Sunday, February 15,
2015, 9:56 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Tick Tock.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Luke 10:1-16 (ESV).
Pray for Laborers
After
this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two
by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said
to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray
earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
A harvest is a crop, yield or produce a farmer receives from
his plowing of the soil, and his sowing of the seed, and his nurturing of the
ground and the plants until they reach maturity and are ready to be harvested. A
harvest is what the farmer reaps and gathers from his toil out in the field.
Our field is the world, and the seed we sow is the Word of
God, which is sown into human hearts, and it reaps a harvest when humans turn
their lives over to God via faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of
their lives.
There are plenty of people in the world who need to hear the
Word of God and the gospel of our salvation so they can be saved from their
sins, but the workers are few even today, as so many who profess Christ as
Savior of their lives are not fulfilling the great commission to go into the
whole world and to make disciples of Jesus Christ of people of all nations,
baptizing them, and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded us.
So, not only do we need to pray for laborers to go forth
with the gospel of Jesus Christ into his harvest field, but we need to be
going, too, if we are not already involved in regularly sharing the gospel of
Jesus Christ with the people of this world in need of the Savior.
Lambs among Wolves
Go
your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
When we do go out into the harvest field with the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, we go out as lambs in the midst of wolves. A wolf to a lamb is
his enemy for wolves kill lambs. Jesus’ sheep are his followers. He said his
sheep know him, they listen to him and they follow him in obedience (See: John
10). There will be many “wolves” (humans) who are enemies of the cross of
Christ who will come against us, who will hate and reject us, and who will
persecute and may even kill us for our testimonies for Jesus Christ. They will
fight against us because they don’t want us to give out the full gospel of
Christ to a dying world. We must know this ahead of time so that we are
spiritually prepared to stand strong in our faith, bold in our witness, and
determined to keep sharing the gospel despite all opposition.
The Bible also talks about wolves in sheep’s clothing. These
are those among us who appear to be sheep from all outward appearances, but
they are really wolves disguised as sheep. They are false teachers and
preachers who want us to believe they are sheep so that we will trust them and
will believe what they tell us. They dilute and kill the gospel of salvation in
very subtle ways so that many naïve and unsuspecting sheep fall prey to their
trickery, their deception and their manipulations of scripture.
Since their tricks and manipulations of scripture are not
obvious to a vast number of people, but are sneaky and crafty in their twisting
of truth in order to make their clever lies sound like truth, many naïve people
follow them unknowingly. These wolves in sheep’s clothing may begin by telling
the truth, and then slowly and surely they begin little by little to slip in
the lies, which go largely unnoticed, and eventually the lies are so well
blended in with the truth that it takes much spiritual discernment to spot the
lies so they can be rejected. We must also know this before we go out into the
harvest field so that we are spiritually prepared to test what we hear against
the truth of scripture, and so we pray for spiritual discernment to spot the
lies and to expose them, and so we teach only what is true.
Need to Repent
…Whenever
you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the
sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But
whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and
say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against
you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell
you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
“Woe
to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you
had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in
sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and
Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You
shall be brought down to Hades.
Not everyone is going to like us and to receive us and our
message with joy. So many have bought into a false grace gospel which does not
require repentance and obedience to Christ as necessary components of genuine
faith in Jesus Christ. They are being taught that all they have to do is pray a
prayer and they have their ticket into heaven and no one can take it away. But so
many people are not being taught the crucified life or that we have to die with
Christ to sin and self, that we must be born anew of the Spirit of God, and
that we must walk in the Spirit and not according the flesh once we have been
saved from our sins. So, if you try to teach what Christ and the apostles
taught, you may be rejected even by those who profess to have faith in Jesus
Christ, and even by church leaders who have watered down the gospel to make it
more appealing to the people of this world.
Thus, if you share the gospel of salvation, and those who
hear it reject it, then move on. We can’t force anyone to believe in Jesus
Christ. All we can do is share with them the truth, but it is up to them
whether to accept it or whether to reject it. The Holy Spirit is the one who
convicts hearts and turns people to faith in Jesus Christ. His word will never
return empty. It will fulfill its purposes. All we can do is share with people
the truth of God’s Word and trust that the living Word of God and the witness
of the Holy Spirit will convict their hearts of sin and that they will humble
themselves before God in turning from their sin and in turning to faith in
Jesus Christ and to living for him by faith in the power of the Spirit of God
within them. If they do repent of their sins and trust in Christ as Savior,
then we must commit ourselves to discipling them to maturity, i.e. to also
teaching believers in Christ what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and
to help them to grow in their faith.
Hears or Rejects?
“The
one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one
who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
When we are rejected for teaching the truths of scripture
and for sharing the full gospel message of salvation, as was taught by Jesus
Christ and by the apostles, we must know that it is not just us they are
rejecting, but they are rejecting Jesus Christ and God the Father, too. Yet, if
they hear what we have to say and they accept the gospel message, then it is
because they hear the Savior speaking to their hearts via the living word of
God and via the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and thus they respond to the
Spirit’s voice.
Today, if we have not already done so, we must all make a
choice to either accept Jesus Christ and his gospel message or to reject it.
One day Jesus Christ is coming back to judge the earth and to take his
followers to be with him forever. When that day comes, if not before, many
people will die in their sins, having never believed in Jesus Christ and having
not made that decision to repent of their sins and to walk in obedience to their
Lord who died for them so they would no longer live for themselves but for him
who gave himself up for them. They will spend eternity in torment, punishment
and eternal separation from God. Yet, if they hear the Word and receive it,
repent of their sins and turn to walk in fellowship with their Lord, as his
followers, then they have the hope of eternal life in heaven with God.
Time is running out. None of us knows what tomorrow holds
for us. Don’t put off until tomorrow to make that decision, because you don’t
know when you will breathe your last breath. Make the choice right now to bow
before God, to turn from your sins, to allow the Spirit of God to transform you
in heart and mind, and then to follow Jesus Christ wherever he leads you. You
will never regret it!
Tick
Tock / An Original Work / May 1, 2011
Tick tock, tick tock, time is a passing.
The time on the clock keeps ticking
While the church is fast a-sleeping.
Satan’s on a rampage
‘Cause his time is running out.
Will you worship God the Father,
God the Son and Holy Spirit?
Will you obey all of His
Commands for you today?
Jesus died to pay your ransom,
So that you could be forgiven.
Won’t you come to Him in truth
And penitently pray to Him?
Tick tock, tick tock, time is a wasting.
The cross of our Lord awaits you.
Won’t you come and share His table,
Drink the cup and eat the bread
In memory of Him?
Take a heart examination,
And accept our God’s salvation.
Humbly bow in adoration
And proclaim His name.
He wants for you to believe in
Him who interceded for you
When He died for your sins
And He rose from death in victory.
Tick tock, tick tock, time’s end is nearing.
How He longs to take and keep you,
In His arms He wants to hold you,
If you will but come to Him
And call on Him today.
His desire is that you please Him
In all of your life’s ambitions;
Be a living sacrifice
And be transformed today.
Let Christ’s love and grace sustain you,
And His promises prepare you
For His soon return to earth
To gather all His saints to Him.
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