The Heaton File

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.” (Luke 11:1-4)

God Is Your Father

Prayer is one of the greatest privileges given to men to address their Creator, Provider, and Savior. The magnitude of God’s greatness can only be discovered when it is realized He holds the universe in the palm of His hand, yet He entreats His creation to address Him seeking blessings and favors. Adam and Eve communed with the Almighty in the garden walking in the cool of the day. Men began to call upon the Lord, and God spoke to men like Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and was warned of the impending destruction. Abraham believed in God and was called the friend of God. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend. In the psalms, David expressed his love for his benevolent Shepherd as a God who heard his cries, knew his distress, and delivered him from evil.

Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. John the Baptist taught his disciples the importance of prayer, and Jesus’ followers wanted to know how to pray. The opening line of the prayer of Jesus is a sharing of relationships between the Son of God and His disciples. They both have the same Father. Jesus did not say “His Father” or “Your Father” but “Our Father.” It is incredible to consider the blessing of addressing the Almighty Lord God as “Father.” The kinship of a parental bond is emphasized in the prayer of Jesus. He wants all those who seek His Father to know that He can be their Father.

The prayer of Jesus is about a Father’s love. There must be respect and honor given to who the Father is and His authority. Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer, and His ministry reflected His appeal that all things were for the glory of His Father. The will of God was the will of Jesus. Everything about the ministry of Jesus was directed toward the glory of the Father. Blessings flowed from the divine storehouse of a benevolent Father who provided daily bread. Israel failed to learn the lesson of God’s care as a Father when He fed them with manna and quail and endless supplies of water. The lesson for Israel was not the bread and the meat but that God would provide for their needs. Jesus teaches His disciples to ask the Father for blessings, and God will provide.

God the Father will not only provide for the physical needs but, more importantly, the spiritual requirements of forgiveness. A Father’s love will forgive disobedient children who seek His love. God is a wrathful God, but He is filled with love, mercy, and grace. A father’s love will forgive penitent children. Prayer is the avenue of grace where men can approach the throne of the Lord God and entreat as a child to a father, the grace of forgiveness. As a Father full of mercy, God will forgive.

Temptation is the trial of humanity. God is not unaware of the challenges facing His children. He seeks to protect them and guide them on a better path. Through His compassionate care, the Heavenly Father removes the obstacles of temptation before His children so they will not stumble and fall prey to the wiles of the devil. The hand of a mighty God will deliver His children from the evil one. All of this is promised in the prayer of Jesus to the Father. Sadly, children will often neglect to follow the advice and counsel of the Lord and fall to temptation. As a Father, God will not force His will upon His children. He provides a way of escape on every occasion of sin with the promise He will deliver His children from the power of Satan. Sin occurs when the children of God do not listen to the counsel of their Heavenly Father.

Every child of God must come to know the Lord as their Father. Jesus Christ is the elder brother who also calls upon Him as Father. The parental benevolence of a father’s love is full of compassion, love, mercy, kindness, and forgiveness. God’s desire is for all men to call Him Father and to share in the eternal glory of Heaven. He provided His only begotten Son as an offering for the sins of mankind. The invitation of the Father is to accept His will and find eternal joy. God’s love will only be given to those who call upon Him as Father. The wrath of the Lord comes from the love of a Father who warned His children against disobedience. It pains the heart of the Heavenly Father to punish His children, but He will. Our Father in heaven. What a wonderful thought.

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste.’ “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God; ‘it shall become plunder for the nations. (Ezekiel 26:1-5)

Tyre In Prophecy

Fulfilled prophecy is one of the strongest arguments for the evidence the Bible is a divine revelation. No other religion or belief system (Mormon, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist) can claim the purity of divine truth as revealed in the pages of the Bible. The value of fulfilled prophecy is the continual testimony through the ages of what was said, how it was said, and the exacting details of the prophecy that remain true with each passing year. Biblical prophecy is not a guess or lucky prediction but an exacting and precise wording that is unambiguous and demonstrative by its nature. One of the amazing stories of prophecy is found in the word of God against the ancient city of Tyre.

The prophet Ezekiel was part of the captives taken from Jerusalem during the Babylonian conquest of Judah in 597 B.C. He was thirty years old when called to the prophetic ministry. Part of his ministry was to warn the people of the impending doom of Judah and the destruction of the Temple. Eleven years after Ezekiel was taken captive, the Babylonians destroyed the House of God in Jerusalem. The Lord allowed Babylon to enter His Temple and take everything, including the Holy of Holies. God’s glory left the Temple because of the sins of the people. As God rained judgment down upon His own people, the prophet Ezekiel declared the wrath of God against the nations that mocked the destruction of Judah, including the city of Tyre.

Tyre was located in Phoenicia, twenty miles south of Sidon. The central part of the city was on the mainland and when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Sidon, the people of Tyre fled to an island one-half mile from shore. The city remained secure until Alexander the Great came in 332 B.C. Alexander took the remains of the mainland city of Tyre and threw them into the sea, building a causeway 200 feet wide out towards the island. Along with a fleet of 224 ships, Tyre was stormed, 8000 of her inhabitants massacred, 2000 crucified on the shore, and 30,000 sold into slavery. The city would fade into insignificance except for its prominent place in the prophecies of the Lord God.

Ezekiel said Tyre would be destroyed as many nations would fight against her to destroy her like the waves of the sea crashing against the shoreline. God said He would scrape away its soil and make it a bare rock. Part of the prophecy that can still be seen today is how the ruins of the city will be just a rock in the sea, a place for fishermen to spread their nets. The mainland city has never been rebuilt. Tyre has become a desolate and uninhabited city. Ezekiel wrote these words almost six hundred years before Christ and his words continue to declare the word of God. Ferrell Jenkins writes, “Biblical prophecy is not making a lot of predictions about the future and then having a few, or even most, of them come to pass. In Biblical prophecy, everything that has been predicted has come to pass.”

The Bible is the only book (without exception) that declares the word of the Lord against people, cities, and nations in prophecy and those words remain true with each passing age. Nothing is more powerful than the continual unveiling of truth that is undeniable, unchangeable, and unfailing in the word of the Lord. Biblical prophecy will not save a man, but it requires an acceptance that if God’s word is so crystal clear about events that are impossible for human wisdom to foretell; of how much more important are the words that define grace and mercy of God in salvation? Jesus is not a myth and the prophecy of Tyre proves that. The Son of God told men what to do to be saved. If the word of God is true about a city that is thrown into the sea, the word of God about salvation is essential to give heed. Jesus declared anyone who believes and is baptized would be saved, but anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. The city of Tyre proves this to be true.

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. (2 Peter 2:1-2)

Not All Teach Truth

Truth is older than error but the agents of false teaching have been around since the beginning. Satan is the father of all lies and has employed in his evil scheme to destroy the creation of God, his minions of eternal doom in the flesh. The devil is a most powerful adversary but the Lord God has limited his interaction within the human sphere. Barred from engaging in personal persuasion, Satan has filled the hearts of the weak and unsuspecting teaching them a false doctrine of hope based upon an eternal lie. There has never been a time when the devil has denied the reality of truth but seeks to twist the heart of men to question the word of God and then to change the word. False teaching is as old as the world. The world has long been filled with false teachers, false prophets, and false purveyors of a watered-down truth.

Peter warns the saints of the early church there are those among the flock of God that teaches the doctrine of apostasy fueled by the flames of hell. The apostle does not dismiss the impact of false prophets among the people. Their message is as insidious and poisonous against unprepared souls who are taken in by their persuasive words. Peter calls the message of false prophets destructive and damnable heresies which are heretical doctrines. These false prophets will deny Jesus Christ and challenge His authority. Judgment will come upon those who lead the people astray from the truth. Sadly, many will follow false teachers as those who have itching ears that fancy the doctrines of men. Their conscience will be seared with a hot iron of damnation.

There is sound doctrine and there is false teaching. The world is filled with much false teaching. Many will heed the words of false teachers who preach a doctrine of error. Because of the itching ears of those who turn their hearts away from the truth, Satan’s minions grow larger. The church will find among its number false teachers who slander the way of truth. Peter calls their false doctrine “evil teaching” with severe consequences. There will be false teachers who will preach for money and the gain of this world’s goods. With clever lies, false teachers will take the money of the unsuspecting for their own covetous desires.

False teachers are real. Sadly, so many are so quickly taken astray. The Bible is the mind of God revealed to men and to find truth in the Bible is the only measure of security a man can find. There are so many things not found in the Bible, yet the masses blindly accept the teachings of false teachers. Notable teachings not found on the pages of holy writ is anyone called the Pope, a coming rapture, instrumental music in the New Testament church, the names of almost all the Protestant churches (Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Nazarene) and others such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Mormons, and Jehovah Witness. These are all proponents of false doctrine and destructive heresies. False teachers twist the word of God to fit their own dogmas. Teaching salvation by accepting Christ as a personal Savior is not taught in the Bible. Faith alone is found in the Bible but only when James says a man is not saved by faith alone. False teaching is dismissed when an honest study of the Bible is undertaken from truth.

There is a serious tone to Peter’s admonition to beware of false teachers. The teaching of those who deny the truth changes the eternal state of those who follow them. It will be eternally tragic for someone to follow a false teacher with a believed hope of salvation; only to find out they followed the wrong source. God has given the Bible to tell man how to be saved. When a man or woman teaches anything that is not according to the word of God, they are false and should be refused adamantly. It matters what a person believes. False teachers will receive a heavier judgment but those who follow them will find a similar judgment. When men stop believing the word of men and believe the word of God, false doctrine will be defeated. Let the Bible be the only guide. Accept only the truth from the word of God. Your soul depends on it.

Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:4-8)

There Was Great Joy

The city of Samaria was first established by Omri, king of Israel, during the days of the divided kingdom. It became the capital of the northern ten tribes and the central place of idolatrous worship under the influence of Ahab and Jezebel. Herod would fortify the city and call it Sebaste. When the persecution of the early church took a toll on the saints, many left Jerusalem. They went into the regions of Judea and Samaria (regional), preaching and teaching the gospel of Christ. Philip, the evangelist, traveled to the city of Samaria (35 miles north of Jerusalem) and preached Christ to them. The apostles had laid hands on Philip and six other men to minister to the needs of the widows in Jerusalem. Arriving at Samaria, Philip confirmed the word of Christ through the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, casting out unclean spirits, healing those who were paralyzed or lame. The city filled with joy as the multitudes listened closely to the preaching of Philip, eager to know about the Christ. It was a time of revival in the city of Samaria.

Preaching the gospel in Samaria had its challenges. It is unclear whether Philip was sent to Samaria or took it upon himself to go to the city. Jews had no dealings with Samaritans and for a Jew to come into a Samaritan city to preach the gospel was a bold move. The apostles in Jerusalem were excited about the work of Philip in the city as later they would send Peter and John to pray with the people to receive the Holy Spirit. A popular sorcerer named Simon would also obey the gospel of Christ. The work of evangelism in Samaria was exciting. Luke notes that because of the preaching of the gospel, there was great joy in the city.

Philip took a bold step to go to Samaria and preach. This city could have been a hostile place for a Jew to visit, especially someone preaching the risen Christ. When the Lord sent Jonah to Nineveh to preach, the prophet was going to a Gentile city that could have been a hostile place for the preacher to be – but God had a plan. There was something in Nineveh that moved God’s heart to send Jonah and there were people in Samaria that needed to heart the gospel, so Philip went. There was great joy in the city of Samaria and that was remarkable.

The gospel has not changed from the days of Philip. It can still move hearts and bring joy to individuals, families, communities and even to cities. What is remarkable about Philip preaching in Samaria is the city was filled with joy, not just a few families. It would have been easy for the Jewish Christians sitting comfortably in Jerusalem to look at Samaria as a city that would be wasting time to preach and look for greener pastures in other places. Why go to a Samaritan city and preach the gospel? What would those Samaritan dogs know about grace, mercy, love and the compassion of God? Philip found a city ready for the gospel. Hungry hearts devoured the teaching of the risen Savior and many souls came to know the forgiving power of Jesus Christ. And all of this took place in the city of Samaria.

There are many cities of Samaria that need the gospel of Christ. Some are found next door. Others are found in undesirable parts of town. It would be remarkable to turn a city upside down with the preaching of the gospel. Trying to move hearts today with the gospel of Christ would face no greater challenge than what Philip faced the moment he arrived in the city of Samaria. He preached and souls responded. Not everyone found joy in the gospel. The ones who did, had their lives changed forever because a man came to Samaria. He came to their town, their community and their neighborhood. And there was great joy in that city.

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. (Jeremiah 25:1-7)

God Spoke And They Did Not Listen

For twenty-three years, Jeremiah preached a message of repentance to the people of God, but to no avail. Other prophets declared the word of the Lord to Judah and the people did not listen. It seemed as if the hearts of God’s chosen nation had turned completely away from the truth. Nothing could penetrate the stubborn refusal to change the will of rebellious hearts bent on following after idols and pagan doctrines of the nations around them. The northern ten tribes of Israel had long disappeared from the landscape of a forgotten land and Judah stood on the precipice of destruction by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Final destruction was inevitable and came swiftly in 586 B.C. when Jerusalem fell and the Temple burned.

The devastation of the Babylonian army upon God’s people was complete and thorough. God sent warnings to the people by His messengers because He had a love for them but they mocked the word of the Lord and scoffed at men like Jeremiah. The wrath of the Lord came against His people and nothing could be done. The Babylonians killed the young men, even chasing after them into the Temple. They did not pity the people, killing young men and young women, the old and the infirm. The Temple was ransacked and all the articles and treasures of the Lord were taken. Nebuchadnezzar ordered his army to burn the Temple of God, tear down the walls of Jerusalem, burn all the palaces, and completely destroy everything of value. For twenty-three years, Jeremiah had warned the people and they would not listen.

God pleaded with His people to repent from their evil ways and evil doings. He warned them against going after the gods of the land to serve them and worship them. His anger would be aroused if the people refused and they refused because they did not want to listen. God promised them he would not harm them if they repented. Sadly, they did not listen. They provoked the Lord God to anger with the works of their hands. The punishment of captivity came upon them because of their rebellion and to their own hurt. Babylon conquered the once proud and noble nation of Israel and carried the people away to a second captivity. Seventy years would pass before the hand of God delivered them from bondage.

The apostle Paul described the character of God as one of goodness and severity. Everyone wants to embrace the goodness of the Lord because that is pleasant and enjoyable. Most reject the notion that God can be a severe God. Israel rebelled against the will of God and for many years, prophets urged the people to change their lives and return to a true worship. Men like Jeremiah warned the rebellious hearts to repent and change but with no success. When the longsuffering of the Lord came to an end, judgment appeared on the horizon. Those of Judah should have learned from the lessons of their northern brethren that God’s word is true. They should have listened to the prophets who warned them of the consequences of ignoring the word of God. In the final days, when it was too late, the people realized the word of the Lord was true. Judgment came and captivity began.

God has delivered His word to all men through the preaching of the word. The Bible is the revealed mind of God declaring His mercy and grace to those who are willing to abide by His word. This same message outlines the wrath of God against disobedience. Rejecting the Bible as truth will only bring the anger of the Lord. All the things promised in the preaching of Jeremiah and the prophets came true because the people refused to listen. A day will come when the world comes to an end and all men stand before the righteous throne of God. The books will be opened and the Bible, the word of God, will be presented as evidence before the hearts of all men and judgment will begin. Those who heard the word of God and obeyed its message will find joy and comfort. To the majority of people who refused to acknowledge the Bible as the divine word of God, the wrath of the Lord will be handed down. Are you listening?

And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:23)

The Nazarene

There are towns and cities in every community that are held in disregard or contempt. The reasons can be based upon history, prejudice, or the moral character of its citizens. In the first century, the city of Corinth was known for such sexual promiscuity that “to act like a Corinthian” was a synonym for debauchery and prostitution. Little is known about the city of Nazareth, and its only reference in the Bible is the New Testament. Joseph and Mary were in Nazareth when Gabriel announced the conception of the Son of God to the young couple. Jesus would not be born in Nazareth as the prophecy foretold the city of Bethlehem would be the heritage of God’s Son. Through the providence of the heavenly Father, a proclamation from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered took Joseph and Mary to their hometown of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. The Son of God would spend a couple of years in Bethlehem before his parents fled to Egypt to escape the soldiers of Herod. After some time, Joseph took the family to Nazareth, where Jesus would spend the greater portion of His life.

The wise men from the East came seeking the King of the Jews when Jesus was around two years of age. They recognized the son of Mary as being a king and finding Him in Bethlehem fit the prophecies of the prophets. The wise men could not imagine that after they returned home, Jesus would become a citizen of Nazareth and be called a Nazarene. Instead of hailing from the city of Bethlehem, Jesus would be known as Jesus of Nazareth. This model did not fit what the prophets said about the coming Messiah. Growing up in Nazareth did not follow the pedigree of a person of any importance.

It is uncertain why Nazareth was held with contempt but events from the life of Jesus could explain the prejudice against anyone called a Nazarene. Jesus spent almost His entire life in the city of Nazareth. He often went into the synagogue to read, study, and discuss the scriptures. His father (as was supposed) was a carpenter as Nazareth employed many carpenters. The people of Nazareth knew well who Jesus was. There can be little doubt the ‘handiwork’ of Jesus found itself among the crafts of agriculture, as well as utensils of everyday life as He forged the craft of carpentry like his father. Jesus had brothers and sisters who were well known among the Nazarenes. Joseph and Mary were not wealthy citizens but they were part of the fabric of Nazareth.

Jesus began His public ministry of preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth. The people were offended by this carpenter’s son, who had wisdom and the power to do miracles. Jesus was nothing more than a carpenter’s son. His mother was Mary, a woman of no importance. The brother of Jesus were not influential members of society and His sisters less. All in all, the family of Jesus was a common as any others of Nazareth. When Jesus taught in their synagogue, the leaders were offended by Him and Jesus could do no mighty works among them because of their unbelief.

Luke recorded when Jesus came into the synagogue of Nazareth, He read from the book of Isaiah. After He gave the book back to the attendant, Jesus proclaimed the reading of the prophet was fulfilled in Jesus Himself. When the men heard the gracious words of Jesus, they were filled with a wave of furious anger. They took Jesus and forced Him out of the city to the edge of the hill where they planned on throwing Jesus down to kill Him. Jesus passed through the crowd unawares and went His way. Twice they expelled Jesus from their borders. Jesus would seldom return to Nazareth because of their unbelief. Thus, the city of Nazareth was not held with great respect as to the rough character of its citizens.

Jesus would be called a Nazarene, attaching a stigma of dishonor to the one who became the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There is a great providential dichotomy in where Jesus was born according to prophecy and where He would grow up. If anyone had asked Jesus where He was born, they could have realized His Messianic birth. Jesus was rejected because He was known as a Nazarene. When the hearts of men removed the Nazarene and saw Jesus for who He was, they would come to see the power of the Son of God. People still look at Jesus as nothing more than a Nazarene who was a good man and a good teacher but nothing more. Salvation does not come from the Nazarene. The gift of God comes from the child born in Bethlehem to fulfill all the promises of God. Jesus is the Son of God.

The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: “They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

For thus says the Lord: “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the Lord, “lovingkindness and mercies. Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother. Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’” (Jeremiah 16:1-13)

Jeremiah Forbidden To Marry

Being a prophet during the tumultuous times of divided Israel could be a challenging experience. God told Hosea to marry a prostitute and when Ezekiel’s wife died, he was told not to mourn her, weep for her or let tears run down his face. Jeremiah was a prophet during the days of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem to captivity in Babylon. The Lord tells Jeremiah not to take a wife and to bear sons and daughters. In the lives of each prophet, a living example was given for the people to see the will of the Lord. Forbidding Jeremiah to marry became a sign of the severity of God’s wrath upon Judah. Knowing the fierceness of what was coming through the hand of the Babylonians, God spared Jeremiah the grief of watching his family die gruesome deaths.

The severity of God’s anger is described by the people dying from disease. No one will mourn for them or bury them, and they will lie scattered on the ground like manure. They will die from war and famine, and their bodies will be food for the vultures and wild animals. What father could bear to see his family destroyed with such ferocity as the judgment of the Lord God upon His own people? There would be no mourning or lamenting what happened to Judah. God had taken His peace away from the people. The Babylonians came by the hand of the Lord and their cruel and barbaric warfare would devastate the people and the land. There would be no lovingkindness or mercy from the Lord. Young and old would die. There will be so many dead bodies, and no one will take time to bury the corpses. All joy and hope would be taken away. Babylon would come as the scourge of the Lord God Almighty in great wrath.

Because of the sins of the people, the Lord took away His presence from the land. Babylon would be allowed, through the will of God, to destroy Judah. The Babylonians marched into the Temple and entered the Most Holy of Holies with impunity. They took the holy items of the Temple with no resistance. In 586 B.C., the House of the Lord, built by Solomon more than three hundred years earlier, burned. The city of Jerusalem was left in ruin, smoldering as a heap of stone and broken gates. All the glory of Israel was taken away. It would be seventy years before a remnant would return to a city destroyed. Jeremiah would preach the message of doom to a forsaken people and his life would show the veracity of the will of God. The prophet was forbidden to marry in part to spare his family from the incredible hardships. It was also to prove to rebellious Judah that God’s word was true.

The people could not understand why God had deserted them. All the disasters that came against them puzzled the people. They did not understand why the Lord would allow such a thing to take place. Jeremiah would tell them it was because their fathers had forsaken the Lord and the people of Jeremiah’s day had done worse than their fathers. The previous generations were unfaithful to God and worshiped other gods and served them. They abandoned the Lord and did not obey the word of God. Jeremiah tells the people they were worse than their ancestors! They stubbornly followed their own evil desires and refused to listen to the pleas of a loving Father. God’s wrath was all that was left. Jeremiah became a symbol of the severity of that wrath.

God does not forbid anyone from marrying but the prophet Jeremiah remains a powerful illustration of the judgment of the Lord upon unrighteous nations and ungodly people. Those who deny the reality of perdition do not understand the parable of Jeremiah. Judgment is real against those who forsake the Lord. As the Lord cast out His own people from the land, the righteousness of God will cast out those who serve the gods of this world. Sin damns a soul and the promise of God is real. Jeremiah was forbidden to marry to tell a lesson still relevant to modern man.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

Gender Identity

President Abraham Lincoln loved to employ a brain-teaser to make a point to his citizens. He would ask, “How many legs would a sheep have if you called his tail a leg?” Naturally, they would answer, “Five.” Lincoln would correct them by telling them, “You are mistaken. The sheep would still have just four legs. Calling something a leg doesn’t make it so.” In a recent news report, students at a university were upset the administration allowed “cis men” to come into their dorms to install heaters. The dorms were the residence of women and transgenders. The residents felt threatened by the “cis men” coming into their rooms. This was not an episode of Star Trek where the Klingons were attacking with “cis men” but rather a gender identification model that now identifies a person with perverted gender identification.

Cisgender describes a person whose gender identity is the same as their sex assigned at birth. The word cisgender is the antonym of transgender. Remarkably, society has finally turned full circle in the corruption of the moral compass to require the identification of those who are declared cisgender as opposed to transgender. If a man is a heterosexual (another gender identification) remaining in his identification as a male, he is labeled a “cis man.” Others are then identified by their decision to be whatever they identify themselves to be.

The irony of the conversation of cis men is that all men are cis men and all women are cis women. A man who calls himself a woman is still a man and when a woman wants to identify as a male, she remains a female. Changing the outward appearance, taking chemicals to alter various aspects of the human body or undergoing surgery does not change a man to a woman or a woman to a man. In other words, Bruce Jenner is still Bruce Jenner – regardless of what he looks like or identifies himself as being something different. What the immoral pundits of gender identity fail to understand and believe is that when God created humanity, He made them male and female in His image. There are two parts of a person: the physical and the spiritual. Man can change the physical but he cannot change the spiritual.

All men are eternal beings created by God – in His image. Throughout the Bible, the scriptures identify humanity as male and female. The animals were created as male and female. There is no transgendering among the animals because they know they are what God created them to be. Men can dress like a woman but what God sees is a man in a woman’s clothing. A man can identify himself as a woman and God will continue to view him as a man. What the world does not understand is the breath of life and eternal spirit of man cannot be changed by the will of men. Jesus said God created in the beginning male and female and that remains unchanged.

When every soul stands before God, they will be what they are at birth – male and female. God will judge men and women according to the spirit they were created at conception. Salvation will be determined by how a man and woman live as men and women in this world. Sexual perversion is an abomination in the eyes of God. The Lord desires for no one to be lost but those who follow the path of sexual perversion will be identified as male and female in the eyes of God and then condemned for perverting the creation of God. Homosexuality is against the will of God. Attempts at transgender is an exercise in futility. Morphing into whatever gender identification desired by the lust of the flesh will face the wrath of God. There are only males and females and that is how it will always be. Everyone is “cisgender” because what a man or woman is at birth is what they will be in death. Sin will never change that truth.

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

God Abounds In Goodness

It did not take long for the children of Israel to turn away from God and seek after the golden calves of Egypt. While Moses was on the mountain receiving the law from the Lord, the people urged Aaron to make them gods to worship. Aaron created a golden calf, and the people rose early in the morning offering burnt offerings, peace offerings, and playing the whoredom of idolatry. Moses returned from the mountain in anger and threw the commandments of stone down, pulverized the calf to powder and made the people drink the water filled with its residue. Three thousand men died that day and the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. The Lord relented from the destruction he sought against the Hebrews and Moses was instructed to make new tablets to write the commandments upon. God renews the covenant with Israel and the journey to the promised land begins.

The Lord showed His great power to the Hebrews through the plagues, death of the firstborn, miracle at the Red Sea and the defeat of the Amalekites. There should be no reason for them to doubt His power and might to accomplish whatever He determined for His nation. Sadly, the heart of the people lacked the commitment and devotion to follow the Lord fully. After the incident of the golden calf, God shows Moses the measure of mercy and grace toward a rebellious people. The character of Jehovah God is merciful, gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth. All of these attributes are essential to understanding who God is and why He does what He does. It would be easy for the Lord to destroy the whole nation and begin anew. He does not.

God is good to Israel because God is good. His goodness is abundant, plentiful, rich, and full of divine grace beyond measure. God is not good because He does good things; He is good because that is what He is – fully. He will not forget His people, and He will not abandon them, treat them with indifference, or neglect them. Everything about the character of God is the goodness He showers upon the rebellious hearts of men. Adam and Eve rejected His will and the goodness of God saved them. The world turned completely away from the Lord, but the goodness of the Lord spared eight souls in the ark. Humanity rejects the will of God, and the Father sends His only begotten Son to die for everyone. Sin troubles the lives of the righteous and yet the goodness of the Lord forgives.

God is good but He will not allow the guilty to go unpunished. The goodness of God should not convince the ungodly they will be spared from judgment. Forgiveness comes only to those who seek the mercy of the Lord as they change their hearts through godly sorrow. Mercy is only offered to the righteous. God is good as found in Jesus Christ. The goodness of God is found in His word that tells men how to be saved. On the final day of judgment, the goodness of God will be the measuring stick for those who are saved and those who are lost. For those who are saved, God’s goodness abounds every day looking forward to the abundance of glory found in Heaven. God is good. Thank God.

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the Earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:4-8)

The Point Of No Return

It is difficult to imagine the possibility of the impossibility of salvation. There is rooted in the creation of man a need for self-preservation. The instinct of survival is foremost in the spirit of every person. Doing harm to self is against the norm of who and what a man must be. This is recognized in the physical world as those in life-threatening situations make herculean efforts to fight for survival. Great stories of personal triumph are told when against all odds, a man survives a catastrophic event from a natural disaster, accident, or facing certain death. Courage marks the course for those who defy death. Sadly, that is not found in the spiritual world where sin is the doom of man.

The tragedy of the book of Hebrews is found in the stories of those who had enjoyed the blessings of God’s grace, mercy, and love and had turned their back on the Divine gift of salvation over time. Many saints were challenged in their faith and remained resilient to the cause of Christ. These bold warriors of Christ refused to draw back to perdition, believing to the saving of their souls. But some had turned so completely away from God, there was no hope. This was not a casual departure from truth. There were men and women who had been enlightened with the gospel of Christ through the preaching of the word. They had tasted the heavenly gift of divine grace and imbibed deeply in its mercy. When they obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ in baptism, they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit, becoming a partaker of the Holy Spirit. The word of God had filled their hearts with the manna from above. Leaving unchecked the power of sin, these same men and women succumbed to the temptations of Satan and turned their back on God, rejected Jesus Christ, and denied the Holy Spirit.

There can come a time in the life of a child of God they so totally rebel against God that nothing can be done to renew them to grace. It is impossible to renew them again to repentance. Their hearts are hardened as deeply as the heart of Pharoah, who defied Moses and the wrath of God. The Old Testament is filled with stories of God’s people, the promised nation of righteousness, who turned their backs entirely on God. Ahab was one of the most wicked kings of Israel and he was a Jew, a child of Abraham. Nothing could redeem him. In the body of Christ, Satan fills the hearts of the unsuspecting and through deceit and lies, corrupts the heart to the point of no return. It is impossible to renew them again.

The reality of total apostasy is a difficult concept to accept but it is real. It must have been difficult for the Hebrew author to pen those words with the probable knowledge of whom he spoke. The early Christians suffered greatly and while many remained loyal to the cause of Christ, many turned their backs and walked with Jesus no more. All the pleas and warnings of others could not and would not bring them back. The reality of total apostasy is alarming. This knowledge should arm the souls of the courageous to fight more valiantly for the cause of Christ, seeking the assurance of divine blessing to remain faithful and true. There must be diligent efforts to seek out those who are going the path of no return. All energy must be given before that place in the road is reached where there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin and it is impossible to renew them again. More importantly, I must guard against the wiles of the devil who would desire me to give up my hope and deny my faith. God give me courage.