Have you not known? Have you not heard?

Comments On 2nd Quarter Lessons 2004: #8

You could say there are two types of people in the world. There are those who know and those who do not know. There are those who have heard and those who have not heard. Of those who have not known nor heard, the worse off are those who chose not to know or hear. Those who do not know nor hear because it has not reached them may be spared by grace, but those who chose not to know or hear have rejected what has reached them, which is rejecting He who sent the message.

What is it that we need to know or hear? Have you not known or heard Handel’s Messiah? Especially, the opening songs, which are mostly based on the first nine verses of Isaiah 40:

Isa 40:1- Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Isa 40:2 - Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
Isa 40:3 - The voice of Him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Isa 40:4 - Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
Isa 40:5 - And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Isa 40:9 - O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

We can find comfort, at last. The war is over. “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Christ has risen victoriously, and now we are assured forgiveness: twice as much as we have sinned. The salvation made possible by the death of Christ is not made available to us; this salvation is ours. It is given to us by grace. Does this not make you joyful? Cry it out loud! So let’s prepare the way for He who shall return for us, for the same way the apostles saw Him rise we shall see Him return (Acts 1:11), and every eye shall see Him (Revelation 1:7).

How did Christ do this? He took our Sin by partaking of our sinful nature, yet without sinning. With this Sin He took our suffering and all its consequences, including the second death. This death is eternal separation from our Father God. That is the wage of Sin (Romans 6:23). He paid our debt. Now we can live eternally, if we by faith believe this is Truth. Christ redeems our sinful nature, our heart of stone, into a pure nature, a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:9). Through the Comforter He sanctifies our characters until they reflect Christ’s character. Such is His merciful love. Such is His power.

So now, what use to be a mountain, is a molehill when He indwells in me. What is impossible for man is possible for God (Matthew 19:26). The biggest problems are to Him trivial. Our biggest foes are nothing to Him. Such is His Power, that Babylon, although we still see it standing, He has declared it fallen (Revelation 14:8). And, what He “declares to be, is!” For in His word there is power. We are fading like grass, but God and His Word stand forever. This gives me comfort. I can count on God.

What use to make me weary, no longer does. In Christ I receive new strength, new energy, new life. Now by faith, and when He comes in reality. Have you not known? Open your heart. Have you not heard? Open your ears. The Voice cries out in our wilderness, repent, “Come out of Her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sin” (Revelation 18:4). “For the hour of His judgment is come” (Revelation 14:8) and the ending is near. Will you choose to know and hear or will you choose not to know nor hear?

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