Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. Multitudes gather together
on Sundays to clap their hands and sway to musical entertainment
and positive reinforcement messages delivered by smooth-talking orators
who prescribe medicine which is easy upon the palate to men
and women who have never felt woe at having offended the great
and mighty God. They assure their hearers that
they can solve their problems by the act of believing according
to their own free will. Not only that, but they prescribe
for them ways in which they can be filled with the Holy Ghost
and gain joy unspeakable by the activity of the same will. Greater
deceivers cannot be found among men. The Lord will prepare the
soil before he is pleased to sow his seed. His method in doing
this varies according to the good pleasure of his will, but
he will break up the fallow ground nonetheless. Sometimes he will
put the plow in deep and break men with the terrors of fear,
as he did with the Philippian jailer. then sometimes He will
more mildly confront them with their ignorance of His truth,
as He did with the Ethiopian eunuch. At other times He will
bring them to their knees as He exposes His glory and the
vileness of their self-righteous manner, as He did with the Apostle
Paul and Job. But in all cases He will bring
them to a confrontation of their abject need of a Savior, and
will give them the knowledge of Him who is that mighty Deliverer.
There can be no work of salvation where there is no repentance
wrought in the sons of God by the working of the Holy Ghost.
Repentance is a work of the Spirit in the sons of God wherein they
are enabled to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This repentance is not a mere
sorrowful confession of deeds which one is committed, but is
rather a repudiation of the total contrariness of their sinful
flesh to the way of God. This repentance is demonstrated
in the words of Job as he said, It is further manifested with
David's broken-hearted confession. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me." This is a far cry from making a decision to let the Lord into
your heart. There can be no work of salvation
where there is not a calling. First and foremost, there must
be a calling, which is performed by the Lord Himself. For the
promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are
far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. No man
can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him,
and I will raise him up at the last day, who hath saved us and
called us with unholy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Secondly, there must be
a calling upon the Lord by those who are awakened by his Spirit
to hear the word of God. and it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the
Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. It
is impossible for those whom the Lord shall call to avoid
calling upon Him, just as a baby is compelled to cry out for its
parent. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we
cry, Abba, Father. And because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. There can be no work of salvation
where there is no indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But ye are
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your moral bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Know ye not that ye are
the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Being filled with the Holy Ghost is not an optional accessory
to salvation, but is rather the evidence of it. The sons of God
are each given a measure of faith according to the pleasure of
God, yet none is without faith. In like fashion, the degree in
which the Spirit of God is pleased to manifest Himself in each of
the sons of God also varies, yet none is without that Spirit.
The Spirit which causes men to rejoice with joy unspeakable
is the same one who convinces men of judgment and produces
a contrite heart. Do you walk in humility before
the Holy God of heaven and earth? For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.