30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 21 20-24 WATCH AND PRAY III 10 Luke 21 22-23 Those who fear Him
📖 Luke 21:20-24
*FRIEND OF GOD*
02Jun2021 - *Those who fear Him* - _Luke 21:20-24_ - WATCH AND PRAY III (10) – Bible reading: _II Peter 3:7-12_
Our relationship with God is centred on the self in us being dethroned and Christ enthroned. He must have the preeminence. This is pivotal in our walk with God.
Very easily we begin to think that there is something good in us. This is the strategy of the devil to somehow get the self back on the throne of our hearts. The self must be always dethroned and Christ must be enthroned in us.
_Luke 21:22-23 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (23) But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people._
Even though there is the vengeance of God, the Lord is still longsuffering with us, not willing that anyone should perish. _Romans 2:4 Or do you despise *the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering*, not knowing that *the goodness of God leads you to repentance*?_
Let us focus on the goodness, forbearance and longsuffering of God. This is His character and He is wanting man to repent.
It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Man finds it very difficult to repent. We think we have goodness in us. Man wants to establish his goodness, apart from God. There is no one good except God. _Mark 10:18 So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? *No one is good but One, that is, God*._
Goodness flows only from God. This is the truth that must grip us. In the garden of Eden, this was the place where the serpent, deceived, Adam and Eve.
_Genesis 3:5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and *you will be like God, knowing good and evil*."_
They only knew good for they were in a relationship with God. There was no necessity for them to know evil for they lacked nothing but that is where the devil placed within man this thought that he was not complete and that he needed to know evil as well. He also placed within man the desire to be like God. (The same desire which caused Satan to be cast out of heaven).
The devil’s agenda is to take man with him to the eternal place of torment. He is against God and he is against man because man was the one to whom, God gave the authority and responsibility to rule over all of His creation.
So, when we think we can bring goodness out of ourselves, we are saying, “God, I can be good on my own merit”. God is expecting to see repentance and humility in us in accepting that without God, we cannot produce goodness from ourselves.
Today man wants to keep judging between good and evil, by his own standing, without being dependent on God. Even at this time of the pandemic, when we are all in a crisis, man thinks that somehow the goodness in man will prevail and we can come out on the other side of this crisis.
We are not willing to accept that *we cannot be good without God*. We must return to Him. The ‘self’ in man is not willing to easily give up its place on the throne of our lives. We do not want to humble ourselves and surrender to Jesus as our Lord.
The teaching that people like to hear and are eager to embrace is the teaching that there is goodness within each of us and the self must be worshipped. The self in us is an ally of the devil, wanting worship.
The Lord is being good, full of forbearance and longsuffering. He is in eternity and we are here in time and space, from where we see life from the perspective of the temporal. God is showing us that what matters is not the temporal understanding of life but eternal.
There is a place of eternal torment, where God does not want anyone to go but the devil is taking as many as possible with him to that eternal place of agony, which is reserved for him and his angels.
_II Peter 3:7-12 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, *are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men*. (8) But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (9) The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, *not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance*. (10) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. (11) Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be *in holy conduct and godliness*, (12) looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?_
God is full of goodness, forbearance and patience, wanting us to repent and give Him the lordship of our lives. He does not want us to perish.
_Malachi 4:1-2 “For behold, *the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble*. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch. (2) But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves._
Pride is about promoting the self. The proud will be stubble. It is *those who fear of the Lord*, being repentant and humble before Him, desiring His goodness who will inherit eternity with Christ.
*Thought to ponder*
```Are you still worshipping yourself?```