August 9: Are You Jill? Are You Jack?
2 Kings 24:1-4, Jer. chapters 48, 49, 22:18-23, 2 Kings 24:5,6
Jeremiah 22:18-22
Amplified Bible (AMP)
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: [Relatives] shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister, [how great our loss! Subjects] shall not lament for him saying, Ah, lord! or Ah, his majesty! or Ah, [how great was] his glory!
19 [No] he shall be buried with the burial of a donkey—dragged out and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up [north] to Lebanon and cry out, and raise your voice in [the hills] of Bashan [across the Jordan], and cry out from Abarim [a range of mountains southeast of Palestine], for all your lovers (the king’s chosen allies) are destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your [times of] prosperity, but you said, I will not listen! This has been your attitude from your youth; you have not obeyed My voice.
22 The wind [of adversity] shall pasture upon and consume all your shepherds (your princes and statesmen), and your lovers (allies) shall go into captivity. Surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded and dismayed because of all your wickedness.
Jehoiakim would not listen. He, from his youth, NEVER, not even one time, obeyed God's voice.
This is what God will allow to happen to someone who consistently throughout their life will not ever listen to God's voice. Who consistently chooses evil over good. I'd say there is NO HOPE for this person. Unless, suddenly they throw themselves at the foot of the cross and beg for mercy and drastically change their attitude and lifestyle. But even then, it may be too late. Let's call this person Jill.
Let's look at another situation which seems just as hopeless. Jack, for instance. Jack loves God, is tempted, choses sin, repents, lives for God, is tempted, chooses sin, repents lives for God, and so on. Jack may seem like a lost cause. However, there's a difference. The difference is this; Jack has a heart for God but he is weak. There IS HOPE for Jack. As long as he keeps coming back to God, there is hope.
But, by flip flopping, Jack is also taking a huge chance with his future. What if he dies while he's partying? Okay, maybe he's not a partier. What if he dies while he's not choosing to serve and obey God? Or, what if the rapture happens while Jack is in a sinful part of his cycle? He's doomed to live out his eternity in hell with the devil and his angels. Even if he's basically a good person, just choosing not to serve Christ for a time.
2 Peter 2:22 expresses this cycle of sin perfectly.
"There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire."
Lets just read the whole chapter.
Amplified Bible (AMP)
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: [Relatives] shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister, [how great our loss! Subjects] shall not lament for him saying, Ah, lord! or Ah, his majesty! or Ah, [how great was] his glory!
19 [No] he shall be buried with the burial of a donkey—dragged out and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up [north] to Lebanon and cry out, and raise your voice in [the hills] of Bashan [across the Jordan], and cry out from Abarim [a range of mountains southeast of Palestine], for all your lovers (the king’s chosen allies) are destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your [times of] prosperity, but you said, I will not listen! This has been your attitude from your youth; you have not obeyed My voice.
22 The wind [of adversity] shall pasture upon and consume all your shepherds (your princes and statesmen), and your lovers (allies) shall go into captivity. Surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded and dismayed because of all your wickedness.
Jehoiakim would not listen. He, from his youth, NEVER, not even one time, obeyed God's voice.
This is what God will allow to happen to someone who consistently throughout their life will not ever listen to God's voice. Who consistently chooses evil over good. I'd say there is NO HOPE for this person. Unless, suddenly they throw themselves at the foot of the cross and beg for mercy and drastically change their attitude and lifestyle. But even then, it may be too late. Let's call this person Jill.
Let's look at another situation which seems just as hopeless. Jack, for instance. Jack loves God, is tempted, choses sin, repents, lives for God, is tempted, chooses sin, repents lives for God, and so on. Jack may seem like a lost cause. However, there's a difference. The difference is this; Jack has a heart for God but he is weak. There IS HOPE for Jack. As long as he keeps coming back to God, there is hope.
But, by flip flopping, Jack is also taking a huge chance with his future. What if he dies while he's partying? Okay, maybe he's not a partier. What if he dies while he's not choosing to serve and obey God? Or, what if the rapture happens while Jack is in a sinful part of his cycle? He's doomed to live out his eternity in hell with the devil and his angels. Even if he's basically a good person, just choosing not to serve Christ for a time.
2 Peter 2:22 expresses this cycle of sin perfectly.
"There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire."
Lets just read the whole chapter.
2 Peter 2
Amplified Bible (AMP)
2 But also [in those days] there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines (destructive heresies), even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings; because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed.
3 And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with false (cunning) arguments. From of old the sentence [of condemnation] for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.
4 For God did not [even] spare angels that sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the judgment and their doom.
5 And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world of ungodly [people].
6 And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes [and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly;
7 And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless—
8 For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard of [their] unlawful and wicked deeds—
9 Now if [all these things are true, then be sure] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom,
10 And particularly those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion and scorn and despise authority. Presumptuous [and] daring [self-willed and self-loving creatures]! They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling,
11 Whereas [even] angels, though superior in might and power, do not bring a defaming charge against them before the Lord.
12 But these [people]! Like unreasoning beasts, mere creatures of instinct, born [only] to be captured and destroyed, railing at things of which they are ignorant, they shall utterly perish in their [own] corruption [in their destroying they shall surely be destroyed],
13 Being destined to receive [punishment as] the reward of [their] unrighteousness [suffering wrong as the hire for their wrongdoing]. They count it a delight to revel in the daytime [living luxuriously and delicately]. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their [a]deceptions and carousing together [even] as they feast with you.
14 They have eyes full of harlotry, insatiable for sin. They beguile and bait and lure away unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in covetousness (lust, greed), [they are] children of a curse [[b]exposed to cursing]!
15 Forsaking the straight road they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam [the son] of Beor, who loved the reward of wickedness.
16 But he was rebuked for his own transgression when a dumb beast of burden spoke with human voice and checked the prophet’s madness.
17 These are springs without water and mists driven along before a tempest, for whom is reserved forever the gloom of darkness.
18 For uttering loud boasts of folly, they beguile and lure with lustful desires of the flesh those who are barely escaping from them who are wrongdoers.
19 They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity and defilement—for by whatever anyone is made inferior or worse or is overcome, to that [person or thing] he is enslaved.
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through [the full, personal] knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome, their last condition is worse [for them] than the first.
21 For never to have obtained a [full, personal] knowledge of the way of righteousness would have been better for them than, having obtained [such knowledge], to turn back from the holy commandment which was [verbally] delivered to them.
22 There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire.
Here's another scripture on the subject.
Amplified Bible (AMP)
2 But also [in those days] there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines (destructive heresies), even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings; because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed.
3 And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with false (cunning) arguments. From of old the sentence [of condemnation] for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.
4 For God did not [even] spare angels that sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the judgment and their doom.
5 And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world of ungodly [people].
6 And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes [and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly;
7 And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless—
8 For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard of [their] unlawful and wicked deeds—
9 Now if [all these things are true, then be sure] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom,
10 And particularly those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion and scorn and despise authority. Presumptuous [and] daring [self-willed and self-loving creatures]! They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling,
11 Whereas [even] angels, though superior in might and power, do not bring a defaming charge against them before the Lord.
12 But these [people]! Like unreasoning beasts, mere creatures of instinct, born [only] to be captured and destroyed, railing at things of which they are ignorant, they shall utterly perish in their [own] corruption [in their destroying they shall surely be destroyed],
13 Being destined to receive [punishment as] the reward of [their] unrighteousness [suffering wrong as the hire for their wrongdoing]. They count it a delight to revel in the daytime [living luxuriously and delicately]. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their [a]deceptions and carousing together [even] as they feast with you.
14 They have eyes full of harlotry, insatiable for sin. They beguile and bait and lure away unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in covetousness (lust, greed), [they are] children of a curse [[b]exposed to cursing]!
15 Forsaking the straight road they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam [the son] of Beor, who loved the reward of wickedness.
16 But he was rebuked for his own transgression when a dumb beast of burden spoke with human voice and checked the prophet’s madness.
17 These are springs without water and mists driven along before a tempest, for whom is reserved forever the gloom of darkness.
18 For uttering loud boasts of folly, they beguile and lure with lustful desires of the flesh those who are barely escaping from them who are wrongdoers.
19 They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity and defilement—for by whatever anyone is made inferior or worse or is overcome, to that [person or thing] he is enslaved.
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through [the full, personal] knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome, their last condition is worse [for them] than the first.
21 For never to have obtained a [full, personal] knowledge of the way of righteousness would have been better for them than, having obtained [such knowledge], to turn back from the holy commandment which was [verbally] delivered to them.
22 There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire.
Here's another scripture on the subject.Revelation 21:8
Amplified Bible (AMP)
8 But as for the cowards and the ignoble and the contemptible and the cravenly lacking in courage and the cowardly submissive, and as for the unbelieving and faithless, and as for the depraved and defiled with abominations, and as for murderers and the lewd and adulterous and the practicers of magic arts and the idolaters (those who give supreme devotion to anyone or anything other than God) and all liars (those who knowingly convey untruth by word or deed)—[all of these shall have] their part in the lake that blazes with fire and brimstone. This is the second death.
"Dear Jesus, I pray for Jill in today's example. She's still alive, so there's hope that somehow, some way her hard, rebellious heart will be softened and turn to You. Jill is someones daughter and/or someone's mother. Please continue to tug at her heart just like You tugged at King Jehoiakim's heart. Maybe all it will take is one more tug. And I pray for Jack in today's example. He is on a cycle of sin, repent, sin, repent, sin, and he feels hopeless. Please give him the desire to get up and keep trying. I have faith that one of these times he's going to get up and stay up! I praise You and thank You for You can do anything! In Jesus' name I pray these things, AMEN."
Amplified Bible (AMP)
8 But as for the cowards and the ignoble and the contemptible and the cravenly lacking in courage and the cowardly submissive, and as for the unbelieving and faithless, and as for the depraved and defiled with abominations, and as for murderers and the lewd and adulterous and the practicers of magic arts and the idolaters (those who give supreme devotion to anyone or anything other than God) and all liars (those who knowingly convey untruth by word or deed)—[all of these shall have] their part in the lake that blazes with fire and brimstone. This is the second death.
"Dear Jesus, I pray for Jill in today's example. She's still alive, so there's hope that somehow, some way her hard, rebellious heart will be softened and turn to You. Jill is someones daughter and/or someone's mother. Please continue to tug at her heart just like You tugged at King Jehoiakim's heart. Maybe all it will take is one more tug. And I pray for Jack in today's example. He is on a cycle of sin, repent, sin, repent, sin, and he feels hopeless. Please give him the desire to get up and keep trying. I have faith that one of these times he's going to get up and stay up! I praise You and thank You for You can do anything! In Jesus' name I pray these things, AMEN."
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