Each week the local newspaper
has a section devoted to the arrest record of the County Sheriff's
Department. It chronicles in detail each
capture that is made and the names of the people who were
thus detained. When a person is arrested or apprehended, that
person is taken into custody without regard to their desire.
In fact, the arrestee is not consulted as to their willingness
to be apprehended, nor their wish to go with the officers
who arrest them. On several occasions when the Lord Jesus was upon
the earth, he delivered some who were possessed by evil spirits,
that is, demons or devils. These people did not choose to
be possessed by these powers, but were nonetheless held captive
or apprehended by them until they were set free by the power
and purpose of the Lord. The Pharisees brought a woman
who was taken in the very act of adultery, and cast her at
the Lord's feet, hoping that they could confound Him. She
did not go with these men willingly, but was apprehended by them,
and brought in shame before the Lord. Now those hypocrites intended
this action for evil, but the Lord intended it for good, that
He might show mercy to this guilty and undeserving sinner. Paul
said that he was apprehended of Jesus Christ. In other words,
he is saying that he was arrested or taken by the Lord without
any regard to his own action or will. In fact, in reading
of his initial encounter with the Lord in the book of Acts,
we discover that he was taken into custody by the very one
whom he persecuted. He had no desire to follow Christ
and was not looking for him when this encounter took place. Because
of man's sinful nature and his natural enmity for the things
of God, none will ever choose to embrace Christ and become
his disciple unless he first takes them into custody or arrests
them on their pathway to destruction. This is a totally disregarded
fact in the majority of preaching that we hear today. Men are cajoled,
persuaded, and pled with to do something that they are both
totally unable and unwilling to do. By nature, men choose
sin. Paul was well acquainted with
the fact that we love him because he first loved us. Had he not
quickened us while yet in our sin and delivered us from the
darkness, we would surely perish. He apprehended us when we were
neither looking for Him nor desiring a place in His presence. He has
possessed us and detained us and brought us in a way that
we knew not. When a man is thus apprehended, he is made a new
creature and is given a new nature. He has both possessed his people
and transformed them. A man who would not and could
not believe now embraces the glad tidings of the gospel. That
which at one time was shrouded in darkness now becomes the light
of his life. The man who desired the opposite
of holiness now longs for conformity to Christ. This is indeed a work
of sovereign saving grace. Paul goes on to say that not
only was he apprehended by Christ, but that now, as a result, he
desired to take captive the life of Christ. The work of the Spirit
brings his people to desire a greater likeness to their Savior. He
works in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He
makes them painfully aware of how far they yet have to go.
Paul says, I count not myself to have apprehended. We have
not yet arrived at a state of perfect likeness to Christ, but
we are determined to arrive there. For now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed. In this quest to which we are
called, we are admonished to, first of all, press on to the
finish line. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that
is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do
not be discouraged. He will never forsake us. We
are admonished to give the flesh no opportunity to dominate, but
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the
flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof. Remember that this sinful flesh
is not a friend to our conformity to Christ. We are admonished
to turn away from the former things that bound us and seek
the truth. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. The
ignorance of our past does not need to be revisited. We are
admonished to put on the new man, that is, embrace our new
nature. Put on, therefore, is the elect of God, holy and beloved,
vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering,
forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have
a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do
you. We are admonished to give thanks
in all things, and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the
Father by him. We are exhorted to pray without
ceasing, but the end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober
and watch unto prayer. The time is short. The day of
Christ is at hand. Do you desire him? For a free
CD containing 15 of these radio broadcasts, send an email to
forthepoor at windstream.net.