This piece is inspired by the book “Man In God’s World” written by the German theologian Helmut Thielicke. Today, people feel that there is no room for righteousness and religion in this world but as it is so often the case, the unbeliever loves to live in this surreal utopia where everything that ought to exist in the environment is there only to please him and serve his own vested interest. The truth however is that man is not God but God is God and everything that is there in all creation is there to please God not us. So, if we feel that there is no room in the world for God, guess what’s going to happen, the earth will swallow us 6 ft under before we reach a ripe old age. The Bible says that the earth yearns for the revealing of the sons of God, the rightful stewards of the earth, whose image/character of God that was broken in the disobedience of Adam has been restored in Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17).

Rom 8
19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Rev 15
2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious [a]over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. 3 And they *sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and marvelous are Your works,
O Lord God, the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Your ways,
King of the nations!
4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy;
For all the nations will come and worship before You,
For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

That’s a whole lot of scripture I have mentioned up there but there is something I need to tell you along the lines of how this is God’s World we are living in. Like a king who is overthrown by his own people for his tyrannical reign over his people through the years, is the case of the unbeliever, who in serving his own interests like he was a god, uses and abuses his neighbour & the creation around alike & then creation fights back because God subjects her to that pain of child bearing & yearning concerning revealing those whom God has adopted into His family through Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13). I have mention Rev 13:4-6 & 15-17 above, so you would understand the context of Rev 15:16. Satan has naturally bastardized all of mankind from the fall of Adam with his blasphemous lies against God & His commandments (Gen 3:1-6). The reason the masses today are more interested to listening to demonic spirits and not the word of God is because from the falls the unbeliever is a bastard son/daughter of Satan (Heb 12:8), who is naturally opposed to the righteousness of God. So, like the Levites paid Melchizedek their tithe while they were still in the loins of Abraham (Heb 7:5), so too we who are all Adam’s offspring fell for Satan’s lies in the fall of Adam. Satan was however overpowered and kicked out of heaven and he fell like lightening to earth (Lk 10:18) and broke his fall with his face I presume but on earth he continues to fight his losing battle (Rev 12:13/Is 9:6), so he opens his mouth spews out his unreasonable hate against God and His church in an attempt to destroy the Church and foolishly thwart the mighty saving arm of God in the lives of His elect (Ps 44:3). Though the Bible says the world is under the sway of Satan (1Jn 5:19), the only fools listening to him are those whom he had bastardized in Adam. Imagine the Almighty Son of God, through whom all creation was made (Col 1:16-19), He took human form 2000 years ago in the womb of a virgin (that he may have no part of Adam’s sin) and became the sinless/unblemished atoning sacrifice for all of God’s people. The redemption this Jesus offers is 2-fold, first Jesus imputes in the elect His righteousness and second Jesus takes upon Himself the sins of the believer having overcome it by His death and resurrection. This Almighty Son of God is the one who binds Satan and plunders his house (Lk 11:21-22), saving whom He wills. Imagine Saul, who gushed like water from Satan’s mouth on the road to Damascus to persecute the Church but encountered the Lord Jesus Christ on the way, who turned Saul around from his righteousness of self to the righteousness of God.

Exodus 15 (Moses Song)
11 “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord?
Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in praises, working wonders?
12 “You stretched out Your right hand,
The earth swallowed them.
13 “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed;
In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation.
14 “The peoples have heard, they tremble;
Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 “Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed;
The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them;
All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16 “Terror and dread fall upon them;
By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone;
Until Your people pass over, O Lord,
Until the people pass over whom You have purchased.

Coming to Rev 15 mentioned in the start of this post, let’s take a look at the Song of Moses and compare it with the what is mentioned above. The above is the Song is what Moses and the people sung after God parted the Red Sea that they may pass. Notice Verse 12 in Exodus 15 above… “the earth swallowed the Egyptians” who followed the Israelites into the Red Sea, just like it is mentioned in Rev 12:16. Then notice also Exodus 15:16, the people whom the Spirit of Christ past over came at a price, which was paid on the cross. Take a look at Baptism, its akin to the burial of believer in that we die to ourselves and come alive to God (John 12:24-26). This dying to ourselves, which is actually godly sorrow that brings about repentance leading to Salvation does not happen of our own volition (2 Cor 7:10). The Spirit of Christ subdues us, takes away our hearts of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (Ezek 36:26-28) which is so obedient that the Bible says it’s as though God’s Law were written on it (Jer 31:33).

Matthew 24
38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.

Matthew 13
24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven [m]may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. 27 The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he *said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Though many people may consider Mat 24:40-41 as the rapture, it is not, because if you were to look at the context of this scripture, you will understand that that coming of the Son of Man is spoken in the context of paying out the good justice of God upon the ungodly, also take a look at Mat 13:30, it shows you that what goes first are the tares. One must also note that the rapture is an offshoot of this escapist ideology where God is not sovereign. On the contrary, as God did not spare His own Son (Rom 8:32), why will He spare us the rod and the Bible says he scourges/disciplines every son whom He receives in Jesus (Heb 12:6/Jn 1:12-13). The only difference between the scourging Jesus received and we will receive is that Jesus was the sinless Lamb of God by whose atoning sacrifice we have life, while the scourging we receive is the discipline we need to walk on the right path.

Ecclesiastes 7:17
Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

Prov 16:31
A gray head is a crown of glory;
It is found in the way of righteousness.

So, to help you put the tares going early into perspective, the wicked die early and if we are to have life, we can only continue to do so on God’s terms because after all we are all just men living in God’s world but thankfully the Triune God Almighty is good. Take a look at the statistics for yourself, you’d notice that average life expectancy for a drug addict is 30-39 years. Coming to the LGBT, these people are 42 times more likely of die of Aids and 4 times more likely to commit suicide; with suicide alone wiping out 34,000 of the LGBT each year, it is the third leading cause of death among the LGBT who are between 15 to 24 years old. For convicts charged with capital crimes, like rape or murder even if they do not hang, their odds of death increase by 78% & their life expectancy reduces by 10 years. Coming to Alcoholics, the average life expectancy is 47-53 years for men and 50-58 years for women. Unless you haven’t noticed, I have stated the statistics of only those whom the Bible says will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1Cor 6:9-10). To conclude I shall say this, it is much better to live at the mercy of God which we generously avail in His Son Jesus than to live at the mercy of people fallen in Adam who know no mercy but tyranny.

Psalm 37:17
For the arms of the wicked will be broken, But the Lord sustains the righteous.

Mat 13
22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Rev 13
16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Take a look at the world today, it would seem that a person’s survival and well being depends fully on how he cooperates with the unrighteous syndicates that operates in his environment, which figuratively speaking is wearing the mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-17). The world is filled with covetousness, adultery, murder and thievery. Covetousness in the sense, that people only associate with those whom they have something to personally gain from. When they gift, it will be with the expectation of getting something of equal value or higher in return. People like these, want to be seen hanging out with the bigwigs and subtly brag about it to promote their own self-esteem. When it comes to adultery, it doesn’t matter what God thinks, as long as you have two consenting adults, you can do what you want with yourselves. You know, there was once a study conducted where random people were offered to choose from a Hershey’s Bar and a 10g bar of silver bullion, you will be surprised that every person in that study chose a Hershey’s Bar because that is how short sighted we are when it comes to pleasure. So, it is also with Sex, who cares about nearly dying on the table while going through an abortion, that sexual lusts must be satisfied first. Not that I am for abortion, I am very much prolife, in fact I believe even in the case of rape (the favourite prochoice excuse for abortion), if a mother raises that innocent child with the love he deserves, he will grow up and avenge his mother and give his biological father the deserving justice, which his liberal government would have most probably fail to act up on. In any case liberal logic is so lopsided that in the case of rape, it licences the death of the innocent child while denying the rape victim the justice she must get against the rapist. When it comes to thievery, it seems to be ok to rob only when everybody else is doing it, like piracy or like when a mob goes on the rampage and it’s a free for all, then nobody cares what God thinks because the esteem we hold ourselves in is only before the people around us and not before God, so it’s ok to stoop to thievery simply because everybody is doing it and it doesn’t really matter how well you are doing in life because what you serve is not God but yourself and so every opportunity to sinfully gather to yourself what pleases you, is just an opportunity your depraved nature cannot let go off.

Matthew 6:24, 30-33
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
…
30 …You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

It is in seeking the good pleasure of God that we live life to the fullest. If you have ever noticed, it is those who are self-centred who cannot even do anything for themselves because the truth is we were made to serve the Lord not ourselves and it is in selflessly serving the Lord that we unlock our full human potential, which in itself serves as the building blocks of healthy society. Humanist always try to serve themselves by pleasing the people around them but the Godly live to please the Lord, that is our purpose & the thorns of trying to please to the world does not hold us back (Mat 13:22). Jesus does not cramp our style, Jesus is our style, He is what makes us tick and we are not ashamed of Him, He is that one person we identify with as Christians. It is in following after this Jesus that we learn not to be ashamed of the truth concerning everything, even ourselves. This is what it is like to live empowered with the holy fear of God. It is not about being afraid of Him for no reason… God is not Satan to kill without reason. God makes His standard known through His Law, and it is in abiding by this Law that we learn what it is to be moral and civil. Rebel against Him, and even if the whole world may support you, you will see no point in living the life you have. Let me give you a real-life example, take homosexuality for instance, every backsliding nation is decriminalizing homosexuality and many media agencies are expressing their support for the #LGBT by giving their logos the multi-colour theme but all this support is doing nothing for the sky rocketing suicide rates of among the LGBT.

Psalm 144
1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle;
2 My lovingkindness and my fortress,
My stronghold and my deliverer,
My shield and He in whom I take refuge,
Who subdues my people under me.

Phil 4:13
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

This world looks at true Christians like we are pigs wallowing in the mire because the faith that empowers us to do what we do for the Lord is absolutely alien to these self-serving gods. So, as much as it is not possible to serve two masters: money and the Lord, it is also not possible to please the world in their sin and please God in the righteousness revealed to us in Christ. I once read about what made the Persians such great warriors in their time and it is said that they would rather die in battle than face their king in defeat. If a Persian King can command such reverence from his people, then why can’t the Son of God incarnate, the King of kings & Lord of lords… Jesus Christ command the same? Why then does David say in Psalm 84:10 Better is one day as the doorkeeper in the house of God than a thousand days in the tents of the wicked?.. because that is the holy zeal the Holy Spirit that is at work in us commands unto our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. A God-fearing man is not one who lives maintaining a spotless reputation in a wicked society, rather a God-fearing man is one who roars like a lion against society for supporting all that which displeases his God. A God fearing man does not use the love of God as a convenient excuse to bow out to those who identify as unrepentant sinners (right & wise in their own sight), rather that Love a God-fearing man has for the Lord burns within him like a zeal to do what is right/pleasing in the sight of God, which often results in calling sinners out on their sin that they may repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who saves us from our sins. In any case being a true God-fearing man often comes at the cost of offending every self-righteous fool around because when you really believe in God, you live like God is for real, rather than a make-believe exhibited only through rituals and/or prayer.