Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. Quite often we have heard
men say that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath and
fear, but the God of the New Testament is a God of love. Such
statements are made in ignorance of the one true God who rules
the universe and changes not. He is said to be the Father of
lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has manifested
himself in times past and in the present in the same fashion.
As the writer of Hebrews says, our God is a consuming fire.
The word gospel literally means a good message or good news,
but the good news cannot be received nor comprehended apart from a
revelation of the bad news, which is God hates sin and will destroy
the wicked. Until a man's heart has been
plowed with the convicting power of the Spirit in the setting
forth of God's broken law and made aware that God will not
be pleased with any remedies for this situation which is in
the hand of men to bring before him, that man cannot receive
the seed of the gospel which can give him comfort. Until a
man is made aware by that same Spirit of the power and awesome
majesty of Almighty God, which strips men of their righteousness
and humbles them in the dust before Him, that man will never
be brought to repentance and has not been given the gift of
faith. Daniel tells us what happened to him when he had a vision of
the glory of the Lord. My comeliness was turned in me
into corruption, and I retained no strength. Isaiah was given
a similar vision, and he said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips. John relates the same experience
when he says, And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. Now in each of these cases, God
was pleased to show His mercy and told each one to rise up
and to fear not. They had been brought to an understanding
of who the true and living God was, and therefore the comfort
of the Lord could be applied. No man knoweth who the Son is
but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and He to whom
the Son will reveal Him. Daniel says that the Lord is
the great and dreadful God. This word dreadful is often used
by us to describe an unpleasant experience, such as I had a dreadful
time on the trip. There is an element of this same
feeling which must be rooted in the very fiber of a man's
soul in order that he might properly regard the majesty and absolute
holiness of God. We hear many glibly preach today
about a God who wouldn't hurt a flea and just wants men to
know how much he loves them. Yet we find nowhere in the scripture
where the Lord ever revealed his love to any except those
who were first afraid to approach unto him. God is to be feared
simply because he is God. Had there been no sin, the awesome
majesty of God would be that which would strike reverential
awe in the hearts and minds of his creation. The angels, which
have never sinned, cover their eyes at the brightness of his
glory, as Isaiah describes. And one cried unto another and
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. God is to be feared because he is the judge of the living
and the dead, and he has revealed his hatred of the wickedness
of men. The Lord Jesus said, ìAnd fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.î
And also see now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God
with me. I kill and I make alive, I wound
and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven
and say, I live forever. If I wet my glittering sword
and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine
enemies and will reward them that hate me. The reality of
approaching judgment cannot be denied, and as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. A man is a
fool who does not tremble at the thought of standing before
the bar of God, with nothing to plead but his own righteousness,
religion, or good works. God is to be feared because of
His forgiveness. David said, If thou, Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. The awesome display of
God's judgment of the sin of His elect, as it was laid upon
His only begotten Son, shall surely cause those whom God has
given eyes to see to fall down in reverence before Him and worship
at His feet. Do you worship the Savior? For
a free CD containing 15 of these radio broadcasts, send an email
to forthepoor at windstream.net.