Jesus could come back. He could come back right now – we’d be caught up in the air with Him, and everything would be “happily ever after,” wouldn’t it? But I when I think that Jesus could come back, my heart aches with sorrow. I want Him to come; I really do; but not yet. Please don’t come yet. Not now when we’re all dead, not now when there’s so many who are still living in sin, not now when oh so many would go to hell, not now when there’s still some chance for us to repent.
God, I love the church. She’s your body, your bride. I love her so much, but she’s dying – dead in sin and loving worldly pleasures – please don’t come back yet. Oh, won’t you be merciful a little while longer? I don’t want all those people to perish; but they will if you come back, because you are righteous and a just judge.
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
But Lord, what if WE are not righteous? If we are ungodly and sinful, how can we even stand – must we not perish along with the rest? We ARE ungodly and sinful. Lord, help us! We must not stay like this; we must be godly, we must be righteous – we need You. We must have revival or we shall die, because we are already dead as it is.
"A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why encumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down."
Friends, enemies, people, everyone! WE are that tree! We ought to be serving the Lord, we ought to be bearing the fruit of the Spirit, we ought to be obedient, we ought to have done so by now. But no, we are still disobedient, always rebelling, doing as we know we shouldn’t; regularly bearing bad fruit. WE ARE IN DANGER OF GETTING CHOPPED DOWN! You must change, you must repent, or you shall perish. You must forsake all sin, everything that is not pure, everything that is any less than pure, undefiled religion, all world-likeness – you must turn to God, you must turn and follow Jesus whole-heartedly. Nothing less than ALL is acceptable. You must obey Him in everything, or you might as well forget about it.
Oh, Jesus! How many years have you dug around us, fertilized us, and yet we still haven’t born fruit!?
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2 comments:
you said, "what if WE are not righteous? if we are ungodly and sunful, how can we even stand?" that's what grace is for, it's the very thing that Jesus died on the cross for, to save the people who aren't worthy of saving. this doesn't mean that we can abuse grace, and say, "well now i can run out and do all sorts of wicked, sinful things because i have grace!" it means a person tries harder, and they attempt to live for Christ. we mess up, yes, because our spirits still have bodies attached that are wanting to follow the sinful natures. BUT, if we DO mess up, and we repent and are going to sincerely try hard again, Jesus WILL forgive, and He WILL give us the strength we need to persevere, if we ask him for it, because He says that all we have to do to receive is to ask.
I ask "what if we aren't righteous?" because "without holiness, no man shall see the Lord."
Without grace, we are hopelessly lost in sin. But grace isn't just to mask or hide our sins -- it's to wash them away! Jesus makes us actually righteous (He will, if we ask Him), and if we don't live in the righteousness that He empowers us to live in, then we really don't believe Him. If we really don't believe Him, then we can't possibly stand in the judgment -- because we're saved by faith.
That's why I say we must be righteous. It's not something that we do in our own strength, it's only through Jesus -- He commands us to be righteous and to obey Him, and He gives us the ability and power to live according to His standards. Jesus is not okay with sin, and it cannot be a part of our life if we are really Christians.
It's not about "trying harder" to follow Christ; it's about giving ourselves, our whole lives to Christ; it's about Christ living in us and Him working and doing what He wants us to do. Yes, we will "try hard", but not because we're trying to achieve *righteousness* or *perfection* -- we'll try hard because we have yielded to God and want to obey whatever He tells us. And if we're actually living in God, He'll provide the way and the means and the power for us to do whatever He tells us to do.
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