God Is Not Through With You Yet - Part II
August 20118 |
“A bruised reed shall he not break, and a smoking flax shall he not quench.”
Isaiah 42:3
MOSES, THE PRODIGAL SON, and Peter are examples of people who failed God, but who repented and were restored by God.
Moses was saved from death in the Nile River by his parents and Pharaoh’s daughter. Although he was raised in Pharaoh’s house and groomed to be the next Pharaoh, Moses knew he was a Jew. When he was 40, he renounced all the benefits of the palace, and chose to suffer with his people (Hebrews 11:24-27). When he saw an Egyptian beating a Jew, he killed the Egyptian thinking his people would accept him as their deliverer. He had realized and wanted to do God’s will, but he went about it in his own way. As a result, he had to flee from Egypt and leave his people in slavery. He had made a mess of things, but God was not through with him yet. He became a shepherd in Midian, and after 40 years of preparation, God called him and led him back to Egypt, and helped him deliver the Israelites from the mightiest nation on the earth at that time.
The prodigal wanted the privileges of being a son, but he did not want the responsibilities of a relationship with his father. He wanted to be free from his father’s control so he could do whatever he wanted to do with no accountability. He would rather have superficial relationships with his partying friends and the citizens of the far country than he would want to have anything to do with his father. He got the freedom he wanted, but he found out it led to bondage. After he had wasted everything, his friends wanted nothing to do with him. Then there was a famine and the only food he could find was what he fed to the hogs in the only job he could find. But God was not finished with him yet, and used these things to bring him to himself. He was forgiven and restored when he went back home—repentant and submitted to his father.
Peter was a common fisherman, but he was called by Christ to become a fisher of men (Matt. 4:18-20), and he left all and followed Him for three and one-half years. He walked on a stormy sea with Christ (Matt. 14:29) and supernaturally confessed that Jesus was the Christ (Matt. 16:16). He not only saw the blind, lame, lepers, and the deaf healed, the dead raised, and demons cast out (Matt. 11:5), but God also used him to do the same things (Lk. 10:12-19). He was part of the inner circle who saw the transfiguration, Jairus’ daughter healed, and prayed with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. He saw the crucifixion and the resurrected Lord, but he had denied Him three times. Even though he repented, he thought his ministry was over so he went back to his old occupation of fishing (Jn. 21:3). But God was not finished with him, and, in fact, a whole new dimension of ministry began on the day of Pentecost.
Jesus said, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16). God also promises that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:13). Both of these promises are to “whosoever” will come to God in repentance and simple faith in who Christ is and what He did on the Cross.
Similarly, Jesus said, “Him who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out” (Jn. 6:37). Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost” (Lk. 19:10). This is like a shepherd who leaves the 99, and goes into the mountains and seeks that which is gone astray (Matt. 18:12). These verses indicate that God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9). This verifies that God still loves us, and is not through with us yet.
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