Saturday, November 7,
2015, 10:01 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Fully Ready.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Jeremiah 18 (Select vv. NASB).
The Potter’s Wheel
(vv. 1-6)
The
word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, “Arise and go down to the
potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” Then I went down to
the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the
vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he
remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
Then
the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal
with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the
potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”
Almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – created the
world and everything in it, which was created. He made human beings to worship
God, to honor and obey him, and to follow him wherever he leads. Yet, the first
man and woman disobeyed God, and did what he forbade them to do. They sinned
against God, so God banished them from the Garden, and he put a curse on them
and on the earth. From that point on all who are born into this world are born
with sin natures, separate from God, without hope, and destined to eternal
punishment in hell. Yet, God had a plan to save us. He sent his Son Jesus
Christ to the earth to take on human form, and to go through many of the same
things we go through, yet he never sinned.
Jesus began his earthly ministry at around the age of 30. He
healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, comforted the sorrowful and
preached repentance for forgiveness of sins. He said that if anyone would come
after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and
follow (obey) him. He said if we hold on to our old lives, we will lose them for
eternity, but if we lose our lives (die with Christ to sin), we will gain eternal
life. His NT apostles preached the same message. They taught that we must die
to sin and live to righteousness. They taught that if we persist in conducting
our lives according to our sinful flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit we
put to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live. Those who trust in Jesus
Christ, God the Son, to be Lord and Savior of their lives, thus, die with
Christ to sin, are transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and are
given new lives in Christ to be lived in the power of the Spirit within them,
in Christ’s holiness.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day in the Jewish temple did
not like Jesus. They were jealous of his popularity and felt threatened by him,
fearing they may lose their own positions of power and influence over the
people if the people continued to follow Jesus. So, they plotted to kill him. They
had him falsely arrested, falsely accused, given a mock trial, beaten beyond
recognition, mocked, spat upon and crucified, although he had done no wrong.
All of his closest companions deserted him when he was arrested. One of them
betrayed him to death. Another vehemently denied three times that he knew him. So,
what was it about him that they hated so much that they wanted him dead? They
hated him mainly because he told them the truth about their sin, because he
claimed to be God, because he exposed their hypocrisy for what it was, because
he would not bow to them and conform to their religious norms, and because he
told them that he was the only way to the Father, and that they could not come
to the Father except through him.
When Jesus died, our sins died with him, and were buried with
him. When he was resurrected from the dead, he rose victorious over sin, hell,
Satan and death. By his stripes we are healed! We receive this great salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ. This faith dies with Christ to sin so that it
can live with Christ to righteousness. When we enter into these new lives in
Christ Jesus, God becomes our Lord (master), and we become his servants. We are
like clay in his hands. He transforms us to the image of Christ, and he makes
us holy. He nurtures us, encourages and strengthens us, and he leads and guides
us in the way he would have us to go. Yet, we are still clay, i.e. we still
live in flesh bodies, which means we can still sin, though we should no longer
want to sin, for Jesus set us free from slavery to sin so that we are no longer
under its control. Yet, sometimes believers in Jesus forget they have been
cleansed of sin, and they go back to living in sin, and that is when the Potter
says he wants to do with us like he did with that clay, i.e. he wants to remake
(revive) us, renew us, and restore us to fellowship with him.
Turn From Evil Ways
(vv. 11b-12, 15)
“Oh
turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your
deeds.”’ But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own
plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil
heart.’
…‘For
My people have forgotten Me,
They
burn incense to worthless gods
And
they have stumbled from their ways,
From
the ancient paths,
To
walk in bypaths,
Not
on a highway…
Many people today who call themselves Christians have
abandoned the Lord, and they have abandoned the foundations of our Christian
faith and the gospel according to Jesus and according to his NT apostles, and
have, instead, adopted a softer gospel which does not require death to sin or
living to righteousness. This lighter gospel teaches, in fact, that God does
not require turning from sin or walking in obedience. They have reduced “faith”
to some kind of emotional experience or intellectual assent to what Jesus did
for us in dying for our sins, but there is no repentance, and thus there is no
transformation, which means many people who think they are saved and bound for heaven
have believed a lie which has given them a false hope of salvation and of eternal
life with God. Or, if they did come to faith in Jesus Christ, and later they
slipped back into sinful ways, they got on board with this diluted gospel
message, because it helped dissuade any guilt they may have over sin, as well
as it patted them on the backs and told them that they are really good, and
that even in the depths of sinning against God they should see that God is smiling
on them.
So, God is calling out to his wayward church to repent (turn
from) their sins, and to return to their Lord in obedience and in surrender to
his will for their lives. And, he is using his willing servants to give out
such messages, and to share the truths of the gospel so that many can come to know
Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives, and so his wayward people will come
under conviction of the Holy Spirit, humble themselves before God, repent of their
sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery, and be restored to fellowship with
their Lord. Yet, many who call themselves Christians, but who have wandered off
to follow after the gods of this world, will ignore such messages, and will
continue in sin, claiming God’s grace covers it all. They have been taught,
after all, that God winks at our sin, and that he requires no repentance or
obedience, so salvation, to them, merely means an escape from hell and the hope
of heaven when they die, no matter how they treat Jesus in this life.
Devised Plans (vv.
18-20)
Then
they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is
not going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the sage, nor the divine
word to the prophet! Come on and let us strike at him with our tongue, and let
us give no heed to any of his words.”
Do
give heed to me, O Lord,
And
listen to what my opponents are saying!
Should
good be repaid with evil?
For
they have dug a pit for me.
Remember
how I stood before You
To
speak good on their behalf,
So
as to turn away Your wrath from them.
Many of these professed Christians, who refuse to repent of
their sins, hate those who are preaching repentance and obedience to Christ and
his commands. They hate calls to return to the Lord, because they want to
continue in their own way and to give themselves the hope that it will not mean
hell for them. They don’t want to be confronted with their sins. They want to
wallow in them. Many more have taken this rebellion beyond merely watering down
the gospel so as to continue in sin guilt-free, but they have blended
Christianity in with other religions and other religious or occult practices. Some
of them are teaching mysticism as the way to find your true self, rather than
finding themselves in Christ. And, so they have come up with a plan to silence
those who still hold to the tenets of the Christian faith and practice. They
try to persuade them to change their ways, or they threaten them or their
family members. They use harassment techniques to try to instill fear in them
so that hopefully they will back down, and will give up in fear of what humans
may do to them. If these tactics don’t work, then the plan is to take them out
permanently.
Jesus said we would be treated like he was treated. He said
we would be hated, falsely accused, put in prison, beaten, persecuted,
abandoned, betrayed, and denied, even by those closest to us, but that we
should not be afraid. Those who can kill our bodies cannot kill our souls. We
must remain strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, and daily put on our
spiritual armor with which to fight off Satan’s evil attacks against us. And we
must trust the Lord and believe in his sovereignty, and that he is absolutely
in control over every aspect of our lives. Nothing can come into our lives but what
God allows it, and he allows it for a purpose, and that he will give us all we
need in HIM to overcome, to endure, and to remain faithful to the end. So, don’t
let their threats dissuade you from continuing to follow the Lord and to be his
servants and witnesses. Put your hope fully in HIM. We are in HIS hands, and he
will carry us to the end. Be willing to suffer and to die for Him. Amen!
Fully Ready! / An
Original Work / June 19, 2013
Based off Acts 20-22,
26; Mt. 28:18-20; Ac. 1:8
Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?
I’m fully ready to suffer for Christ.
If I must die for the sake of His name,
I am convinced it will not be in vain.
Glory to God and to His Son Jesus,
Who has redeemed us; bought with His blood.
May I speak to you? Jesus came to me;
Asked of me, “Why do you persecute me?”
He said, “Now get up and stand on your feet.
Go, and you’ll be told all I have for you.
I have appointed you as a servant,
And as a witness; you have been sent.”
“Go into the world and preach the gospel.
Open the blind eyes. They will receive sight.
Turn them from darkness to the light of Christ;
From power of the evil one to God,
So they may receive forgiveness of sins,
And a place among those who’re in heav’n.”
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