We Live in Troubled Times

Psalms 20:1-3 ESV

 

“May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!

    May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

May he send you help from the sanctuary

    and give you support from Zion!

May he remember all your offerings

    and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah”

 

When I think of the “day of trouble” today, I think of the spiritual decline of the church here in America and how so many people are buying into a cheapened grace of God which is not the true grace of God. For God’s true grace trains (instructs, teaches) us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and fleshly passions (lusts) and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s soon return (Titus 2:11-14).

 

So many people professing faith in Jesus are basing their faith on sinking sand which will not hold up in the judgment. Their faith is based in their emotions and not in surrender to Christ as Lord of their lives. And that is where many of them have camped. And not many of them are willing to be moved, either. And this reminds me of the words of Jesus Christ where he told of the house built on the rock versus the house built on the sand. For when the storms came, the house on the rock (Jesus Christ) stood firm, while the house built on sand (a false faith) crashed (Matthew 7:21-27).

 

So my prayer to God in “the day of trouble” is that all those who are following this false gospel of cheapened grace will have their eyes opened to the truth of the gospel and that they will be turned from darkness (sin) to light (Jesus Christ, truth, righteousness, holiness) and from the power and control of Satan over their lives to follow Jesus Christ in obedience to his ways. But I do believe that many of them do know the truth but that they are rejecting the truth in favor of the lies because they want to hold on to their sin. So there will need to be something to shake them out of that.

 

Psalms 20:4-5 ESV

 

“May he grant you your heart's desire

    and fulfill all your plans!

May we shout for joy over your salvation,

    and in the name of our God set up our banners!

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!”

 

My heart’s desire is honestly to see my loved ones and all people come to genuine faith in Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives and to see them die with Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. For so many people are still living in slavery (addiction) to sin, even many who call themselves Christians. And it is because they do want to keep their sin and because they are now being taught that God is okay with them continuing in deliberate and habitual sin since he already paid the price for their freedom.

 

So my heart’s desire is to see them come out of false religion and false faith which is teaching them that they can “believe” (not defined) in Jesus, have their sins forgiven, be guaranteed heaven when they die, but that they do not have to deny self, die with Christ to sin, or walk in obedience to his commands. I want to see them stop building their lives on sinking sand but to build their lives on the Rock, Jesus Christ, in truth and in righteousness. And I want to see them reject the lies of Satan and to embrace the truth.

 

And I want to see them delivered out of the clutches of institutional religion which is leading them to follow the teachings of humans over the teachings of the Scriptures, which sometimes are based in the Scriptures that are being taught out of context and thus twisted to say what they don’t say. I want to see them no longer giving their loyalties to man-made religion which is marketing the church to the world and is thus altering the gospel message to make it more attractive and palatable to the people of the world.

 

Psalms 20:6-8 ESV

 

“Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;

    he will answer him from his holy heaven

    with the saving might of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

They collapse and fall,

    but we rise and stand upright.”

 

So, who are those who will inherit eternal salvation? According to the Scriptures, they are all those who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and who have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, who have continued in him in dying daily to sin and to self and who are living daily in walks of obedience in holiness and righteousness, and until the very end of time. They are not perfect people, but they are not walking in sin, but they are walking in obedience to God in holy living, pleasing to God.

 

And who will not inherit eternal salvation? According to the Scriptures they are all who have continued in deliberate and habitual sin in open rebellion against the Lord Jesus and who do not walk in obedience to his commands, in practice, and who do not surrender their lives to Jesus, and who do not submit to him as Lord of their lives. For Jesus said that not all who say to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one DOING the will of God the Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21-23).

 

So, we need to take the words of the Scriptures to heart, for not everyone professing faith in Jesus Christ is going to inherit eternal life with God, but only those who are doing the will of God, who are obeying the Lord, in practice, and who are walking in righteousness, and who are no longer making sin their practice and their idol. So, if your trust is in man and in a man-made gospel and not in the truth of God’s word, when judgment comes, you will not stand but you will collapse, so rise and stand upright.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-32; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 2 Pet 1:1; 1 Co 15:58; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:26-27; Rom 2:6-8; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5-17; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

Farther Along

 

By W. B. Stevens

 

Tempted and tried we’re oft made to wonder,

Why it should be thus all the day long;

While there are others living about us,

Never molested though in the wrong.

 

When death has come and taken our loved ones,

It leaves our home so lonely and drear;

Then do we wonder why others prosper,

Living so wicked year after year.

 

Faithful till death said our loving Master,

A few more days to labor and wait;

Toils of the road will then seem as nothing,

As we sweep through the beautiful gate.

 

When we see Jesus coming in glory,

When He comes from His home in the sky;

Then we shall meet Him in that bright mansion,

We'll understand it all by and by.

 

Farther along we’ll know all about it,

Farther along we’ll understand why;

Cheer up, don't worry, live in the sunshine,

We’ll understand it all by and by.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LnPVGZj7k4

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