Sunday, September 22, 2013

A SHIP, TWO ANGELS, AND THE TRUMP OF GOD

Before God pours out His wrath upon the world during what is called the Tribulation (Mt. 24:29), Daniel's Seventieth Week (Dan. 9:27), and the Time of Jacob's Trouble (Jer. 30:7), true to form, He will remove from harm, all those to whom He has granted His grace (unmerited favor). 

Although Adam and Eve obviously benefited from the grace of God when He provided them with skins to cover their nakedness, the first time the word "grace" is specifically mentioned in the Word of God, has to do with Noah's being chosen to continue human existence.  Moses wrote:  "And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them.  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD"  (Gen. 6:7-8).  Noah was lifted up in the ship above the destruction below (Gen. 7:17)!

The second time the word "grace" is used has to do with Lot.  When the Lord had his fill of the sin the "cities of the plain," He sent two of His angels to escort Lot and his family to safety up in the mountains overlooking Sodom.  We are told that, like Noah, Lot had found grace in God's sight (Gen. 19:19)!  After much reluctance on the part of Lot, the Word says, "And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain. . ." (Gen. 19:30)!

During the Age of Grace, the Church Age, God has been warning the world for two thousand years, that there is judgment coming!  Jesus preached it (Mt. 24:3-29; etc.), Paul preached it (1 Thes. 1:9-10; 5:4-9; etc.), and John preached it (Rev. 6 - 18; etc.)!  But because the Tribulation is known as a time when God will pour out His wrath upon the world, and the Church has been promised to be spared from God's wrath, like Noah and Lot, we will be "lifted up above His wrath below" in what is called the Rapture of the Church (Jn. 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:48-53; 1 Thes. 4:16-17; Rev. 3:10; 4:1; etc.)!

Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (Jn. 12:32).  And Paul wrote, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thes. 5:9).

Because Jesus was lifted up in our place, we will be lifted up out of this place!  


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