The Hard Words of Love

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:51-60). Stephen wasn’t the first of his kind, and he wasn’t the last either. What ‘kind’ am I speaking of? The kind that has God’s word and delivers it faithfully to God’s people. I’m not talking about comfortable, sweet words either. I’m talking about the kind of words that God’s people have always needed to hear, but have rarely been willing to. The prophets were not persecuted and killed by God ’s people as Stephen said, for telling them things that they wanted to hear. Isaiah was proof of that: “That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isa. 5:9,10). But if you read just a few verses further, you can find God’s response to this sentiment: “Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it” (Isa. 5:13,14). Amos was another good example of this truth: “For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court” (Amos 7:11-13). But again, if you read on, God’s response to the high priest’s words to Amos are evident: “Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land” (Amos 7:16,17).

The scripture says of God, “With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward” (Psm. 18:6). And again it says, “Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (Jas. 4:6). God told it just like it is in Jeremiah: “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:29). The truth is that those who are humble and pure “tremble at his word,” and normally do not merit the hard sayings from God; but they love and appreciate the hard words when they do come their way: “Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee” (Isa. 66:2; Prov. 9:8). It is the scorners, as the proverb states, that hate the rebuke and correction of God’s word when it is sent to them. And speaking of the “hammer that breaks the rock in pieces,” hear what Jesus said to God’s people in his day, along the same line of things: “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them” (Mat. 21:43-45). It was words like that, and harder ones yet, that got Jesus killed as well. Today’s Christianity has gone so far from the real word of God, that the fear of God and the rebuke of his word to his people has totally vanished. Yet it was God’s love in these great heroes of faith who are quoted above, that was fearless enough to receive God’s word from him and deliver it to his people straightly; knowing that it would probably cost them their lives. The only ‘rebuke’ you will hear today is the rebuke of ‘Christians’ against secular people that they deem to be guilty of far worse sins than themselves. That rebuke my friend, is NOT the love of God, neither is it FROM God. It isn’t godly rebuke at all, but rather a judgmental religious spirit deceiving those who are influenced by it to think that they are righteous because they can see others who they feel are more unrighteous than themselves. As the apostle Paul said, “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (II Cor. 10:12). There is nothing that makes us right with God other than the faith in Jesus that purifies the heart from sin and infuses divine love therein (Acts 15:8,9; Rom. 5:3-5). If we ARE right with God, it is certain that we will love the hard words of God, and the fear of God, as much as anything else that pertains to “the faith that was once delivered to the saints” (Jude. 1:3). Amen