The Rock of Israel

THE ROCK OF ISRAEL

And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. (Isaiah 30:29)

I have a sense of being filled with the Rock. Do you?

I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:1,2)

“My God is my Rock”! As I grow older, I am relying more each day on the strength of Christ.

There is something else, though. I believe the Spirit is saying that the future in America will be chaotic, both morally, and as a result, physically. I realize that none of us will be able to stand in our own strength. This may come across to you as a truism, something you have heard in church all your life. But to me it is very real at this time.

I suppose many of us are trusting in money to keep us secure in our old age. Perhaps we have a retirement plan. But what good will that do us if we have kidney failure, or become blind, or develop terminal cancer? What good will our money do us if our only child murders someone, or our daughter goes to live with her lesbian friend? What if our wife, or husband, or child is run over by a car and dies? No, money cannot save us from numerous disasters, even though in our Antichrist society we are taught that it can.

We need the strength of the Rock of Israel if we are to stand and serve Christ in the coming days in America, and perhaps assist others. Neither money nor the government will be able to help us when all we are trusting in is swept away.

We have had many severe natural disasters in America in recent years. The possessions of people have been burnt up, or swept away in a flood, or blown away by a tornado. When they are elderly, it means they have to start all over again when they have just enough strength to get around, much less start over. Sometimes money can help. Sometimes it is useless, depending on the kind of calamity that has befallen us.

But there is something better than insurance. It is the companionship of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has the power to help us through every kind of problem and trouble, and give us perfect peace in the meantime.

The following passage is one of my favorites. It is helpful in the time of trouble to meditate on it.

The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?” Those who walk righteously and speak what is right, who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands from accepting bribes, who stop their ears against plots of murder and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—they are the ones who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar. (Isaiah 33:14-17)

The passage is speaking of fellowship with God, of dwelling with the consuming Fire, of living in fellowship with everlasting Burning.

The day of Divine judgment that is approaching America because of the sins of the people will define clearly to us what is meant by “consuming fire and everlasting burning.” Our God is a consuming Fire, and He is coming to judge the conduct of us Americans. In that hour, terror will “grip the godless.” Who then can stand? Those who “walk righteously.” Not those who are trusting in “grace” to cover their ungodly conduct. But those who have made Christ their Life will stand. They will be given food and drink, even in the time of famine. This is what God has said.

Best of all, they will “see” Christ. He will be close to them in the darkest of situations. They will have their hopes and their interests in Heaven. These are those who are founded on the Rock of Israel. But how do we establish ourselves on the solid, eternal Rock?

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: (Matthew 7:24—NKJV)

We build our life on the Rock of Israel by doing what Christ and His Apostles have commanded.

The current teaching of “grace,” that Divine grace is an alternative to keeping the commands of Christ and His Apostles, surely is the most destructive of the errors that have entered Christian thinking. Grace, as it is preached today, is God’s admission that He cannot deliver us from sin. So He has chosen to have fellowship with us in our moral filth. Could there possibly be a more destructive doctrine than this?

As I stated previously, the fires of Divine judgment are to fall on the United States in the near future. Those who are keeping Christ’s commandments and those of His Apostles, will survive and be able to help others to stand.

But those who are living ungodly, worldly lives, and are trusting in “grace” to carry them to Heaven, will be swept away in the flood.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. (Psalm 91:7,8)

Yesterday, Sunday, June 9, 2013, I advised the congregation to keep an account of the time they spend each day on Facebook, Twitter, and the television. Then spend that much time waiting on the Lord. They have given several hours to Antichrist, so give that amount of time to God.

I am very serious about this, because the only manner in which we can find God’s will for ourselves is by the transformation of our mind. And we choose to have our mind transformed by Antichrist, or by the Lord, by the time we spend with each person.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

There are not three wills of God, as some have stated. His one will is good, pleasing, and perfect. Notice that it is not perfect wills but “perfect will.”

Christ, while addressing the Apostle Peter (petrus–a boulder), said He would build His Church on the mountain of Rock (petra). It was God the Father speaking in Christ, declaring that God’s Church would be established on the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. (John 14:10)

On Christ the solid Rock we stand (certainly not on Peter!).

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:15-18)

If we are in Christ, living by His Life, absolutely nothing can harm us. If we are killed, we will go to a far better place. While we are on the earth, God’s angels shall have been given charge concerning us to keep us from all evil.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:2)
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. (Psalm 91:11,12)

God will hide us in the cleft of the Rock.

Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.” (Exodus 33:21,22)
For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in his dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. (Psalm 27:5)

If I am not mistaken, in the future there will be many demonstrations of Satan and his demons. I believe there will be times when we actually will be able to see the legions of darkness. Naturally we will be frightened. We may never have seen the face of Satan or of the demons before. We have seen only their works in people. If we are not walking with Jesus, we will be terrified when Satan is visible to us. But if we are having fellowship with the Lord Jesus during the time of darkness, we will remain confident in the Lord.

You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. (Psalm 91:13)

I would suggest to every American Christian that he or she become familiar with the Bible verses that promise safety in the time of trouble. When the spiritual darkness does engulf us, we need to be able to put up the shield of faith against the enemy—and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

The next passage is one such promise that will stand us in good stead during the period of moral and physical chaos. But we need to familiarize ourselves with such verses now, and not wait until we are terrified and cannot think clearly.

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (Psalm 91:14-16)

The Lord has delivered me from many disasters throughout my lifetime, and multitudes of those who have placed their trust in Christ can say the same thing. Jesus is a very present help in time of trouble. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us—and He never will.

Our part is to put on the whole armor of God so that we will be able to stand in the evil day. There shall not be a rapture to save us in the dark hours. That is a false, unscriptural hope. The wise believer will memorize what the Scriptures actually promise. Then he can help himself and others when the spiritual darkness descends on us.

Christ will not fail us. He is the solid rock. Gibraltar may fall into the Mediterranean Sea some day. If that happens, Christ still will be standing triumphantly, and those who are part of Him will be singing and dancing in the heights of Zion throughout earth’s darkest hours.

But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. (Genesis 49:24)
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Ephesians 6:13)

(“The Rock of Israel”, 3827-2, proofed 20210831)