Blessed is he that watcheth.
"We die daily," said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not in this day called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test; but the tests of Christian life, at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have to bear the sneer of the world-that is little; its blandishments, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy, are far worse. Our danger is lest we grow rich and become proud, lest we give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world, and lose our faith. Or if wealth be not the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, if we may be hugged to death by the bear, the devil little cares which it is, so long as he destroys our love to Christ, and our confidence in Him. I fear me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher times. We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted ground, and are most likely to fall asleep to our own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love to Jesus a vehement flame. Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God. Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display His omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer things, as well as in the rougher, "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."
10 comments:
Wow, what a great post. We really need to keep our guard up.Becareful lest we fall prey to the world. and all its folly.
Jesus keep us.. near the cross. Keep us sitting at your feet. And our eyes on you. Like the song says give us clean gives pure heart. lets us not give it to another something like I don't know all the words.
that was suppose to say give us clean hands
From your post-
Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God. Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display His omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer things, as well as in the rougher, "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."
Okie,
This is the painful reality....
The purpose of our trials is to PROVE our faith. I have been listening to a 6 part series by John Macarthur on trials. It has helped me to really see that trial are necessary to test us. A trial is a test. I have known this but it just clicked. The fear now is that God will test me now that I am understanding...and so if thereis fear, it must be conquered.
Spurgeon is amazing. He always gets to the heart of the matter with so much eloquence.
Many who profess Christ don't know him. Many of them sit in church every week--they are even Pastors and yoth leaders. Christ woudl not have to talk about seperating the wheat fromt he chaff if this is not so, yet Pastors are encouraging non-believers that they have been saved because they "said the prayer" or walked down the aisle.Thye have a false sense of hope.
"Hypocrites with fair masks."
The Lord has convicted me of that..
"We need his omnipotence displayed in us."
Thats a great statement.
Who are we without HIm?
We were saved by Him, and perfected by Him.
We need to OBEY.
Soemone told me recently that is too easy..there is more we have to do.
How much more would we have to do than obey?
Wasn't that the problem with Israel?
All they needed to do was obey to reach the promised land. But they murmered and complained about their present circumstances. They didn't trust the testing and provisions of God. They wanted their way..I have to be reminded of this every day. I have to see ALL things that He allows as a means to my reachind my final destination of perfection.
The hard part id getting out of the way so He can have His perfect work in me.
Thanks for this sobering reminder.
Chosen4Him
MaryB: You are right...we do need to keep our guard up at all times.
Chosen4Him said: "The hard part is getting out of the way so He can have His perfect work in me."
Wonderful insight - certainly there are many today in the church and in the pulpit that are not saved. Jesus spoke of them (Matthew 7:22-23). The problem with tares is that they look just like the wheat until just before harvest time. Then the wheat begins to die and turn brown, but the tares stay nice and green. so, unlike any other crop, they are left until harvest. (During my first pastorate I worked on a farm where we grew wheat and potatoes).
Getting out of the way is the dying part; and all too often we don't want to die. But if we do God will bring forth a wonderful harvest in our lives.
Okie,
Can I ask you a question as a Pastor?
How can you answer the question of why God would require a human sacrifice for sin?
Thanks
Chosen
Chosen: The penalty for sin is death; Jesus died in our place. It was not human sacrifice in the technical sense, i.e., as practiced by pagans. It would be in the sense of one taking the punishment for another,which is what Jesus did.
Okie,
I understand the need for sacrifice, but as you alluded to the person who asked me this said that human sacrifice was pagan and believed the entire Bible derives from paganism. This is from a former missionary to Haiti that recently left the faith. I had a conversation with him awhile back and recently this came up again with someone else-a Jewish person.
Jesus temporarily took the punishment, but in the end conquered death so in retrospect it really had no effect on him. ..It is hard for me to really explain what has gone on in my head. When I saw the Passion, aside from all the scriptural errors, it is hard for me to understand how God could suffer or why God has to suffer for me. I understand how Jesus can suffer-but I have a hard time connecting that this is God because Jesus has always referred to the Father, and at that time seemed human and not with diety because God doesn't have to feel pain if He chooses not to.
Human sacrifice was forbidden in Torah (I can't find the verse right now) so why would God go against this?
I know I am not making any sense.
There is someone in my husbands life who is a JW who keeps challenging him with Jesus' references to the Father..I guess we can never fully understand the Trinity. I never really have.
Chosen
PS.
I understand that at that moment on the cross he was seperated form the Father. I had a feeling you may mention this..
Chosen: The trinity is something that everyone struggles with; it is there in Scripture, but my pea brain can't fully comprehend it. A. W. Tozer said that he could not believe in a God he could fully understand. Think about it; if we could fully understand God, He would not be much of a God.
We must consider the two natures of Jesus when we seek to understand Him. He was fully man, yet at the same time He is fully God. Consider
what Jesus said in John 3:13: "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." Here Jesus is claiming Omnipresence; the fact that as God, He was able to be on earth and at the same time in heaven before the Father.
The Law forbid the sacrificing children to pagan gods, thus forbidding human sacrifice. Yet (as I said) Jesus was not a human sacrifice in the pagan sense.
I understand and see the love of God in the death of His Son for me. For one to walk away from the faith because he feels it is a violation by God of His own Word, is foolish. There were times when men chided Jesus for an appearance of the same (healing on the Sabbath). They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
God does what He does; we don't always understand it nor does He owe us an explanation.
Often these arguments people use try to justify their unbelief are simply a smokescreen for their immorality; nothing more.
Thanks..
I think this man (who actually was very instrumental in my early walk) who left the faith began to see the pagan connections in the Bible.
I know that sacrifice was always in the heart of man-he knew he needed a sacrifice for his sins, and I guess the enemy has counterfeited this with pagan sacrifice--but because certain books of the Bible (Job for example)-are thought to be the earliest books, there are those who argue that pagan sacrifice was already happening..and it seems odd that God would require the same kinds of animal sacrifices for Israel--the sacrifice of animals..what the pagans were doing. Actually to think of animals burning all day and the blood all over the temple--it is really ard to imagine. That never changed the heart of anyone.So I wondered why God would expect an external ritual which had no connection to the heart...
Well, I don't want to continue this because when my mind goes to these places, it is never a good thing!
Thanks....
Chosen
Post a Comment