Here is an over-simplified picture of what I have spent the past five years trying to convey from all these Bible lessons with plenty of scripture included to support what I share.

God set a law in place which He expects to be obeyed, and it can best be summed up like this: We are either going to surrender to His Lordship and allow Him to replicate His divine nature in us so that we can manifest His love to the world…or we will be destroyed. I don’t know that I could make it any plainer than that.

We are told that God is ‘long-suffering’ towards us, ‘not wanting any to perish but for all to come to repentance’ (2 Pet. 3:9).

It is His desire for “all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Ti. 2:4)

And ‘unless we repent…we will all likewise…perish’. – Jesus (Luke 13:3,5).

Oh, and here’s a news-flash in case anyone forgot this little nugget of truth taught by Jesus: He gave us a ‘new commandment, that we love one another as He loved us’…and…’by this will all people know that we are His disciples…if we have love for one another’. (John 13:34-35; 15:12). And as I pointed out in yesterday’s message…it is impossible for us to fulfill this commandment outside of surrendering to Him so that He can impart His divine nature in us. How else…could we possibly love others as He first loved us?

Care to guess what gets in the way of this process being completed? It’s our old sinful, selfish nature, which we have learned has to be ‘put to death’. And those who do belong to Christ have done this very thing (Gal. 5:24).

Everything about our flesh nature…is opposed to the nature of God. Look what we are told in Romans 8:7-8…that if we remain ‘carnal minded’ (mind set on the flesh nature)…we are ‘hostile towards God’…and will ‘not subject ourselves to His law’…and therefore ‘cannot please Him’. Which is why we need to wake up and recognize the seriousness of the matter and allow Him to begin…and finish the work He came to do IN us…which was to ‘conform us to His image’ (Rom. 8:29). What kind of a church is He coming back for? (Eph. 5:27)

But if we chose to go our ‘own way’ (Matt. 22:5), which many continue to do even today….then God has set ‘laws’ in place to take care of that; which means those who follow Jesus don’t need to worry about ‘policing’ anyone. God has it all under control. I’m reminded of that old quote I saw years ago where God admonishes us to “Just love everyone; I’ll sort them all out later.”

That means, we are to love one another, love our neighbor, love the stranger, love our wives/spouses…and yes…we are even admonished to ‘love our enemies’ (Matt. 5:44). Jesus gave very specific instruction as to how we should respond when people ‘curse us…hate us…and spitefully use us and persecute us’.

Does any of that sound reasonable or fair to our carnal minds that are usually bent on revenge and ‘getting back’ when people cross us? Of course it doesn’t…which is why our minds need to be ‘renewed’ (Rom. 12:2). And as you continue on reading in that chapter 12, look at what Paul seems to be echoing with how we should conduct ourselves when we encounter such scenarios (9-21). Please take the time to read through that now; and be sure to underline vs. 19.

‘Making room for God’s wrath’…is the part we tend to overlook oftentimes…where God instructs us to do ‘our part’, and in doing so…we make space for God to do ‘His part’.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but God does not need, nor is He recruiting volunteers to be ‘instruments of His indignation…to carry out His wrath’. He already has them set in place, and they are known as the ‘powers of darkness’ or ‘demon spirits and destroying angels’ (Ps. 78. 49-50).

Do you recall the words Paul wrote in Romans 1:18, where we are living in the day when God’s “wrath is being ‘revealed’ against ALL …ungodliness and unrighteousness”? Who, or ‘what’ do you think God is ‘using/allowing’ to do this? Need a hint? Go read 1 Cor. 5:5 and see what Paul’s advice was to the church there…who were unsure what to do with a member who was practicing sexual immorality. To whom was this man to be ‘handed over to, and for what purpose? Please go mark that in your Bible now.

Do you know what happened to this man? It worked, and he was brought to repentance and seeking forgiveness, when Paul admonished the church body there to embrace and forgive this man…’lest they be overtaken advantage of by Satan’…since we were not ignorant of his devices’ (2 Cor. 2:6-11).

When we read in Hebrews 12:5-12 how God ‘chastens those whom He loves’, even mentioning how it is ‘not joyful but painful’ (11)…what do you suppose he’s talking about there?

Friends…this ‘3rd pillar’ of study centers around the subject matter pertaining to ‘The Devil’. (Our first two pillars focused on ‘The Law’ and ‘The Flesh’). And I would submit to you that it is our lack of understanding with this 3rd topic…that might best explain why ‘God’s people’ continue to be ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6).

Our NT Bible is loaded with scriptures that speak to the actual existence of a spiritual enemy, whom we know as ‘the devil’, or ‘Satan’, along with his minions of fallen angels, otherwise known as ‘demon spirits’. We are warned to ‘give them no place’ (Eph. 4:27) and to be alert and clear-minded…knowing he/they ‘roams about like a roaring lion seeking to devour’ (1 Pet. 5:8). We are cautioned about letting him ‘take advantage of us since we are not ignorant of his schemes’ (2 Cor. 2:11). We’re also told that the whole world is ‘under his control/influence’ in 1 John 5:19…but…those who are ‘born of God and no longer practice sin…and the wicked one cannot touch them’ (1 John 5:18).

Can I just tell you that we need not ‘fear’ this enemy that we contend with (Eph. 6:12; Matt. 10:28), since God alone is to be ‘feared’. And were you aware that if God so chose to do so, He could remove in a blink of an eye…every demon spirit of darkness and evil? But clearly, He has not done that…yet. And He has His reasons. This may be one of the toughest challenges you will have in studying scripture when it comes to this topic, but God uses them to carry out His wrath and judgments. God has always used…the ‘enemy’ of His people to do this when they break His laws.

Paul brought a word of caution to the church, found in Acts 13:40-41 that we should ‘beware of’, and cited the OT prophet’s warnings, found in Habakkuk 1:5-12…where we learn that they (the enemy) have been ‘appointed for judgment and marked to be used for correction’ (12). And the sooner we begin to ‘see’ the bigger picture here (Rom. 1:18)…the sooner you might have a better understanding as to what this ‘fear of the Lord’ is all about. (Ps. 34:7-11)  

More tomorrow, Lord willing.