Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. The natural religionists
of our day preach a message which promises great ease and blessings
to those who will obey the Lord and walk in some prescribed formula
for blessing. Yet the Lord plainly taught this.
He said, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword. If any man will come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. We are not promised a life of ease nor a release from troubles.
Rather, we are appointed unto these very trials for our benefit,
and God's blessing is plainly seen in the midst of those trials.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be,
ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of
your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise
and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Those who have been
born again by the Spirit of God are now entered into an agonizing
conflict with their own sinful flesh, which Paul describes like
this, For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary one to the other, so that you
cannot do the things that you would. They were free from this
conflict when they were yet dead in trespasses and sins, but when
they were awakened and given eternal life, that flesh which
always dictated their every move without opposition is now stirred
up to war against that principle of righteousness which is synonymous
with the presence of God's Spirit which indwells them. These new
creatures, which they have become, now receive the things of the
Spirit, and thus this continual agony ensues. As Paul describes
it, I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present
with me, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now we would be
totally overwhelmed in this condition and in despair if we were not
also given a hope in our blessed deliverer, as Paul goes on to
say, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with
the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the
law of sin. His exhortation is to run this
race that we are appointed to, patiently and deliberately, looking
unto our Lord Jesus Christ, who has already run the same race
for us, and has triumphed over sin in our behalf, so that we
need have no fear of failing or falling into condemnation.
He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He committed
no sin. When He was reviled, He opened
not His mouth. He endured the ignominy and shame
of the cross. He bore all these things because
He focused not on the agony that was involved, but rather the
fulfillment of His Father's purpose, as the Scripture says, for the
joy that was set before Him. This is the exact thing that
Isaiah speaks about when he says, "...yet it pleased the Lord to
bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his
soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand." He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall
be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong. Because he hath poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Now brethren, if we have such a great High Priest, who has
entered in once into the Holy of Holies in our behalf, fully
satisfying the laws jot and tittle, how can we not rest in Him who
is our Mediator and Sin-bearer? But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
For even here into were you called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps.
Who did no sin, neither was God found in his mouth. Who, when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
Who, his own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes he were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.
Is Christ your great high priest, or do you bring offerings from
your own hands? For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.