The Daily Word of Righteousness

Revelation 21:8, continued

For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: (I Peter 4:3)

God wants His Church to be righteous, the nations of the earth to learn righteousness, and Satan to be driven from the earth. Do you believe that?

"It seems right."

If every person on earth were to be forgiven and brought to Heaven by grace there would have occurred no solution whatever to God's problem of sin and rebellion in the creation.

"All I know is I am going to Heaven by grace."

When is the murderer forgiven?

"When he puts his faith in the blood atonement made by Jesus."

Correct.

When is the murderer delivered from a murderous personality?

"When he dies and goes to Heaven."

There is no Scripture for this. Sin began in Heaven around the Throne of God.

"When the Lord comes."

There is no Scripture for this.

"I don't believe that. It says we will be like Him when He appears."

But the next verse says every person having the hope of being like Jesus when He appears purifies himself just as Christ is pure.

"I never heard of such a thing. I believe in Jesus and I am saved."

Are you taking up your cross and following Jesus? Are you denying yourself for His sake and the Gospel's?

"I don't know what that means."

Are you presenting your body a living sacrifice that you may prove the will of God?

"I don't know about that. My pastor says God wants me to be happy."

Do you tell lies on occasion?

"It doesn't matter if I do. Nobody's perfect. I am saved by grace."

The Bible says that liars cannot inherit the Kingdom, cannot enter through the gates into the new Jerusalem.

"I don't care what the Bible says. I am saved by grace."

In the last half of the 1990s we have come to a turning point in the plan of redemption. Up to the present hour the Christian salvation has been presented as a hope that would be fulfilled in the last days. We are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, Peter exclaims. Paul stated that our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Ephesians speaks of being sealed to the Day of Redemption.

Obviously the sin mentioned in Revelation 21:8 can never enter the Kingdom of God, the new Jerusalem. Obviously there must come a time when the Lord delivers His people. We are submitting to you that the deliverance from sin promised in the New Testament, the time when the Lord will appear without sin unto salvation, has begun and will continue throughout the thousand- year Kingdom Age until all of God's Church has been reconciled completely and perfectly to the Father. We are entering the spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament Day of Atonement, particularly the fulfillment of the removing of the scapegoat from the camp. It is time now for us to be delivered from sin. Wherever believers are seeking the Lord, moral deliverance is taking place. People are being released from cowardice, from unbelief, from vile behavior, from the spirit of murder. To be continued.