June 09, 2017
Exodus 33:19 (KJV): “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”
God's mercyLittle known, if even known, considered, or taught; let us consider the mercy of God, humanity and eternity.
The first time i read “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed), (exercising God given faith + nothing) in that day. 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10. What got me to wondering, was the phrase in verse 9; “from the presence of the Lord”. How can that be? When i read: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” Psalms 139:7-10. i hope one sees the importance of again to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15. God is omnipresent, every where at the same time. God is omnipotent, all mighty, all powerful, omniscience, all knowing. That then being true, which it is, how do i reconcile Psalms 139:7 with 2 Thessalonians 1:9? i had to learn that all scripture is written to me but all scripture isn’t for me. i had to understand the dispensationalism order that God uses in dealing with mankind : remembering precept upon precept (Isa 28). i also had to learn what faith was and how the Holy Spirit will reveal only what i’m able to receive, when. i had to learn to wait upon the LORD (Isa 40:31), i had to learn how to wait. “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Hebrews 10:36. “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:” Romans 5:3-4. Again, i also had to learn what faith was and how faith comes. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17. Hearing what? hearing what God speaks to ones spirit by the Holy Spirit using the Word that He has spoken, that we have in written form; called the Bible. Why then so many differing versions in these later days? i have my understandings but will suggest that you, you on your knees ask God why. Then He too, as i, He will reveal what He would have one to know when. That, that knowledge imparted by God through the Holy Spirit will never differ, but remains constant, believer to believer, to all who are in Christ by faith. The purpose of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter to believers is to: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me (Jesus Christ): for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” John 16:13-15. John 16:-5 thru verse 24 gives insights to the works of the Holy Spirit; but in so doing remember to rightly divide the kingdom of heaven from the Church age, this age of the grace of God. Although not written explicitly to me it is still the work of the Holy Spirit; that Spirit of truth’s purpose. Then if in Christ by being baptized by that same Holy Spirit: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized (not water, but spiritual) into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-13.
This is how i have come to understand this passage, 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10. It might take a little reading on your part to bring it all together. Eternity is always to us, the descendants of Adam, “NOW”. i can’t go back nor ahead in time, i only have now, i live in the present. i believe the same will be to us in eternity, it will always be “NOW”. God created time, i believe He created time first and not light as taught. “In the beginning God” Genesis 1:1, for there to be a beginning, there will be a way to measure from that beginning. ,which we call it time. To further support this belief i read that there will also be an end of time: “that there should be time no longer:” Revelation 10:6e. For time to end it had to began, then i believe time was first. Eternity has always been as God has always been. Our puny minds can’t comprehend, let alone understand that! It’s taken by faith. God created time, giving it prominence in eternity, until He, God has worked out all His sovereign will concerning man that He created, in the sense of being in Adam and his descendants, believed or not to His eternal glory and praise forever and ever Amen. . . . .
Sidebar: here i believe is a reference to dispensations. “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Luke 21:24. Luke writing of the tribulation, not the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. Luke wrote of Jesus as man, under the law, the Mosaic law. That was the dispensation of the Law of God, given by God to Israel by just one man, Moses. “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled”: the dispensation of the grace of God (Eph 3:1-3); revealed by the risen Christ (Gal 1:11-12) given by God (Acts 9:15) to all, Gentiles, kings, and Israel; by one man, Paul. Brief description of the dispensations God has worked in to the benefit of man. Genesis 1-3, Innocence of Edenic. Genesis 3-8, Conscience or era before the flood. Genesis 9-11, Civil government. Genesis 12 to Exodus 19, Patriarchal or promise. Exodus 20 to Acts 8, Mosaic or Law. Acts 9 to Philemon Grace, the Church age. James to Revelation 20, Israel’s future, tribulation (Isa 61 & Luke 4, Matt 24 & Luke 21) Millennial Kingdom. Revelation 20-22 Eternal realm, new heaven, new earth in eternity.
Now concerning light: “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5. God being light then what was God before He created light? or did He just make His light known? “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1:9. Then this scripture comes to mind: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, “ Titus 2:11; and we should all be aware that Jesus Christ is “full of grace and truth.” John 1:14c. So then i believe God made His light known, known to us by His mercy, to be believed by faith which is also a gift from God: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Romans 12:3.
Back to “from the presence of the Lord”: for that to take place, my thought only; is to those that are dead to Christ through unbelief: “ But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 2 Corinthians 4:3. Then being dead spiritually, void of the Spirit of God, will realize full well what “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” (then, realizing what separation truly is: what horror). This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14-15: is all about. The horror of knowing this throughout eternity beggars description. They, those lost, will have full knowledge that the One that sent them to experience the consequence of their misguided choice; too be separated from the One that would have delivered them: by exercising the faith given by the One who could save if possible, can’t. In the future, they, the lost, have that “now” there; “the lake of fire” eternally. To make it worse, if possible, the God they freely rejected, who could of saved, can’t because He has removed the very thought them from His own mind. Those lost, then in the “lake of fire”; God doesn’t even know they exist; they no longer exist to Him: God has removed them from His presence. But those who entered by staying dead, rejecting life offered, staying in that separated state, will know, being fully aware for them “NOW”; all of eternity. To further support this belief i offer: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” Revelation 21:4-5 To the skeptic who will say but isn’t this to the Jew? True, Revelation is to the Jew but read on: “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa 25:8. It reads “and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces” whose faces, tears from off all faces, used in the same context as all have sinned. Then after that phrase a “ ; ” a semi-colon is used when? what is a semi-colon for? go investigate its purpose. Continuing then, “and the rebuke of his people shall he take away” back to Israel’s promise but the all was to all and i’m part of that all. So, no more sorrow, crying, no more pain, how would one have this sublimeness knowing ones loved ones were eternally separated, separated from God, in that eternal lake of fire. Then worse, to know with that, was there possibly more that you, i, could have done and didn’t. Does that fit with ones perception of heaven let alone what God has prepared. No, thats why i see the mercy of God in not allowing us to have full awareness, eternal awareness.
Concerning mercy for us today. God in His mercy to us has chosen not to reveal to us the fullness of that understanding. We can’t even imagine the prospects of that, God removing those from His presence (mind), let alone eternity. But by God’s sovereign mercy has hidden it from all of us. Just think, if one could fully grasp the magnitude of “from the presence of the Lord” what would our lives be like. i would be so determined, obsessed with getting it right, to make sure that i had gotten all the “T’s” crossed and the “I’s” dotted , and in so doing would reject faith. i’d be so concerned with my salvation i would be of no worth to God as an ambassador to profess His love and grace to others. i would be fully engulfed in my own affairs, my own condition, my own position, my own future “now”; and would have no time for others wellbeing. Is that how God loves, is that how we are to love? iv’e tried to fathom eternity; i get dizzy, my head spins, i don’t have the words. Then to try to understand with my human mind what God is, pertaining to being eternal: one could very well go insane at that continued thought. Another thought, we, humanity have never experienced a time when God wasn’t. God has always been present; whether believed or not, still present. Following the Beatitudes Jesus told us “ for he (God, Father) maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:45b. In all of humanities experience God has always been very much involved with the affairs of man. That being true, we have no experience of what it would be like to be absent from that presence, “from the presence of the Lord.”
Then how has God showed us an unfathomable mercy? In that He created faith, faith being without any experience to rely on “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1; but to just believe Him, God, believe Him that He is: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6. “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)” 2 Corinthians 5:7. i don’t have to have an experience to relate too before i’m able to believe. i have decided to believe God; don’t need to understand what was said by God, don’t have to comprehend what God has said, i just believe! i first understood by the Holy Spirit revealing that i was a sinner, lost without God, doomed to eternal separation from God. Later i understood that that separation was called death. i was dead to God by my sin being in Adam and my own unbelief and disobedience; i understood that, i believed that. i then realized i needed a saviour, and the Holy Spirt presented Christ Jesus as being that saviour: His Word told me “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. i confessed and agreed with God that “For all have sinned (i had sinned), and come short of the glory of God;” Romans 3:23, i was included in that “all”. That i was dead and needed life: “ I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10b. What was i facing in the future concerning this dilemma, being dead? and how could i escape my prospects? “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23; i needed that gift God was offering me through Jesus Christ. Then, now knowing that, i believed Paul when he presented the gospel to me in writing: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. When i read those verses and i believed i was then given the gift of God, the gift of eternal life.
Thank You LORD Jesus for loving me, providing the sacrifice for my sin that God retired, thank You for Your life imparted to me by faith, believing You and what You had said of me. i’m in AWE of You, You are all that i wasn’t, You made me all that You are in Christ. i’m loved, forgiven, re-birthed, and eternally alive because what You did for me in Your death, burial and resurrection; yes i’m eternally blessed, what more could i ask? what more can i ask; my life is hid in Christ in God, Christ in me my hope of glory. In Jesus’s name Amen . . . . . . . .
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