Chambersburg Bible Church

Do you love God?  Do you really love God? I am amazed at the number of people who say they love God yet seem to have little or no understanding as to what love for God is.  It is easy to say “I love God,” but love for God is difficult to measure.  Love cannot be measured with a ruler or a yardstick.  You cannot pour love into a measuring cup to find out how much you actually have.  Love in not a commodity that you can carry in a paper sack.  Love for God is an allusive concept!

Does that mean that those who say they love God simply must be taken at their word?  Is it possible to determine if a person’s love for God is genuine?  Is there an objective standard by which love is gauged?  Is it possible to be involved in religious activities and not love God?

Many people deceive themselves when they equate religious activity with love for God.  Jesus predicted that there would be those who were outwardly connected to God through religious activity, but who did not truly love Him (Matthew 25:31-40Matthew 25:31-40
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: ³² And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: ³³ And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: ³⁶ Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ³⁷ Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? ³⁸ When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? ³⁹ Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? ⁴⁰ And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.  
).  Fortunately, Jesus addressed the issue of loving God with His disciples in John 14:15John 14:15
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.  
.  Jesus declared that active obedience to His commandments was proof that a person loved Him.  Based upon Jesus’ statement it is possible to evaluate a person’s proclaimed affection for God by examining their willingness to order their lives after His words.  Habitual obedience to the commandments of Christ is the acid test of one’s love.

The obvious question then is this: “Which commandments must we obey?” If obedience is the standard, which commands require obedience?  The short answer is all of them!  God has not issued any superfluous commandments.  Everything that God speaks is important and He expects complete obedience.  Since obedience indicates love and since God demands complete obedience, where do we begin?  It is impossible to examine all that God commands in this short article, but I want to look at one.

In Acts17:30, God commands all men to repent.  No matter whom you are or where you live, God universally commands everyone to repent.  The idea behind the word “repent” is to change your mind.  God expects man to think differently, but think differently about what?  God commands us to repent of our sin!  Sin is breaking God’s law (I John 3:4John 3:4
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?  
).  If you have ever broken any of God’s laws (this includes The Ten Commandments), you have sinned.  In God’s eyes you are a law-breaker (James 2:10James 2:10
10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.  
).  You are a sinner (Romans 3:23Romans 3:23
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  
) and your sin has separated you from God (Isaiah 59:2Isaiah 59:2
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. have hid: or, have made him hide  
)!  Not only that, but your sin has earned you death (both physical death and spiritual death) (Romans 6:23Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  
).  To further complicate the matter, sin makes you God’s enemy (Romans 5:10Romans 5:10
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.  
).

In light of these basic truths, you can see why God commands you to repent (Acts 17:30Acts 17:30
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:  
).  Sin is the very thing that hinders you from loving Him.  Sin separates us from God and man is powerless to close the distance (Romans 5:6Romans 5:6
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. in due time: or, according to the time  
).  God sent His Son, Jesus, to bridge the gap that sin created.  Jesus bridged the gap by paying the penalty for our sin when He died on the cross.  By repenting of your sin and asking Jesus to forgive and save you, you obey the commandment of God.  It is impossible for a person to say they love God if they are unwilling to obey God’s foundational commandment.  Do you love God?  Do you really love Him?  If you really love Him you will keep His commandments!

Do you pray for yourself?  I’m not talking about asking God for “food and clothing,” though there is nothing wrong with that.  As a matter of fact, God commands and encourages His children to ask Him for their daily bread (Matthew 6:11Matthew 6:11
11 Give us this day our daily bread.  
)!  The kind of prayer that I’m referring to is asking the Lord to bring about real Christian growth in your life.  We have been conditioned to pray for others, but we feel that petitioning God on our own behalf is somehow self-serving and contrary to the Scriptures.  Christians rally to pray for the hungry in Africa and the devastated in Haiti, but are reluctant to bow their knees in prayer for their own spiritual growth.  Why is it that so many of us neglect prayer for our own spiritual development?  Allow me to suggest a few reasons why we avoid this kind of prayer.

A failure to understand the importance of seeking the Lord’s strength in spiritual transformation heads the list.  Many Christians think that spiritual transformation (i.e. being conformed to the image of Christ) can be accomplished through human initiative.  We conclude that Christ-  likeness is the necessary result of personal effort and determination.  While it is true that the Bible commands the believer to work out his own salvation (sanctification) with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12Philippians 2:12
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  
), it also tells us that God is at work (energizing) in us making us both willing and able to undergo this radical transformation (Philippians 2:13Philippians 2:13
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.  
).  Since God has determined that every Christian be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29Romans 8:29
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  
) and since He is the One who is at work in us to accomplish this goal, doesn’t it stand to reason that we should pray to Him asking Him for daily power for the process?

Another reason why this kind of personal prayer never crosses our mind is because we never make Christ-likeness a priority.  We somehow think that God is really not concerned about our spiritual growth.  God is indifferent and it really doesn’t matter to Him how we live.  Beloved, the Bible declares that God’s will for us is that we be dedicated to Him (1 Thessalonians 4:31 Thessalonians 4:3
3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:  
).  God is far from indifferent concerning our spiritual growth.  He has willed it to be so!  Henry Martyn, a missionary to India in the early 1800’s, understood the importance of his own spiritual development.  He said:  “Let me be taught that the first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul.” Martyn made his sanctification a priority and he prayed about it.

Finally, I think that many believers avoid personal prayer out of discouragement.  Oh, we understand that we have the omnipotence of God at our disposal to accomplish our sanctification.  We even understand that transformation is according to His perfect will for us.  But many times we fall short of that biblical standard.  We experience failure after failure and we begin to think that the quest for Christian maturity will never become a reality for us.  We become discouraged, convinced that we are the exception to the rule and that even though God has accomplished transformation in the lives of so many others, He is powerless to bring us to Christ-likeness.  Beloved, nothing could be further from the truth!  Take heart!  In Ephesians 3:14-21Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; ¹⁷ That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; ¹⁹ And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. ²⁰ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, ²¹ Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.  
, the Apostle Paul prays a powerful prayer for the saints at Ephesus concerning their sanctification.  Paul concludes that prayer by praising God for His ability to accomplish the sanctification of all His children.  Let the truth of verse 20 sink into your soul.  Take heart and pray for yourself like you have never prayed before!

Movie-goers are anxiously awaiting the release of Roland Emmerich’s doomsday flick, 2012.  The theme of 2012 is that planet earth will come to a cataclysmic end through a series of catastrophic events taking place in December of that year. 2012 is just one of many recent productions that deal with the “end of the world” scenario that has captured the thinking of the masses.  The History Channel recently aired a series of programs suggesting that mankind is rapidly approaching the end of civilization as we know it.  What’s even more remarkable is the suggestion that the exact time of earth’s pending doom is prophesied.  These programs claim that evidence for the apocalyptic end of the world in 2012 is revealed in the writings of Nostradamus; the December 21, 2012r 21, 2012
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja!
conclusion of the current Great Cycle of the Mayan calendar; the alignment of the earth, sun, and galactic equator which will occur in late 2012. These arguments seem to point so convincingly to the imminent destruction of our blue planet that many Christians have been caught up in the hype and are counting-down the days.  Will the world end in 2012? 

The simple answer is no!  It is biblically impossible for the world to end in 2012 because there is much yet that God plans to accomplish before He destroys the world (Revelation 21:1Revelation 21:1
21 ¹ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.  
). A detailed eschatological (teaching concerning end time events) discussion of God’s future plans is beyond the scope of this article, but a brief survey of God’s immediate agenda for the future will show why the end cannot come until much later.

The next great event on God’s calendar is what Christians call the rapture.  The rapture will take place when Jesus Christ appears in the sky and takes believers from the Church age with Him to heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13-181 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. prevent: or, come before, or, anticipate, or, precede ¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words. comfort: or, exhort  
).  The sudden and imminent appearing of Jesus from heaven is the event that every Christian has anticipated since the time of Christ’s own ascension (Titus 2:13Titus 2:13
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; glorious...: Gr. the appearance of the glory of the great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ  
).  The Bible does not reveal when that event will occur, but simply that it will and that it could happen at any moment (1 Corinthians 15:50-581 Corinthians 15:50-58
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. ⁵¹ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? grave: or, hell ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.  
).

The rapture of the Church will set in motion a series of divine events that will eventually culminate in the destruction of the world.  The Great Tribulation will immediately follow the rapture and will last for seven (7) years.  The Battle of Armageddon will mark the end of the seven years (Revelation 16:16; 19:11-21Revelation 16:16; 19:11-21
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. ¹¹ And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. ¹² His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. ¹³ And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. ¹⁶ And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. ¹⁷ And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; ¹⁸ That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. ¹⁹ And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. ²⁰ And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. ²¹ And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.  
).  The Book of Revelation indicates that following that battle, Jesus will rule as King on planet earth for one thousand (1,000) years (Revelation 20:1-6Revelation 20:1-6
20 ¹ And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. ² And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, ³ And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. ⁴ And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵ But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.  
).

Based upon these truths, it should be obvious that the end of the world is at least 1,007st 1,007
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.  
years away.  But don’t sit back and breathe a sigh of relief just yet because Jesus is coming again.  When Jesus comes, things will suddenly change and change for the worse.  So much so that people who are living on the earth after the rapture will long for the end to come.  They will be left behind to endure the difficulties of the Tribulation period.  Are you ready?  

If you would like more information concerning this article or the ministries of the Chambersburg Bible Church, please contact Pastor Yoder.