The Lord Surrounds His People

 

Psalm 125: 1-5

 

November 16, 2022

 

The Lord Surrounds His People

A Song of Ascents.

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.  As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.   For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.   Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts!  But those who turn aside to their crooked ways the Lord will lead away with evildoers! Peace be upon Israel!

 

The Church of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be moved, it is not as big as the numbers reported show, but it is powerful, and it does abide forever.  Now you understand I’m not referring to members of a local Church, I'm not referring to all who have been baptized at some time in their lives, no, only those who by grace through faith have put their total trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.   The Church and many pastors do not bring up the subject of Judgment, yet the Scriptures are clear that all will stand in judgment.  One judgment is for those who received Jesus as the Lord, and the other is for those referred often as the wicked.  

Now let me ask a question; If you had the power and authority to send your only son to die for a lost world and people rejected your gift of redemption and said we don’t need him, what would you call them?  But what about those who have bought the lie that God is good and will never judge those who try to bypass Jesus and think they will get to heaven?  I ask the “Got Question” question, which is the answer.  “The first thing to understand about the final judgment is that it cannot be avoided. Regardless of how we may choose to interpret prophecy at the end times, we are told that “it is appointed to men once to die, but after this, the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). We all have a divine appointment with our Creator. The apostle John recorded some details of the final judgment:”

This is all about the choice you and I make while in our earth suite, after death, you waiting for eternal judgment.

“And I saw a great white throne, and Him sitting on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And a place was not found for them. And I saw the dead, the small and the great, stand before God. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead in them. And each one of them was judged according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death. And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire”   (Revelation 20: 11-15).

 

This remarkable passage introduces to us the final judgment—the end of human history and the beginning of the eternal state. We can be sure of this: no mistakes will be made in our hearings because we will be judged by a perfect God (Matthew 5:48; 1 John 1:5). This will manifest itself in many undeniable proofs. First, God will be perfectly just and fair (Acts 10:34; Galatians 3:28). Second, God cannot be deceived (Galatians 6:7). Third, God cannot be swayed by any prejudices, excuses, or lies (Luke 14:16-24).

 

Now let us end with these words from Jesus;  ^“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”  (John 3:16-19)

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice