SUNDAE Sermon From PST NEXTANGEL
TOPIC__" Hell-Bound CHRISTIANS and HEAven-Bound UNBELIEVERS"
“Because Christians have provoked God to
jealousy, God is also determined to make
Christians jealous.”
Why is it that God heals some people and leaves
others unhealed? Why is it that at healing
crusades, unbelievers often get healed while
Christians are not? Why is it that new believers
start speaking in tongues while old believers don’t?
Why is it that being a Christian does not guarantee
that we are the most favoured and successful at
whatever we do?
One basic reason often overlooked is that God is a
jealous God. Moses says: “Jehovah, whose name is
Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Exodus 34:14).
Accordingly, God often acts out of jealousy and he
does many things in order to provoke his people to
jealousy. God says to the Christian: “Seal me in
your heart with permanent betrothal, for love is
strong as death, and jealousy is as cruel as the
grave. It flashes fire, the very flame of
Jehovah.” (Song of Solomon 8:6).
Pilgrims in foreign land
God told Abraham his descendants would be
strangers in a foreign land where they would be
afflicted for some four hundred years. (Genesis
15:13). Why must they be strangers in a foreign
land? Why must they be afflicted for four hundred
years before God would bring about their
salvation?
The reason is that the gospel must be true to life.
The gospel is designed to impress on the Jews and
all believers that this world is not our home.
Heaven is where we belong: “For we are here for
but a moment, strangers in the land as our fathers
were before us.” (1 Chronicles 29:15).
Therefore, the gospel is better preached to the
Israelites when they are prisoners in a strange
land. A man in captivity in Egypt is in need of
salvation from his jailers. Therefore, he is more
than likely to be receptive to a gospel of salvation
from this world of sin.
This indicates that God expects the believer to be
implacably anti-establishment; we must not
conform to the world. (Romans 12:2). But when, in
spite of this, we still love the world instead of the
kingdom of God, we provoke God to jealousy.
James warns: “Don’t you know that if you love the
world, you are God’s enemies? And if you decide to
be a friend of the world, you make yourself an
enemy of God.” (James 4:4).
Jealous God
When Christians love money instead of God, we
provoke God to jealousy. When we emphasise the
flesh and ignore the spirit, we provoke God to
jealousy.
God is jealous when Christians spend hours
reading novels instead of his word. He is jealous
because, even though he has told us man does not
live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4); nevertheless we
still prefer physical bread to spiritual bread; which
is the word of God. As happened to Asa, God is
jealous when sick Christians look first to doctors
before looking to him; the author of life. (2
Chronicles 16:12-13).
God is jealous when Christians prefer the company
of men to the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, he acts in seemingly erratic fashion. He
gives and then he takes away. He will give Isaac to
Abraham and then later ask Abraham to sacrifice
Isaac as proof of his devotion to God. If Jacob’s
heart is set on Rachel and not on Leah, he will shut
up the womb of the beloved Rachel and make the
hated Leah fertile.
Even though Sarah was ten years younger than
Abraham, God will take Sarah away at the age of
127 years, while Abraham will be kept alive without
Sarah for another thirty-eight years until the age of
175. He will take away Ezekiel’s wife in the prime of
her life, without seeming regard for the feelings of
Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 24:16-17).
Vengeance of God
How can we reject the fountain of living waters in
preference for broken cisterns and not suffer the
consequences? How can we despise the mercies of
God and not expect to be punished? The scriptures
warn that one day God’s jealousy is going to be
explosive. (Zephaniah 3:8).
In the meantime, God’s vengeance has already
begun among Christians and in our churches.
Peter warns us about this: “The time has come for
judgment to begin at the house of God. (1 Peter
4:17). Because Christians have provoked God to
jealousy, God is also determined to make
Christians jealous. He pays us back in our own
currency. Jesus says: “With that measure which
you measure, it shall be measured to
you.” (Matthew 4:24).
If we won’t believe the truth of the gospel, God will
make sure we will believe outright lies. When we
refuse to grow in the things of God, Jesus says:
“Everyone who has something will be given more,
and they will have more than enough. But
everything will be taken from those who don’t have
anything.” (Matthew 25:29). Therefore, Isaiah cries
out: “O LORD, why have you made us stray from
your ways, and hardened our heart from your
fear?” (Isaiah 63:17).
If we refuse to serve God at home, he will send us
into captivity in his jealousy, so that we can serve
strangers in a foreign land. (Jeremiah 5:19). If we
reject his rule, he will ensure that children will be
our princes and “babes” will rule over us. (Isaiah
3:4). If God is not the desire of our hearts, he will
ensure that what we desire will be the death of us.
(Psalm 78:29-31).
Rachel was obsessed with the desire to have a
child. One day, she provoked her husband no end.
“Give me children,” she demanded, “or I will
die.” (Genesis 30:1). God answered her cry. She got
two children and died. The children of Israel lusted
after meat in the wilderness. God gave them what
they wanted but sent leanness into their souls.
(Psalm 106:15). When Israel asked for a king in
preference to God, God gave them the kings they
wanted, who later sent them back into captivity and
forced labour. (1 Kings 5:13-18).
Kingdom dynamics
Since the Jews persisted in unbelief in spite of
God’s entreaties and favour, God decided to
shower his blessings on the Gentiles in order to
provoke Israel to jealousy. He says: “I will provoke
you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I
will move you to anger by a foolish nation.” “I was
found by those who did not seek me; I was made
manifest to those who did not ask for
me.” (Romans 10:19-21).
By the same token, God is doing many things
currently designed to make Christians jealous.
Because many of us have disdained his out-
stretched arm and rejected him, God has been
showing favour to non-Christians; even those
clearly undeserving of it in order to provoke
Christians to jealousy. As a result, some
unbelievers are going to end up in heaven, while
many Christians will end up in hell.
This is the kingdom dynamic of salvation: “I will call
them my people, who were not my people, and her
beloved, who was not beloved. And it shall come to
pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You
are not my people,’ there they shall be called sons
of the living God.” (Romans 9:25-26).
Happy Sunday and REPENT of Ur SINS
#pastor_Nextangel
