Hear ye Him! Hear the Gospel!
Picture this for a moment. God creates the universe. He creates the heavens and the earth. Every creation was bounded to His command. He speaks and they tremble and obey Him. He passes and they bow in reverence. Then man, created in the image of God, decides to join the devil in rebellion. A puny creation, a bag of dust believes a deception, disobeys his Maker and damns his generation for an eternity of eternities. He was cursed but not forsaken. A Saviour is to come. But man did not hold on to this hope. Adam was given a name below every other name and even the innocent land could not escape the fierce anger of God. Man no longer was an image of the Almighty. He was now a lawbreaker, a sinner, a child of wrath and a depraved fool bound in chains of inequity. Adam and Eve did not became gods as what they had intended to be. Instead, they became the opposite: the antithesis of God.
Every creature would fearfully bow and obey their Maker but man would not. He was given over to his depraved mind and he constantly sought to please himself. He wasn’t satisfied. He went on and on for decades. He instinctively knows that he has offended the Lord but man’s generation, his sons after sons, was bounded in sin. In the same way a fish is not aware how wet it is, man doesn’t know the depths of his sin. His corruption extends to every other creation that comes in contact with him. His sin has damaged his will and very nature. He couldn’t break free from the cycle nor realize his helpless and condemned state. The whole race of Adam fell and every man was given over to the great deceiver.
But a commotion was happening in heaven. The principalities of heaven, the seraphs and the angels were all murmuring in shock. Something which has never happened before is about to come to pass. The God of splendour is to come in flesh to save man from the Father’s wrath.
Angels, with mouths wide open, could not bear witness to such an act. Man deserveth death as the Scripture says. Man has offended an infinitely holy God so isn’t it right for man to be placed in a state of infinite condemnation? But the Lord spoke, “Yes, indeed. Sin deserves eternal judgment in hell. But My plans are not like yours. The condemnation that I place on man for his betrayal, I will now put on My Son, in whom I am well pleased. I will make a Name for Myself and a people for Myself. I shall give them what they do not deserve so that they will know that I alone am God and I ordain things based on My own good counsel.” The citizens of heaven shut their mouths in unbelief. They could not even raise a finger in protest. “How great is this God?!” they all pondered trembling. “The only begotten Son, who did nothing wrong, is to be punished in place of sinners? He is to drink His Father’s wrath which every man should rightfully drink for all eternity?”
The Son of God descended on a virgin. Both true God and true man, He spoke. The whole world has never heard such a voice. They rebelled. They got angry. They just couldn’t believe. Everything the Son has said was against their very natures. In protest, they demanded crucifixion. Jesus was betrayed, tortured and murdered in the sight of many as the prophet Isaiah foretold. He was hated and killed without cause. The Son of God died. He died hanging on a tree as if He were a criminal. The angels were weeping but ready to bombard the earth with the justice of heaven. They were waiting for the signal to strike. It did not come. Heaven was silent until the third day. Jesus, our Captain of salvation, rose from the dead. Indeed, He has authority to lay His life and take it up again. He blesses His apostles and sends them to the world to proclaim the Good News.
He ascended into heaven. He knocked on the door once again saying “Father, it is finished!” The door opened without a sound. There was no singing. Every resident of heaven bowed in silent worship as the Lord of glory swept among them wearing human clothes. How the angels envied men who have received the greatest and most precious gift of all! With no permission needed, the Son of God took His place at the right hand of the Father. All heaven rejoiced. The time of silence has passed. In worship, every knee bowed and confessed the glory of the Lamb. They sing “holy, holy, holy” is the Lord with closed eyes and still lips. From the Son’s command, the Holy Spirit was sent to the earth to convict all men, regenerate life, dwell in every believer and prepare the chosen ones for the coming banquet.
The Lord has prevailed. The devil has lost. With little time left, Satan seeks to hide every bit of information that concerns the one true Lord. He puts away doctrine and hunts the men of God who would dare speak about the glories of heaven. He waters down Christianity until it becomes a kilometre wide and an inch deep. He presents a false image of god that comes without hostility over sin and winks over sensuality. He fashions a worldly christ in accordance to man’s demands. He creates a jesus who walks with no holiness and or a rod of righteousness. He lets morality and tradition take over Christianity so that Christians would concern themselves with their performance and ethics not to know God more based on His own testimony in Scripture. Satan continues to give theology an ugly, unpractical image so that men would not seek it and creates a masterful scheme that would go as far to deceive the very elect of God. And anyone who studies God’s Word and preaches it with no reduction is labeled as an overzealous monk who’s heavenly but no earthly good.
On the other hand, heaven continually rejoices. On bended knees, they all wonder. The seraphs, which stand in close proximity to God’s holy throne, would have to hide themselves, well dressed and veiled. They could not even look at the holiness of God with their bare eyes. And yet man, this little, disobedient and ungrateful creature, who has profaned God openly without even recognizing what he has done, upon genuine conversion can enter the Most Holy Place? Oh! How the finished work at Calvary brings sorrow and joy over the saints!
And this great Gospel, which angels could not even utter without much weeping and praise, will stem forth from unclean lips? What a privilege! What a great God! What a Gospel! What else can you desire but a great and holy God such as the One in Scriptures? What else could you possibly want? Is there any stronger pleasure than knowing and cherishing the Lord of lords and King of glory? To the wind with all your problems in marriage! To the wind with all your insecurities! To the wind will all the earthly prosperity you so desire! To the wind with all of us and praise be to the Lord!
Do you want to know what I really want in this life? In contrary to what I was last year, I no longer want to be great writer or a person who’s going to change the world. I just want to sit down and enjoy God. Yes! I just want to be with Him. I just want to be free from sin and to sit beside Him to love and cherish Him as the greatest joy of my life! Believe me or not, I don’t care much about revival or if the Church would successfully rediscover the hidden truths. I’ve worked hard for revival and I’ve always prayed for it in tears but my greatest happiness is God. I desire revival and the salvation of His elect badly but the desire of my desires is to sit alone with Him. In just six years of walking with God, I feel old and tired but at the same time, I feel as if I am the most fulfilled man on the face of this planet. And indeed I am, among a multitude of redeemed sinners.
I wait anxiously in peace for His coming. I know God has still much to do in my short life but I can't shut myself from craving the time where I would be just one with the Lord. How I wish I'd be rid of this unredeemed flesh soon and worship Him in all His fullness! How great would that day be!
No comments:
Post a Comment