Sunday, August 1st, 2021
Every man is fallible but God is infallible. He forgets nothing. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. Every act you do for Him, God rewards you. Our God has a mouth and He speaks, He has eyes and He sees, He has ears and He hears. Our God loves His people and He cares for them. We live in glorious times.
Question from a brother: What about the Day of the Lord? And the Day of the Lord? (Cf. Malachi 4 and Revelation 20)
We must see things as God sees them. When the Lord speaks, we must keep it in context. To this Word is attached elements that must take place in this period of time. In one word, one verse, there can be several periods of time related to it.
Malachi 4: 1-5 / Revelation 20: 7-9
God does things in order, everything has its place. "For you yourselves know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2) The day of the Lord is the same as the day of God. "That great and dreadful day." (Malachi 4:5) God seizes His servants in a special way.
Titus 1:4-9
Here we are talking about exhorting. The one who said to establish is the one who said, "But when we ourselves, when an angel from heaven should preach another gospel than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed!" (Galatians 1:8) He had the authority. "For we have not made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ by cleverly devised fables, but as having seen his majesty with our own eyes. (2 Peter 1:16) "For I received from the Lord what I taught you" (1 Corinthians 11:23) It was the Lord who taught him and gave him the Word. When you are sent from God, you cannot preach anything but the Word. The Holy Spirit is given to lead you into the Truth. There is a difference between preaching and preaching the Word of God. "Therefore we thank God continually that when you received the word of God, which we made known to you, you received it not as the word of men, but, as it truly is, as the word of God, which works in you who believe." (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
Malachi 4:5 / Acts 2:15-20
He is referring here to the Word of Joel 2. The man of God, here under the anointing, does not speak of the great and dreadful day but of a great and glorious day. We live in glorious days because the Lord is coming to get us. This day is dreadful for the Gentiles but glorious for you. When a servant is sent by God, listen to him carefully! Preaching is not repeating like a parrot, but it is God who inspires you and gives you the Word. The preaching of the Word transforms a man. "Let the prophet who has had a dream tell the dream, And let him who has heard my word faithfully report my word." (Jeremiah 23:28) My word does not have life, but God's does.
All those preachers who are not sent are led by demons.
John 8:42-44
Jesus Christ is the Word of God. You cannot argue with the Word of God. "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68) The Scriptures are part of you and bring you back to your place. Jesus didn't wear gloves. God asks you to preach the Word, not compromise. God wants people to come to the truth. When people are possessed, when the Word is preached then they start to move, to be disturbed. They cannot stand in the Truth. When Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in yourselves" (John 6:53), they were not able to stand in the Truth. (John 6:53), they are all gone. The Word can be hard but when you are a son of God, you accept it because this Word does good to your soul. "And you, won't you also go away?" (John 6:67) You can't beg a soul to stay in the church, when you do that, you're going to create problems for yourself. "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and known that you are the Christ, the Holy One of God. Jesus said to them, "Didn't I choose you, the twelve? And one of you is a demon!" (John 6:68-70) Jesus knew He could strike because they would stay, they were not strangers to the Word. Neither Satan, nor his henchmen, nor his false preachers can stand in the Word of God for they have only falsity. Today, people are very fond of falsehood. Not everyone can preach the Word of God.
Psalm 109:1-14
This is when you are against the Word. "Do not touch my anointed ones, And do not harm my prophets!" (1 Chronicles 16:22) God watches over those who are His.
Acts 1:10-20
God is wise. There were 12 disciples. There was one whom the Lord loved very much, but it was not John that Jesus had to say "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: what you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19) God knows everyone and the abilities He gives to everyone. On the day of pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down, John or James could have stood up, but it was Peter who stood up. It was the Holy Spirit who did the thing at that time. Peter did not know, but it was the Holy Spirit who grabbed Peter. The Spirit of the Lord obeys the Word of God, there was no jealousy between them. It is about the order in the things of God. He is our God. We must know Him in His way.
God never makes mistakes. When He does something, He knows what He is doing. When David spoke, was he thinking about Judas? Not at all. This is Psalm 109 that we just read. The Holy Spirit fetches the Scriptures and brings them back to the period that corresponds. Peter was not a parrot but a man led by God.
Psalm 109:6-8
Who would have thought that this had anything to do with Judas? We are in a special phase. We must become the Word, for that we need the pure Word. What time are we really in? The time of grace began when Israel rejected Christ. "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Acts 13:46) "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3:6) We must listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. When the Holy Spirit works in you, He cannot lead you astray. We must do God's will. God grants the Baptism of the Holy Spirit by faith, so why bring people to a yoke that our fathers could not bear? "Simon told how God first looked upon the nations to choose from among them a people to bear his name. (Acts 15:14) When a man marries a woman, the woman must bear the husband's name. So when you bear His name, you are His Bride. God is coming for His Bride. The invitation has been sent to you, you don't need any explanation because you know what your Bridegroom is like. The Bride does not tremble because she knows that she is his Bride. It is not today that I become a Bride but I have always been one. The Bride cannot be forced. We were in Him.
"For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God" (Exodus 20:5) He will never want His Bride to go to anyone else. "And he has given some as ..." (Ephesians 4:11) But He is the True One. God takes care of His Bride. No one can detach you from Him. God has shown you in the Scriptures to be at peace and to know that one day you will leave because in this world you are a stranger. God wants you to be sure of Him. "And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20) Your Bridegroom is with you. It is the Bridegroom who takes care of the Bride. We cannot grasp God but we can observe Him in His work. Examine yourself to see if you are a stranger to this or if you are a part of this?
We are in the time of Grace, this period had a beginning and there will also be an end. Before this time, it was the law. The law was a teacher. "For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:17) "In the time of grace I will hear you," (Isaiah 49:8) "Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2) It is a wonderful time. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) You did nothing to obtain grace but it was granted to you. You were condemned but God gave you grace. The woman caught in the act of adultery was to be condemned. The Scriptures condemned her, no man could change what God had said. The Pharisees and Sadducees found this woman, they had the scriptures but they brought her to Jesus. Jesus was there far away, they could have done what they had to do. What kept them from carrying out the sentence was that this Jesus of Nazareth was there. Where He was, He saw the pain in the woman's heart. He knew all things. When God has decided to save you, hell may break loose, but God stops it. Jesus has His eyes on you. He was in control. You don't realize the grace we have to have this Jesus. Not even the devil, not even the demons can touch us, but we are the ones who get out of the enclosure.
The woman knew that death awaited her, but these men brought her to Jesus. In that place where Jesus was, the woman found life. "Grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ. (John 1: 17) "Moses in the law commanded us to stone such women: you therefore say?" (John 8: 5) You always say the prophet said but you do not know how the prophet said, in what context. The God of the prophets was on earth veiled in a human body. Jesus showed them that He was the author of the Word, that He was the One who spoke to Moses. If they were convinced that what Moses had said was the truth, then why ask the question? "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; he who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope." (John 5:45) They did not realize that it was a matter of a person's life. "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone against her." (John 8: 7) "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1: 29) Observe the time. John recognized who Jesus was. Moses did not, which is why we are told "there is none greater than John." (Luke 7:28) Yet John said, "I am not worthy to untie his shoe strap." (John 1:27) All the divine fullness was in this Jesus. "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. (Philippians 2:10) We have a mighty conqueror. We have moved into another dispensation. "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brethren, and you shall listen to him in all that he says to you" (Acts 3:22) On the Mount of transfiguration were Jesus, Moses and Elijah. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him" (Matthew 17:5). In the end, only Jesus remained. How often Paul or Peter spoke of Moses. "After God spoke to our fathers through the prophets many times and in many ways in the past, he has now spoken to us through the Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). God wants us to be influenced by Him. "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and deliverance to the prisoners. (Isaiah 61:1) We are in the time of Grace. Satan is only a scarecrow, but you are the one who gives strength to Satan. "What I fear is what happens to me; What I dread is what happens to me." (Job 3:25) "Submit yourselves therefore to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7) "But toward evening the light will appear." (Zechariah 14: 7) The light is not a man, the light is Jesus.
"Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone against her. (John 8:7) He didn't say someone who had never committed adultery! The bar was set very high. Everyone in his or her heart felt a condemnation. Moses had never said that. Things changed: it was no longer Moses but "Listen to Him". It shook their interior, they were stunned. They were not dealing with a man but with God. When the Word of God comes out, it controls all events. The demons were paralyzed. It was the Word that was spoken that began to judge. "I, the LORD, test the heart, I search the reins" (Jeremiah 17:10) All the stones fell to the ground. All the accusers are gone, hope is back in the woman's heart. Jesus did not drive them away, but these men left of their own accord. "Woman, where are those who accused you? Has no one condemned you? (John 8:10) We have an intercessor. "Neither do I condemn you: go and sin no more." (John 8:11) Jesus could condemn her because He had never sinned, but the Bible says "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:17) This woman could not do the same thing again, her life was changed. When Paul met this grace of God on the road to Damascus, he could not go back. When you receive grace, you can't go back as you were before, but you commit yourself to loving Him.
Moses spoke to the people of God. There is a difference between an elect listening and when the religious one listens. "For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me also, because he wrote of me." (John 5:46) The elect who believed in Moses also believed in Jesus. God seeks to bring His elect out of all "isms". The religious wondered how people could listen to a man like John, but God knew what He was doing. The elect would listen to John.
"Enlarge the space of your tent; let them spread out the covers of your dwelling; do not hold back. Stretch out thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." (Isaiah 54:2) They will come one by one. We must be thankful to the Lord, stay in humility and simplicity. I am sure that my people will come in as sure as God is alive!