Notice our key passage once again.

"The one who sows to please his sinful nature, FROM THAT NATURE WILL REAP DESTRUCTION." Can you receive the full impact of that?

When we behave in a hateful, malicious manner, bringing discord and pain to others as we seek to force our will, we corrupt our own nature. Then, in the day of resurrection, out from that very corruption will proceed the effect of being hateful and mean.

As Paul said in another place:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (II Corinthians 5:10)

There are many today who are winning battles but losing the war. By this I mean they are treating others cruelly, forcing their will no matter who is injured. Sometimes such wicked people (often Christians) are able to triumph for a brief period until the faithful believers, who are plodding along on their pilgrimage, despair of getting relief.

But our God is righteous. When the true saints have been conformed to the image of Christ, as a result of their patiently enduring the self-seeking thrashing about of the wicked, then God will return and reveal who is serving Him and who is not.

In that hour every single act of the self-seeking will return upon them tenfold. The haters will be hated. The violent will be assaulted. The hypocrites will be revealed as to their true nature. Those who stepped on others will themselves be stepped on.

The righteous, after they have done their best, are saved with difficulty as they pass through fiery trials. What, then, will be true of the ungodly? Their ungodly behavior will be visited upon them in the day God avenges Himself of the wickedness practiced in the earth.

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones To judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. (Jude 1:14-16)

The above judgment will fall on those who assembled with the saints, according to the context.

"But Lord, You have walked among us in our churches. We have been called by your name. We sang the songs of Zion. We engaged in the activities of our assembling. We are Christians, saved by grace!"

"Depart from Me! I never knew you! Did you really believe I would overlook your slandering and gossiping, your malicious treatment of your brothers and sisters, your robbing of the poor, your adulterous acts, your worldliness, your refusal to take up your cross of self-denial and follow me faithfully?

"Did you really believe by saying My name you were excused from righteous behavior? Why did you not do what I and My apostles commanded? "Did you imagine that I was waiting with pleasure to usher you into Paradise after the way you behaved on the earth, the way you treated your fellow servants?

"Paul told you that you would receive the consequences of your actions. Why did you not believe him? Were you seeking your own glory all the while?

"You knew that millions were poor and naked, being denied physical food and well as spiritual food. When you had such an abundance, why did you not do everything in your power to alleviate their suffering?"

To be continued.