Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah

"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth" (Isa. 63:1-6). This is a vivid description of the second coming of Jesus Christ to this world, and his destruction of those who hate him. I truly believe that more of God's people, and more people period, need to really think about why the same Jesus who died for the sins of the world, and allowed himself to be put to that cruel death; is going to obliterate so many people with unmixed anger when he comes again. Actually one need think no further than what I've just stated in the previous sentence, to see exactly why he will do that. Very plainly put, God sent his only begotten Son to this world to pay the highest price imaginable to secure the redemption and literal deliverance for every soul, from every sin that could ever be committed. Jesus suffered the most brutal and agonizing death contrived by mankind so that he could redeem and deliver those who would believe on him from every sin that exists. God also made it as easy and plain to know how to gain this glorious redemption, as he possibly could. We don't have to go to school and earn a degree on how to gain access to the most wonderful miracle in the history of the world. We don't have to work a certain job for a certain period of time in order to earn this grandest of all privileges. We don't have to win some kind of competition or contest against other people in order to experience "the love that passes knowledge," and the "joy [that is] unspeakable, and full of glory," and "the peace of God that passes all understanding" (Eph. 3:19; I Pet. 1:8; Phiip. 4:7).

All we have to do to attain unto the hope and promise of eternal life is believe that God DID send his Son for this very purpose. Now I'm not talking about a 'think so' faith, or a 'told so' faith; but rather a genuine faith in Jesus for the death he died, and that he rose from the dead to give us this "unspeakable gift" (II Cor. 9:15). The faith in Christ that produces the above cited virtues and blessings in our lives, is the same faith that produces the experience which alone imparts those blessings and virtues. Jesus described what I'm talking about like this: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.]" (Jn. 7:38,39). After he died and rose again, and was ready to ascend back to heaven, he made certain with his last instructions to his followers, that they would not miss the point of it all: "And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Acts 1:4,5). These instructions were in fact the exact same thing that his forerunner had said he was coming to accomplish (Mk. 1:7,8). And indeed they were baptized with the holy Ghost several days later, and as the scripture states, "the all began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). That experience of faith in Jesus, that was received from heaven by about a hundred and twenty people on the day of Pentecost, was and is "the faith that was once delivered to the saints," and there is none other (Jude 1:3). That was also the birth of the body of Christ, that being the same body of Christ of which the apostle Paul said: "For BY ONE SPIRIT are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13).

So the true faith of Jesus Christ produces true power from heaven in the lives of those who believe, as Jesus had said it would: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1:8). Make no mistake my friend, that power is for real, powerful deliverance from the very nature of sinning, which nature is replaced by "the divine nature" and the eternal life that dwells in the Father and in the Son (II Pet. 1:4; Jn. 17:21-23; Jn. 10:10; Jn. 5:26; Rom. 8:2). So Jesus died for us to have "the glory" that resides within God himself, and in him as well (Jn. 17:22; Rom. 6:4). The good news is that all it costs us is our sins. We give him our sins and he gives us "joy unspeakable, and full of glory." The only thing he desires to take away from us is the unbearable burden that we have carried all our lives before encountering him. He wants to take our turmoil and give us peace in exchange. All we have to do is give it to him. He wants to take our fears and replace them with a mountain of confidence, which confidence he himself is. He wants to eliminate our compulsions and addictions, and give us a secure satisfaction that we've never before imagined. He wants to take away our confusion and give us a powerful assurance of understanding of life's only truth, which truth he is (Jn. 14:6). He wants to take our pain and broken heart, and give us wholeness of heart instead. He wants to take our sickness and affliction, and give us health and wellness instead (I Pet. 2:24; Jas. 5:13-15). He wants to take away a forever death, and give us immortality and everlasting life instead. The list just goes on, but I'm certain that the point is sufficiently made. It is more than evident that God is altogether good, and that his will toward us is only good. That was forever settled at the cross of Calvary, and is without refute in any sane mind. The only real cost we pay to maintain this joy and glory, is that we will be persecuted and hated by those who do NOT allow themselves to be free partakers of what God has provided for us in Christ. As Jesus told us: "Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me" (Jn. 15:20,21).

The apostle Paul took the element of being persecuted for Christ one step further for our understanding, with this sobering admonition: "If we suffer [for him], we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us" (II Tim. 2:12). That brings us back around to the reason for the graphic destruction that Jesus will bring at his second coming, which we see in our text passage from Isaiah 63. There are some who persecute those who love Jesus, who will ultimately repent and believe on him themselves. The apostle Paul is the most profound example of this reality in the history of the new covenant, having been a maddened tormentor of the followers of Jesus, and being transformed BY Jesus into the greatest apostle of all (I Tim. 1:15,16). But whoever fights against the faith of Jesus, and persecutes those who love him, is doing it directly to Jesus himself. The apostle Paul is also the most prolific example of this truth, as Jesus himself told him when he first revealed himself to him: "And as he journeyed [to persecute the saints], he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 9:3,4). Any and all who have heard that Jesus Christ died for their sins, and rose from the dead, and is alive in heaven today as the "one mediator between God and men," is without excuse to not believe (Acts 17:29-31; Tim. 2:5). The scriptures are clear that it is God's will to redeem and save all men, so it is up to each individual as to whether they will believe the Gospel or not (I Tim. 2:4; II Pet. 3:9; I Jn. 2:2). We are on the precipice of witnessing the greatest move of God in the history of the world, and will cover the entire globe. God is going to have a curtain call of grand proportions on every level before he closes this age, and there will be no excuse whatsoever for anyone on earth to not surrender their sins, their griefs, their pain, their fears, their confusions, their turmoils, etc; to Jesus, and let him fill them with his life and his glory!

However, those who DO choose to hold onto their sins will join forces to persecute the followers of Jesus with a greater persecution than the world has ever seen, and they will also fight against Jerusalem (Rev. 11:1,2; Rev. 13:7,13-17). This persecution and assault against his people will be a direct assault on Jesus himself, and he will avenge himself and those who are of his body on earth, and those who are of Israel, with the graphic vengeance described in Isaiah 63 as cited above. Just to add a bit of detail to our text passage, John saw and wrote: "And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs" (Rev. 14:18-20). We are told that "the wrath of God [will be] poured out without mixture" at the coming of Jesus, upon everyone who has resisted the Gospel, and have fought against Jerusalem as well (Rev. 14:10; II Thess. 1:7,8; Zech. 14:1-15). This unmixed wrath will be poured out upon the wicked because the wicked will have fully trampled under foot the unmixed love that kept Jesus hanging in agony beyond description, on the cross of Calvary almost two thousand years ago for the redemption of all men. For mankind to fully and finally reject the greatest love that has ever been shown in the history of existence, can only be recompensed with the greatest wrath that has ever been seen or known. Absolutely anything short of the greatest wrath that God has ever shown, would not be just or right, as the reward of those who have hated Jesus so profoundly, and have done their very best to kill him again. It is that simple my friend. God is just and equal, and the anger that will compel the Lord Jesus Christ to literally stomp the wicked into obliteration will be perfectly just and equal. It will in fact be the ONLY answer for the hatred of the wicked. Period. Amen.