2010-06-11
Good Morning Cherished Ones,
As we approach the end of this two-year study of the Sermon on the Mount from MT 5-7, we continue with examining our own faith. The Lord knows who are His and who have rejected Him. 2 TIM 2: 19, “But he solid foundation that God has laid cannot be shaken; and on it are written these words, ‘The Lord knows those who are His” and “Whoever says that he belongs to the Lord must turn away from all wrongdoing.” There isn’t any way to completely hide one’s feelings/actions from Him. HE 4: 13, “There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before His eyes. An it is to Him that we must all give an account of ourselves.” If we haven’t been doing wrong to others, then we have nothing to worry about and can rest easy. As a matter of fact, we can take comfort in knowing that the Lord is keeping His promise of MT 25: 32 and is in the process of separating the sheep and the goats. This is true even though we are still sinners, capable of wrongdoing but choosing not to act on it. I believe that when we go to heaven, then the glorified alone will finally have this burden of being able to sin completely lifted. What gives me this opinion is REV 21: 27, “But nothing that is impure will enter the city, nor anyone who does shameful things or tells lies. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of the living will enter the city [the new Jerusalem].”
When we look back on JN 8: 31-32, we can gain some insight into the burden that will be lifted from those who persist in their faith. “So Jesus Said to those who believed in Him, ‘ If you obey My teaching, you are really My disciples; you will know the truth, and truth will se you free.’” Kay Arthur has said, “The only way a believer knows he belongs to Jesus Christ and possesses the Kingdom of heaven is by testimony of his changed life, his present and continuous life of overall obedience.” If one’s testimony is telling the truth, God gives him an inner peace and tranquility after he has shared it.
To have a better understanding of the condition of our faith, it helps to reread the sections of MT 7 on “I never knew you” [MT 7: 21-23] and “the two house builders” [MT 7: 24-27], then, comparing them to one’s own life. MT 7: 21-23: “Not everyone who calls the ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do.” There are some who on the Day of Judgment will rehearse the litany of what they did for the Lord, never telling the ways they were disobedient to Him. His response will be , “I never knew you, Got away from Me, you wicked people!” I suspect they will be in shock that the Lord is aware of their sinful “secrets.” There will be no room in heaven for those who have dual personalities-the sinful, manipulative, and secret one and the one pleasant, seemingly helpful one that is on the surface for others to see. The same will apply to those who have fooled themselves into believing they are obedient and do good when they aren’t and don’t. If that seem harsh, it needs to be. The Lord won’t make mistakes in His judgments and in deciding who shall inherit the Kingdom with Him for eternity, because He is perfect.
What constitutes not enough good to inherit the Kingdom, since God knows we are all imperfect? Calling God “Lord” when He really isn’t in charge of our lives might be one thing. Professing His Lordship over our lives when that isn’t the truth is wrongful. For obedience to really happen, there must be complete submission to God. Remember PS 31: 5? “I place myself in Your care. You will save me, Lord; You are a faithful God.” This is a kind of falling back with full faith that God is right there to catch us-trust. It is a willingness to listen for God’s input in our lives and to act upon it, even if it comes at an inconvenient time and/or takes us out of our comfort zones. He wants us to discover things we need to know about ourselves, talents we have- hitherto hidden from us, the joy of serving others, and the inner peace which comes eventually from really being obedient to Him. He wants to reveal to us the extent He will care for us. There are some things we can’t know, except by first-hand experience.
We also must understand that baptism alone doesn’t bring salvation. It is only an outward symbol of an inner transformation to the ability to live Christ-like lives [RO 6: 6, 11]. This doesn’t guarantee that we will be Christ-like, but it just says we are now capable of that. We must also understand that “faith without works is dead” [JAS 2: 17]. Once again, this doesn’t guarantee we will do the good works, nor does it say that doing good works will get us to heaven. Instead, it is another way of stating EPH 2: 8-10, “For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.” FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION! Going to church alone won’t guarantee us eternal life. We must get involved so that we can be serving God and helping others, so that we can worship God in many ways –both personal and corporate, and we can grow through education in God’s word-that powerful tool He uses to reveal Himself to us and “transform us inwardly by a complete renewal of our mind” [RO 12: 2]. We should never deny God and ourselves that opportunity!
PRAYER: O Lord, once again You have had more to say than I have space in this one devotion. We must bow our heads in utter reverence and awe at Your wisdom. We must thank You for sharing that wisdom with us through Your word, prayer, the circumstances of our lives, and our very willingness to listen for Your direction no matter how and when it is given. It is You, Who gave us the faith we have; it is You Who lets us know by “the peace that goes beyond human understanding” [PHIL 4: 7] that we have heard and acted on Your will accurately. You have put us together with other believers, often in life-long friendships You have forged into being-so that we might use the talents You have given us for the welfare of the Body of Christ, Your bride. No one of us is more important than any other; each lending his work and talents to the good of the whole [RO 12: 4-6]. When You established the Covenant of Grace, You asked us to enter into a two-way promise in which You promised to protect, guide, and lead us to eternal life, if we promised to listen, obey, and serve You alone. By doing this, You knew that we would be a blessing to others and that we would one day be back with You in heaven for an eternal life of bliss and fellowship with You. Both JN 6: 39-40 and EPH 1: 4-5 utter Your mission statement and allow us to know just how very important this is to You. We had nothing to worry about where Your end of the covenant was involved; but You were willing to enter into it, knowing that we are imperfect and sometimes don’t hold up our end of it. That is one more manifestation of the love You have for us. We thank and praise You, promise to improve on keeping up our end, and desire to grow in our maturity of faith. In the holy and mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Next Week: We will look more closely at MT 7: 24-27, “the two house builders,” in a effort to examine our own faith. The idea behind such an examination is not to build guilt, but instead to reveal where our faith needs growth. God wants us to engage in this kind of constructive evaluation of our faith in an on-going way. If we pray to Him before each thing that we do, we can rest assured that He will give us direction and help us along the way. Remember that His mission statement is that He wants as many of us to come to Him for eternal life as possible. No human loves us in the same way with the same intensity that our God does. We were created in His own image [GN 1: 27], and it would be illogical to assume that God doesn’t love a being created in His own image. If anyone reading this devotion is feeling unloved today, he is lying to himself. If anyone is feeling unworthy of love, he is denying God the opportunity to show, as Christ did, that even the lowest of sinners can be loved, inwardly transformed, and have a new life in Christ [2 COR 5: 17; COL 3: 9-10]. The wise person has reverence for God, even the one who has terrible sins in his past. He need only repent and have true faith in Christ, and he is saved. That is why Christ sacrificed his own physical life, so that such a thing could happen [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. You are I are the reasons Christ died on the Christ; God is the Reason that Christ “as the First among many brothers” [RO 8: 29] was raised to eternal life. Be comforted and know that God’s love is here for us for the taking. Praise, honor, glory, and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn