Today's Scripture: God's Wrath

8/21/2017

The Grapes of Wrath
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of
temptations and to reserve the unjust for punishment
2 Peter 2:4-11

8-21-17, Pete Garcia [Excerpt*] -- The world has now arrived at this generation who has been so thoroughly corrupted, that the 'anti-Christ spirit' has saturated every facet of our generation. Education, religion, philosophy, science, government, politics, military and economics have all become corrupted. Mankind is again reaching that point where they are so mentally, morally and spiritually bankrupt that they no longer are able to reason. This breakdown can be clearly evidenced merely by turning on the TV; viewing the sitcoms, news or reading the day’s headlines.

However, there's still a remnant of society who are the blood-bought redeemed who cannot be tainted; being the born again believers in Christ, His Church.

Abraham once pleaded with God on Lot’s behalf that He should spare Sodom from destruction on account of the righteous that still lived there (Gen. 18:16-33). Abraham puts forth a biblically foundational question by asking God…"Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?"

After much bargaining, God finally settles on ten righteous persons residing in those cities, God would withhold judgment. When judgment did come, God honored His commitment to Abraham by removing Lot and his family before enacting His wrath upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

There is an interesting correlation between man’s progressive sin nature and God’s progressive judgment in dealing with that nature. It is almost like the law of diminishing returns, in which there is less and less good that comes from man’s extended stay on this planet. Within 1,650 years of Adam and Eve’s fall, man had become so sinful, wicked and genetically corrupt that God had to destroy the world with a flood sparing only eight persons of Noah's family ... and in Lot’s day (around 2,000 years from Adam’s fall), the cities of the plains surrounding Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed with fire sparing only Lot and his two daughters (not counting the 'salted' wife). From then until Christ (2,000 years later), numerous nations and empires rose and fell allowing for the conditions to be exactly perfect (fullness of time) for the arrival of the first coming of the Messiah (Gal. 4:4-5).

The number of those who are currently waiting for the Lord to return is diminishing:

Out of the seven and a half billion people alive on the planet today, only two billion claim some form of the Christian faith (about half Protestant, half Catholic).
Out of the two billion ‘Christians,’ only around one billion believe that Jesus will ever physically return to the earth.
Out of the one billion, perhaps only 10% believe Christ will come back in their lifetime.
- Of that number (100,000,000), perhaps 15% (15,000,000) are watching and believe that Christ’s return is imminent.

So only fifteen million out of seven and half billion of the total global population believe Christ’s return is imminent. Jesus said to watch and pray. [Mark 13:33-37]

Not a lot of people when you look at it from that perspective.

At the harpazo (the Rapture) when the world will be going about its day to day activities, desensitized to the prophetic markers heralding Christ’s soon return, it'll be like the days of Noah and Lot. [Luke 17:26-30]

Just as the Jews awaited the arrival of their Messiah in what's been called 'the 400 silent years,' we (the Church) have been waiting 2,000 years for His return. At the rapture, God’s common grace towards mankind will come to an end.

Sinful and unrepentant mankind are given over to a strong delusion (2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12). God’s eternal gaze returns solely to disciplining His covenant nation of Israel and making a full end to all the nations where she has been scattered (Jer. 30:7-11).

While we do not see instant justice exacted for all the wrong doings in this world, our hope and trust lies in God Who has and will not let one single error slip through the cracks:

All of the blood ever spilled on the earth will be judged
All the evil things done in the thick of darkness will be brought to light
All of the injustices ever wrought by man upon man will be accounted for

The grapes of God’s wrath will be pressed and the winepress found overflowing. So while we see a world today that is currently upside down and reeling to and fro like a drunkard drunk on sin, Jesus Himself will put an end to man and Satan’s wickedness once and for all.

However, before the righteous and almighty God - Creator of Heaven and Earth - unleashes His furor He will, in keeping with Abraham’s question, remove His own from a world ripe for judgment.

*Excerpted and adapted full original message here
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How to be Saved
"We shall be saved from wrath through Him."
Romans 3:22-26