ISAIAH 5: 8-30...
8+++Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!
9+++In my ears the LORD of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,
Even great and fine ones, without occupants.
10+++“For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,
And a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.”
11+++Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!
12+++Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands.
13+++Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14+++Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;
And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
15+++So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
The eyes of the proud also will be abased.
16+++But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
17+++Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.
18+++Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood,
And sin as if with cart ropes;
19+++Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”
20+++Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21+++Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
22+++Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23+++Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!
24+++Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25+++On this account the anger of the LORD has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.
And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
For all this His anger is not spent,
But His hand is still stretched out.
26+++He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation,
And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth;
And behold, it will come with speed swiftly.
27+++No one in it is weary or stumbles,
None slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the belt at its waist undone,
Nor its sandal strap broken.
28+++Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;
The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29+++Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls as it seizes the prey
And carries it off with no one to deliver it.
30+++And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light is darkened by its clouds.
Here is a woe to those who set their hearts on the wealth of the world. Not that it is sinful for those who have a house and a field to purchase another; but the fault is, that they never know when they have enough. Covetousness is idolatry; and while many envy the prosperous, wretched man, the Lord denounces awful woes upon him. How applicable to many among us! God has many ways to empty the most populous cities. Those who set their hearts upon the world, will justly be disappointed.
Here is woe to those who dote upon the pleasures and the delights of sense. The use of music is lawful; but when it draws away the heart from God, then it becomes a sin to us. God's judgments have seized them, but they will not disturb themselves in their pleasures. The judgments are declared. Let a man be ever so high, death will bring him low; ever so mean, death will bring him lower. The fruit of these judgments shall be, that God will be glorified as a God of power. Also, as a God that is holy; he shall be owned and declared to be so, in the righteous punishment of proud men.
Those are in a woeful condition who set up sin, and who exert themselves to gratify their base lusts. They are daring in sin, and walk after their own lusts; it is in scorn that they call God the Holy One of Israel. They confound and overthrow distinctions between good and evil. They prefer their own reasonings to Divine revelations; their own devices to the counsels and commands of God. They deem it prudent and politic to continue profitable sins, and to neglect self-denying duties. Also, how light soever men make of drunkenness, it is a sin which lays open to the wrath and curse of God. Their judges perverted justice. Every sin needs some other to conceal it.
Let not any expect to live easily who live wickedly. Sin weakens the strength, the root of a people; it defaces the beauty, the blossoms of a people.
When God's word is despised, and his law cast away, what can men expect but that God should utterly abandon them? When God comes forth in wrath, the hills tremble, fear seizes even great men. When God designs the ruin of a provoking people, he can find instruments to be employed in it, as he sent for the Chaldeans, and afterwards the Romans, to destroy the Jews.
Those who would not hear the voice of God speaking by his prophets, shall hear the voice of their enemies roaring against them. Let the distressed look which way they will, all appears dismal. If God frowns upon us, how can any creature smile? Let us diligently seek the well-grounded assurance, that when all earthly helps and comforts shall fail, God himself will be the strength of our hearts, and our portion for ever.
HOW can they be reached when they won't listen to THE LORD *GOD* in the first place, let alone one of HIS Servants? WHAT does it take for people to understand that this is more than a one-sided CONVENANT between *GOD* and those who WILL HONOUR HIS WILL? The world IS slated for destruction, as ARE the souls of those who chose the world OVER *GOD*! Is there NO regard to what IS to come???
I am not implying that we become as Monks, and yet, we ARE to become as CHRIST JESUS, who PLACED THE HOLY WILL OF *GOD* BEFORE everything, and everyone! HE COULD have reveled in this world when HE was here, instead HE HONOURED THE FATHER! HE DID partake in social gatherings, yet HE NEVER sinned against *GOD*! HE DID experience, FOR our sakes, life in the flesh, and yet was NOT once tempted by it to the point of sin! HE IS OUR EXEMPLAR, and we ARE BID to FOLLOW HIM; this means in body, heart, mind, and spirit, for HE ALONE, OVER ALL, journeyed in the valley of the shadow of death, OVERCAME the flesh, the oppressor, and DEATH, then ROSE to HIS THRONE in THE KINGDOM, SINLESS, and PURELY DEVOTED TO *GOD*!!!
KEY to THE KINGDOM IS, the one who DOES THE WILL of THE FATHER SHALL be the one saved, BECAUSE they LOVE *GOD* enough for allegiance TO HIM, HIS WILL, and WAYS! NOTHING is more imperative than *GOD*, and HIS WILL, for HE ALONE HOLDS the decision of our eternal state! It is NOT by chance that THE WORD says that the road to destruction is wide, and well-traveled, but THE PATH is narrow, and few will find it!!!
LUKE 21: 34-36...
34+++“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.
35+++For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth.
36+++Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
Christ tells his disciples to observe the signs of the times, which they might judge by. He cautions them against being secure and sensual.
This command is given to all Christ's disciples; Take heed to yourselves, that ye be not overpowered by temptations, nor betrayed by your own corruptions. We cannot be safe, if we are carnally secure. Our danger is, lest the day of death and of judgment should come upon us when we are not prepared. Lest, when we are called to meet our Lord, that be the furthest from our thoughts, which ought to be nearest our hearts. For so it will come upon the most of men, who dwell upon the earth, and mind earthly things only, and have no converse with heaven. It will be a terror and a destruction to them.
Here see what should be our aim, that we may be accounted worthy to escape all those things; that when the judgements of God are abroad, we may not be in the common calamity, or it may not be that to us which it is to others.
Do you ask how you may be found worthy to stand before Christ at that day? Those who never yet sought Christ, let them now go unto him; those who never yet were humbled for their sins, let them now begin; those who have already begun, let them go forward and be kept humbled. Watch therefore, and pray always. Watch against sin; watch in every duty, and make the most of every opportunity to do good. Pray always: those shall be accounted worthy to live a life of praise in the other world, who live a life of prayer in this world. May we begin, employ, and conclude each day attending to Christ's word, obeying his precepts, and following his example, that whenever he comes we may be found watching.
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