 |
| When you come to the Fork in the Road, you must choose one or the other. |
|
O
|
LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall
be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because
they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. (Jer
17:13)
When
we undertake to move toward God and His righteousness, we must necessarily depart
from the world and its allurements. As we have discussed often before, sin is a
direction of greater and greater descent into the abyss of ruin. (Psalms
1:1)
Moving toward a sinful lifestyle is a direction, always, away from God. The
greatest concern God has for us is that we are moving TOWARD Him in righteous
contrition. In the Gospel of St. Luke, the 15th chapter,
we read of the Prodigal Son who departed from his loving father and went into a
“far country” and wasted all his living.
When “he came to himself” he
resolved to return to his father and admit his unworthiness. He then arose and
returned. His father had anxiously awaited his prodigal son’s return. He
anxiously watched the road as it wound out to the distant horizon. He watched
as days turned to weeks, and weeks to months, and months to years. But one
glorious day, the father spotted the son as he emerged on that same road on
which he had departed so long ago. Even though he was yet afar off, dressed in
the filthy rags of the pig sty, and stinking of the refuse thereof, the father
saw him and knew him. He ran to meet him, embraced his smelly person, covered
his filth with the best robe (of imputed righteousness), placed shoes of
liberty upon his feet, and a ring of authority on his finger. That is what
Jesus did for the Woman at Jacob’s Well who, after coming face to face with the
Lord, spoke with such authority in Sychar that all believed her.
The life of the true Christian
is one of forsaking the alluring fantasies of worldly and carnal temptations
and embracing the things of Christ. We cannot have it both ways. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the
one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
(Matt 6:24) Did you grasp the significance of
these words of Jesus? The Christian disciple must not only depart from the
world and its sinful ways, but must literally hate sin and the world. Are
you in a church that compromises the Word of God in favor of attracting adherents
in great numbers? What does God command in such matters? “Wherefore come out
from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2
Cor 6:17-18)
Do we have any sound examples in
God’s Word of fleeing the temptations of the world at all costs? Remember the
young man, Joseph – son of Jacob and Rachel – who was an Old Testament Type of
Christ. He was tempted by Potiphar’s wife. How did he respond to the
temptations? “And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife
cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. But he refused, and said
unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the
house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; There is none greater
in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee,
because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin
against God? And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he
hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. And it came to pass
about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there
was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his
garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled,
and got him out.” (Gen 39:7-12) When
we flee temptation, will all be ‘peaches and cream’ thereafter? Not
necessarily. It cost Joseph a great deal to do the right things, but he did it
at all costs. “And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice
and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out. And she
laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.” (Gen
39:15-16) Joseph was falsely accused before Potiphar and thrown into
an Egyptian prison as a result.
What about the need to forsake
even common labors for Christ? “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 And
they straightway left their nets, and followed him.” (Matt
4:19-20) When the Call to follow Christ comes to us, we must forsake
all and follow Him without delay. We may feel that our common labors are
important, but there is nothing of greater importance than following Christ as
He leads us.
Sometimes we must leave our
gifts that we would offer to the Lord by the wayside until our hearts are
attuned to His perfect will. If we have offended a friend or brother, a sister
or a stranger, we should first be reconciled before offering our gifts to God
out of a heart that is burdened with the slightest malice. “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there
rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way;
first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” (Matt
5:23-24)
We all have need of physical
water to sustain our mortal bodies, but there is a Water that is of far greater
essence than that which comes from an earthen well – it is that Water of Life
that proceeds from the very Fountain of Living Waters (Jesus Christ)! When we
have found something better than the paltry gifts of the earth, we will grasp
it without hesitation and leave the lesser to lie in place. The Woman at Jacob’s
Well brought an empty bucket to the well with the intent of getting water from
a hole 100 ft. deep in the earth. But she left her empty bucket and rushed back
to the city to tell all that she had found something of so much greater worth. “The
woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the
men, 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not
this the Christ?” (John 4:28-29)
The blue prints of a house do
not constitute the building, but only present the principles and specifications
as to how the house should be built. “Therefore leaving the principles of
the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God” (Heb
6:1)
Once we have the perfect plan, let us go forth to build the perfect life. The
foundation must be built first and with great care, but afterwards, we must no
longer dwell upon the foundation with constant thought, but begin to build the
super-structure upon it.
That with which we fail to part
for Christ’s sake may be the one thing that separates us from the Lord of Glory
for Eternity. What of the rich young ruler? “And when he was gone forth
into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good
Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark
10:17)
This young man was seeking something that he might be able to do with his hands
or wealth to inherit eternal life, but salvation is not of good works but of
grace alone. He thought he had kept the commandments from childhood on, but he
had failed even in keeping the first commandment. “Thou shalt have no
other gods beside Me.” “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one,
that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments,
Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness,
Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto
him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him
loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou
lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great
possessions. And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the
kingdom of God! And the disciples were astonished at his words. But
Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children,
how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Mark
10:18-25) The rich young man had allowed riches to come between
himself and God, and he could not part with them or forsake them.
So we have learned from the
texts quoted today that:
1.
We cannot come to God and leave one
foot behind in Mammon. We cannot believe God and be, at the same time,
double-minded;
2.
Our obedience to God may cost us in the
pleasures of the world as Joseph’s obedience caused him to be placed in prison;
3.
We may have to part with our cherished
professions or dearly held friends when the call of Christ supersedes those
things;
4.
We must often leave behind the lesser
possessions of this life for the better possessions of eternal life when we
receive the Water of Life instead of the water of the world – just as did the
woman at the well leave her empty bucket to carry the true Water to her friends
and neighbors;
5.
Regardless of our priorities in this
world, whether professions, riches, or loved ones, we must drop those things at
once to do the labors to which our Lord calls us just as the disciples left
their nets and at once followed Christ at His call;
6.
We must be constantly growing upon the
foundation laid in our hearts by Christ, or else we shall be shrinking in Him;
7.
We must never allow anything to eclipse
our focus on God. Whatever comes between us and God must be dispensed with.
It is my hope your minds will
view these texts today with solemn resolve and take heed to your souls for
Christ’s sake.
