Talk of JESUS .com

Category: Prophets – Warnings for 21st century ‘christians’

Jeremiah by Michelangelo

Old Testament Prophets WARNED Israel, Judah, and neighboring nations about what GOD has planned IF they did NOT REPENT (and they usually didn’t).

How does this speak to 21 c. ‘christians’ in these last days? Are you bold enough to WARN your SOCIAL ‘Friends’ of what Jesus Christ warns? Does the message of a Prophet apply even more to them and US, now? SHARE your scriptural warnings from the Prophets and WITNESS for our LORD, WHO IS and returning… soon.

Follow After Me 9 – Exhortation from an Evangelist

John 20:27b “Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

REPENT! Isn’t that your first impression of exhortation from an evangelist?

What is the mission of the evangelist? Is it not to get all of those sinners to come to Christ?

Yes. It is.

For if any man love another, is it not the duty of every Christian to seek the lost and to show all the true and lasting love of Christ Jesus, who won our own hearts to eternity?

Matthew 12: ³⁰“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me. ^31a“So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—

The evangelist has a passion for it – a passion to win new souls to the Lord. Yet there is more to it – much more – even for you and for me, my fellow believer, dear follower of Christ.

Exhortation the world may think is a loaded gun of scripture pointed squarely at the non-believer, but nothing could be further from the truth of the Lord’s teaching.

Exhortation is for the Christian – for the wavering believer, at times certainly for you and for me, dearly beloved brother and blessed sister in the Lord.

Hebrews 12: ²⁵Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!

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The church stands as watchman of the faith and sentry of scripture awake to the word of the Lord.

Ezekiel 33:

The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people…

7 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul…

13 Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die.

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Believer, do you trust in your own righteousness over your faltering faith in the Cross of Christ – the resurrection and return on the clouds of Jesus?

Should the church not call out to our wayward to repent?

Therefore return, o wayward christian, to the truth of scripture and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. For I am a watchman looking near to the clouds of heaven and here to the embrace of your soul beloved by our Lord.

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17 “Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just.

18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it.

19 And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. 20 Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”

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Are you, fellow believer or confessor of your own wickedness, prepared that the Lord would judge YOU according to your ways?

Jesus confronted those who held onto their own righteousness, the fine leaders of the religious community, the preachers with not one regard for the Living God:

Matthew 23:28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites!”

These false preachers are always seeking to lead the faithful away from the Cross of Christ! How unlikely are these worldly wise men and leading women to admit to the existence of God and the authority of the Lord.

Galatians 6:12b They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save.

The Evangelist of Bunyan describes these worldly hypocrites well:

The man that met thee is one Worldly Wiseman, and rightly is he so called; partly because he savoreth only the doctrine of this world, (therefore he always goes to the town of Morality to church;) and partly because he loveth that doctrine best, for it saveth him best from the cross: and because he is of this carnal temper, therefore he seeketh to pervert my ways, though right.

Are you convinced by false christians to keep Christ silent? Are you told to be tolerant of false gods by preachers of darkness cloaked as whitewashed tombs? Is your faith rooted in scripture and grounded in the truth of Christ’s death, resurrection and return?

Sound the trumpet, says the Lord; for the Day of the Lord will come unexpectedly!

Repent, christian in name only, to the only One by whom your soul may be saved: Christ Jesus!

April 15, 2016
until he brings justice to victory

The death of justice occurred not a week ago, but in centuries past.

Justice..

such a noble ideal. Yet what is justice, but a separation of evil from good?

This world and this country, the unseen victims of our streets and countless peoples fleeing violence are destined to suffer injustice since the fall of man (adam). Why should it surprise us that a crisis of justice once more brings darkness to a people with failing light?

The law of the land is no longer just. The nation of hope is no longer light to the nations. Those once free are sold to our debt and the lords of the land lend by usury.

Psalm 89:14 KJV

Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

The LORD is higher than the laws of the nations.

His justice hears the appeals of the downtrodden,

His judgment is feared by the judges of injustice.

He will make right wickedness done to the poor.

RH

Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Psalm 82:3

Dare we build yet higher walls between billionaires and the penniless? Do millions of poor not gamble their futile futures in towers of sin built by the greed of a handful of arrogant rich?

Can a nation be bought or a people negotiated?

Where is justice in the lands from which millions flee for their lives?

Where is justice for the unwanted child? Where is justice for victims fleeing from war?

The perversion of justice is not a new thing under the sun.

Isaiah 59:

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.

3 For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one enters suit justly;
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

Why this sounds like the accusations of a political race with rumblings of iniquity heard all over the world. Yet the prophet Isaiah wrote this in the 8th century Before Christ.

… Their works are works of iniquity,
and deeds of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.

8 The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
no one who treads on them knows peace.

Judgment and Redemption

14 Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the public squares,
and uprightness cannot enter.

15 Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.

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The short terms of political power and temporal rulings of Justices, powerless before the Throne of Judgment, will not prevail in this age any more than in forgotten times of fallen empires with nameless leaders, mortals whose legacy is dust and whose souls will be called to account at the victory of Christ, when soon the Lord will return in power upon the clouds.

On a Cross in Jerusalem the Righteous One was crucified for our sins. Christ Jesus offered us mercy for the wickedness of our hearts and deeds of our sins.

Even the Prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time of Jesus Christ:

“And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord. – Isaiah 59:20

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 KJV

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,

and this mortal shall have put on immortality,

then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,

Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

February 22, 2016
Follow After Me -1-Hope for the Guilty

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

– Matthew 4:19-20

They’re after me. And after all, though I had better intentions, I’m guilty. I have trespassed the Law. I am, therefore, a sinner, deserving of punishment. Where is my hope?

Do you see yourself as a fellow sinner who would like to flee this world?

You know, it seems like in this 21st century that we can no longer do the right thing.

I try. Really, I do. Yet someone or some situation seems to always come along and mess me up. My well-intentioned plans are always laid waste. I owe someone something I cannot repay. I have become a debtor with no redeemer.

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In the 7th century Before Christ, the Prophet Isaiah speaks of the sins of Jews, God’s chosen people. Isaiah warns of the fall of Israel (740 B.C.) and of Jerusalem (607 B.C.), convicting by words even followers of the LORD in this 21st century A.D. Isaiah even describes how I sometimes feel.

Isaiah 64:

4 From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.

… Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

King David of a United Kingdom of Israel [Israel/Samaria & Judah] was guilty and deserved punishment from God for his sins. King David was not only an adulterer, but also a murderer. [2 Samuel 14]

David pleaded to the LORD to show him mercy. [Psalm 38]

O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your wrath,
Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure!

3 There is no soundness in my flesh
Because of Your anger,
Nor any health in my bones
Because of my sin.

4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;
Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

Who will help us in our guilt?

Most people who believe in God try do more good things than acts of evil. While Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others work to earn their salvation after death (as do many who are not certain about God {just in case}, only Christian followers of Jesus Christ have true hope of eternal life because of the forgiveness of our sins.

You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. – Jeremiah 32:18-19

What is my hope before Almighty God (since I am guilty)?

Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved

Only Christian followers of Jesus Christ have true hope of eternal life because of the forgiveness of our sins.

Acts 2:22b-24

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

Repent!

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Guilty? Yes… many times over… MANY sins. I am a sinner! (just like you.)

Forgiven? Yes… in Christ Jesus who was sacrificed on the Cross for my sins and the sins of the world.

Hope? Definitely, for He was and IS and will be; and Christ Jesus has promised eternal life to all who follow after Him.

Are you a Christ-follower with hope or a guilty soul waiting for punishment and death?

To be continued…

NEXT: Released from my prison

January 18, 2016