2
Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance. NKJV
I first heard this story I am about to share from a
sermon by Dr. Adrian Rogers, but I have subsequently heard others share the
same story in other sermons and articles and devotions written. A boy (maybe 7
or 8) was misbehaving rather terribly and his Father or Mother repeatedly kept
telling him to sit down, but he would not. After a period of time past and the boy
still would not obey, the Parent (Father or Mother) took him by the arm and
walked him to a chair and sat him in it forcefully. The boy looked up at the
Parent and replied, “I may be sitting down on the outside, but I’m still standing
up on the inside.” How appropriate is this story to the title of this article.
This little boy represents all sinners of every era of all races, classes, and
cultures. Man’s will since the fall is obstinately opposed to the will of God.
Proverbs
30:12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet
is not washed from its filthiness. (NKJV)
The heart of man is so wicked and deceitful that it
will rationalize to the point of ruin. Why do you think there are many
different belief systems throughout our world today and in times past? Every
cult that has ever been founded in the past and present is because man wants his
own will and not God’s will. The occult is a result of the same obstinacy and
disobedience Eve displayed in the garden when she listened to the serpent’s
lies and the enemy is still offering those same lies to men and women today,
the power to be as God. Today there are men and women witches and wizards
sitting in Orthodox Evangelical Churches having never repented and turned from
that evil thinking they are right with the True God (Yahweh) mixing the occult
with the sacred believing they are right in their own eyes, but the Lord weighs
the hearts.
Galatians
5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies,
outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders,
drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I
also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God. NKJV
Man wants his will and not the clear will of God
revealed in the Word of God. Some people will claim the Word of God cannot be
trusted because it was written by men and therefore it must be corrupted
because men are corrupt. Others will hear the Word of God but twist the
Scriptures to fit the life pattern or lifestyle they desire to live. For example,
the men and women who teach that the God of the Bible wants every person
healthy and wealthy always fall in these two categories, some of them are
wolves in sheep’s clothing fleecing men and women of their money to make
themselves rich, while others are simply misinterpreting Scripture from
ignorance. Both will lead to the same eternal destruction for the teacher and
the hearer of the error no matter whether it is done from malice intent or
ignorance of the truth. Just like the little boy in our story above they are
still standing up on the inside refusing to bow the knee to the will of God.
However, the One True God says clearly, “As I live say the Lord, every knee
will bow to Me and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
Glory of God the Father.” Jesus Christ is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all.
Judges
21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what
was right in his own eyes. NKJV
Finally, this was not only true during the time when
Israel only had judges in the land, but it reins true today all over the world.
It is not something new today to hear men and women say that what is true for
you may not be true for me as if there are many truths. This is one of the
oldest of all deceptions. Truth is never relative, but always absolute. The
Bible for many centuries has been handled in a similar manner, where people
over many years have said that a passage of Scripture might mean one thing to
one person and another thing to someone else. When our Lord spoke to the disciples,
He did not mean for His words to mean something to Peter that it did not mean
to John. When He spoke to them, His words meant the same thing to each one of
them. One of the clearest passages in the Scripture of the will of God for His
children is 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. In this section of Scripture Paul tells us
plainly that Jesus Christ’s commands are for His sons and daughters to abstain
from sexual immorality and in verse 8 Paul says that if anyone rejects this
they are not rejecting him (a mere man), but they are rejecting God. However,
we find today that many are ordaining men and women homosexuals as Priest, Bishops,
and Pastors in many places deemed to be Christian Churches, clearly rejecting
God and they are like the little boy sitting down on the outside, but still
standing on the inside refusing to bow the knee and receive Jesus Christ for
who He is LORD!
1
Timothy 1:8-11 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,
knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the
lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the
unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for
perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. NKJV
1
Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I
preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also
you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you --- unless
you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also
received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that
He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures. NKJV
"Greater
Works" — My Utmost For His Highest for 10/17/2012
And greater works than these shall he do; because I
go unto My Father. — John 14:12Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a common-sense exercise of our higher powers in order to prepare us for God's work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not on my agony. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not.
Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference
where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray.
Never allow the thought - "I am of no use where I am;" because you
certainly can be of no use where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down
in circumstances pray, [spontaneously cry out] to Him all the time.
"Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do." We won't pray unless
we get thrills, that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to
labour along the line of God's direction, and He says pray. "Pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into
His harvest."
There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man's
work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius
possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master
possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from His
standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted,
the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit
of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.
By Oswald Chambers
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle e-books now and will be available in a couple of weeks @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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