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A local newspaper columnist wrote that he is losing sleep over the weather, and that the percentage of others concerned about “climate change” is dropping. Is there such a thing as “climate change?” Yes!
After the Noahic flood, the ice age came about from the physical upheavals that occurred. Ca.950-1250, there was a warming period in parts of the earth. Ca.1300 to 1850, there were cooler temperatures, the “little ice age.” Man presumptuously and arrogantly believes he’s able to affect and control that kind of climate change. But God is sovereign over all, including climate changes. By God “all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible… All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16). “Whatever the Lord pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places... He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries” (Psalm 135:6-7). Mercifully, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). It’s this undeserved goodness which God uses to call men to repent and seek Him while He may be found (Romans 2:4; Isaiah 55:6). A cataclysmic “climate change” is coming when the Lord Jesus Christ returns at the end of this age. The Apostle Peter warned, “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). Then will come the new heaven and new earth. That’s good news for those who are trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior and following Him as Lord. But then the unbelieving and unrepentant will say “to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” (Revelation 6:16). The same newspaper columnist wrote further, that he can’t believe that God is sovereign over climate change. We are indeed to be responsible stewards of the earth. Adam and Eve were to “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion…”, and, “to tend and keep” the garden (Genesis 1:28; 2:15). But Adam rebelled. Now, pollution and terrible management of God-given resources are just some effects of that rebellion. But ultimately, God is sovereign over all. He’s the One who determines and orders a climate warming, a cooling period, sunshine, snow, rain, floods, droughts, calm seas, or nor’easters, and it happens. God said of Himself, “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). Create calamity? Yes, but some would not accept that, the reason being that it doesn’t fit into their personal opinion and perception of a loving God. There are many who don’t accept the Bible as the Holy Spirit inspired word of God. Someone said God created us and we’re now returning the favor. As such, fallen man has created a god that he can get along with, who does things his way. The Bible teaches that man is not autonomous, that he is not the master of his destiny, and that he is accountable to God. And men defiantly hate that. Further, many say that what the Bible calls sin (or lawlessness against God’s moral laws and the created order), they call freedom. That’s the very essence of what it is to defy God, to fundamentally be your own god. But, “Woe to him who strives with his Maker!” (Isaiah 45:9). The Apostle Peter tied together the sovereignty of God with the accountability of man when he preached, “Jesus… Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (Acts 2:22,23). The most evil and heinous act ever committed, God sovereignly used to bring about the greatest good of forgiveness and life for those who believe and repent.
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“Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple”
Psalm 65:4 The “sweet palmist of Israel,” David, has provided in this verse the very fullness of the blessings God has bestowed on His children. Included is God’s sovereign choosing of His people for salvation. To be chosen is to be the object of God’s everlasting love, but not because one is deserving. In fact, it is quite the contrary. God chooses only at His good pleasure, and indeed that is a great blessing. But we also read that He causes His chosen ones to approach Him. Here is the blessing of having one’s stubborn will conquered, since one would never be willing or able to approach God of their own accord. Instead, God graciously changes the heart so that its disposition towards God is radically reversed in its affections. Where before that person was in rebellion against God, seeking to chiefly satisfy and love self, now that one has a new love for God and His people. This is what Jesus was talking about when he told Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). This truth of the necessity of new birth in order to have a new will formed is a great blow to fallen man’s pride. Sinful man is self-deceived in believing he has a so-called “free will” whereby he can do whatever he pleases. But “whatever he pleases” is the crux of the issue. Left to himself, he would never come to God because his sin bound self-loving nature is such that he would never be “pleased” to approach God. He’s insulted that He would have to be chosen, as if he were not good enough. As such, he reasons that if approaching God is a result of God’s choice, then it must be God’s fault if he doesn’t. But the chosen one, now powerfully transformed into a new creature, approaches God by faith, boldly and joyfully, with sins washed away by Christ at the cross, and beautifully clothed in the righteousness earned for him by Jesus. This is to be supremely blessed. And yet there’s more. This being in the presence of God and in His courts is to be forever, and that chosen one will be satisfied to the utmost! Isaac Watts has written of the “three chief ingredients” of true satisfaction and happiness. He listed, “the contemplation of the noblest object, to satisfy all the powers of the understanding; the love of the supreme good, to answer the utmost propensities of the will, and the sweet and everlasting sensation and assurance of the love of an Almighty Friend, who will free us from all evils which our nature can fear, and confer upon us all the good which a wise and innocent creature can desire. Thus all the capacities of man are employed in their highest and sweetest exercises and enjoyments.” And yet there are so many who believe that their greatest blessing lies elsewhere than in being chosen and caused to approach God and dwell with Him forever. It’s evidenced in their ignoring of God’s gracious invitation through His messengers in the pulpits to approach Him now by confessing and repenting of sin, and believing in Christ Jesus as the One who paid the price of their sin, and also obeyed God’s law on their behalf. It’s also evidenced by many who once approached Him, even professing Christ, and joining a church, but who are careless and irregular in their approach, some even having now gone their own way. When this happens, they start to demonstrate that perhaps they never were chosen. John wrote, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us” (1 John 2:19). But those truly chosen find a measure of this promised eternal satisfaction even in this passing life. They’re eager to worship God, and be with His people, in whom they see something of the image of Jesus Christ. They’re zealous for good works, and they’re anxious to tell others of their joy in Christ so that they too might partake of it. They long to sing praises to God, and to hear from their beloved Almighty Friend from His word. And then they delight in responding to Him in their prayers. They also have the great hope of dwelling in His courts, and “everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). Indeed, let us say, blessed is the man God chooses, and causes to approach Him, that he may dwell in His courts, and there to experience such satisfaction forever. By God’s grace may you all be so blessed! And to God alone be the glory, |
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