I heard that saying many, many years ago in Sunday School class. I was about ten years old, and our Sunday School teacher told us boys, “Boys, always remember, your actions will always speak louder than your words.” I can’t say that I’ve always remembered it at the right times, but I have never forgotten those words.

I was reminded of it this morning when I was told of a business organization that sent an employee home one day after the employee had given their two-week notice to leave. The employee had two weeks of vacation that was due and could have taken their vacation first and then given a notice that they were leaving, but they didn’t think that would be the right thing to do. There was no reason for the employer to send the employee home other than the obvious. There have been several other incidents of this nature from this business entity. The head of this organization says he is a Christian and often boasts that they run their business as a Christian organization. I’m sorry, but your actions speak louder than your words.

Have you ever noticed how much our political leaders speak of loving and befriending others? Have you also noticed how much their hatred of any opposing view distorts their faces and almost causes them to froth at the mouth? Actions speak louder than words.

What about the entertainment industry: movie “stars,” sports “heroes,” musical “heartthrobs,” etc.? Again, they love everybody, but their hatred cannot be hidden when speaking against opposing views. Much worse than that, how about all that love talk when mention is made of Jesus? They use His name as a curse word, tossing it around like an old rag. Actions speak louder than words.

And then I listen to those dear folks speaking of loving each other, protecting animals, defending the defenseless. You know who I’m talking about … the tree huggers and save the beetle crusaders. I wonder what they think of the genocide of babies? No … that word isn’t descriptive enough. Murder? No … I know. What do they feel about the slaughter of babies? I know for a fact that most don’t have a problem with it. The mother’s “rights”? Actions still speak louder than words.

The Indians (oh, excuse me, the native Americans) used to call that speaking with a forked tongue. Well, there’s a lot of that going around. It has gotten so bad in today’s world that if someone told me it was raining outside, I’d have to look out the window first to see if it’s true.

My parents were not like that. They were pretty straightforward with what they had to say. If they told one of us youngsters while we were at church to be quiet or get a spanking when we got home, guess what we did? We got real quiet because we knew their words and their actions were in total agreement. Not so with most parents today.

I can actually remember the day when a person’s word was their bond. Contracts were validated by a handshake. Try that today and see how far it gets you. Actions speak louder than words.

Jesus said He came to die for all, and He did.

“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Jesus said He came to save the lost, and all who come to Him will be saved.

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Jesus said He will save all who come to Him, and He does.

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).

Jesus said He will never condemn those who come to Him. He never has, and He will not do so.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).

Jesus said He will remove His bride (the Church) before He judges the world. He is coming again.

“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).

Jesus said He will reward His own, and He will.

“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work” (Revelation 22:10).

Jesus said He will judge all those who do not call upon Him in belief, and He will.

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.

“The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15).

Jesus has backed up everything He has ever said by His own actions. He also said:

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

“But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this” (John 8:40).

“…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Jesus saves all who will come to Him, and He has backed up His words with actions … the cross … the empty grave.

Jesus is coming back for His own. His words can be trusted because He backs up everything He says with actions.

Jesus will judge the world during the Tribulation and then at the Great White Throne judgment. Rest assured, it will happen, and it may be much sooner than any of us realize. All who come to Him now will not suffer wrath.

“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11).

God has shown over and over that He always does what He says. His words and His actions are always true to each other. Can that be said of us?

Grant Phillips

Email: Phillip5769@twc.com

Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com

Rapture Ready: https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html

An Exposition

Luke 21:20-24: “The Terrifying Future for Jerusalem”

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Jerusalem flee to the mountains, let those who are amid her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:20-24, NKJV).

Prophecy can be defined as the history of humanity yet to be written but already known to some. If the Sovereign Lord, Who is above all space, time, and limit, set out to design all of what we see and do not see – put into a specific place within the universe and here on Earth, with exact measurement and precision, whether mobile or stable, with the structure, formulas, measurements, logic and rationality that allows for nothing extra nor wasted – to use for our benefit as His gift of mercy, grace, and love for us, then should He not control the progression of history as He knows it could, will, and shall be for the same mercy, grace, and love?

The God Who is There, as the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) entitled one of his books defending the Christian faith against the tide of skepticism that he observed in his time, is not a mere indifferent spectator Who put everything into place and then left it all up to us to handle. When we read the Scriptures, we read of a God Who is personal, attentive, disciplinary, caring, a defender of His people, a gracious Savior from our sins, One Who comforts, reassures, Who wipes away tears, and has all things under control and will have everything come to a final conclusion for His grace and glory. We are no mere specks or flukes of some cosmological indifference or random shot of extraterrestrial sperm from passing alien forces, as some theorize as a means by which life came to this world.

I attended public schools and took several science courses. I heard about the evolutionary theory of Darwin, and I was also exposed to the story of the Biblical account of the creation, both by reading and listening to teachers and pundits in classrooms, pulpits, and television hammer out their ideas and discoveries. And even when I was not a Christian, I could not put my mind around some of the topics I had heard in terms of “random selection” and the “survival of the fittest.” It seemed so directionless and without purpose or meaning.

To combine Darwinist thought and its disbelief in design with purpose as a prime source for a discipline like history and then believe that the life we live here in this world is nothing more than a game of chance would be sheer madness. Why do anything for anybody for any kind of benefit if it amounts to nothing more than a mere flick of protoplasm that ends up in a grave somewhere, leading to oblivion and nothingness? It does explain why ancient civilizations such as the Greeks developed the philosophies of Stoicism and Epicureanism as a way of coping with the world. Either you took your lumps and dealt with it, or you partied and played until death took you. If there was nothing of which to look forward to such as an afterlife, or rewards, or favor with the deities, then what was the point?

These two pagan philosophies would have suited the Sadducees, the more “liberal” followers of God in Jewish society. They saw no life beyond this one, with no angels, resurrection, or any rewards from God save for what they achieved while they were here. The Pharisees embraced the idea of a resurrection and an afterlife with reward and accountability, but the Scripture lets us see that they were just as earthly-minded in terms of keeping a tight rein on their system and essentially micromanaging the people’s religious patterns and rituals that posed for worship of the living God.

Both sides were missing the big picture in terms of how God was governing the affairs of humanity and how it would end. The people were under a bondage to formality and rank apostate faith. They had become uncertain of what God expected of them and whether He would restore the nation again free from Rome or any other pagan rule. The vices of the Greeks and the Romans had permeated the land with idolatry, perversions, and arrogance from years of conquest and domination.

The men and women who had been following the Lord Jesus up to that point had clung to a remnant of true worship and devotion to God as best as they could understand it. Jesus had made many things clear about the love, grace, and mercy of the Father to them and others hungry for hope and truth. His teachings were a breath of fresh air and free from any self-developed theory or interpretation based on another teacher’s observations and rituals, as was the case with the Pharisees. When Jesus taught, it was on the sure foundation of the Scriptures that He Himself had inspired the prophets and statesmen of Israel to compose and teach to the following generations.

His teaching was not only for the growth of our minds and souls as His children and heirs, but as a hard shot of reality that was to come upon them in the days ahead and to prepare them. There was to be no dreamy idealism or sense of comfort in this world for His followers. There was to be no self-styled Hebrew “utopia” and freedom from Rome as many were expecting from Him and their misguided beliefs in how they saw the role of the “Messiah” as promised in Scripture. The prophecies that Jesus was presenting to His little group were to show His group that Jerusalem was to be invaded and torn apart by the very Romans they desired to see either leave the land or be crushed by God.

Jerusalem had been destroyed by a pagan kingdom before. In 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and destroyed the city. He led the last king of Judah and his people to the Babylonian Empire, where they would stay for seventy years as a punishment for their idolatry, wickedness, and rebellion against God and the prophets who warned them of the judgments to come. God has not and will never tolerate any kind of disobedience and rebellion from anyone or any nation. He merits out punishment and demands accountability from all people, and His chosen nation of Israel was not an exception as we read the Old Testament.

Now, Israel had shut their national eyes and ears to the claims and proof provided by the Lord Jesus that He was and is the Promised Messiah of His people as foretold in the prophets. The hatred and slander thrown at Him by the religious officials and their influence on much of the public had taken effect, and they rejected Him. Once again, God’s chosen people refused to obey Him by deciding to turn their backs on Jesus and the promises of God for no other reason than He did not fit their preconceived ideas and expectations. When Jesus had left the temple for good that day, He closed the door on the apostate religion it now represented and consigned the city and people He loved to another excursion of heartache that would last for over two thousand years and more.

Jesus describes the coming destruction of the city in full detail, sparing nothing in getting His followers to understand that it is not worth one’s life to come back home and get anything. Get out while possible, and do not look back. Pregnant women and new mothers will have a hard time escaping, and many citizens will be brutally executed by the swords of the Roman soldiers who, under the command of Vespasian in A.D. 70, completely eliminate the city of Jerusalem from existence, with the temple burned to the ground and torn apart for the gold and jewels that will be sent back to Rome, along with the surviving Jewish population as slaves. Any Jews who had fled beforehand were now in hiding and without a city or nation for themselves.

The Jewish people will undergo numerous persecutions and be without a home until May 14, 1948, when the nation of Israel is born from the ashes of the Holocaust survivors of Europe and the worldwide Jewish population’s desire to reclaim their land. This establishment of Israel is in itself a sign from God that He will never abandon His chosen people and that their enemies are His. He will be the victor over all of them, with Israel receiving their Messiah Jesus and be the governing nation of the coming New Heavens and Earth as promised by the LORD in His word. The Lord will go on to show that the troubles are just getting underway, but He is on His way as well and will put everything in its final and perfect order for all time. Amen to that.

donaldwhitchard@gmail.com

www.donaldwhitchard.com