By John Thiel, mp3
You may be wondering about the grammatical correctness of the title of this sermon. The meaning can be found in 1 John:
1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
It is the noun of God. God is love. If God is love, what is love? Love is God. God’s love with whom we have to do. We have to do, every single one of us have to do with Him who is love. Everything we have studied in reference to Him is love, is what pertains to each one of us individually. Our danger is that we don’t have to do with Him in our own mind. I will go on doing what I choose to do in spite of the amazing love that God is.
Our scripture reading is very sobering as we consider God’s love with whom we have to do:
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
The word of God is love. What does it do? It pierces into your and my very soul. It divides asunder soul and spirit. It actually penetrates into the joints and marrow.
Hebrews 4:12 piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Do you like hearing the word of God that penetrates into your very intents where you have often felt, what does John know about me? John doesn’t know anything about anybody but only what the Lord reveals to him. The point is, that God knows everything. Everything!!
Hebrews 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
When you study into the DNA, when you study into the cell, God knows exactly what is in there, every detail. He knows every detail of what you are thinking, and what the intents of your heart are. He knows it all, it is all naked before Him. You can’t hide anything from Him .
Our last message ‘The Principled Love of God’, is what we continue to appreciate in this meditation. It is well summarised here in Sons and Daughters of God.
Christian life is more than many take it to be. It does not consist wholly in gentleness, patience, meekness, and kindliness. These graces are essential; but there is need also of courage, force, energy, and perseverance. {SD 203.2}
Do you like force? God’s love and Christianity is not just gentleness, patience, meekness and kindness. There is also force and power there.
The path that Christ marks out is a narrow, self-denying path. To enter that path and press on through difficulties and discouragements, requires men who are more than weaklings. {SD 203.2} Men of stamina are wanted, {SD 203.3}
May I mention, men and women, because men here is the generic expression?
…men who will not wait to have their way smoothed, and every obstacle removed, men who will inspire with fresh zeal and flagging efforts to dispirited workers, men whose hearts are warm with Christian love, and whose hands are strong to do their Master’s work. {SD 203.3}
Some have no firmness of character…. This weakness, indecision, and inefficiency should be overcome…. Men of power are those who have been opposed, baffled, and thwarted. By calling their energies into action, the obstacles they meet prove to them positive blessings. They gain self-reliance. Conflict and perplexity call for the exercise of trust in God, and for that firmness which develops power. {SD 203.5}
This is a summary of our previous sermon, that here is the love of God that we are to copy, that we are to embrace in our hearts. It is not only the soft influences, it is also the powerful ones that bring us into determination and force and energy to do the right.
We see here in God a combination character. Everybody loves to see a little baby, don’t they? The gentle innocence of a child; the gently, delicate innocence is God, but also the powerful unbending demonstration of mountains. The storms that go ahead and you can’t stop them, the tidal wave, the tsunami that you can’t stop is also part of God. Here is the mountain He invites you to come and meet.
Micah 6:1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. 2 Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. 3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.
Come to the mountain, come and argue, let your voice be heard. Can you imagine the picture that is created here? You have to be among some big mountains. I really felt it when I was in New Zealand when we visited the south island. We were stuck at the Homer tunnel for half an hour because we had to wait for the traffic coming the other way. There were towering mountains all around. When you are among towering mountains you realise what God is saying. Can you argue with the mountain? He says, come on, what have I done to you? Testify against me.
Micah 6:4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,
He is talking to the Hebrews and to you and me. He has brought us out of the world.
Micah 6:4 and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD.
What happened with Balaam? Balak told him to go and curse Israel for him so that Israel could be stopped from conquering him. He knew if they were cursed he would be safe. There was Balaam trying to curse Israel. Could he? It’s one of the most humorous stories in the Bible as far as I am concerned. He tries to curse Israel and he blesses them. Balak pulls his hair out and says, what are you doing?
The immovable power of God, the love of God. If His love is placed upon you, what can you do? If you lose your focus upon Him, you might complain, why am I going through such a hard time? He says, come and argue, come to the mountains. What have I done to you? Wake up, you can’t move the mountain. This is God’s love with whom we have to do.
Let’s again explore and apply that principle of love that will not alter. It is always going to be there with whom we have to do. It is important to keep repeating this material until we, through God’s word, wake up. The mountain is saying to us, look at me, my love, can you move me?
Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Immovable
This is God. Wonderful, when you contemplate that no matter whether you have committed iniquity which is lawlessness, whether you have committed transgression which is breaking the law, or sin, even lack of faith is sin. All those details, God in His amazing character of love will be longsuffering, merciful and gracious toward those and forgiving those things. You want to believe it. But He will by no means clear the guilty. This is still part of His character, this is still love with whom we have to do.
God is Himself the source of all mercy. His name is “merciful and gracious.” Exodus 34:6. He does not treat us according to our desert. He does not ask if we are worthy of His love, but He pours upon us the riches of His love, to make us worthy. He is not vindictive. He seeks not to punish, but to redeem. Even the severity which He manifests through His providences is manifested for the salvation of the wayward. {MB 22.1}
We don’t want severity, do we? But that is God’s love – severity as well as gentleness. We don’t want to lose this focus; this is the mountain. It is a severity that won’t give in because it’s going to carry us through with it to save us if we stay.
He yearns with intense desire to relieve the woes of men and to apply His balsam to their wounds. It is true that God “will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:7), but He would take away the guilt. {MB 22.1}
You can’t get around Him, you can’t reason any other way, and it strikes right deep down. Guilt is something that mountain will not bypass, but He wants to take the guilt away. His love provides remedies for all sin, forgiveness, as we have contemplated. Those remedies, if they are not embraced, if you say, no I am too bad, I can’t accept this; if you do that can He clear your guilt? No. I will by no means clear the guilty. I want to take away your guilt but if we don’t come to Him and meet Him as He is, and run away from the deep, cutting aspects of God’s word, we will not be cleared. Remember those beautiful words, the plaintive cry where in Sons and Daughters on page 203, He has intense desire for us to pick it up. He is communicating this cry to us.
Lamentations 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by
Look what I am doing for you. As you take hold of this remember what these details are in regards to your personal self as you relate with Him whom we have to do.
Ezekiel 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed;
Because I’m prepared to forgive you.
Ezekiel 18:31 and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
Do something, I am trying to stop you from being destroyed. I’m anxious for your soul, says the mountain. What have I done? Do you have problems or difficulties? What have I done? I have come to redeem you from out of Egypt. I am always the same, you can trust me. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I’m going to judge. We want to have a good look at that judgment with whom we have to do because He says “I don’t want to destroy you when I judge, I want to redeem you. I want to take away your guilt”.
As God speaks to us, as He spoke to the Hebrews, He is saying to us, here is life and here is death. This is a love that wants us to make a choice for life.
Deuteronomy 30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
This is the mountain speaking. Come and argue, put your case before me. I have given you a choice, a decision.
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
This is the love with whom we have to do. He says, here are the paths of life and death. You have maybe discovered that you are a sinner, and the life that has happened hasn’t been very good and there may not be much future ahead of you, but I have set before you life, choose. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
He who loves us, knows all about us. There is nothing covered. Ponder about this, let it really sink in. Do you ever try to hide things? Do you ever try to hope that nobody finds out about this or that? Do you forget the fact that you might hide it from people, but you can’t hide it from God? Why even try to hide it from God? We think we are in our own world doing our own thing because nobody is watching, but God is. He knows every detail of even the indulgence of thoughts that you hold dear. You can’t hide from Him. Let it really penetrate. This is the love with whom we have to do. What is He judging? Not only the actions but the thoughts that He knows are there.
We may hide it from man but we can’t hide anything from God. Is there any man that God will reveal things to that we hide from man? God will use His servants to reveal what I am hiding. Do you ever get embarrassed that a human being knows something you have been trying to keep away from others? There are two experiences and there are many more I could show, but for time we will look at the prophet Nathan, and David’s sin. He thought it was only between him and Bathsheba and he thought that my general has set the Hittites on the front line, but he doesn’t know why; nobody knows anything, I am hiding my sin. Then Nathan comes to him and how did he handle it? Did Nathan come and say, I know all about you? No. He used the word of God so that David could discover for himself what he had done. When David was making a judgment upon the person who did this terrible deed of taking the one sheep when he had plenty of his own, Nathan said, you are the man. He was found out, because God knew all the way along. God revealed it to Nathan. Is that comfortable for you, to reveal your secrets to a man that God has sent to help you? This is anathema, it is nobody else’s business what I am doing, not a human being, not even the servant of God, it’s none of their business. Have you ever reasoned like that?
Acts 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, 2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it,
His wife was the only one who knew about it.
Acts 5:2 and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
What do you think happened to Ananias? This was private, this was nobody else’s business, and this was just me and my wife’s business. Did she tell him? What’s gone wrong? He dropped dead because he was overwhelmed with absolute shock and God removed that life. Then his wife came in.
Acts 5:4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
Peter knew about the heart because God showed him.
Acts 5:4 thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. 5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
The story goes on how his wife comes in and he asks her, is this all? She says, yes, that’s all. Then he tells her and she falls down dead.
But in attempting to deceive the disciples, he had lied to the Almighty. {AA 73.2}
With whom we have to do.
As we meditate on this a little longer, this love with whom we have to do, here we see an expose of God’s love for His people. Most people see it on the surface and say that was cruel. Why did He do that, this is the New Testament? Isn’t God love? People say, I don’t love God of the Old Testament, but I love Jesus. Is there any difference?
In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, the sin of fraud against God was speedily punished. The same sin was often repeated in the after history of the church and is committed by many in our time. But though it may not be attended by the visible manifestation of God’s displeasure, it is no less heinous in His sight now than in the apostles’ time. The warning has been given; God has clearly manifested His abhorrence of this sin; and all who give themselves up to hypocrisy and covetousness may be sure that they are destroying their own souls. {AA 76.1}
With whom we have to do.
God in His love showed this to show that at the very end every man who is indulging in that guilt and doesn’t give it up is actually destroying himself. He shows this picture again in paragraph 4.
Infinite Wisdom saw that this signal manifestation of the wrath of God was necessary to guard the young church from becoming demoralized. Their numbers were rapidly increasing. The church would have been endangered if, in the rapid increase of converts, men and women had been added who, while professing to serve God, were worshiping mammon. This judgment testified that men cannot deceive God, that He detects the hidden sin of the heart, and that He will not be mocked. It was designed as a warning to the church, to lead them to avoid pretense and hypocrisy, and to beware of robbing God. {AA 73.4}
This is the love with whom we have to do. God’s great love is given to save His people, to save His church and in case there is this sort of lacsidaisical, Laodicean mentality that wants to control, he says, I have given you an example. This is the end of people who persevere in doing that, just the same as Achan. His love reveals how He cannot clear the guilty; that is a demonstration of it. Ananias and Sapphira were guilty and He can’t clear them, but He could have removed their guilt if the conscience would have responded to His love.
The Judgments of God’s Love
Let us explore to understand what His love really is, and how this love actually functions even though it appears it is so stern and severe. It’s not the love we want to know about. We want to have a love that comforts you only, and doesn’t feel any condemnation.
2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
This scripture conveys a reality which few take time to consider. We will take time to consider it here. The horrifying experience that Jesus met at Gethsemane and the cross, the horror of it all, was the lot of all of us. We are all heading in that direction and Jesus came and ran off ahead and took it over. This is the love of God. Every one of us have a horror before us that we do not comprehend unless we look at Jesus and open our hearts to him, then we see what horror He went through. That is what He saved us from; high blood pressure, disease that destroys. He was impacted by human degeneracy and fear and horror. Because of Christ, we are spared that hopeless discovery. There is light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope through the grave, through the consequence of sin. There is hope because of Jesus.
This should do something to alter our life, as the word of God cuts and reveals to us that God sees everything. He sees everything to the nth degree, right down to the fine discerning of the intents of the heart. If He sees all that and He doesn’t condemn me but gives Jesus to me, what is that meant to do? How can I continue to doggedly continue in my path of conscience pricks and pushing the conscience pricks aside? I have to respond either by running away from it or turning toward it. If I will keep on looking at that love instead of becoming used to it, God is so kind, He will not judge me. The love of Christ constraineth us. It’s a force. It breaks in there when I’m trying to hide things, little white lies, little things that I can get away with and I feel quite happy about. Sorry, God knows it all. It’s sin. It has to be acknowledged that I have to deal with it. The Lord’s going to bring it up before me, I cannot hide myself from it. He wants me not to hide myself from it so that He can, in love, recover me. That is all. One of the embarrassments is that I’m found out. So what? Be happy that you are found out. The Lord’s trying to relieve you from the terrible, horrible result, if you will only give over to it.
The way the Lord is trying to bring it about is by the beauty of the word of God, by the beauty of His love that constrains me, that stops me in my tracks and says, I can’t hide from God, I can’t hide from His servant because His servant discovers that and he is going to try to help me. This love appeals, it keeps on appealing for some time until we become gospel-hardened Christians, as Sr. White describes it. Is there such a thing? The love of God becomes a regular communication that we become familiar with and we don’t make a change. We keep going on going on and do not let the constraining power of God alter my practice. As it said there that should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, (me) and rose again. This is the appeal of that love of God, but if my soul rejects it and the message falls on deaf ears, I’m not responding any more, I’m sick and tired of hearing it, I’m still hiding some things in my life that I don’t want anybody to know, and the Lord knows. He will hide us from the strife of tongues if we consent, if we recognise what is deep inside me and I confess it with bitter tears, just like we studied in the Sabbath School lesson, because I know that His love has driven me to this point, it has constrained me. Instead of just saying, lovely, lovely, it’s actually a force that alters my behaviour. They are obviously ignorant of the horror that is ahead of them. It won’t just be death, it won’t just be a blissful ignorance and dying, it will be what God says, I will judge. All who have rejected the love of Jesus are going to meet the judgment after the 1000 years. Many have been ignorant of this.
Don’t confuse anything that I’m going to be sharing with you now because God’s love is what I’m talking about. God’s love rejected is the judgment and it’s not what God wanted for you and me.
Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Can you see here? The sin itself is not the problem, as much as doing despite, as treading underfoot the Son of God’s love. I just ridicule it. What can I expect now? A fearful looking for of judgment.
Hebrews 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
People who say, well I’m going to die anyway because I’m a sinner, they don’t know what is meant in these words. God’s love is saying, please, I have put before you and I’m putting it before you now, everyone of us who are here listening to these words, He is saying, let my love alter your course because if you don’t alter your course my love rejected is not going to be able to do a thing to save your horror.
God’s people who know Him understand. The wise will understand, the wicked won’t understand. The wise will understand what is written there in verse 30. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me. We know His love, we know what vengeance really is. He will recompense, saith the Lord. Here is the revelation of a grieving God. His recompense, His vengeance is grieving because people have rejected the overtures of His love. He is grieving over their hardness of heart. He has tried to soften it and they harden it and harden it. That is what happened with Pharaoh. God hardened his heart. How did He do that? He did it by Pharaoh rejecting all the opportunities that he had to relieve himself from his guilt.
Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering;
This is what we do when we tread the conscience of God’s love underfoot, despising His goodness and His forbearance and longsuffering.
Romans 2:4 not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
These words are very important; the righteous judgments of God. We will have a quick look at this at the end. God’s judgments at the end are not a violation of His love at all. If we harden our hearts now then we are despising the mercy and love of God, we are treading God’s love underfoot.
Romans 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
I shared this with you a while ago. If we devour one another by our judgmental attitudes towards one another, by fault finding, by not embracing the love of God, we will become consumed one of another. That is what is meant here, that He will render to us according to our deeds. This is the solemn love of God with which we have to do.
Observe the mind-set of a person who rejects that wonderful love and will not be constrained, and its results. This is what the wicked who reject the love of God think.
Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. 5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. 6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
This is the mind-set. God is just making me upset, I’m not going to think about Him anymore because He is upsetting me. I will not seek after God; He is not in my thoughts. The path of this mind-set is always grievous, the judgments of God don’t come into the mind. I don’t want to know about them. It’s the mental disease which is called denial. 6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved. What I am doing is right and I am going to keep on doing it and nobody is going to convince me any other way, I shall never be in adversity, this is going to turn out nicely.
Psalms 10:11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
This is the mind-set of these kinds of people. Be careful that we don’t fall into that. God sees everything. The mind of this person says, no, He will never see it, God hath forgotten, it’s all right.
Psalms 10:13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
I can get away with this, you won’t require it in the judgment. This is the mind-set. But recall our scripture reading, God knows everything. Let’s stop denying, let’s open our heart to it. God you’ve convinced me. Your love is so wonderful.
Psalm 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
God will deal with it because He sees it all. When God sees this, can He do anything to prevent what He is watching? I have heard people say, please pray for such and such a person, that God will change them. There are certain people that I don’t pray for. God actually spoke to Jeremiah, don’t pray for people.
Jeremiah 7:16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry not prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
Why? Because not even God can do anything about them. This is important to understand that it is my choice. If I don’t make the choice, not even God can change my choice, because His love is the only motivating force that can actually change me. If I choose to ignore that love there is nothing else that God can do. This is all part of His love because He is a God of love who does not force any person’s choice. Our allotted task is to conquer self, to grow and to recognise the revealings of God.
This is our allotted task; but it cannot be accomplished without help from Jesus, resolute decision, unwavering purpose, continual watchfulness, and unceasing prayer. Each one has a personal battle to fight. Not even God can make our characters noble or our lives useful, unless we become co-workers with Him. Those who decline the struggle lose the strength and joy of victory. {MH 487.2}
Not even God. He is all-powerful, isn’t He? But He is love and He cannot make the change that I do not co-operate with Him on. . All of us want to get to heaven, don’t we?
Each one has a personal battle to fight. Each must win his own way through struggles and discouragements. Those who decline the struggle lose the strength and joy of victory. No one, not even God, can carry us to heaven unless we make the necessary effort on our part. We must put features of beauty into our lives. {5T 345.1}
Not even God can carry us to heaven. This is God’s love. If we fail to be constrained by His love, what will take place?
Proverbs 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
God is doing His wonderful love work, I have called, and ye refused.; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; Remember His plaintive cry, is it nothing to you, all that pass by? I have done my uttermost, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded it,
Proverbs 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
This is what is coming; distress and anguish. When you haven’t surrendered to God’s love what will God do? He can’t do anything.
Proverbs 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
That is what is going to happen. Our own devices will be a stranglehold around our mental and spiritual neck and God can’t do a thing about it, because we have despised His love that would have wanted to do something about it. Can you see the seriousness of the love with whom we have to do? This is serious. As we consider carefully the calibre of this love, (there is much that I could still spend time with you on), David’s dilemma when he met the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, and there in that particular situation it says that God didn’t do the work, He just permitted evil to go on because of David’s sin.
Psalm 9:16 The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.
God’s love is described because when the people are destroyed it will be the result of their own doing, not God as the executioner.
Proverbs 22:8 He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail. (marginal reading: and with the rod of his anger he shall be consumed)
It is the anger that was generated through sin that God has come to alleviate through His love but has been rejected, therefore his own anger will be the rod by which he will be destroyed.
Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
This is a direct reference to after the 1000 years. There will be a resurrection of all, everyone, after the 1000 years, all the wicked. Now God will show His love.
Isaiah 26:10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. 11 LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
The fire of Satan himself will devour him, and all the wicked will turn against him when the great white throne judgment takes place. Their anger, their fury will be the source of their own destruction, and God will just mete it out with a fire from Him that will give just judgment. Everybody will see. What have I done? It’s too late, I can’t change. Now God is communicating His wonderful love so that we can change and not be consumed ourselves with our anger. Are you ever angry with somebody in the church? You better get rid of it quickly, because if you don’t get rid of it by the love of God, one day it will consume you. It will consume me if I harbour it. This is God’s love with whom we have to do.
I encourage you to read Great Controversy pages 662 – 672. There is the description of God’s love in final judgment. Now the fire that destroys is God’s perfect justice because everybody will recognise that that fire is an act of mercy. If it wouldn’t be for the act of mercy, people would be smouldering under their own destructive activities and they would not be dealt with justly. In that fire, those who have done just a little will quickly be smothered out and those who have done a lot will be suffering for a period of time according to their wickedness. God is still active in love because He is love, but He wants us to avoid that scene.
May God grant us that we will so tune in to all the love stories that I am sharing with you, that we will learn to take the living lessons from those before us; the justice of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, the justice of Ananias and Sapphira, no longer to spurn that love but to open their hearts to this love and make the choices to change before we have to meet the resolute unwillingness that operates within our actual heart. Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Amen.
