No Thwarting God

We have come to worship a King Who has conquered.  We are not coming to worship Jesus Who would like to be Lord.  We have come to worship Jesus Who is the Lord of lords, Who is already Lord over all of heaven and earth, Who rules from the right hand of God the Father and Who does so with His staff and rod.

But Jesus’ perfect rule is mysterious; He rules by means of His Spirit and through His church, His body, which itself is quite imperfect at this time.  Nevertheless, God’s ability to conjoin His sovereign purposes and the choices that His people, and even the unbelieving world make is beyond our ability to fully comprehend.  But this is always as it has been.

Let us take the case of Judas as an example.  Among the original twelve chosen to be apostles, Judas saw Christ’s miracles, heard His teachings, and yet Judas seemed especially disappointed in Jesus.  It may have been that Judas was a revolutionary and wanted Jesus to lead an overthrow over the Roman powers, but Jesus seemed more interested in the corruptions in the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders.  Judas also enjoyed helping himself to the money box, probably self-justifying himself that he had a better sense of where the money really needed to go.

On the evening that He betrayed Jesus, the disciples had no idea that he was the one Jesus meant would betray him.  But Jesus knew – and addressed him, “what you are going to do – do quickly.”  Jesus knew the heart of Judas – but He also knew the heart of Judas would not thwart God’s plans – rather, it would fulfill those plans.

You have come to be near Jesus and the Father – but you must understand that while you may be able to fool the closest around you, Jesus knows your heart.  The Father knows your heart.  There is no fooling this God, there is no buying Him off, and there is no getting Him off track of His plans and purposes.

What are those purposes for you?  If you turn to Him in faith, if you offer up to Him everything, if you submit and bow down and fear Him, if you tremble at His Word and rejoice in His reign, then those purposes are nothing but Good news, glorious news, eternal news of joy.  But if you come here dragging your feet because you are holding on to some sin, if you are holding idols of self-glory or self-justification, or your own better-than-God’s-plan plans, you need to know that this is a very dangerous place to be.  You cannot fool God.  You cannot thwart God.  You can and you must only repent before Him.