Take 'Em Seriously

Luke 12:4-7 ESV

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

In this world we are going to have enemies, whether or not we are followers of Jesus Christ. But if we are followers of Christ, and if we are living for him, and if we are walking in obedience to his commands in holy living, and if we are not walking in sin, we are going to have enemies who are enemies of the cross of Christ. And some of these enemies will be our family members and others who profess faith in Jesus Christ, and even pastors and elders of church congregations (or of what is falsely called “church”).

Now in America, where I live, we are not being murdered for our faith in Jesus Christ, at least not as a general rule. And that is largely because the gospel of Christ and the character of God/Christ have been so altered and diluted that it seems most people don’t get upset about the name of Jesus, but even many who don’t believe in him are okay with him for they think he was a “good guy.” And it also appears that most who profess his name don’t really take him and his word seriously, so they are no threat to anyone.

For when the church is looking more like the world than it is the character of Christ, Satan is not threatened. His kingdom is not threatened, for he has the people right where he wants them living worldly and mediocre and/or obsessively sinful lives while they don’t give God and his word the reverence, respect, and obedience that they ought. It is when Christians rise up and they take God seriously and they start teaching the truth and refuting the lies that the enemy then is on the all-out attack.

But we are not to fear these enemies or what they might do to us. If we are living for the Lord and if we are martyred for our walks of faith in him, then we are with the Lord, and the people of this world can no longer harm us. But even if their persecution of us is while we are still alive, and even if it is something that goes on for a very long time, we are not to fear what other humans may do to us or say about us, for our lives are in the hands of the Lord and he will take care of us, and he will use this for our good.

But we are to have the fear of God in our lives, and to fear God is to take him and his word seriously and to put it into practice in our daily lives. And this means we take his warnings to us seriously, and we heed the warnings, and we take his promises to us seriously, too, but only as they apply to us. For many people are ignoring God’s warnings and they are claiming God’s promises which don’t apply to them. For God’s promises all have conditions, and a lot of them are introduced to us with “if” clauses.

For if we don’t fear God, and if we don’t take him at his word, in its true context, and so we think we can go on living in sin and for self, then we are in for a big surprise, and it isn’t a good one. For he said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of God the Father. For many will stand before Him one day calling him Lord and claiming what they believed they did in his name, and he is going to say to them, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” (see Matthew 7:21-23).

So, take God seriously. Take his word seriously (in full context), and do what it says, as is applied to those who are followers of Jesus Christ. And don’t worry about what other people are going to think about you or what they are going to say to you or about you to other people. Don’t fear their mistreatment of you or even death. For if we are following Christ with our lives, our Lord has us in the palm of his hand, and he is going to carry us through it all and work it all out for our good (for what is best for us).

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Video Talk

https://youtu.be/2SoM9-mX8OA

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Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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