![\"Judgment](\"https:\/\/thegospelobserver.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/judgment-and-gods-compassion.jpg?w=676\")
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\u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all the nations\u2026teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age\u201d (Matthew 28:19-20, NASB).
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Contents:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1) Judgment and God\u2019s Compassion (Doy Moyer)
2) Maintaining the Christian Life (Doug Pennock)
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-1-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doy Moyer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Abraham was told about the destruction of cities known for unrepentant wickedness, he didn\u2019t rejoice in that, but begged for them to be spared. When Jonah confronted a city of wickedness (and repentance), he pined for their destruction. Who are we more like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Common to both accounts is 1) the absolute right of God to be the Judge, and 2) the compassion and lovingkindness of God to save. God judged Sodom because \u201ctheir outcry has become so great before the Lord\u201d (Gen. 19:13), and it was clear there would be no repentance. Yet, though Lot hesitated, the angels took the hands of Lot and his family and led them out, \u201cfor the compassion of the Lord was upon him\u201d (vs. 16). Lot recognized that this magnified the lovingkindness of God because his life was saved (vs. 19). In the midst of judgment, God showed mercy and compassion. He has the right to both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonah, on the other hand, was angry that God spared Nineveh, and his reasoning is interesting: \u201cPlease Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity\u201d (4:2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again, God has the absolute right to judge, and sometimes because of unrepentant hearts He judges. That will always be His right, and His alone. Yet through His compassion and lovingkindness, He offers opportunities to repent and be saved. \u201cOr do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?\u201d (Rom. 2:4)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the gospel message. Judgment is coming, but salvation is offered by God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul preached, \u201cTherefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead\u201d (Acts 17:30- 31).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter taught, \u201cTherefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord\u201d (Acts 3:19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why repent? Because there is yet judgment coming due to wickedness. Failure to repent means being caught up in the judgment: \u201cBut because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God\u201d (Rom. 2:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet why repent? Because of God\u2019s compassion and lovingkindness offering salvation. In His wrath, He remembers mercy (Hab. 3:1). In His mercy, He provides hope (Rom. 5:1-2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some have great difficulty reconciling these two facets of God, but Paul brings both together in Romans 2. To deny that God has the absolute right to judge is to fail to recognize 1) the unfathomable glory and holiness of God, and 2) the horrific nature of sin. God does not want anyone to perish (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:3-4), but evil is so horrific that it cannot go unpunished. It\u2019s interesting that many unbelievers will speak of \u201cthe problem of evil\u201d and ask, \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t God do anything about all the evil?\u201d He has, and He will. That\u2019s why God brings judgment. Yet it\u2019s also why God offers salvation through Christ. \u201cIn this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins\u201d (1 John 4:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People want evil to be duly punished, but many never accept the fact all have participated in evil (Rom. 3:23) and repentance is God\u2019s compassionate prescription for averting that judgment. No one has to suffer eternally for it. Sadly, many have come to expect mercy without repentance. It doesn\u2019t work that way. Still others get angry at God because He would dare judge at all, as if God has no such right. What they don\u2019t get is that whether or not they like what God does or who God is has absolutely no bearing on whether or not God exists. Failing to repent because of anger toward God does not wipe away that failure to repent. God still judges, and God still offers salvation to the repentant. Why fight that? \u201cTherefore repent and return\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We began by asking, \u201cWho are we more like?\u201d Jonah is not held up as an icon of faith in Scripture. Abraham, on the other hand, is. This is not to say that Abraham was perfect, but his faith, even in the judgment events, is well seen: \u201cShall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, He has, He does, and He will. Only God can determine the timing of judgment. Ours is to hold out the hope of the gospel so that as many as will may repent and follow the Lord. By granting repentance, God shows His mercy and grace. Let us never think lightly of this offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Via Mind Your Faith,<\/em> June 21, 2016 -2-<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doug Pennock<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like our car needs maintenance to keep it running smoothly, we as Christians also need regular maintenance to keep us on the road to salvation. This should come in the form of regular worship of God and regular bible study. If we don\u2019t do the former, what is the real object of our faith; and if we don\u2019t do the latter, we will not grow as Christians and will invariably go the other direction and lessen our faith or even lose it entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Peter 2:2 tells us \u201cas newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word.\u201d As a newborn baby desires its mother\u2019s milk, so we should desire the word of God that we may grow into a full and mature Christian. The newborn needs mother\u2019s milk in order to survive and so we as Christians need a steady diet of the word of God in order to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Satan is forever tempting us to turn away from God and fill our hearts and minds with worldly concerns that will drown out the word if we do not continually replenish the supply. If we keep our hearts and minds full of the word, Satan will not be able to choke out the word (see the parable of the sower in Matthew 13) and we will be able to withstand better the temptations that he throws our way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus, when He was tempted by Satan (Matthew 4), answered every temptation with scripture (\u201cit is written\u201d) and so we can do the same when he tempts us to stray from the way of righteousness and to sin. By being filled with the word of God, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and can speak the oracles of God and give answer to those that ask of the hope that is in us (1 Peter 4:11; 1 Peter 3:15). This takes constant bible study and we should make a daily habit of looking into God\u2019s word for the wisdom we need in this life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What of worshiping God? Are we one of those that thinks it is okay to stay away from the assemblies of God\u2019s children (the church) and try to worship God on our own? Hebrews 10:25 says: \u201cnot forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.\u201d God expects us to assemble ourselves together and has given us the church of His dear Son as the means whereby we may do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We assemble as the church of Christ (which is made up of its members and not a building) to worship God as He would be worshiped. We worship Him only in the way prescribed by the New Testament, not taking away from what we should do nor adding anything to what we find in the scriptures. This is how God must be worshiped in spirit and in truth (John 4:23,24). If we worship Him in any way that the scriptures do not authorize, we are not doing so in a way that is acceptable to Him and received by Him. (See post: \u201cThe One True Church.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, if we are able to worship with the saints on a regular basis and learn to study accurately the word of God, we are able to maintain ourselves as Christians and stay true to the faith. We should also practice good works regularly as God would have us do and not let them slip, doing good to others as we have opportunity (Galatians 6:9,10). Of course we must be in Christ in the first place by following the plan of salvation and being baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins. (See Plan of Salvation above and under categories.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n May God bless and keep you until next time. 1) Hear <\/strong>the gospel,\u00a0for that is how faith comes\u00a0(Rom. 10:17; John 20:30,31). \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all the nations\u2026teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age\u201d (Matthew 28:19-20, NASB).\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013 Contents: 1) Judgment and God\u2019s Compassion (Doy Moyer)2) Maintaining the Christian Life (Doug Pennock)\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013 -1- Judgment and God\u2019s Compassion Doy Moyer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaintaining the Christian Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Via Living the Godly Life,<\/em> November 23, 2015
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2) Believe <\/strong>in the deity of Christ\u00a0(John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent <\/strong>of sins\u00a0(Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith <\/strong>in Christ\u00a0(Rom. 10:9,10; Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized\u00a0<\/strong>in water for the remission of sins\u00a0<\/strong>(Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4; Gal. 3:26,27; 1 Pet. 3:21). \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
6) Continue in the faith, <\/strong>living for the Lord; for, if not, salvation can be lost\u00a0(Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet. 2:20-22).
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<\/strong>Tebeau Street
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1402 Tebeau Street, Waycross, GA\u00a0 31501
Sunday<\/strong> services:\u00a09:00 AM (Bible class);\u00a010 AM & 5 PM (worship)
Wednesday:\u00a0<\/strong>7 PM (Bible class)
evangelist\/editor:\u00a0<\/strong>Tom Edwards (912) 281-9917
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com<\/a>
http:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/go<\/a>\u00a0(Older version of Gospel Observer website without pictures, but back to March 1990)
http:\/\/ThomasTEdwards.com\/audioser.html<\/a>\u00a0(audio sermons)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"