“Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a Covenant with me by sacrifice.” Psalm 50:5 The saints of God are those who have made a covenant with God by sacrifice. In the Old Testament, God's people approached him with an animal sacrifice, the blood of the animal atoned for their sin in anticipation of the Sacrifice to come. In the New Testament, the saints of God have received the Blood sacrifice Jesus Christ made on that Cross for man's redemption, the shedding of HIS blood FOR them, and they are brought to the Father through the sacrificed Blood of Jesus Christ. But the Scriptures tell us that in the last days there will be a great falling away from the Word of God, a great apostasy. The sacrifice of the Cross, the greatest event in the history of mankind, will fade and become no longer important to them. "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron..." 1st Timothy 4:1-2 That is happening now. False teachers have risen in droves, not teaching the Word of God but speaking warm and pleasant feel-good words instead, denying sin, denying hell, denying repentance, calling good evil and evil good, speaking lies in hypocrisy, their consciences SEARED. These smooth-talking wolves in sheeps' clothing give what amounts to pep-rallies. These are those the Bible calls wicked, and they are being followed by the masses. And of course, the money flows. "But to the wicked God says: 'What right have you to declare my statutes, or take my Covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction AND CAST MY WORDS BEHIND YOU?'" Psalm 50:16-17 These false teachers speak what the people want to hear. They reject God's precepts, deny sin, deny the need for the Sacrifice of the Cross, and cast God's words behind them. “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and my people love to have it so." Jeremiah 5:30-31 “...and my people love to have it so.” How awful. How diabolical. Such deception. If you belong to a happy mega-church like this, run for your very life! They are offering doctrines of demons. Doctrines of deception. Oh of course they quote Scripture, but if ever they refer to the Word of God it is only when they can pull it out of context and make it support their false teachings. RUN from these. If you're hearing how you can be healthy, wealthy and wise, you're being deceived. If you're not being told to take up your CROSS and follow Jesus, you're being fed deception. If you are listening to a pastor who is wise in his own eyes RATHER than in the wisdom of the Word of God, RUN. If you never hear about the Cross, about sin, about hell, about the crucial need for repentance, RUN, these smooth speakers have deceived you. Run from them. "Come out of her, my people..." (Revelation 18:4) Surely the Lord is soon to gather together his saints who have confessed their SIN, who know the penalty of sin is death, who know they are being spared from a real and literal hell, who have turned to the Savior for salvation, who have come in to salvation through the Sacrifice, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, those who have SURRENDERED to him so he is not only their Savior but their LORD and who have picked up their CROSS and followed him; soon they are to be gathered together and be removed from this sinful world, before the "great tribulation," the wrath of God, falls upon the whole earth. The day after that gathering, the day after the Rapture, those mega-churches will still be full. Those who have listened to the smooth words of the false teachers will still be here, because they demanded only "uplifting" words, and refused or ignored the harder truths in God's Word. "Come out of her, my people...."
"Jesus said, 'Take away the stone.'
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him,
'Lord, by this time there is a stench,
for he has been dead four days.'"
John 11:39
The scene is at the graveyard where Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus was buried in a cave. Jesus told the attendants to roll back the huge stone that covered the entrance.
Imagine what they must have thought when he told them to roll the stone away! In fact, Martha told him that Lazarus has been dead now for four days and if they roll back the stone there's going to be a stench, especially after four days of Middle Eastern heat.
But they rolled back the stone, and were totally unprepared for what Jesus was going to do next. Not in their wildest dreams…
vs 41:
"Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead man was lying.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said,
'Father, I thank you that you have heard me.'"
Four days before, someone had been sent to Jesus asking him to come because his friend Lazarus was sick. But Jesus waited four long days before going. Mary and Martha were appalled that he didn't come when they called for him, because they knew it was crucial that he come NOW, because Lazarus was dying. But Jesus did ONLY what the Father directed him to do, and the Father directed him to WAIT.
Have you expected Jesus to show up - yet it was as though he hadn't heard you? When God says "wait," you can expect something greater than the request you had put in. Jesus knew there was a greater result coming than the desired healing of Lazarus. After four days Jesus showed up. And everyone was watching:
Can you imagine the wonder…
vs 43:
“Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”
They watched, and waited ...and then:
vs 44:
"And he who had died came out
bound hand and foot with grave-clothes,
and his face was wrapped with a cloth.
Jesus said to them, 'Loose him, and let him go.'”
"LOOSE HIM ..."
Salvation is a supernatural miracle in every person who comes to the Lord, in every one who has been brought out of darkness into the light of Christ. Every person who is born again has been taken out of death and brought into new life. He saves us - then he looses us from what has bound us.
The miracle of salvation doesn't stop there. After Lazarus was brought out of death into life, out of darkness into light, there was more - Jesus said, "Loose him and let him go." When a person has been walking in the world for a long time, when he has lived in sin, he needs more than just salvation. He needs to be loosed, to be set free from those things that controlled him, and this miracle is as great as the first.
Many of us have been praying for a long time for loved ones to come to the Lord and be saved, and we've learned only too well that our arguments with them are not able to bring them in. But when the prayer is answered, then we know we've seen a miracle, for the grace of repentance is a supernatural gift from God, and is not the result of OUR efforts to persuade them. Only God can bring them in, and he knows the best time and place and circumstances needed to bring them into his Kingdom. He knows HOW to best approach them. He knows what they will respond to, and what they will not. While waiting - TRUST him!
One of the greatest things one can witness in life is to see how a newly born-again person's life changes drastically. The things of his former life pass away, and everything becomes new.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new."
2nd Corinthians 5:17
Friends, when you pray for the salvation of a loved one, don't stop there. Pray for the grace of repentance, and ask for the total restoration of the sinner. Ask that he/she be loosed from the grave clothes that had kept him bound. And prepare yourself to witness a miracle.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort those
who are in any trouble,
with the comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted by God."
2nd Corinthians 1:3-4
"Who comforts us in all our tribulation..."
We are not alone in our trials and tribulations, for it is there that we encounter God in depths that can only be experienced through the crucible of suffering. The depths of comfort we receive from our God in those times, we are later able to comfort others with. This makes Christianity stand out from all other religions. Our God is real, he cares, he is personally involved, and he demonstrates his care for us in very personal ways. It's not book knowledge, it's a living relationship with the Creator who truly loves us and who is with us in our dark hours and comforts us.
So if he loves us, why does he let us suffer? Because suffering matures us and shows us what really matters. It brings priorities clearly into focus. When gold is refined, it is heated up to incredibly high degrees and the dross rises to the top where it is skimmed off. Then it is heated up again even hotter, and the rest of the dross rises to the top where it is skimmed off. Then ...what is left is pure gold.
"That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perishes,
THOUGH IT BE TRIED WITH FIRE,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ..."
1st Peter 1:7
As in the story of the three Hebrew children whom the king had thrown into the fiery furnace, they were seen along with a fourth, the Lord who was in the fire with them (Daniel 3:24-25).
As in the picture "Footprints In The Sands," we do not go through it alone. His footprints are always beside ours. And sometimes ...he carries us.
When I look back on the deep trials and suffering experienced in this lifetime, I learned that only because of those dark times are we enabled to feel and understand the pain of others. Only because of those things are we able to plead for them before the Throne of God, so conditioned has our heart become as a direct result of those sufferings.
Don't resist sufferings. Later when it's behind you, God will be able to use those sufferings to bring a heart of compassion alive in you which will enable you to truly care about the suffering of those who God places on your heart, and to accurately present their case before the Throne of God, through what he has taught you.
I know - that's not much comfort now while you're suffering - but it will be later. Oh it WILL be, later!
"But may the God of all grace,
who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
AFTER YOU HAVE SUFFERED AWHILE,
perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you."
1st Peter 5:10
And the rewards are ...eternal!