END TIMES TEACHING
COME NOW, AND LET US REASON TOGETHER
Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Life is a constant ending of things that previously began.
I can safely say that every human that was born one hundred and fifty years ago is dead right now. And it would be a pretty safe bet to declare, that if Jesus does not return on the next one hundred and fifty years, that
all humans who are alive today will also be dead then.
What gives us humans the ability to transcend this cycle of life and death, is that we have been endowed with the capacity to reason, that is, to think outside of whatever current circumstance we are in, and imagine a life that not only lives, but thrives, outside of the perimeters that constantly hems us in, and that keep us bound to our present reality.
Job 14:14 “If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes.”
It is our God given ability to reason that allows us to believe a thought that is foreign to our present reality, that a divine change will one day come, a change that is both personal and general in nature.
This change has to do with the question that Job poses, If a man dies, shall he live again?
Personally speaking it asks, will I live again? And since all men have died and continue to die throughout the ages, generally speaking it asks, will the all live again as well, after the change has come?
So that mortal man, unlike unreasoning animals, can picture in his mind a life of immortality, an idea so at odds with our human environment, that it has to originate from an Eternal God.
We see that every culture, past or present, is intuitively knitted with an idea that in the natural is extremely foreign to man, the thought of immortality; yet in spite of such overwhelming evidence, the fact that humans throughout the ages have reasoned that which in the natural seems unreasonable, still, many nations and peoples refuse to acknowledge the fact that man was originally created for a divine purpose.
Isaiah 1:2-3 “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people (humans) do not consider (they have a willful lack of understanding).”
It is humanly impossible to understand the times of the end without a reasonable understanding of the fact that a change must come.
So let us ask the question, why is it a fact that a change must come?
Humans were never destined to live in sin forever! Contrary to popular belief humans are not mortal, not before God, for to Him all live, that makes us humans immortal, and every human knows that intuitively.
But before we can enter into immortality with God, our rebellious nature has to be disposed of, we must be made cleaned first, for our God is a holy God.
In our opening verse God tells us that our sins are like a stain that has to be removed before we can enter into His eternal abode, that is also a foreign reasoning that comes to us directly from God.
Have you ever bathed your dog only to see him run out and do a couple of rolls in the grass or dirt? Animals do not understand the concept of dirtiness or sin, only humans can relate to that concept; where does our ability to relate to filth and to sins comes from? Since we intuitively know that a change is coming, that leads us to believe that a preparation is necessary before we translate into that change, it comes natural.
Without knowing, one that a change is coming, and two, that we must prepare ourselves for that change, we become like unreasoning animals that have no concept of eternity and end up dying in our sins.
Isaiah 1:6 “From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.”
What makes us humans valuable to God is our ability to reason with Him, for if we understand Him, then we know what He expects from us, and what we can expect from Him, then we can make a reasonable choice to be and abide with Him as an act of our will, based on an intelligent decision made on the merits of the facts.
With Him there is love, joy, peace, health, beauty, provision, eternal protection, happiness. Without Him there is nothing but eternal pain, sufferings, and sorrows, this is not brain surgery friends! Any half-witted reasoning will get us to make the right choice.
Unless we are not willing to believe, which is the case in many instances, many will rather ignore sound reasoning for the temporary joy of rolling in the mud without guilt for a season.
But if they really knew about eternity, and how much is really at stake, I doubt that any reasoning soul would be willing to risk an eternity of suffering for a few moments of frivolous carnal indulgence, I am, of course, speaking here about unsaved people.
Isaiah 1:16-17 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
For those of us who walk in the light of God’s salvation, we know that it is the precious blood of Jesus that turned our scarlet sins into snow white purity, and our crimson stain into precious white wool.
We already believe in the resurrection from the dead and walk in the certainty that is, the age that is to come; so far this message has been a call that is aimed at the unbelievers, as I appealed to their ability to reason outside of carnal reasoning.
Next I will bring into focus the role of the backsliders during the end times, those who already heard and believed the Gospel, but somehow have been dissuaded from following the plan of salvation that God has ordained for their lives.
Isaiah 1:27-28 “Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her penitents (returners) with righteousness. The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”
There is nothing like a close call with death to get us back into the reality of life. That is why the end time, what the Bible calls the day of the Lord, will be such a frightful and terrifying event.
Joel 2:1, 11 “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand...The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?”
Our redemption is going to be a messy business, for it will involve the beginning of the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners that get left behind, our redemption initiates God’s judgments against all those who forsake the Lord.
The back sliders that repent (returners) in the face of the coming judgments, will be delivered with righteousness and kept out of the judgment. Those who have never believed and repent by calling on the name of the Lord, when confronted with the impending judgments, will also be delivered with righteousness, since they knew by instinct that a change was coming.
Acts 2:19-21 “I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Someone cynically may ask, if we will know of His imminent return, then why don’t we just live like hell now and repent when the wonders and signs are revealed before His coming?
Isaiah 1:15 “When you spread (pray) out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.”
Do you know whose blood your hands would be full of?
If you reasoned that God was going to put an end to our present reality some day by ushering in a change, and then decided that when and if that really happened, that you would just somehow get on board of the salvation train and repent.
Don’t you know that by your act of selfishness, those who might have known what was revealed to you, will never get the opportunity for salvation that they could of have, had you been a faithful witness to them, instead of living it up in the world.
By your false witness before them, their blood is now in your hands and tribulation is the only hope left for you.
Matthew 24:5 “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”
The world has been totally saturated with stories of ancient aliens visiting humans in the past, which is nothing more than doctrines of demons that aim to prepare the unbelieving world to reject our Lord and Savior when He is revealed, by portraying Him falsely; causing those who lack Biblical understanding to flee to the mountains and mourn at His revelation instead of calling on Him to save then.
Revelation 1:7 “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.”
Those of us who know the truth have been charged with the task of identifying the real Messiah at His appearing by our willingness and readiness to meet Him.
2 Timothy 4:8 “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved (and are expectantly waiting for) His appearing.”
Revelation 7:9-10 “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”