Ester 4:4 "So Esther’s maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not."
Queen Esther, feeling perfectly safe and secure as queen, was embarrassed by the conduct of Mordecai, her adoptive father. Here he was, out in the city, walking up and down, moaning, wailing, and groaning.
So what did she do?
She sent him a new set of clothes!
They were gaudy, probably bright and expensive
but, you see, all the bright colors and new clothes will not change the king’s edict.
Mordecai would not receive the clothes.
They would not remove the stigma.
There is an application here.
The covering of religion will not remove the fact that man is a guilty sinner before Holy God.
Neither will religion alter the fact that the wages of sin is death.
People deal with sin in many different ways.
Some try the gaudy clothes way.
They refuse to believe that they have sinned. They reach out for any garment that might hide the reality of what they did.
Others put on the gaudy clothes of reformation.
They say that sin is just a mistake, and they try to cover it.
They wrongly think sin can be reformed.
Many pulpits today have become a place where a mild-mannered man gets up before a group of mild-mannered people and urges them to be more mild-mannered.
No wonder the world has passed by the church.
We do not need reforming;
we need to be regenerated.
We need to be born-again.
We need to be cleaned up, inside.
Truth in the inward parts.
We need a new nature,
The nature of our Father.
A nature that will not sin.
1 John 3:1-15 "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
Little children, let no one deceive you.
He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God,
nor is he who does not love his brother.
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother.
And why did he murder him?
Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.
He who does not love his brother abides in death.
Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in Him."
We need to have on the garment of Christ's righteousness.
Christ Jesus who paid the penalty of the sin we commit is the only One who is able to deliver us from that sin.
And if we sin, He is our advocate with the Father.
1 John 2:1 "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
Our advocate is Jesus Christ the righteous.
Notice that apostle John says,
"We have an advocate with the Father" - John does not call Him by the impersonal name God because He is still our Father even though we have sinned.
Therefore we need to recognize that our salvation rests upon what Christ has done for us, and that it is a finished work.
Someone has expressed it like this:
Upon a life I did not live,
Upon a death I did not die,
Another’s life, Another’s death,
I stake my whole eternity.
It is finished, yes, indeed;
Finished, every jot!
Sinner, this is all you need!
Tell me, is it not?
Author unknown.
We cannot add anything to a finished work.
What Christ has done is all we need for salvation.
However, if you and I are going to have fellowship with Him, we need to recognize something else.
"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father."
Who is He?
He is
"Jesus Christ the righteous."
The word advocate is from the Greek parakleµtos, the same word which is translated "comforter" in John’s gospel.
The Holy Spirit is our Comforter down here upon the earth and Christ is our Comforter in glory.
Advocate is a legal term. It means "one who will come to your side to help in every time of need." We have a wonderful heavenly Father, and we do not lose our salvation when we sin, but there is somebody up in heaven before the throne of God who wants us to lose it, and that is Satan.
Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
In Revelation 12:10 we are told that he accuses us before our God day and night.
Remember how he accused Job.
In effect, he said to God,
"If you will let me get to him, I’ll show You that he will curse You."
When that happens in our case, the Lord Jesus is able to step in as our Advocate.
He died for us!
Yet the accuser is there, and some people are very disturbed by that. But the Advocate is far greater than the accuser.
Someone has expressed this in beautiful poetic language:
I hear the accuser roar
Of ills that I have done;
I know them well, and thousands more,
Jehovah findeth none.
Though the restless foe accuses—
Sins recounting like a flood,
Ev’ry charge our God refuses;
Christ has answered with His blood.
Author unknown.
1 John 2:2 "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
The word propitiation, as it is used here in John’s epistle, is a different word from that used in the Epistle to the Romans. In Romans the meaning is "mercy seat" - Christ is the propitiation, the mercy seat, the meeting place between God and man. However, here in 1 John propitiation means "an atonement or an expiation."
It means that sins have been paid for by the suffering of Another.
Christ is our Advocate, and He is interceding for us right now.
He Himself is the propitiation.
Notice that apostle John does not say that if anyone repents, he has an Advocate nor if anyone confesses his sins, he has an Advocate. Neither does he say that if anyone goes through a ceremony to get rid of his sins, he has an Advocate.
What he does say is that if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father.
Before we even repent of that cruel or brutal act, the very moment we had that evil thought, the moment we did wrong, our Lord Jesus Christ was there at the throne of God to represent us as Satan was there accusing us.
Then, because of the faithful advocacy of Christ, the Holy Spirit brings conviction to us, and we confess our sin to the Father.
To confess means that we get on God’s side and we see our sin as He sees it.
We confess that sin, as sin.
Only when we are born-again does Christ become our Advocate.
Only the born-again believer has the desire to please God and that is because he loves Him.
When a believer sins, Christ immediately goes to court for him. And the reason He must go to court is because there is the accuser of the brethren present. Satan is right there to tell God what we have done wrong, that we have failed.
The Lord Jesus Christ intercedes,
"Yes, he’s failing, and I’m ashamed of him. But here are the wounds in My hands.
I died for Him."
Dear reader, He is my Advocate to plead my case before Holy God.
Is He your Advocate?
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Chorus.
Are you washed .... in the blood ....
In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you walking daily by the Saviour's side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white?
Pure and white in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright?
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb!
There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean -
Oh, be washed in the blood of the Lamb!
Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos 379.
AMEN!
Our sins are very well known in heaven.
Psalm 90:8 "You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance."
Secret sin is open scandal in heaven.
If you are a Christian and think, you have done something and nobody knows anything about it, you are mistaken because everybody in heaven knows about it.
Oh be so thankful if you are a believer because you have an Advocate there to defend you.
Hebrews 9:24 "For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the Presence of God for us."
Christ is our Advocate.
And when we sin,
the thing that we are asked to do is this:
1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
God forgives us.
Christ has had to go before the Father and plead for us.
So we are to confess our sins and we are to forsake them.
He is the Judge of His own.
That’s the great truth of the Book of the Revelation.
Through the study of this book we come to the conclusion that Christ is the great center of it, but also that He is a Judge from the beginning of Revelation to the end of the book.
He is presented in the Gospels as a Savior,
but in the Book of the Revelation He is presented as a Judge.
That is the picture!
And that is entirely omitted and neglected by the church today.
God judges the church.
God judges believers.
He doesn’t haul them into court.
This is a family affair.
They are His own, and He does the judging;
God holds them accountable for what they do.
We always speak of the first vision presented to us in the Revelation as being a vision of the glorified Christ.
That is true,
but that is not the whole story by any means.
Not only is He glorified,
He is presented as a priest.
Revelation 1:12-13 "Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band."
That is the picture of Him as High Priest, ministering before God.
Then will you notice something else that’s here?
Back in the Book of Leviticus the high priest was a judge. We find that Israel was a theocracy, and every case was to be brought to the priests and to the high priest of that day.
He was the Supreme Court.
Our Lord Jesus is today the Great High Priest of the church.
Christ is not only our Intercessor and our Advocate - He has not only made a new way for us, He not only gives us access - but today as the Great High Priest He also judges His church.
Revelation 1:14 "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire."
That is judgment.
He is looking at those who are His own, because every man’s work will be tested by fire.
Revelation 1:15 "His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters."
Brass also speaks of judgment.
It is the material from which the Old Testament brazen altar was made, where the sin question was settled.
Revelation 1:16 "He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword."
The sword represents His Word:
Hebrews 4:12 "For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword."
He judges by His Word.
He does so today.
How do you measure up to His Word?
The lampstands among which we see Him standing as the Great High Priest represents the church.
And that’s where He is today.
Oh my dear reader you need His garment of righteousness this very day.
That is really all we need.
We do not need reforming;
we need to be regenerated.
We need to be born-again.
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, was religious, but
our Lord said to him,
"… Ye must be born again" (John 3:7).
We need a new nature because we have a sinful nature, and that sinful nature is not going to heaven, dear reader.
We have to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust Him to not only justify us but also to sanctify us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Our Lord Jesus died in our deserved place, He paid our penalty for the sin we have committed, He suffered and bled and died for that particular sin which we are still harboring and therefore our awful sin as well as the lies we tell to keep it covered, is never a light matter to be boasted of because of the grace of God.
Our Lord Jesus bore tremendous suffering because of our sin. Suffering that we cannot ever imagine or even attempt to describe. Sin is ugly, very ugly.
When we continue on in sin we need to meditate upon the cross of Calvary to see how ugly - black - that particular sin really is.
All we have to do is to accept what He has done for us on that cross.
If any person goes to heaven, it will be because they have trusted the One who died on that cross in their deserved place.
Christ Jesus bore my sin in His own body on the tree of Calvary.
I need a new garment.
A new set of clothes.
Ephesians 5:8 "For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light."
Philippians 2:15 "That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world."
Oh how we need cleansing, the refiners fire, from our selfishness, our pride, our arrogance and all the lies we keep on telling to cover up the truth. Not a single sin is a light matter and God takes note of our attitude towards those we have wronged. Those who bear the consequence of our sin because the whole body of believers, our Lord Jesus own precious body, suffers if one true believer suffers, then the whole body of true believers suffer also. Our tongue can cause a fire that continues to burn for years because of the lies we use to cover our sin. Sin is ugly, A fire destroys, but our tongues can be used as a blessing - when we are regenerated - when we speak the truth in love and pray earnestly for our Lord to forgive us and to make right the wrong we have done to hurt His body of believers. This makes us humble - not boastful, - blameless and harmless because the thing that we did causes us to spend our lives showing kindness to the body of Christ that we have wronged, this is true godly sorrow which leads to true works of repentance and servanthood.
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7).
This is the law of retribution.
It is still a principle for the child of God today.
We won’t reap something else, we will reap the identical thing that we sowed.
Our Lord Jesus said,
"… they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew 26:52).
Today on every continent strife is being fomented. And the most tragic casualties are the children. Many children are suffering today because of the sin of their parents. Parents who refuse to accept the truth and that continue on living a lie. When we will not believe the truth then there is nothing else left for us but to believe the lie which will eventually become the big lie that the devil will use to deceive the world for he is a liar and the father of all lies but there is coming a day when all hell will break loose in this world.
Oh I thank God, that He is in heaven and He is a God of justice and of righteousness, and that He is going to put an end to sin.
And Oh how thankful I am that He is a God of mercy, that He is not like men, but is merciful.
He is the Father of mercies
The cross reveals His love; it reveals His holiness.
My Savior took upon Himself my sin. God so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son to die in my place, because He must judge sin.
Oh, today, in this day of grace, God is merciful. But do not let it deceive you -
God is also holy, and righteous.
Those who will not receive the Savior - will not admit their sin - those who will spurn His grace, those who will turn their backs on His mercy, will be judged for their sin.
God makes no apologies to us in the twenty first century for doing that, because He has been patient with us. He has been gracious to us for so long.
"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).
God is calling you right now.
Why not turn to Him and confess your sin?
You are still able to avail yourself of His mercy?
It does not mean that because we do not believe a thing to be true, that it is a lie.
Rather ask God in His mercy to plant evidence in your heart so that you can believe the truth.
The truth sets us free and the truth never fails because our Lord Jesus Christ is the truth.
He is the only way to be reconciled to God.
We have to yield to Him and we have to allow Him to reveal the truth to us. We have to be willing to accept the truth inside our beings. We have to be honest, transparent if we want to be healed because it is by
His stripes that we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5 "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed."
The tongue can be either a curse or a cure.
Forest fires scorch and blacken and are a plague. Like a fire, the tongue can burn through a person, a family, the body of Christ, a community, and even an entire nation.
James 3:5-6 "Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."
WHEN WE BELIEVE A LIE WE ARE BELIEVING THE DEVIL.
Apostle Paul asked the question,
"Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth (Galatians 4:16).
Micaiah is one of the great men of the Bible (1 Kings 22). He was a man of God and He told Ahab the truth at the peril of his own life.
When we speak the truth we have enemies.
Micaiah was the best friend Ahab ever had but he did not know it.
We are accountable to God to tell the truth so that lies can be put a stop to - stop burning like an unquenchable fire - and when we have been told the truth, we are accountable to God to examine ourselves and see if we are truly are in the faith because God has promised us that when the Holy Spirit is come He will lead us into all the truth.
Mark 5:31-33 "And His disciples said unto Him, Thou seest the multitude thronging Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched me? And Jesus looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the truth."
David thought that, since he was the king and known as a man of God, he might get by with sin. But, nobody gets by with adultery.
David attempted to cover it up.
So there came a day when God sent the prophet Nathan to him with a story of injustice in his kingdom. David, rose up in anger when the wrong was somewhere else's.
And he said,
"… As the Lord liveth, the man who hath done this thing shall surely die" (2 Samuel 12:5).
I think the prophet Nathan was the bravest man to tell King David
"Thou art the man!"
But David did not get angry with Nathan. He could have had Nathan killed, but his was heart broken and he cried out to God - listen to his confession,
Psalm 51:1-5 "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
And if you want to see the psychological effect of that sin upon a him, you can read the confession of David in
Psalm 32:3-4 "When I kept silence, my bones became old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah."
If you want to know whether sin hurts or not, read the story of that man who lost his joy, the joy of his salvation and with it everything worthwhile:
Psalm 51:12-13 "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee."
David knew he was dirty and he cried out to God for cleansing. And that’s not all. He said something else that is very significant:
"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight …" (Psalm 51:4).
Adultery is a sin
against Almighty God.
Hebrews 13:4 "Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."
When we turn to the last two chapters of the Bible where God gives the wonderful picture of heaven, we find the Spirit of God felt it necessary to say that on the outside are the sexually immoral and they shall not enter that heavenly city.
Revelation 21:27 "And there shall in no way enter into it anything that defileth, neither he that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they who are written in the Lamb’s book of life."
Revelation 22:15 NKJV "But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie."
That is God’s law, and that is God’s Word.
Someone may say, "Preacher, that is indeed a severe penalty!" I agree with you.
Idolatry in Israel was called spiritual adultery.
It is the sin that God depicts as the most loathsome in the world.
And the worst chapter in the Bible, as far as I can tell, is Revelation 17.
It is the most frightful scene. There we see a church -
a false church, an apostate church - which has turned from God and is depicted as a harlot, riding the Beast.
Dear reader, God judged His nation Israel for the sin of spiritual adultery. He said through Jeremiah the prophet, before His people were taken into captivity,
"Backsliding Israel has committed adultery!"
They committed spiritual adultery in that they turned from the living and true God.
They had gone after the idols of the heathen.
They had turned from Him.
Likewise today the relationship between Christ and the believer is spoken of as that between bridegroom and bride. When someday the church is presented to Him without spot and without blemish, it will be a relationship that’s the very highest. When Jesus’ mother and His brethren came to Him, you might remember He sent back a word which sounded almost cruel, "Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?" And then He said, "Anyone who will do the will of My Father which is in heaven is My mother and My brother and My sister" (Matthew 12:46–50).
In other words,
He established a new relationship which is higher than that that which is between a man and his own unsaved children.
This is the relationship between God and a lost sinner who is found.
Apostle Paul wrote this, and I think he is speaking about both here:
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators [having premarital sex], nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind .. shall inherit the kingdom of God."
That is something to think about!
Mankind today makes light of his dreadful sin.
But that will not excuse it at all.
There is an incident in Scripture which reveals that there is hope for any person. You will find it in
John 8:1–11 (Although some Bibles omit it, I believe it belongs in the Word of God.) It is the episode of a woman said to be guilty of adultery and taken in the very act - how harsh and how crude those men were who brought her into the temple area, right into the presence of the Lord Jesus, and into the middle of the group as He was teaching! And every man who came had a rock in his hand, was ready to stone her, and they said to Him, "Our law says she is to be stoned. What do You say?" Without even looking up, Jesus began writing on the sand there in the temple area. Then He said,
"The one who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone."
Well, there were not any stones thrown that day. And we are told that beginning with the oldest down to the youngest that were standing there not one threw a stone at her. They all slipped away as quietly as they could. Finally, that woman was left with the One who could have stoned her,
and He said to her,
"Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more."
This frightful thing of sexual sins, this awful thing which is a sin against humanity and a sin against God, can be forgiven, for there is a Savior who died on the cross for those who are guilty and will trust Him.
Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
2 Corinthians 5:21 "For He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
Oh may we see the heart of God as He restated these Ten Commandments to a new generation. The generation that had originally heard the Law at Mount Sinai was dead. Their bones were bleaching out there in the desert.
This new generation, the Israel that was actually going into the Promised Land - and you and me - hear it from Moses this day, after he had experienced 40 years in the wilderness, listen to
God’s heart-cry for His people:
Deuteronomy 5:29 "Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!"
Most Gracious, Abba Father, May I come before You right here and now in the precious name of the only Saviour from sin, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father I have sinned against You and You only have I sinned.
I have lived a life of pretending to be what I am not and I ask for forgiveness. Father I have told lies and I have withheld the truth for a long time. Please forgive me Father and lead me in the everlasting way of truth. Cleanse me of my pride and arrogance, my intolerant attitude and my complete selfishness O God. Cleanse my heart O God and make it ever new. Place a right spirit within me so that I may praise and honor You only with my tongue. Help me to tell the truth all the time no matter the cost to myself Father so that no lie can continue to burn like an uncontrolled fire and touch so many lives and cause such division in Your body. I ask this O God for the sake of my precious Saviour who died in my place and bore my sin in His own body upon the tree of Calvary. Wash me thoroughly from all my sin which is ever before me O God and bring to mind, plant evidence in my mind, of all my wrong doing so that I may confess my sin and keep short accounts with Thee O God. Thank You for Your marvelous provision for our sin, our precious Lord Jesus Christ and please help me never to think lightly of my sin. Make me afraid to sin O God and please "deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue" (Psalm 120:2). I ask this prayer in Lord Jesus peerless name and for His dear sake alone.
Amen!
He who bore your load of sin?
As He knocks and asks permission,
Sinner will you let Him in.
Chorus.
Room for Jesus, King of glory!
Hasten now His Word obey!
Swing the hearts door widely open!
Bid Him enter while you may!
Room for pleasure, Room for business;
But for Christ the crucified -
Not a place that He can enter
In the heart for which He died.
Have you any time for Jesus,
As in grace He calls again?
Oh, "Today" is "time accepted."
Tomorrow you may call in vain.
Room and time now give to Jesus:
Soon will pass God's day of grace;
Soon thy heart be cold and silent,
And thy Saviour's pleading cease.
Amen!
When we go out at night and we see the stars in the black sky. When our Lord looks down from heaven, He sees the inky blackness of this world, but He sees those of us who are His own as lights. He is in the midst of us - trimming, filling, and adjusting, bringing us into another position where we can give better light.
That is what He is doing today.
His own must be usable. We must be expendable. We must be bent to His will. We must be pliable. We must be yielded to Him. We must be willing to be lights in this dark world of sin.
His work is both negative and positive.
It is negative in that God always punishes sins.
Apostle Paul, talking about the Lord’s table said,
1 Corinthians 11:28-29 "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world."
One of the things the Lord Jesus does is to move in among believers today inspecting the lights, and as He finds a lamp that is burning very dimly - is giving off smoke - and is not a blessing at all, He begins to trim. If that individual will judge himself, the Lord Jesus will not judge him. But if that individual will not judge himself, then
He will judge.
This is the true test as to whether we are the children of God. If you can get by with sin, you are not His child. Our Lord is in the midst of the lampstands, and when one of His lights won’t burn, He trims it, always trims it. He won’t let you get by with sin if you are His. He will take you to the woodshed. God has not read any of the new books on discipline!
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."
When we have preached to others, we do not ever want to hear our Lord say "You have failed me, Caryl. You were not light in the world. I made you to be light but you covered that light by withholding the truth."
The Christian life to me is a very serious business. It is like training for a race.
Like apostle Paul, whom I love dearly, says,
"I even discipline my body, and I do it in order that I might obtain a crown. I want to be approved of Him."
Oh how we need the righteousness of Christ today.
That is the only way we are able to stand before God in truth.
God is in the process of sanctifying those who belong to Him. Those whom He has set apart, those whom He has justified he also sanctified. God is refining us today, making us what we already are in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:19-22 "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight."
Sanctification is a painful process, in which our loving Abba Father brings His dear children through a painful process, testing, but it brings us to maturation in which God teaches His own called out body of believers to be what He wants them to be.
We are being transformed, renewed in our minds as we read and study His Word to us, God gave us the entire Bible, not just a few sections but the whole Word of God. It is for our admonition, our learning and our entire comfort. It is for every true believer our map of His way. We are to study all of it and we are to put on Christ down here in our earthly walk. Apostle Paul has told us to put on Christ because He is the One who is the truth, and we should put Him on in our lives. How can we be in Christ and believe a lie? It is not possible.
The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Truth and He will lead and guide us into all truth. Our greatest encouragement in the ministry is to know that God’s true children will hear us. The elect cannot permanently be deceived. Christ said it is not possible to deceive the elect.
Dear reader I am not going to heaven because I think I am good, because I know that I am not good. And don’t look down your nose at me, because you are not good either. Both of us are sinners, we have nothing to boast about, because we are saved by grace alone if we have accepted Christ Jesus as our personal Saviour. We have been accepted in the Beloved.
They that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit, they are born from above, regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit of God. They love the things of Christ and are obedient to Him.
Apostle Paul says to us today,
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:1–2).
And also,
"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (Colossians 3:12).
These are some of the things we are to cloth ourselves with as we strive to please God and bring praise and glory to His name.
We can't do these things by our own effort.
It is only as we let the Spirit of God work in our lives that they will appear.
Each one of us needs cleansing.
God is holding out the scepter of grace to you dear reader if you have not yet been born-again or if you are out of fellowship with Him.
Will you ask Him to come into your heart today?
Will you allow Him to wash your feet today?
Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart.
Open your heart and receive Christ as your Savior.
The light of Christ has come into the world.
The light of Christ has come into the world.
Verse 1.
All men must be born-again
to see the kingdom of God;
The water and the Spirit bring
new life in God's love,
The light of Christ has come into the world,
The light of Christ has come into the world.
Verse 2.
God gave up His only Son
out of love for the world,
So that all men who believe in Him
will live IN Him forever,
The light of Christ has come into the world,
The light of Christ has come into the world.
Verse 3.
The light of God has come to us
so that we might have salvation,
From the darkness of our sins we walk
into glory with Christ Jesus,
The light of Christ has come into the world,
The light of Christ has come into the world.
Thanks: Losinda
Amen!
Reply to Caryl@cherith.co.za.
THIS PAGE UPDATED: 24-5-2008.