"Take My Yoke" By Chris Ulrich January 11th,
2015 Remain standing. Bob, if you could lead us in prayer for the
message? Bob: Please
bow your heads. Lord Jesus, anoint our
brother, dear God, and speak Your words through him, dear Jesus. And, God, us in the congregation, let us
receive Your word, Lord God, and apply it to our lives today, Lord God. Let today be a memorial for You, Lord Jesus,
that you’ve done something for us in our lives today. God, I pray that today that we would remember
this message at this time, God. I ask
this in Your name; in Jesus’ name I pray.
Amen. Thank you, Bob. You may be seated. It’s good to see everybody out this morning,
and I know I talk about the weather probably a little bit too much, but, you
know, this past week was a little bit rough.
Some reminders of last year and just living in the Great Lakes area, I
suppose. I don’t even work outside; I
actually work indoors, but my heart goes out to all of you that do spend your
time outdoors. But, I’ve got to say,
this morning I actually heard some birds chirping out my window, and, Sonya, I
know you’ve mentioned that before. It
was great to hear. I don’t know if
anybody else heard it, but I heard it, and I was surprised. I was like, “Boy,” I think I was forgetting
what that sounds like. It was good to
hear. I’m going to just jump right into
it this morning. I’m going to ask
everyone who’s got their Bible to turn with me to Matthew. I know this is personally one of my favorite
verses. It takes me back to a time when
I was born again. This just helps to
create in me, and renew a clean heart.
That’s something that we have to have.
Those early years are called the formative years, when we’re young in
the faith; molding, shaping, building a foundation that’s designed to
last. But, in Matthew, Jesus speaking: Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take My
yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall
find rest unto your souls. For My yoke
is easy, and My burden is light. I’ve shared this before and can’t
say that it’s what would be described as a really dynamic story or knock it out
of the park or life changing event, but I’m going to share it anyway: this was shortly after I was baptized, and I
remember visiting from family in Delaware, coming up from Virginia, and if was
just a billboard in Delaware on US Route 13. I suppose in a lot places around the country,
maybe a little more down south, you see these kind of billboards, and they’re
sponsored by Christian groups in the area, but it was just, “Come unto Me, all
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It was one of those kind of snapshots in time
that kind of sticks with you. I was new
in the faith. It was one of those things
where—Ozzie, you got baptized about a week and a half ago, but it’s one of
those things where it’s a life-changing event.
I mean, seeing you come up out of that water, it was one of those things
where it's like, it was great to see, because it takes us back to remind us of
what our purpose is, to remind us of what we’re here for. We know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose
(Romans 8:28). Our theme for this month is: John 5:11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the
same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. That’s something that—we have a
new walk; we have a life in God where we do have a purpose. I’m not saying that we don’t still deal with
the world; we’re going to get into that later.
My first point today is that Jesus
wants us to take His yoke and learn of him.
There’s a couple ways of looking at that initial request—which is what
it is, it is a request, because Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock; if
any man will listen, I will come in, and I will sup with him,” (Revelation 3:20)
but God’s not going to force His ways upon us; He’s not going to force Himself
upon us. There’s plenty of people—just
look around. The Bible says strait is
the gate, and narrow is the way, and few there be that find it (Matthew 7:14),
but broad is the gate and wide is the way that leadeth unto destruction
(Matthew 7:13). These are things that we
learn as time goes by. This is part of
learning of God. It’s one of those
things where there might be some folks that think that’s a pretty easy thing to
do. “Where do I sign up? Sure, I can learn about Jesus.” Others might think that it’s too much of a
challenge, and there’s too much to give up and would tend to shy away. Then there’s others that might not want
anything to do with it and they might come up with reasons, or excuses, or
explanations, “Well, I was raised this way.”
But where do we stand today? But, how many really want to be like
Jesus? I’m not looking for anybody to
jump up or stand up or raise their hand, but that’s what’s known as a
game-changer. It’s what separates the
men from the boys or the women from the girls, but the truth is there are
adults and there are youth that have a walk with God, so, in that context,
maybe that’s a little bit of an out-of-context saying. I appreciated what you shared, Luzy, about,
you know, just having fun, because there’s things, I think, a lot of times,
people look to be so stifled religiously.
It’s like, “Oh, I can’t do anything,” or, “I have a lot more that I have
to give,” and that’s not the case. There
is such a thing as good, clean fun. I
appreciated what you shared, Kirk, about remembering thy Creator in the days of
thy youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1). That’s
scripturally based, too. That’s the kind
of thing that we have to kind of look at it like—I remember about twenty-five
years ago, just driving back from work, and that was a scripture that God
really dealt with me about, and it was the kind of thing where it was like, you
know what? that’s where you build that foundation; that’s where you have those
formative years. Also, it separates
those who are serious from those who maybe want to get some blessings, but
don’t want to make any kind of a commitment, don’t want be held accountable for
anything. The truth of the matter is,
we’re still going to stand before God whether we want to or not. That’s just something that—I think there’s
plenty of people out there that—I know that it’s become more and more atheistic
out there. People, I think, just flat
out want to—the Bible talks about, they’ve seared their conscience with a hot
iron (1 Timothy 4:2). It’s the kind of
thing where people are just thinking, “Well, I just want to put it out of my
mind.” I know Jesse shared something
recently where somebody was talking, “I just want to put it out of my
mind. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to think about the reality in
God.” I remember, years ago, and I think
a lot of us remember this, we had a radio program called, “Steps to
Reality.” The funny thing is, before
becoming a Christian, I used to think, Well, the reality is whatever we see, it
has nothing to do with God. It’s all
just fictitious, or make-believe, or whatever you want to say,” but that’s not
the truth at all, because God deals with us in such ways that are unforgettable
and undeniable. Yes, God is an invisible
God. I think sometimes people are
waiting for Him to just plop down, and say, “Yes, okay, I’m here; I’m real,”
and it’s not going to happen like that, because it already did. That was Jesus Christ. And one more thing along those lines is, if
people are thinking, “Well, what would have been like if I had lived back
then?” The same way as today, because we
have to Holy Ghost. We have that Holy
Spirit guiding us. Here’s another
thing: When you think about the country
of Israel, which is where Christ’s ministry was, it wasn’t a lot of
geographical land. It wasn’t like He
walked the entire earth and spoke to everybody.
He spent His life pretty much seeking for the lost sheep of Israel. So think about this: All these other people that were from all
these other countries, including the wise men, they were from lands that were
afar off. I would have to imagine that
most people, when you think about it logically, didn’t even come into contact
with Christ at all. That’s just a
fact. But, I know that, if people, they
think, “Well, I don’t want to have a walk with God.” It’s a
pretty cut and dried thing, and I know there are gray areas in life, and we
don’t always know in advance exactly what we’re going to say or what we’re
going to do. Christ Himself talked
about, “I will give you the words to speak in that self-same hour.” (Matthew
10:19) So, it’s not as though we have to
just plan everything out. “Okay, if they
say this…” You know, it’s like going
into an interview. How many’s gone into
an interview, and they sort of prep you for what questions to expect, “If they
say this, say that. If they say that,
then say this.” “What was the time where
you felt like you didn’t come through?”
It’s just, how much more difficult, or how much do they want to knock
you off your high horse, could you possible get? And, if you don’t get it, you’re thinking
it’s a conspiracy. “I knew going in they
knew who they wanted to hire, so it’s like, arrrgh, I’ve just got to deal with
it.” But all God is asking us to do is
take His yoke upon us. I’m not—as far as
a yoke, it’s something I’m going to talk about a little bit later. I want to tie in last week’s
message, because God wants to give us new and great things every day and that
was one of the highlights of the service.
Parrish talked about how God gives us incentives but we have
responsibility to look for blessings sometimes and overcome adversity through
fasting and prayer. Then he described it
like getting in the boxing ring. How
many’s ever gotten into a boxing ring?
I’ve wrestled a little bit, but I’ve never actually gotten in the boxing
ring. It’s one of those things where
they’re going to pummel you, or you’re going to pummel them, or, probably, a
lot of both. So, the truth is, without a
fight, there isn’t a victory. So, we
have to look at it like, the Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against wickedness, against the powers of darkness
(Ephesians 6:12). So, it’s not like we
just walk through this life and there’s no adversary whatsoever. There is no doubt about Satan; the Bible
talks in the Book of Job about how he walks to and fro in the earth and up and
down in it. It’s all spiritual, so it’s
not like—Satan obviously is going to work through different people, but we
certainly don’t want him working through us.
That’s where we resist the devil, and draw nigh to God, and He’ll draw
nigh to us (James 4:7-8). Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you. So the
point here is that the yoke and burden that Jesus gives us is not talking about
making it easy on our flesh, but easy on our souls. That’s another thing where we have to look at
it like, okay, if we want it easy in the flesh, then we’ve come to the wrong
place. I’m not saying that there aren’t
going to be times of comfort, and you get some rest, take a vacation, or you
have a fun time bowling, or, snowmobiling, or whatever else you like to
do. But, I mean, that’s got to be
balanced, too. That’s got to be kept in
perspective, too. There is absolutely a
difference between the flesh and the spirit.
The Bible talks in 1 John 4:4, “Greater is he that is in you than he
that is in the world.” So, there is a
soul, and there is the flesh. It’s a
matter of looking at it like, okay, which are we going to please? Who are we going to yield ourselves to? James 1:22-25 But be ye doers of
the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a
doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way,
and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of
liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of
the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. The second point today is that the
yoke we carry is a burden not a chore and there’s a big difference there. I don’t plan on going through the whole list
of all the chores we all have to deal with, and I suppose to most of us chores
are kind of a never ending duty. Clean
this, cook that, fix this, break that, and then fix what you just broke. Cook it again, clean that again, dust this... I mean, it’s on and on and on, grocery shop,
whatever it happens to be. The list of
chores for a lifetime, it’s just an on-going thing. It’s going to be that way until we hire a
housekeeper or our own personal fix-it guy, which I don’t see for myself on the
horizon any time soon. I mean, we didn’t
have any maids in our house growing up, so we just had to clean as we went, fix
it as you went. There were times when we
get something that was little more than our abilities would allow; you know,
we’d get somebody like a carpenter. We
had to rebuild our house; I’ve told that story before, about the fire that we
had. But, in a lot of ways chores are
thankless tasks, but carrying a burden for the Lord can bring us immense
satisfaction. That is a clear-cut
separation. It’s part of being a doer of
the word and not a hearer only (James 1:22).
So what exactly is the burden of
the Lord? I heard it put this way one
time by one of the pastors in our ministry, “Get saved, stay saved, and see
other souls saved.” In a lot of ways, I
know that our church creed is to evangelize, educate, and equip, but, I suppose
in a lot of ways, “Get saved, stay saved, and see other souls saved,” that’s a
close second. Because, if you think
about that, that’ something that’s been ongoing, that’s something that we
instill on ourselves, because, we look at it like, you know what? We can’t force it on anybody, but we have to
be convinced in our own lives. The Bible
talks about being fully persuaded in our own minds. So, it’s not a matter of like, yes, we could
be—Christ even talked about to be compelling, but it’s not like we’re pushy
about it. If somebody doesn’t want to
live it, okay, I mean, try to explain, okay, this is what the benefits are; the
Bible talks about He daily loadeth us with benefits (Psalms 68:19). To me, that’s tremendous, because that’s what
life’s all about. I can’t think about
what it would be like to go through life for even a second more without the
leading and without the power of God, having tasted of the heavenly gift, which
God gives us. That’s been a long
time. I just don’t want to miss out for
my own soul’s sake. I know God, He loves
us more than we love ourselves, and sometimes that’s, that’s something that
we’ve got to acknowledge and accept that, but it’s also looking at it like, you
know what? God’s got our back. God’s
looking out for our best interests, and there’s times God’s going to deal with
us, whether it’s through fellowship, a dream, reading, whatever interaction we
have that He’s going to give us that direction, give us that guidance, give us
that burden. I want to say that sometimes we
don’t want to have to rely on people and I think we all can relate to that. I’m going to expound on that. We don’t want to have high expectations of
others thinking that we might get disappointed, and I get that, too. We don’t want to have to bear the load of
someone else that we think isn’t carrying their own weight and I think we all
get that as well. After all, Galatians
6:5 says that every man shall bear his own burden, so if we cover ourselves
then we’ve covered all the bases, right?
But, as unfortunate as it may sound we’ve all seen people come and go
and so did Jesus. So, we think about it
from this vantage point that, you know, maybe we had to carry somebody, and it
just seems like they’re not pitching in and making an effort, and it’s like,
you know, you bend over backwards for people as the expression goes, and
eventually it’s, “Well, no, I’ll go do something else,” and it’s like you spent
all that time and energy, and sometimes it feels like it was a waste of time. But what about those times we’re
at our wits’ end or of our own abilities and we have to rely on someone else? I had that happen just this week. I’ve had that happen many times in my
life. And then it’s like, when you’re in
a predicament like that, then you’re kind of thinking about it a little bit
differently about, “Okay, what am I going to be like when somebody asks, ‘Hey,
can you help with this? Could you take
care of this? Could you take care of
that?’” It does kind of make us think
about it differently in the sense that we do have to rely on each other. Again, I stress that, because it’s like, if
we build walls around, it’s like, “Oh, I’ve got all my bills paid, I’ve got
this working, and I’ve got this job, I’ve got my retirement coming in, and I’ve
got everything…” you kind of back yourself into a corner, eventually, and it’s
like then we’re looking at it like how isolated do we want to make ourselves? I’m not talking about being people’s
floor-mat. I’m not talking about
thinking that we can do everything for everybody, all the time, which is not
the case, but we can certainly do something some of the time. We can all do something, so, there is a
difference there. So it’s not about
doing chores, and just checking off the box.
A burden is really about souls more than anything else, and that has
nothing to do with checking off the box.
Jesus said that people would know that we are His disciples by our love
one toward another. And by the way, that
same chapter, Galatians six, says in verse two to bear one another’s burdens so
God does have an expectation of us for each other. Again, that’s not meant to take advantage of
someone’s good nature, but, again, we can all do something. We can all make his work. I know, this is something that God has dealt
with me quite a bit, it’s not a glamorous ministry, it’s not a glamorous
lifestyle, it’s not a glamorous Bible; it’s just not! We’re not in a glamorous building. I mean, it’s not like rolling in the dough;
we’re not all billionaires. I mean,
that’s just honest-to-God fact, but, you know what? I’ve heard our bishop,
Pastor Paine, share this numerous times:
“There’s no other people that I’d rather be associated with tan the
people in this ministry.” I’ve got say,
you know, I remember him saying that years and years ago, and I thought,
“That’s great! That’s nice of him to say
that!” But, then—it took a while, and
I’m not saying I ever was against it—but it took a while to take it personally
and think, “You know what? I feel that way.”
I really do. There’s no other
people that I’d trust more. I’m talking
about when my life is on the line, or the chips are down, or your back’s
against the wall, or whatever you want to put; any kind of predicament, or
scenario, or challenge that we face in life.
The third point today is that
Jesus makes us whole and He doesn’t want us to sit down, but to walk in
purpose. That ties in well with being
doers of the word and not hearers only.
God has a plan for our lives that is great but it’s not designed to wear
us out. I want to reiterate how that
Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Do I think we make it more difficult on
ourselves at times? Yes. And to make it a little more personal, do I
think I make it more difficult on myself at times? Absolutely!
But anything in life that has value is going to take some effort and
that was another take-away from last week that looking for and getting
blessings is sometimes work, and it takes an effort. You know, we put ourselves in the firing line
of receiving a blessing by having faith, by having holiness, by getting
fellowship, by having a balanced life in God that’s an on-going thing, that’s
having a plan to stay saved. Not looking
at it like it’s a one-time experience, or, eventually, something else better is
going to come along. I’m here to say that
there’s nothing else better that’s going to come along. I don’t care how flashy it is; I don’t care
how great it looks. But, the truth is,
we’re all susceptible to those temptations, because we do live in the world,
but the Bible says we’re not of the world (John17:16). So it’s a matter of—yes—walk in the spirit
and don’t fulfil the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). So we have to bring our bodies under
subjection (1 Corinthians 9:27). Micah 6:6-8 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and
bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves of a year old? Will the LORD
be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O
man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly,
and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? So what do we make of this? Is God pleased by sacrifice after sacrifice,
late night after late night, task after task?
We can overload ourselves with stuff to do that’s so heavy that we could
never possibly carry it ourselves and eventually get burned out. That happens.
I’ve seen it. I’m talking about
people that walked with God for many years that just said, “I don’t want to do
it anymore. I’m sick of it. I’m tired.”
It’s a real matter, because I think what happens, over time, is you just
get worn down. You think, “When’s Christ
coming back?” Well, I’ve got news, “No
man knows the day nor the hour,” (Matthew 24:36) but, you know what? He might not come back in my lifetime, or
your lifetime, or any of us here, but He is coming back. That’s something we need to be convinced of,
whether we’ve seen thousands of signs or just one. Just one sign; that’s all we need. We have to look at it like, “You know
what? I’m not living my life thinking,
okay—I’ve shared this before—I have to live my life like He’s coming back
today, but I plan that He may not come back in this lifetime. I’m not talking about making so many
provisions for the flesh that we just—like the Bible talks about, “I’ll tear
down my barns and build greater.” (Luke 12:18)—have everything all stacked
up. We have to have something. To get through this life, we have to have
places to live, food to eat. We have to
have those things, but, again, God loads us with daily benefits. Those are some of the things where—getting
back to—even something like you hear the birds outside. We’ll know him by the things that are made;
Romans one talks about we’ll know Him by the things that are made (Romans
1:19-20). Those are other things that
convince us, that show us of the magnificence of God, that show us that God can
change our life for the better. That’s a
lot of what it’s all about, too. There’s
a lot of problems out there; this country has probably, you know, one of the
worst epidemics of crystal meth. I mean,
we’ve got violence; you saw what happened in France this past week. People are just—they don’t know what to do! They don’t know where to turn, because if you
don’t turn to God, then you’re turning to your own wisdom, or, “Let’s turn to
the government,” or, “Let’s turn to this…” you know? After a while, people are at their wit’s end.
It’s one of those things where it’s
like, all Jesus is saying is, “Come unto Me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give rest unto your souls.” So, the other end of the spectrum, as far as
from the burning out point, is we could be lackadaisical. You know, we could just have this in one ear
and out the other, “I don’t really care” kind of attitude. Well, not a care in the world; I mean, you
know, these are real things and real attitudes, because, a lot of times, there
is a light that we have in Christ that’s about our attitude about how we are
going to face the day, how we’re going to face the week, how we’re going to
face the month. And, you know that, “I
don’t care’ attitude, that’s not a good place to be, but I hate to admit it, but
I’ve been in that boat. I don’t mean I
don’t care about what happens in God in my life. Sometimes you feel like you’re sharing with
people and you’re trying to convince people, and, again, being an example,
being compelling, but we don’t get the kind of reaction, or we don’t see the
kind of growth, or we don’t see the explosion of growth in ministry that we think—you’d
think that people would be flocking to the altar in times of duress, but it
doesn’t always happen. You know what? it
doesn’t mean that we take lightly somebody getting baptized; somebody’s life
getting better; somebody making a decision in their life to continue to serve
God; somebody receiving a healing touch; somebody just talking about being
thankful; or just an outing. You know,
like that youth outing that people talk about.
We had breakfast yesterday; it wasn’t a huge gathering, and it wasn’t
glamorous, but it was enjoyable; it was spiritual meat for the soul. It was something that, you know, there was a
lot of good interaction, and continuing to lay the groundwork, that foundation. Yes, we know that being born again, that’s
the start, but we have to keep building.
We have to stick with it, and not give up; not ever give up. Getting back to tasks, I want to
touch on that a little bit more: There
are things that need to get done, but we have to understand that we can’t look
at our burden in God as just a series of tasks.
There’s people that need to be visited, people that need rides, shelter. There are times we need to feed the hungry
and clothe the poor. Times we weep with
those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. And it’s in those times we minister, and it’s
these three principles: do justly, love
mercy, and walk humbly with God. Not a
lot to ask. Not always easy to do, but
still, it’s not a lot to ask. Are we doing justly? Are we being honest with ourselves, with each
other, and with God? Are we being fair
with people and practicing what we preach? Are we walking humbly? I’m not talking about being somebody’s
doormat, again, but I am talking about being modest, being friendly, and loving
without strings attached. What about mercy? Not being so quick to judge and ready to put
someone in the electric chair? So, a
couple of us watched a movie last week, and it’s quite an older movie, it’s
from the fifties. It’s called “Twelve
Angry Men,” has anybody ever see that in here? It’s something that Alex, he’d had a class
that he had taken this last year, and they watched that, so he brought that
over. It’s basically about a man that’s
a youngster, I think he was eighteen years old, that his fate is being deciding
by this jury. He’s on trial for
murdering his father. Certainly an ugly
crime and I’m not mincing words here for a second. Everyone on the jury is pretty sure he’s
guilty, except there’s one lone dissenter. He’s just not sure; he’s got just enough
reasonable doubt. It was Henry Fonda,
was the dissenter, and there were a lot of other actors, and, you know, I
looked up this movie, took place, I think ,1955, each one of those actors—there
was only the twelve of them, and I think there was one scene where the actual
bailiff came in—but, they’re all gone.
They’ve all passed away. Something
like that… And I’m not going to give the
rest of the story away but it just shows how important mercy is. To err on the side of mercy, and to let love
be without dissimulation (Romans 12:9), love thinketh no evil (1 Corinthians
13:13). I know that there was a couple
of us that were talking, and sometimes we get theories, or we get these
philosophies, like, okay, well, people will do this to sort of compensate for
that. Brent, you and I had talked about
that a little bit. “Well, they’re doing
all these works to try to justify something else,” and I was kind of, “Yeah,
yeah,” you know, kind of stirring that pot a little bit, and I got thinking,
“Where am I at? Where is my head
at? What about love thinketh no
evil? What about let love be without
dissimulation?” I mean, why am I sitting
there figuring, you know, you put somebody in a box “Well, they’re only doing
this to compensate for that,” or, “They’re doing this secretly, and they’re doing this openly, to make up for that,” and
I’m thinking, “You know what? let God be the judge, and err on the side of
mercy. Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto
me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I
am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I wanted to read this again to
just come full circle and hope that it will sink deep down into our souls. Take My Yoke is the title of the message
today, and it’s part of something we need to do every day whether we’ve been
baptized a day, a week, a month, a year, or fifty years. I know that putting on a yoke might not sound
like something that’s a lot of fun and I really didn’t get into the purpose of
wearing of yokes today, but I imagine most of us here can envision that it’s
used for oxen plowing the fields. It
kind of brought back some memories; when I was young, we weren’t farmers, but
we lived in kind of a rural area, a farmland area, and on our porch we actually
had a yoke that was on the wall of the porch.
It was one of those things where, you know, it was there for decoration more
than anything. But those yokes do serve
a purpose. Maybe not quite so much
nowadays with, you know, you’ve got these John Deere combines and all these
other pieces of equipment. Big Country,
I know he’s a farmland guy, so, when I say, “John Deere” he definitely perks
up. It’s something where, it does serve
a purpose. I’m going to close in a
moment, but, if Jesus had said, “My yoke is difficult, and my burden is heavy,”
how many would still want to follow Him?
I’m talking about, of the few that already do, probably that many less. Really, the truth of the matter is, when we
really look at it from a Christianity standpoint of knowing God and
understanding that it’s free will. God’s
will is that none would perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of the
Truth (2 Peter 3:9). God’s will is that
everybody would be saved, but that’s not going to happen. It’s not up to me to judge, but we do have to
judge righteous judgment (John 7:24), so I’m not—I want to back up just a step
by saying this, that there is doctrine, there is sound doctrine, there are
clear things where it cut-and-dried separates the saved from the lost that can
be proven biblically. It’s not a
free-for-all; it’s not just, “Oh, anybody who just says Jesus, there all okay.” That’s not the case. The Bible also talks about the devils also
believe and tremble (James 2:19). So, it
is a matter of looking at it like there’s more to do than just, “I’ve got to
believe.” You do have to believe, but
there is a part of living for God. There
is a light that God wants to have us to shine that’s going to be pleasing to
Him but it’s also going to be pleasing to us.
If we please God, I think we’re going to be pretty pleased ourselves,
especially in the long run. But, no, it’s not an easy world to
live in, and one last point I recall from last week is that sometimes the
situations we face are greater than we think we can handle. Sometimes we do get backed up against the
wall, or financial distress, or health, or whatever other condition, and
sometimes these things seem relentless. It
seems unfair, and I think life, in a lot of ways, is unfair, but God is fair. God’s Word says that the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men (Titus 2:11). So, everybody gets a chance. I suppose that there might be a lot of people
that might think, “No, what about all these other people? What about me? What about you? ” I’m not going to sit there and excuse myself
out of the picture because I think somebody in—well, just pick a country that
somebody might think, “Well, that’s undeveloped, they’re uncivilized; they
haven’t heard the Word of God.” Well how
do I know whether they have or they haven’t? because I’m quite sure they have. But that’s why we need to look to the author
and finisher of our faith, and to trust in the Lord with all our heart, and look
to the hills from where comes our help, it comes from God (Psalms 121:1). Jesus said that His yoke is easy and His
burden is light and in so doing we will find rest to our souls. Thank you for your time. God bless you.
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