We have Seventh Day Adventists yet today, that want to hang to the old law and pray that they be justified by the law, but they need to hear about the hail. It will sweep away the lie to them that believe in Christ. We, can, under Christ, be justified from the things we could not be justified from under the law. Romans 3:19, The law never made anybody a Christian, it made you a sinner. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law.” That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.” The law was given to make you guilty. You can hang on to it if you want to, but I don’t need something to make me guilty. I need something to save me. We were starting for services and I told my little boy to turn back and get his faced washed. He had a candy bar and it was all over his face, but he said, “I ain’t dirty, Mamma washed me.” “Yes, you are dirty”, but he held on. Then I picked him up and held him in front of the mirror and that convinced him and he said no more. The Word of God is a glass, James said, it convinces you. “That every mouth may be stopped.” It will sweep away the false hiding places. All the world will become guilty before God.
There’s no salvation in the law. “Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of God without the law.” But didn’t Jesus say, keep my commandments? He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” But He wasn’t talking about the ten.
THE FIRE OF THE FIRST TRUMPET WAS THE SYMBOL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
He sent His disciples out. He said: “Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. (Did you hear of anything like that in the ten commandments?) Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. If you love me, keep my commandments. What is another of the New Testament laws? “I, your Lord and Master have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.” “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.”
This was hail to a race of Jews who thought they were the chosen race. Here we find Paul telling the Jews, that concerning the plan of salvation, they were on the same level as the Gentiles. That hail, still affects the Jews.
When you find a man, who has been a member of a church for 40 or 50 years and preach that church joining is not salvation and that they have no more security in Christ than the man out there in the world, if they have not been born again, well…that’s plain talk and that’s hail! It’s truth! There’s no difference. You can turn to Stephen. He poured it out! He began with Abraham and brought it clear up to Christ. We’re told in Scripture, they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit of his message.
THE BLOOD OF CHRIST (THE SACRIFICE) MINGLED WITH THE HAIL AND FIRE
He told them that with wicked hands they had crucified Christ! He poured it out---he laid it on! He swept away lies and called them stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. Always resisting the Holy Spirit. Here was hail and fire mingled with blood. Now, we get to the blood. We’ve found that hail is the judgment of God’s eternal Word. Truth was sweeping away the refuge of lies that people are hiding under. The fire of the Holy Spirit was what they could not resist. It upset their belief from beginning to end. He had called them murderers to their face. This was hail and fire, mingled with blood. The blood of Christ was mingled all through it. Peter preached plainly on the day of Pentecost. And we’re told they were pricked in their hearts and said, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” He had put the hail on them and the fire had scorched them. Then he told them about the blood. After he had swept away the false professions, he told them about the blood of Jesus Christ. It’s our only refuge, the rock of ages; but let’s get back to our test.
“Therefore, I have laid in Zion a stone, a tried stone.” Any other rock or stone is a false one. Every other refuge or hiding place is a false one. The rock that He laid Him in the tomb, and He raised Him from the dead. That’s the rock of our salvation, Christ’s resurrection. When the early church preached, they began with Abraham and brought it up to Christ’s resurrection. By the time they got to Christ’s resurrection, there was conviction.
Jesus Christ went down into the grave and broke the power of death and so broke the power of sin, broke the power of the devil, raised above it, was exalted at God’s right hand, and lives today as intercessor upon a throne of mercy. John 5:8, There are three that bear witness in the earth: the Spirit, the water and the blood, or the hail, the fire and the blood. [ The End ]