May 16, 2006 – WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?

My God is exactly where He should be—seated at the right hand of His Father. Hebrews 1:3  The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  Christ is God, the creator of all things, including you and me.  Acts 17:26  From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Acts 17:28  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

He is the fount of all wisdom and knowledge.  He is a personal God that can be touched by all our sorrows and infirmities. Hebrews 4:14  Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  15  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.

Do you seek another to be your god?  John the Baptist asked Jesus: Matthew 11:3   “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus answered:  Matthew11:5   The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Until this very hour the Lord confirms His word with signs and wonders. Our God is omnipotent and eternal. Hebrews 7:24  but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.  25  Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.  26  Such a high priest meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.  27  Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

Satan decided to make himself like God. He was rejected and cast down. Isaiah 14:12  How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!  13  You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.  14  I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”  15  But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.  16  Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble,  17  the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?”  Satan rules over the eternally lost and he himself is damned! Satan is relegated to being the prince and power of the air and the accuser of those that are God’s “blood bought heirs.” He blinds the eyes of those that are trying to find God and removes the seed of truth from their hearts.  If a person’s belief stems from faith then satan is powerless to remove the word from him or her. Hebrews 4:2  For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Satan is the destroyer of mankind, but he cannot touch the children of God unless it is permitted by God to ultimately work for their spiritual good.

God speaks the following scriptures about satan and his children (any who are not blood-bought and have not been given a new nature).  Ecclesiastes 9:3  This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.  Acts 13:10  “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?  The only thing left to satan (besides our downfall) is to raise up “false gods” that can neither hear nor speak. Satan himself created nothing! He is corrupted; therefore, he cannot offer his life as an atonement for sin and his followers are sinners. Do not mistake him or his false gods for the true and living God.

The true and living God created and sustains all things. Hebrews 1:10  He also says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.  11  They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.  12  You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”  Mark 14:61-62 But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”    “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Can your god save you from the wrath of God that is coming soon? Can he raise you to eternal life by making you clean, pure, and holy in God’s sight?  It is only the blood of Christ that can cleanse us from all sin. 1John 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  Ephesians 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  14  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,  Ephesians 2:16  and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. Ephesians 1:17  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. Does your god fill you with peace and joy and lead you into the perfect will of God for your life? Colossians 1:9  For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The Lord gives us perfect wisdom and revelation as it is needed. Often His wisdom amazes us because we know that this particular truth or wisdom did not occur to us before. Ephesians 1:17  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Many times as He gives me the title of a lesson I have no idea of the subject matter.  As I obey, the lesson unfolds before me and I am amazed.  I also know that without Him I can do nothing!

God has a Ph.D. in business.  Often I have had Him tell me to invest or not to do something I am contemplating. He is interested in everything we do or say.  He leads us to perfection and holiness.  Without Christ in my life, my life would not count for anything, but when I do all things through Him there is an eternal quality to the work done.  The word of God tells us:  Philippians 3:3  For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.

Jeremiah asks the question:  Jeremiah 16:20  Do men make their own Gods? Yes, but they are not Gods!” God answers Jeremiah: Jeremiah 17:5  This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.  Jeremiah 17:7  “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.”

I ask the question: Where is your god now?  If he is not seated at the right hand of power with God the Father, your god is a false god.  Satan’s end and the end of all those that have not accepted Jesus Christ will be in the “lake of fire.”  Revelations 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.  ~Judgment at the Throne of God  Revelations 20:11  Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.  12  And I saw the dead, great, and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  13  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.  14  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. CHRIST ALONE CAN ENTER OR REMOVE OUR NAMES FROM THE “BOOK OF LIFE.” Revelations 21:27  Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.  REV 3:5   He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

My beloved, we each have a choice to make. You either choose God’s will for your life or your own. Now is the hour to make this choice because Christ is preparing His children to joyfully receive Him at His coming. You must be warned and prepare yourself to escape the coming wrath of God. 1Corinthians 8:5  For even if there are so-called Gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “Gods” and many “Lords”), 6  yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. What a privilege to have Christ as our Savior and dearest friend! John 17:24   “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”