the morning, God travels with me.  When I arrive home in the evening, He has been with me.  At last, at the end of life’s journey, God will usher me into eternity where I will abide in His presence forevermore!

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (1 Thess.5:23)

EVERLASTING LOVE

The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”  (Jeremiah 31:3)

God’s love for His people is everlasting.  If there were ever a people who deserved to be forsaken, it would have been the nation of Israel.  Their rebellion was met with God’s discipline, but He reminds them in this thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah’s prophecy that though He disciplines them, He will not desert them.  They are covenant people, and God will be faithful to His promise, even when His children are not.  Christians in this dispensation are under the New Covenant, and the God of Israel is our God.  He cannot be other than loving to us for it is His immutable nature.

Some would say that such doctrine gives a license to sin, and they want you to believe God’s love is conditional—rooted in our changeable nature rather than in God’s unchanging one.  The reality is that His love will not let us go.  No matter what it takes to bring us back to Himself, God will exert that pressure.  He holds us in His hand and no one can extract us.  Should we seek to foolishly break His grasp, He squeezes ever tighter.  Picture a small child holding his father’s hands as they cross a busy street.  The little fellow may want to pull away—even cry that he is being restrained—but what kind of father would let him loose?  No, love squeezes tight.  If we love like this, how much greater is God’s everlasting love!

God speaks of how Israel received grace (v.2).  Grace is God’s unmerited favor.  It is given by the decree of God based solely on His nature and having nothing to do with any merit of ours.  We did not deserve grace when God gave it at the first and we cannot keep it because we deserve it at the last.  From start to finish, it is all of grace and all of God! 

God’s everlasting love means that it was set on us before the world was created.  Before there was a man or woman formed by God, He knew you and had purposed to love you.  In time, you who were chosen by Him from eternity, were regenerated by the Spirit—God’s love indwelling you and sealing you as His own.  When time shall be no more, His everlasting love remains and our love for Him will be perfected.

The consideration of God’s everlasting love is meant to lead to celebration (v.4-9).  Israel will go through some suffering yet.  They are a people—save for a remnant—still in unbelief.  That will change.  God’s love for them will prevail, and what a day of rejoicing that will be when God brings them home!  We may be sure that though God allows us to go through fiery trials, it is not evidence of His condemnation, but His compassion.  He is refining us—consuming the dross—so that only the pure gold remains.  At all times we can glory in His grace, and worship the Eternal God of everlasting love!  Imagine what it will be like when we reach heaven with all the redeemed of all the ages in an environment of infinite love!  That is the joy that awaits.  We can begin to experience a foretaste today by meditating upon the everlasting love of God.  The Lord our Shepherd will gather all straying sheep of His flock (v.10).  He is our Redeemer (v.11).  Praise His name!

AN ANCHOR FOR OUR SOUL

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil....  (Hebrews 6:19)

There have been a number of Sunday mornings, I have walked into our auditorium, burdened and weary.  Then, I have looked at a beautiful stained glass window that simply features an anchor.  When the sun shines through in the morning, the image of that anchor glows on the carpet.  I have been reminded that whatever storm I was going through I had an anchor that would hold--and hope flooded my soul, washing away the doubt and fear!  It is a visual presentation of the verbal proclamation that our text makes.  This small church of Hebrews was facing a hurricane of hateful persecution.  They needed reassurance that their anchor was secure.

There is THE SURE PROMISE (v.13-17).  CHRIST’S PROMISE IS IMMUTABLE.  The word means unchanging.  If God makes a promise, you need not doubt it!  It is immutable—unchanging and always true.  It cannot be a deception—a deliberate lie for God is wholly true.  It cannot be a delusion—thinking that He can do something that He cannot—for He is all powerful.  When I go into court and promise to tell the truth, I swear on a Bible—pledging to and dependent on a Higher Power to make my testimony sure.  God cannot do more than to make a promise based on His own nature for there is no higher authority (v.16).  The promise made to Abraham would be a long time in its fulfillment—a decade and a half later.    "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." (v.15)  His profession was matched by his performance and proven in his persistence—and thus, Abraham received the promise—and that is what we must do also (6:1-12).

Further, we have THE SECURE HOPE (v.18-19).  CHRIST’S PRESERVATION IS IMMOVABLE.  I hope that you would find it improbable that I would lie—but being a frail human, you know I could.  It might be that I didn't intend to deceive, but was mistaken.  With God neither falsehood or failure is possible!  If He lied, He would cease to be God and instead become the Devil of hell.  The author doesn't write so we throw up our hands and give up, but hitch up our britches and go on! “Strong consolation” means "calling alongside"--a loud voice urging us on!  Picture a terrified sailor in storm, hearing the captain's voice above the storm or a tired runner cheered by the crowd as he heads for the finish line.   The term “fled for refuge" suggests the Old Testament cities of refuge where a man could flee if he had accidentally killed someone.  Jesus is our refuge!

Then, there is THE STEADFAST WORK (v.20).  CHRIST’S PRIESTHOOD IS IMMORTAL.  We are safe as long as Jesus intercedes—which means we are safe forever!  He is the forerunner who has penetrated beyond the veil, into the Holy of Holies in heaven, opening the way for us.

Are you anchored in Christ?  Are you trusting Him to save you?  That is the only hope we have as sinners—but it is a steadfast hope if we will place our faith in Him and give our life to Him.  If you are drifting, put down the anchor!  If you are doubting, look up to Jesus!

OUR HIDING PLACE

 

You are my hiding place;

You shall preserve me from trouble;

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.

 Selah  (Psalm 32:7)

Years ago, the godly Corrie Ten Boom wrote a book—later made into film—called, “The Hiding Place.”  It documented God’s preservation of her life through years in a Nazi concentration camp.  She did find God to be her strength and shelter who preserved her.  If you have never read the book or seen the movie, I would encourage you to do so.

The fact is that this world is filled with foes.  Satan and his minions are continually seeking the downfall of God’s people.  We, however, have a strong tower—a place to hide from Satan’s fury.  The Lord God Almighty is our refuge.  We are secure in Him.  Trouble abounds, but God protects and preserves our soul from trouble.  It is true that our physical state may suffer.  Corrie Ten Boom did, and her sister died from the brutality of their imprisonment for the cause of Christ.  Some of God’s choice servants have not been immune from hardship and heartache.  Still, the real person who is promised to be preserved is the soul that indwells this body—our spirit that is in this world but not of it—if we have been born again.  My life is hid with Christ in God.  None can pluck me out of His hand.  Having come to Christ, I cannot perish!  God is our hiding place, and I run to His arms!

NO OUTCASTS, NO ORPHANS

 

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.  ‎
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.”  (Isaiah 49:15-16)

Heartbreaking news stories sometimes come to our attention of abandoned and abused children.  We react with revulsion because that is against the natural order of things.  Any parent with an ounce of humanity cannot do this.  Feeble, failing human beings have a God-given drive inside of them to care for their little ones.  Dare we think a perfect Heavenly Father of infinite love would neglect us?  There is a song by the contemporary Christian music group, “Avalon” that says,

There are no strangers
There are no outcasts
There are no orphans of God
So many fallen, but hallelujah
There are no orphans of God.

To that I echo, “Hallelujah!”  It is true.  As a name tattooed on our skin would fix an indelible mark, so God has engraved His children’s names on His hands.  That is more than a metaphor, it is a literal truth concerning the scars engraved in the hands of the crucified Christ—perpetual reminders before the Father of the sacrifice of His Son that made us His children.  The only way that God would forget us is if He would forget the price His Beloved paid for the sin debt we owed.  He will not!

Isaiah speaks here of the walls of Jerusalem.  Those walls have at times been battered and even broken by invaders—and today are threatened by a host of enemies that encircle the nation of Israel.  Those sorrows have been due, not to God’s neglect of them, but their neglect of Him!  Sadly, the nation is yet in unbelief and faces more pain in the future.  This does not, however, mean God has forgotten His promise—quite the opposite!  His chastisement is a token of His love.  He uses the pain to correct and drive the people back to Him!  He has made a covenant with Israel.  He knows where the foundations of Jerusalem’s walls are.  They have been rebuilt in the past when the people repented and they will be in the future—most gloriously so!  Perhaps you feel God has forgotten you.  Might it be that you have forgotten Him—and He, like the father of the Prodigal Son, ever watches and waits for you to come back home.  He will embrace you with open arms.  “There are no outcasts, there are no orphans of God.”