Thursday, January 7,
2016, 11:21 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Do Not Fear.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Matthew 18:1-9 (NASB).
Become Like Children
(vv. 1-6)
At
that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the
kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like
children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles
himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
When Jesus said that unless we change and become like little
children, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven, I believe he was speaking of
the kind of pure trust and faith small children have. God can get through to
small children so much easier than he can get through to many adults, because
small children don’t have all the filters adults have preventing them from such
sincere faith. They so easily believe, and they so easily act upon what they
believe, too, and they also are not afraid to tell others about what they
believe, as well. There is a certain transparency about small children that is
often missing in many adults. So, we need to be unpretentious like small
children, we need to have a sincere and honest trust and faith in what Jesus
Christ teaches us, and we need to act on that faith.
So, how does this look? Well, when you tell a child to jump,
because you will catch him or her, rarely do small children hesitate, but they
freely jump into your arms, believing that you will catch them. In fact,
sometimes they jump without you knowing they are going to, and even then they
believe you will catch them, based upon previous experience. Young children, particularly
those brought up in a loving and healthy environment, usually are not afraid to
trust people, and readily believe what you tell them. And, that is how we
should be with Jesus, too. We should believe the things he has told us, and we
should jump into his arms, acting on that faith, and do what he tells us to do,
believing he will catch us, i.e. that he will care for us, hold us, nurture us,
and will guide us safely to our eternal home.
In other words, child-like faith is faith in action. It puts
feet to profession. If we truly believe that Jesus Christ died on a cross to
save us from sin, then we will willingly surrender our lives to Christ, leave
our lives of sin behind us (die with Christ to sin), put our lives in his
hands, and do what he tells us to do. We read in John 14 that whoever has God’s
commands and keeps (obeys; holds to) them is the one who loves Jesus. If we
love Jesus, we will be loved by the Father and by the Son, and he will show
himself to us. If we love Jesus we will obey his teaching. The Father will love
us, and the Father and the Son will make their home with us. If we do not obey
Christ’s teachings, then we do not truly love him. If we do not love him, then
all bets are off, i.e. none of these promises apply to us. So, love for God
means keeping his commands, and his commands are not burdensome.
Causes to Sin (vv.
5-6)
And
whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one
of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him
to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth
of the sea.
Jesus said that whoever receives one such child in his name
receives him. He could be speaking of a literal child, or it could be he is
speaking of followers of Christ with child-like faith, which seems to be the
preferred interpretation. In other words, how we treat sincere believers in
Jesus Christ who have this child-like faith, is how we treat Jesus Christ. In
our day and age, such humility, devotion, surrender and sincere trust in Christ
and in his word, which acts on the faith to believe in what God’s word teaches,
is not acceptable, even within organized religion. Why? Because it believes
what God’s word teaches about sin, heaven, repentance, obedience, judgment, and
hell, and it believes that many will hear from Jesus one day that he never knew
them, and that they must depart from him. And, this is an offense to people,
even to many who call themselves Christians, because it calls them to change
their lifestyles, to humble themselves before God, and to obey Christ and his
word.
God takes sin seriously. That is why he sent his Son Jesus
Christ to die on a cross, so that through his shed blood we might be delivered
out of slavery to sin and so we might become slaves of his righteousness,
instead. In other words, Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness; that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave
himself up for us (1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Co. 5:15). He did not die just so we could
escape hell and have the promise of heaven when we die. His grace is not a free
license to continue in sin without guilt and without remorse. His grace, which
brings salvation, teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we wait for Christ’s
return (Tit. 2:11-14). Jesus died that the righteous requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to
the Spirit.
Because God takes sin so seriously, and because Jesus died
to set us free from sin, God takes very seriously the thought that someone
might lead a believer in Jesus Christ to sin. So, in what ways do people lead
Jesus’ followers into sin? The first way, I believe, is by example. If a young
believer, especially, who is just learning how to live for Jesus, sees us,
especially those of us who profess to have known Christ for many years, living
just like the world around us, they may feel they have the freedom to do
likewise. We need to not be ones who merely talk the walk, but we need to be
ones who walk the talk. Many young believers (young in the Lord) will get their
cues from us, so we need to make certain that we are following Christ with our
lives, for our own sake, as well as for the sake of others.
Then, there are those who will literally tempt believers in
Christ to sin, and even among those are many who profess to know Jesus Christ,
too. They can sound just like Satan, too, like when he whispered in Eve’s ear
and tried to convince her to not trust in God’s words. They will try to
convince us that God’s word doesn’t really say that, like telling us that God
does not require repentance or obedience, and that he smiles on us and delights
in us even when we are steeped in sinful behavior. They will try to get us to
doubt God’s word and to follow the teachings of man instead. They will also
twist scriptures to their own advantage and promote a “Jesus” of their own
making who fits with their lifestyles. Sin loves company, so those who are
sinning will try to get us to sin with them so they don’t feel so guilty.
Throw It Off (vv.
7-9)
“Woe
to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that
stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block
comes!
“If
your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you;
it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or
two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble,
pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one
eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.”
I would hope every believer in Jesus Christ, and/or everyone
who confesses the name of Christ would get this, and would apply its truths to
their lives. This is monumental! So many people in this world are trapped in
sin because they have not trusted in Jesus Christ to save them, i.e. to deliver
them out of bondage to sin and to set them free to now walk in Christ’s
righteousness and holiness. Yet, many who profess to know Jesus Christ as Lord
and as Savior of their lives live no differently from the people who make no
claims to know Christ at all. They watch sensual material on TV, view pornography,
cheat on their spouses, lie about it, cheat their bosses, lie on their tax
returns, work their way around laws, brag about how they cheat the system, and
think that as long as they don’t get caught, they are ok. Wow! Is this what
Jesus intended when he hung on a cross to die for our sins? NO!
So, the counsel here is that whatever might be leading a
Christian to sin must be cut out of his or her life. If we play with fire, we
are bound to get burned. So many Christians talk about how they pray for
victory over sin, but they still struggle, meaning they are still giving in,
but they don’t take the necessary steps to cut the sin out of their lives. If
we are daily taking in the junk of the world via TV, the internet, social media
sites, porn sites, and/or TV programs, movies, or even commercials which
glorify and entertain us with what is truly sinful, we can’t expect that we are
going to have pure thoughts honoring to God, or that we are going to know and
do the will of God for our lives, or that we are going to have victory over
sinful habits.
Some Christians continually “shoot themselves in the foot”
because they “tempt fate,” i.e. they lead themselves down a path of sin by
their own wrong and ignorant choices. For example, if I want to lose weight,
but I keep stocking my cupboards with sugar and fatty foods, and I keep going
to the cupboard and partaking of these foods, then I will never lose weight. As
well, if I don’t have some kind of a plan for losing weight, and I don’t change
my eating habits and exercise, I won’t lose the weight. That just makes common
sense. And, yet, many Christians (or professing Christians) continue to give in
to sin because they don’t have a plan to not sin, and because they keep opening
the door to temptation in their own lives by daily consuming what is only
contrary to what they say they want to avoid.
If we want to walk according to the Spirit, and no longer
according to the flesh, not only do we have to have a relationship with Jesus
Christ, via faith in him and in what he did in dying for our sins, but we have
to turn from sin and away from all which would tempt us (lead us) into sin, and
instead of setting our minds on what is worldly and sinful, we must set our
minds on things above. This means cutting out of our lives all which is
hindering our walks of faith so we can run with perseverance the race marked
out for us to run. If Facebook is dragging you down and keeping you from
walking with the Lord, cut it out of your life. You don’t need it! If you can’t
control what you look at on the internet, maybe you should not have private
internet access. If you are continually struggling with lustful thoughts or
your mind is drifting away from your spouse to someone else, cut out of your
life everything that is leading you that direction. This is just common sense!
Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” is going to be in heaven
one day. Many will hear, “I never knew you. Depart from me.” Jesus said that if
anyone wants to come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die
daily to sin and self) and follow (obey) him (Lu. 9:23-25). He said if we hold
on to our old lives of living for sin and self we will lose them for eternity,
but if we lose our lives (die with Christ to sin), we will gain eternal life.
The apostles taught the same message. Paul said that if we walk after the
flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of
the flesh, we will live. If someone is telling you that you can be saved, have
your ticket into heaven, and still live like hell, they are feeding you a big
fat lie! Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
Do Not Fear / An
Original Work / June 2, 2013
Based off John 14
Do not let your hearts fear.
Trust in God. Trust in Christ.
“In My house you will find
Many rooms I have
Prepared for you,
And I will come back
And take you to heav’n.”
“I will take you to be with Me;
You’ll be where I am.”
“I am the way and
The truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father,
Except he comes through Me,
So put your faith in Me,
And do all of what I command.”
“Whoever has My commands
And obeys them loves Me.”
“I did not leave you as orphans.
I sent you the Counselor;
The Holy Spirit to live in you.
He teaches you all things,
And He reminds you of Me.”
“My peace I give to you,
So do not fear, trust in Me.”
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