Part 5 of 5 -

GOD TO DECLARE WAR

Some 1900 years ago man declared war on God. Both the Jews and the Gentiles arrayed themselves “against the Lord, and against His Anointed” - Psalm 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed...

A counter-declaration was, of course, inevitable and was the very next number on the prophetic program for Israel and the world

Psalm 2:1-5 “Why do the heathen [Gentiles] rage, and the people [of Israel , Acts 4:25-27] imagine a vain thing?

“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. “Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.” Psalm 110:1 “The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” God was to reply to man’s declaration of war with a counter declaration of war. This, we say, was the next number on the prophetic program, and Jew and Gentile might well have expected swift judgment to follow Israel ’s acts of hostility, for now all the world had turned against God.

NOT YET

“But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20,21). And thus the judgment of the nations has been delayed. Peter, who had had so much to say concerning the return of Christ to judge and reign, explains this delay in his second epistle: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; [and note what he adds:] even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you” (II Pet. 3:9, 15).

Yes, man has declared war upon God, but God has not yet made a counter-declaration, though that will surely come. They have recalled their ambassadors, but He has not yet recalled His. He has not yet completely broken off relations.

Revelation 19:11 portrays the return of our Lord in glory and power to “judge and make war,” but in matchless love He still delays the judgment and sends forth ambassadors with a message of “grace and peace,” based on the merits of His own finished work.

“Jesus our Lord...was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification." Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4:24-5:1).

AMBASSADORS IN ENEMY TERRITORY

Ambassadorship! What a calling! The embassy! The secretaries, aides, and attendants! The luxurious living quarters! The meetings with other great diplomats!

But this all stands in strange contrast to the poverty, humiliation, and persecution the ambassadors of Christ have been called upon to endure. But what do you suppose an ambassador may expect when he is left in a nation which has declared war on his government? Surely he cannot expect very cordial treatment! He may rather look for suffering, imprisonment, and even death. So it is with the ambassadors of Christ. One of the clearest proofs that the dispensation of grace was ushered in with Paul is the fact that he was for many years an “ambassador in bonds.” He suffered “trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds.” And if we faithfully represent our rejected Lord we may expect similar treatment. But the suffering will be sweet, for it will be the filling up of that which still remains of His afflictions—“the fellowship of His sufferings.” And God will give grace and courage: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Tim. 1:7).