The Full Spectrum

It is very sad, and it is very hurtful, but most people just refuse to give themselves the opportunity to understand the full spectrum of the love of God. If we fail to do so it is certain that we will end up falling short of “the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philip. 3:14). But let me clarify that statement just a bit more. Falling short of that mark means that we will NOT “attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Philip. 3:11). You may note that both of these scriptures are taken from the same passage, where the apostle Paul is basically saying that “the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” IS to “attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” But let me explain what I am saying about people not understanding the full spectrum of God’s love. Some people don’t even want to hear or understand anything about the fact that “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Heb. 12:6). It’s true that many people would rather call the Lord’s chastening an attack of the devil, than to find out WHY they are being chastened. So what’s up with that? I will tell you what it is, it is a lack of understanding that God requires holiness and perfect love in our hearts in order for us to be saved. Most folks are already ‘saved,’ and when things start to get painful, or hardships abound, it just has to be an attack of the devil because they are the righteous. Oh, I’ve heard it time and again: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all” (Psm. 34:19). As long as someone stays in their little protective bubble of religiously dictated confidence about being ‘the people,’ anything bad that comes along HAS TO BE an attack of the devil. But I always wonder why they don’t add the following scriptures onto the former one: “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (Psm. 119:67). And, “I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that THOU IN FAITHFULNESS hast afflicted me” (Psm. 119:75). Now that was written by the same man who wrote the previous quote above from the Psalms, and he obviously understood that he could not afford to die while going in the wrong direction on anything pertaining to righteousness. That is why he did NOT call his afflictions attacks of the devil, but rather saw them as the love of God looking out for his good. In fact David would have the sternest rebuke for anyone using his writings to see their afflictions as attacks of the devil because they are the children of God.

I would like to say that I am not suggesting that every hardship that comes our way is a chastening for disobedience. Sometimes the Lord just gives us difficult situations to bring about growth in the Spirit, if we will be exercised in righteousness through the difficulty. Some adverse circumstances are just a result of living in this world, such as the death of a loved one. These kinds of things are just going to happen, regardless of whether we are righteous or wicked. Nonetheless the chastening and corrections of the Lord are going to come, and we cannot afford to call these things attacks of the devil, as the scripture plainly shows us: “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (Heb. 12:7,8). I am certain that we do not want to finish our course being illegitimate children. I seem to remember a certain woman who once fell for the wicked sales pitch about a non-chastening and non-judging God, and I am starkly familiar with the outcome of that unbelief as well. By by the same token that people refuse to see that oftentimes their afflictions are corrections from the Lord, many people just totally refuse any kind of godly reproof from someone capable of giving it, regardless of how much love and sincerity it may be given in. That is a very serious condition to be in, as the scriptures firmly declare: “He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding” (Prov. 15:32). And I’ve always loved the following verse and have gained invaluable benefit from practicing it: “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom” (Prov. 13:10). What a shame that so many folks just can’t bear to be instructed or reproved about anything from anybody. Which brings us to the stark reality of this fearful saying: “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Prov. 29:1). Now that proverb means just what it says my friend, as all scripture does; and we simply cannot afford to be in that kind of condition if we hope to inherit eternal life. That is exactly what Solomon was referring to in the following proverb, which is one of my very favorites: “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life” (Prov. 4:13).

The ability to be instructed and corrected is absolutely synonymous with and inseparable from the capacity to learn, without which capacity we are doomed to fail miserably: “His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray” (Prov. 5:23). It is a spirit that wants to lead someone to that condition, that makes them not want to hear anything about the real fear and terror of the Lord, or about the damnation and torment of hell fire for all who do not obey God in this life. Those who truly love the righteousness of God are every bit as willing and eager to hear about these things as they are about the promises and goodness of God. But neither God or his Son Jesus were or are shy about making these sobering realities known to his people, and with good reason. In Deuteronomy 28, God made known twelve blessings that would come upon his people for obeying his voice completely, and followed that with FIFTY THREE curses for FAILING to obey his voice entirely. Why? The love of God, that’s why! He wanted to make sure that his people got the point about the curses so that they would CHOOSE TO OBEY AND BE BLESSED!! But if we start talking about the same exact thing that HE clearly proclaimed there and elsewhere, we become a radical, a fanatic, and someone who just doesn’t know how to love. Do you know that Jesus spoke of hell and the lake of fire more often than he spoke of the glory world? Why? Same reason, the love of God. But when we speak of these things today, somehow we are just a hard nosed, ranting and raving hell fire and brimstone preacher. But I will say this my friend, and with authority of the Spirit of God: Those kind of flimsy accusations do not intimidate me one single bit, because I know where they are truly coming from, and WHO they are really coming from. Foolish words like that are coming from the enemy of my soul and yours, who would love nothing more than to see ALL of God’s people, and all people everywhere, just coast merrily and cheerily into that same hell fire and brimstone that is his everlasting sentence and fate. As for me, I will “declare all the counsel of God” to everyone whom I have a chance to declare it to, while I HAVE the chance (Acts 20:27). And I will add one thing to that as well: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (I Cor. 9:27). Amen.