Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. The testimony of Christ
can be seen from the first pages of Genesis, the glorious poetry
of the Psalms, and the writings of the prophets. Yet these Jews
who considered themselves to be adept at reasoning the Scriptures
could not see the identity of Him whom they claimed to desire
the coming of. Such is the state of man by nature,
completely unwilling and unable to approach unto Him who alone
has the remedy for his condition. Apart from His amazing and wonderful
sovereign grace which plucks men as brands from the burning,
it can be said to all men, even as the Lord testified to these
Pharisees, I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your
sins. For if ye believe not that I
am He, ye shall die in your sins. Would not a reasonable man run
to Him? Therefore, O thou Son of Man,
speak unto the house of Israel. Thus ye speak, saying, If our
transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in
them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith
the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but
that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
The Lord raised up the Apostle Paul to be a witness to the Gentiles.
We see him faithfully discharging the call that was given to him
as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come
before Felix, the governor of Judea. Felix demonstrated the
power of Paul's reason and the hardness of his own heart, which
is endemic to the natural man, as he could not embrace the truth
even though he trembled before it. Festus, blinded by the vanity
of his reason, accused Paul of being crazy, as he rejected true
reason and willingly remained in his ignorance. Agrippa reacted
in the same way as Felix, expressing some consideration of the things
which Paul declared, but was unable to cast off his own unbelief,
even though reason suggested a different reaction. It is quite
reasonable that men should consider righteousness. All men desire
for other men to be morally righteous. Even the most crooked of men
expects and desires to be treated fairly in business dealings,
and will react in anger should he be the victim of the same
sort of scam which he might gladly perpetrate upon others who are
unsuspecting. Thus all men are without excuse
before the law, since they are convinced of it in their heart,
even if not in their mind. Yet the righteousness which those
who would faithfully declare the gospel of the glory of the
blessed God are concerned with is not about human morality.
Rather, there is but one righteousness which occupies their message.
It is that perfect righteousness of Christ, both as He walked
among men, demonstrating purity in the inward parts, and that
which He alone possesses as that perfect substitute who has become
the righteousness of His people by imputation. He is both the
fulfiller of the law and the performer of the same for those
whom He loves. Likewise, reasonable men consider
temperance, that is, self-control, to be useful. Even the man who
is a drunkard understands the value of temperance when someone
he loves is injured by another who is driving while intoxicated.
The Scripture describes temperance as one of the fruits of the Spirit.
The sons of God are exhorted to add temperance to their knowledge.
The Lord demonstrated temperance constantly and taught His disciples
to love those that hate them and to pray for those who would
use them in a spiteful manner. Is this not the very essence
of self-denial? So it is this very lack of temperance
which the Lord enables his children to see in themselves, that they
might call upon him to work those things in them. James reminds
us of the corrupt nature of our tongues. And the tongue is a
fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course
of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. Is it not reasonable
that diligence be exercised with this unruly member? Paul also
reasoned of judgment to come. It is appointed unto men once
to die, but after this, the judgment. All men believe in judgment to
come in one fashion or another. Some call it karma, or what goes
around comes around. In fact, most hope for judgment,
not for themselves, but for those who have wronged them. It just
wouldn't be reasonable to think that they wouldn't get what they
deserve. Yet the reality of judgment at the hands of a holy God who
will not clear the guilty or acquit the wicked is roundly
rejected by the natural man who prefers to think that some good
deeds are better than none. Only the Spirit of God can cause
a man to confess that he is worthy of destruction and deserves nothing
as he stands before the great King and Judge of all the earth.
Reason tells us it is true. Do you expect to plead your case
before this Judge or do you have a mediator, the man Christ Jesus? For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.