It’s Later Than You Think, There’s No More Time Left For Us To Live Anyhow On Earth
…that henceforth we should not serve sin
Romans 6:6/cite>
Christian friend, what hast thou to do with sin?(Eph5:11, Ro6:1-5, 1Cor6:12-20, 2cor6:14-18) Hath it not cost thee enough already? Burnt child, wilt thou play with the fire? What! When thou hast already been between the jaws of the lion, wilt thou step a second time into his den? Hast thou not had enough of the old serpent? Did he not poison all thy veins once, and wilt thou play upon the hole of the asp, and put thy hand upon the cockatrice’s den a second time? Oh, be not so mad! So foolish! Did sin ever yield thee real pleasure? Didst thou find solid satisfaction in it?(Ro6:19-23) If so, go back to your old drudgery or labor, and wear the chain again, if it delights thee. But inasmuch as sin did never give thee what it promised to bestow, but deluded thee with lies, be not a second time snared by the old fowler– be free, and let the remembrance of thy ancient bondage forbid thee to enter the net again!(Ro6:15-18)It is contrary to the designs of eternal love, which all have an eye to thy purity and holiness; therefore run not counter to the purposes of thy Lord.(Ro6:1-7,11-14, 1Thess4:3-5, 2Thess2:13, 1Pt1:1,2, Ro12:1,2)
Another thought should restrain thee from sin. Christians can never sin cheaply; they pay a heavy price for iniquity-(Amos3:1,2). Transgression destroys peace of mind, obscures fellowship with Jesus, hinders prayer, brings darkness over the soul-(Isa59:1-15); therefore be not the serf or prisoner and bondman of sin. There is yet a higher argument: each time you “serve sin” you have “Crucified the Lord afresh, and put Him to an open shame.”-(Heb6:1-8) Can you bear that thought? (Heb10:26-31) Oh! If you have fallen into any special sin during this day, it may be my Master has sent this admonition this moment, to bring you back before you have backslidden very far, that there would be no room for repentance as it was with Esau. (Heb12:12-17, 2Co6:1,2, Ph2:12, Heb3:7-19)
Turn thee to Jesus anew; He has not forgotten His love to thee; His grace is still the same. With weeping and repentance, come thou to His footstool, and thou shall be once more received into His heart; thou shall be set upon a rock again, and thy goings shall be established. Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines.”–Song of Solomon 2:15
Look, a little thorn may cause much suffering. A little cloud may hide the sun. Little foxes spoil the vines; and little sins do mischief to the tender heart. These little sins burrow in the soul, and make it so full of that which is hateful to Christ, that He will hold no comfortable fellowship and communion with us. A great sin cannot destroy a Christian, but a little sin can make him miserable-(1Co5:6-8, Gal5:9). Jesus will not walk with His people unless they drive out every known sin(2Tm2:19-21). He says, “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (Jn15:10)
Some Christians very seldom enjoy their Savior’s presence. How is this? Surely it must be an affliction for a tender child to be separated from his father. Art thou a child of God, and yet satisfied to go on without seeing thy Father’s face? What! Thou the spouse of Christ, and yet content without His company! Surely, thou hast fallen into a sad state, for the chaste spouse of Christ mourns like a dove without her mate, when he has left her. Ask, then, the question, what has driven Christ from thee? He hides His face behind the wall of thy sins.-(Isa59:2) That wall may be built up of little pebbles, as easily as of great stones. The sea is made of drops; the rocks are made of grains: and the sea which divides thee from Christ may be filled with the drops of thy little sins; and the rock which has well nigh wrecked thy baroque, may have been made by the daily working of the coral insects of thy little sins.
If thou wouldst live with Christ, and walk with Christ, and see Christ, and have fellowship with Christ, take heed of “the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.” Jesus invites you to go with Him and take them. He will surely, like Samson, take the foxes at once and easily. Go with Him to the hunting.”That henceforth we should not serve sin.” Ephraim is a cake not turned.”–Hosea 7:8
A cake not turned is uncooked on one side; and so Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace: though there was some partial obedience, there was very much rebellion left. I charge you, beloved friend, to see whether this be your case. Are you thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very centre of thy being so as to be felt in its divine operations in all thy powers, thy actions, thy words, and thy thoughts? To be sanctified, spirit, soul, and body, should be your aim and prayer; and although sanctification may not be perfect in thee anywhere in degree, yet it must be universal in its action; there must not be the appearance of holiness in one place and reigning sin in another, else thou, too, wilt be a cake not turned. Luke warm and half-way Christian you shall be.
A cake not turned is soon burnt on the side nearest to the fire, and although no man can have too much religion, there are some who seem burnt black with bigoted or dogmatic, prejudice, narrow-minded and intolerant zeal for that part of truth which they have received, or are charred or burnt to a cinder or ashes with a vainglorious Pharisaic pretension of those religious performances which suit their humor. The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness.
Are you a saint in public but a devil in private? Do you deal in flour by day and in soot or filth or dirt by night? Is that your case my precious friend? Then notice that the cake which is burned on one side, is dough on the other. If it be so with you, then cry, “O Lord, turn me! Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of Thy love and let it feel the sacred glow, and let my burnt side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and want of heat when I am removed from Thy heavenly flame. Let me not be found a double-minded man, but one entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace; for well I know if I am left like a cake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of Thy grace, I must be consumed for ever amid everlasting burnings.”
“He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory.” –Zechariah 6:13
Christ Himself is the builder of His spiritual temple, and He has built it on the mountains of His unchangeable affection, His omnipotent grace, and His infallible truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon’s temple, so in this; the materials need making ready. There are the “Cedars of Lebanon,” but they are not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into those planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad the courts of the Lord’s house in Paradise. There are also the rough stones still in the quarry, they must be hewn thence, and squared. All this is Christ’s own work. Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ’s own hand performs the preparation-work. Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they are used by Him to this end. Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashions our hearts aright.
As in the building of Solomon’s temple, “there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house,”(1Kgs6:7)because all was brought perfectly ready for the exact spot it was to occupy–so is it with the temple which Jesus builds; the making ready is all done on earth.
When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no planing us with suffering. No, we must be made meet here–all that Christ will do beforehand; and when He has done it, we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.
“Beneath His eye and care, The edifice shall rise, Majestic, strong, and fair, And shine above the skies.”
Let us then, like Moses count the cost and esteem the reproaches of Christ more than the pleasures of this world. Let us love to suffer affliction rather than living in pleasure and lust of this world which would amount to nothing. (Heb12:24-27, 1Tm5:6, 1Jn2:15-17). God bless you. Amen
