Here is a vital principle which could mean your eternal life! Will you LOSE your salvation by neglecting to practice it?
Many times, we have printed articles about your Christian life, about the necessity of perseverance, of zeal, of real enthusiasm in order to overcome, and obtain salvation.
Many to Lose Out
Have you never wondered why it is that God takes so much time and space too WARN us, by examples, and by direct statements, about falling away? Even in this present age, filled with the turmoil of a dying world, without ears attuned to the shrieks of the millions of suffering humans we read about every day –– some have FALLEN AWAY! Some have neglected to put these “little things,” as they may have called them, into practice, and for that reason, they are no longer a part of God’s Church!
In addition to His prophecies of a world-wide apostasy and falling away from the truth (Matt. 24:5, 11-12), Jesus foretold of a terrible state of lukewarmness in His own Church (Rev. 3:15-17)! He said, “… when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Jesus was constantly reminding His disciples of the grave possibility of falling away. In His parable of the sower, He described the various types of persons who would hear the word –– His very Gospel of the Kingdom –– and would receive it with JOY, and yet would not endure to the end.
“But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he stumbles” (Matt. 13:20-21).
Notice, this person didn’t have ROOT in himself. The root is the source of the food supply for the plant –– and that which gives it stability in the ground. If you are not drinking in of the “milk” of the word (1 Peter. 2:2), being rooted and grounded in the truth, you will fall away and be burnt.
Danger of Worldly Interests
Jesus described the next class of persons as being those who receive the word among thorns. “And the cares of THIS WORLD, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful” (Matt. 13:22).
Paul, about to depart from the brethren he loved so much at Ephesus, said, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30).
Paul was very familiar with the human pulls of the flesh, with the vanity, the lust, the greed, and the utter SELFISHNESS of human nature. He battled during his entire ministry to preserve the flock from danger, and to save it from destruction. He wrote to the people in Lystra, Derbe and Iconium, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel,” (Gal. 1:6) and went on to show they had been led off by failing to practice the things he had taught them during his ministry there.
The Nearness of Sin
Regardless of how close to God a person becomes, SIN is always near! Most of us have not really understood just how EASY it is to “slip over the line” and let the “bars” down –– drifting into our old ways and habits, and sinning against God by our actions. When Jesus was perhaps the very closest to God, during His long fast of 40 days and nights in the wilds of Palestine, Satan came to Him, personally, to tempt Him. Are you more immune than Christ?
Paul said, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, EVIL is PRESENT WITH me” (Rom. 7:21). Paul said he recognized the evil tendencies in his flesh –– he knew his nature made him do the opposite from the good he wanted to do. “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (vs. 15). He said he DIDN’T KNOW HOW to perform that which was good! (vs. 18). But God showed him. “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh… for to be carnally minded is death… because the carnal mind is enmity against God… so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the SPIRIT, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you” (Rom. 8:5-9).
The Spirit of God did dwell in Paul. “Christ liveth in me,” (Gal. 2:20). “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man… so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God” (Rom. 7:22 & 25).
All of us must come to see that we are literally standing on a huge precipice, with our backs to the damp, horribly gaping maw of debauchery and destruction! WE must come to realize that wherever we are, at whatever time, Satan will try to ensnare us in whatever way he can –– by playing on our particular weaknesses!
I’ll Do It Tomorrow
It is perhaps so simple, it won’t sound like a very important point to you –– but the real basic cause for much of this spiritual lethargy in God’s Church is an attitude of PUTTING OFF everything until LATER, of GOOD INTENT, coupled with NEGLECTFULNESS, which could finally result in putting off your own salvation!
For example, you have come to see you really need to talk to God more –– or have you? –– and you have decided to do something about it. You have made up your mind. THIS TIME you really mean it! So, when it comes time to go to bed, you’re very, very tired –– and your mind just doesn’t function very well. After only a few minutes of drugged, half-awake prayer that didn’t go any higher than the ceiling, you tumble wearily into bed –– intending fully, and even promising yourself that SURELY you’ll “make up for it” tomorrow morning!
Tomorrow morning arrives. You have overslept, or perhaps you have children, and they awakened sooner than you planned –– perhaps the telephone rang early, or something happened –– maybe you even FORGOT about it, but, at any rate, you didn’t pray as you intended!
Is this you? Do YOU “put off” praying until a “more convenient time?”
Do You Fast Enough?
It’s so easy to tell yourself that you’ll get around to doing things tomorrow. In this way, many have been putting off fasting. God only commands you to fast on one particular day, (Lev. 23:32), but by example, by many direct statements of Christ, and by the teachings of the Apostle Paul, we know you must fast often to remain a spiritual-minded Christian.
Jesus fasted. It was because of His CONSTANT nearness to God that He was able to cry out, even with tears, to God for deliverance from the temptations of the flesh (Heb. 5:7). That’s how He can be a merciful High Priest to us now –– because through FASTING and prayer Jesus was so close to God, that even when evil impulses and temptations came, He was able to cast them from Him. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
Even in fasting to stay close to God, Christ set YOU an example (1 Pet. 2:21). Turn to John, the eleventh chapter, and read again the wonderful history of how the living Head of Our Church raised a man (Lazarus) from the dead! Jesus was so deeply moved by the lack of faith of the people that he “groaned in the spirit, and was troubled” (vs. 33), and finally He wept (vs. 35).
But when He came to the tomb, Jesus “lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me” (vs. 41-42). Time that short prayer! I did, with my stopwatch, and even saying it slowly, it only takes eleven seconds!
“And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, ‘LAZARUS COME FORTH!’” (VS. 43). And a man who had been dead FOUR days walked alive out of his tomb.
Why was Christ able to speak only a short, eleven-second prayer, and publicly, in front of the people there, still perform one of His greatest miracles?
Simply because He was FASTING and praying constantly, not just working up a temporary “spiritual attitude” to perform some great thing –– not just “getting in the mood” for a while. He was in such constant communion with God, that He needed only to lift His eyes to heaven, and break off one conversation, with other human beings, and begin a new conversation –– with His Heavenly Father. Remember, Jesus is your example.
But, sadly enough, most of us don’t have the WILL POWER Jesus had. We constantly tell ourselves, “Well, I’m too hungry today, I’ll put it off until tomorrow” or, “I’ve got too much work to do, that will require all my physical strength –– I’ll put it off until later” or, “I won’t have a good opportunity to PRAY today, so the fasting would only be starving my physical body for nothing –– I’ll wait until I’m not so busy!” In just this fashion, you can drift rapidly into a state of spiritual lethargy!
The Leaky Roof
This type of neglect is about like the farmer whose roof leaks. Always, when he is reminded about the holes in the roof, he begins to reason, “Well, it’s not raining now, and I’ve got so much else to do –– I’ll put it off until tomorrow.” Tomorrow comes, and then several tomorrows, until it finally rains and he is forced to scatter several pots and pans around in the house to catch the rain water coming through the holes in the roof. He certainly can’t get up on the roof in the rain, can he? And then after the rain has stopped, he thinks there is no need to repair the roof yet, because it isn’t raining anymore!
Are you like that farmer?
Brethren, never forget that “… the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Pet. 4:17). If you’re constantly putting things off until tomorrow, you’re being judged on the strength of EMPTY PROMISES and HYPOCRISY! Rather than real works being noted in your record, you have a record filled with half-hearted promises and “good intentions.”
GOOD INTENTIONS are not going to save one single soul from final spiritual death! If they could, then God would allow almost the majority of the sinning, ignorant, degenerate humans on earth into His glorious Kingdom! You’d better get busy while the sun is shining and stop up that leaky roof –– fill the gaps in your study and prayer habits, until you’re ready for the strongest typhoons and hurricanes of temptation and persecution –– because THEY ARE COMING!
The Time is Now
Peter warns us “… the end of all things IS AT HAND: be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer!” (1 Peter 4:7). We are exhorted to be diligently WORKING OUT our own salvation, with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12) and to be putting off DAILY the traits and characteristics of the “old man” of sin! (Col. 3:9-10, 1 Cor. 15:31).
Jesus illustrated this DAY-BY-DAY fight of the Christian when He said, “Sufficient unto the DAY is the evil thereof” (Matt. 6:34). You’ve got to conquer today’s problems TODAY –– not make empty promises about “getting around” to it tomorrow!
Christ tells us, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for the Lord, when He will return from the wedding; that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately!” (Luke 12:35-36). Are we going to say to Christ, “I’ll get up and let you in tomorrow” at His coming?
“… If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Jesus said it is a day-to-day process! Notice the example of the Bereans, who were so intrigued by the teaching of the Apostle Paul that they “searched the scriptures DAILY… THEREFORE many of them believed” (Acts 17:11-12).
Many are comforting themselves by telling themselves, “I’m trying to quit this or that… I’m in the process of doing what I know I should” and, content to be in a constant state of “trying,” they never seem to get around to really DOING anything about it!
Notice how much emphasis God places in doing things TODAY! “But exhort one another daily, WHILE IT IS YET CALLED TODAY; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13).
A Broad Principle
Perhaps this sounds like a simple key, a rudimentary truth, which is certainly understood readily enough by the majority of God’s people. But it is much more than that! It constitutes a tremendous, all-encompassing principle, which, if really practiced, will result in eternal life!
QUIT PUTTING THINGS OFF –– AS OF NOW!
Had you promised yourself you would pray more today? THEN DO IT! Stop reading this article right now! It will still be here when you return –– but TIME is passing! Go to your closet or bedroom NOW and pray. Learn this lesson once and for all –– DON’T PUT THINGS OFF, if you intend to enter God’s Kingdom!
Every time you put off until tomorrow what you could accomplish today, you are weakening and possibly even destroying part of your character! And CHARACTER is the very reason for life! CHARACTER is what you should take with you into God’s Kingdom!
Brethren, DON’T let this be “just another interesting article” to you! Don’t read it, agree with it, and then forget about it! Don’t allow Satan to deceive you that you’re alright spiritually if you KNOW you’re not!
In the name of Christ our Savior, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! NOW! DON’T PUT IT OFF ANY LONGER!
