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I like doors. How can so many rectangles be so different and so descriptive of who the people are who live behind them? I take pictures of doors a lot.
When I arrive home from a loud and busy day at school, being on the Spectrum, I'm especially sensitive to noise. I savor the quiet. So when I unlock my door, open it and step inside, and close it behind me, I breathe an audible sigh of relief. Doors shut out the outside, barring unwanted things. Doors allow for rest and repose for those inside. Doors are amazing.
The Bible references doors frequently. One of the seven I AM statements Jesus made, in fact, was that He is the Door.
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9).
And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. "Later the others also came. 'Lord, Lord,' they said, 'open the door for us!' (Matthew 25:10).
The Lord does not open the door for the pleading virgins. He says He never knew them, and condemningly, the door remains shut.
The Ark which Noah built had a door, too. For 120 years, Noah, a preacher of righteousness, (2 Peter 2:5) pleaded with all to enter into God's safety. They refused. They perished.
And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in. (Genesis 7:16)
Our pastor preached on the Flood this past Sunday. He said that Noah and the family went inside, and then God shut the door. What a terrible thing it would have been for Noah himself to shut the door against his neighbors and friends. "But he wasn't asked to shut it," our pastor said. "God did it."
The door was shut against the Sodomites. The door was shut against the unwise virgins. The door was shut against the antediluvian world. In Isaiah 55:6-7 we read,
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
God is love and He is mercy. He is long-suffering, but His mercy, love, and patience will end. At a point at which only He knows, the door will shut, the number of the Church will be complete, (Romans 11:25-26) and He will call His Bride home to heaven. Then He will send His wrath upon the unrighteous and the Great Tribulation will be terrible in its effect. Though many will come to faith during that woeful time, they will not be protected from His wrath as the Church is promised to be. (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
Just because it's not the rapture or even the Tribulation do not delay entering through the Door of Jesus Christ. There is no other way to obtain salvation, forgiveness of sins, and to escape the wrath. Flee from the wrath to come!
But I do not see fire and brimstone smoking in the distance, you argue. It is a fine and lovely spring day, and all things are going on as they have been? Why worry about some kind of wrath, which is hard to believe anyway?
Because He will shut the door! He hates sin and His long-suffering regarding sin will end, just as it did at Noah's time.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. (Colossians 3:5-6)
At an hour or day you do not know but God knows, He will shut the door and rain down His anger. His plan is specific. It could be in ten years it could be in the next moment of time. God has planned it and it surely will come to pass, just as it did in Noah's time.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:11-12).
And in addition, because God isn't seeming to rain down fire and brimstone at this moment in your section of the ungodly world, does not mean He isn't about to harden your heart so that you will never be able to go through that door of righteousness. (Romans 9:18). His wrath could manifest itself in your internal standing, and not just the external disaster of His visible wrath.
When the door shuts, you want to be on the right side of it. The palpable sense of relief and joy you feel when you arrive home to a loving family and a warm supper and rest and safety from the plagues of the day will be magnified a million-billion-google-fold when you are carried to the bosom of Jesus in His ark of safety and love, forgiven of sins and cleansed, washed and nurtured and grown when you receive your glorified body and given the mind of Christ in full, and knowledge of Him face to face.
Imagine what a day that will be. And because the terror of the LORD is real, imagine being a resident of Sodom, futilely beating on the door until you weary yourself. Imagine uselessly appealing to Jesus from outside to open it and hearing Him say, "I never knew you."
On which side of the door will you be when you breathe your last, or when the wrath finally comes?
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. (Revelation 3:7).
When I arrive home from a loud and busy day at school, being on the Spectrum, I'm especially sensitive to noise. I savor the quiet. So when I unlock my door, open it and step inside, and close it behind me, I breathe an audible sigh of relief. Doors shut out the outside, barring unwanted things. Doors allow for rest and repose for those inside. Doors are amazing.
The Bible references doors frequently. One of the seven I AM statements Jesus made, in fact, was that He is the Door.
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9).
Christ is the door. This he saith to those who pretended to seek for righteousness, but, like the Sodomites, wearied themselves to find the door, where it was not to be found. [Genesis 19:11] (Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible)The Sodomites could not enter through the door. Neither could the unwise virgins.
And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. "Later the others also came. 'Lord, Lord,' they said, 'open the door for us!' (Matthew 25:10).
The Lord does not open the door for the pleading virgins. He says He never knew them, and condemningly, the door remains shut.
The Ark which Noah built had a door, too. For 120 years, Noah, a preacher of righteousness, (2 Peter 2:5) pleaded with all to enter into God's safety. They refused. They perished.
And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in. (Genesis 7:16)
Our pastor preached on the Flood this past Sunday. He said that Noah and the family went inside, and then God shut the door. What a terrible thing it would have been for Noah himself to shut the door against his neighbors and friends. "But he wasn't asked to shut it," our pastor said. "God did it."
The door was shut against the Sodomites. The door was shut against the unwise virgins. The door was shut against the antediluvian world. In Isaiah 55:6-7 we read,
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
God is love and He is mercy. He is long-suffering, but His mercy, love, and patience will end. At a point at which only He knows, the door will shut, the number of the Church will be complete, (Romans 11:25-26) and He will call His Bride home to heaven. Then He will send His wrath upon the unrighteous and the Great Tribulation will be terrible in its effect. Though many will come to faith during that woeful time, they will not be protected from His wrath as the Church is promised to be. (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
Just because it's not the rapture or even the Tribulation do not delay entering through the Door of Jesus Christ. There is no other way to obtain salvation, forgiveness of sins, and to escape the wrath. Flee from the wrath to come!
Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matthew 3:7).
Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. (Hebrews 6:18).
We will first consider the question of John the Baptist. “When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
I have no doubt that the Pharisees and Sadducees were very much surprised to hear John addressing them in that way, for men who wish to win disciples ordinarily adopt milder language than that—and choose more attractive themes—for they fear that they will drive their hearers from them if they are too personal and speak too sharply.
There is not much danger of that, nowadays, for the current notion now abroad is that Gospel ministers can sew with silk without using a sharp needle and that, instead of piercing men with the sword of the Spirit, they should show them only the hilt of it—let them see the bright diamonds on the scabbard, but never let them feel the sharpness of the two-edged blade! They should always comfort, console and cheer, but never allude to the terror of the Lord.
Charles Spurgeon, Flee from the wrath to come!
But I do not see fire and brimstone smoking in the distance, you argue. It is a fine and lovely spring day, and all things are going on as they have been? Why worry about some kind of wrath, which is hard to believe anyway?
Because He will shut the door! He hates sin and His long-suffering regarding sin will end, just as it did at Noah's time.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. (Colossians 3:5-6)
At an hour or day you do not know but God knows, He will shut the door and rain down His anger. His plan is specific. It could be in ten years it could be in the next moment of time. God has planned it and it surely will come to pass, just as it did in Noah's time.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:11-12).
And in addition, because God isn't seeming to rain down fire and brimstone at this moment in your section of the ungodly world, does not mean He isn't about to harden your heart so that you will never be able to go through that door of righteousness. (Romans 9:18). His wrath could manifest itself in your internal standing, and not just the external disaster of His visible wrath.
When the door shuts, you want to be on the right side of it. The palpable sense of relief and joy you feel when you arrive home to a loving family and a warm supper and rest and safety from the plagues of the day will be magnified a million-billion-google-fold when you are carried to the bosom of Jesus in His ark of safety and love, forgiven of sins and cleansed, washed and nurtured and grown when you receive your glorified body and given the mind of Christ in full, and knowledge of Him face to face.
Imagine what a day that will be. And because the terror of the LORD is real, imagine being a resident of Sodom, futilely beating on the door until you weary yourself. Imagine uselessly appealing to Jesus from outside to open it and hearing Him say, "I never knew you."
On which side of the door will you be when you breathe your last, or when the wrath finally comes?
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. (Revelation 3:7).
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