I want to speak to you today about presenting your members to serve righteousness. When My servant Paul uses these words, “your members as instruments of righteousness”, he is referring to the use of your bodies in the practical working out of your will and your heart to serve and glorify Me. The fact that you are admonished to resist allowing sin to rule in your bodies indicates that there is ever before you a choice either to fulfill the lusts, the natural desires of the flesh or else to fulfill My will by serving righteousness. My servant declares that before you yielded yourselves in faith to My Son you were free from righteousness. By this he does not mean that you were not called to live righteously, for that is the call of My Word to all. It means rather by the use of the words free from righteousness that you had no understanding or regard for the demands of righteousness upon you. But when the truth of My Word impacted your hearts and brought conviction, repentance and faith as My servant Paul declared in this portion, “you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered”. And you were not only set free from your former bondage to sin, but you had a new compulsion, a new motivation in your hearts to turn away from sin and to serve and glorify Me. Now what My servant Paul is emphasizing is that where as before you had no real choice to do otherwise and to serve sin, you are now given a real choice. And there is the necessity of your recognizing that you have genuinely been set free from the dominance of sin to serve Me. This means that you have no real excuse. If there is an established pattern of sin in your lives, it is not because you are helpless and bound to the compulsion to sin. It is rather because in the exercise of your choice, you have willingly embraced sin.
And these words are to urge you to break with that choice and with that pattern because the fruit of it eventually is death, and by this My servant means first of all your fellowship with Me is broken. And secondly that persisting in that pattern will ultimately bring an end to your blessing, your enjoyment of the fruits of righteousness and ultimately if you persist, to the end of your life on earth, for as he declares here, the continuation of uncleanness and lawlessness just leads to more of the same.
And if you recognize that that path has a dreadful end, it is possible to stop that deadly cycle simply by repentance. And the concrete action of repentance will be to present your members as slaves of righteousness and holiness. This is the true freedom and the true life. And if the wonderful gift of the sacrifice of My Son on your behalf grips your heart and nourishes your soul, you will not only be motivated towards righteousness by fear of the consequences of sin, but you will be so motivated by compelling love. My love for you which was extended even when you were in sin and as it declares in another place in this letter that you were actually in a state of enmity towards Me. So in the state of righteousness and holiness, your heart will be glad to choose to walk as a slave of righteousness.
Tags: Righteousness, Slave of Righteousness
To whom do you think these words were intended, for the wicked and the unrighteous that they might turn away from judgment by turning away from their wickedness? But consider that I had sent My prophets one after the other to warn and to appeal to those who I sought to call away from their wickedness. But very few of them listened and turned.
No these words were not intended for the wicked, who for the most part had hardened their hearts and had determined to continue in their wickedness. I want you to understand that these words were intended to encourage those who fear My name, for did they not need such encouragement and do they not still need encouragement. And so I declared through My prophet that the day of reckoning for the wicked would surely come. And the righteous who had endured the attack and the abuse of the wicked and who had been grieved to see how the wicked defied Me and scorned My name would in that day find that since My judgment would burn them up, that they would become as ashes under the soles of the feet of the righteous. So then these words are first of all to assure the righteous of that day of reckoning for those who chose to remain in their wickedness. But for the righteous there is even greater comfort. There is the promise that the Son of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. And as He not already accomplished this? And is not that healing for both body and soul available for those who fear My name, and is there not with that healing also the prosperity and the blessing that the prophet describes here as the fatness of stall fed calves. And do you not understand by this picture that there is always provision as well as healing for both body and soul for those who fear My name. There is also the admonition to remember My law which was given through My servant Moses. And for the day in which My servant the prophet declared these things, that word, that law defined My way for My people. But now even greater comfort and encouragement is yours since I have inscribed My law on the tables of your hearts. And finally there is the great and excellent promise of the coming of My servant Elijah to bring together the hearts of the fathers and their children.
And do you not see how much such a reconciling work is needed not only among My people, but throughout the earth. And is it not true that the lack of the reconciliation has indeed proved to be a curse.
But My desire is that such a curse will be banished as the hearts of fathers and children are reconciled to one another. Do you not see then what great comfort and encouragement is intended to you through these words? And do you not see that though their complete fulfillment has not yet come, yet even in this day when events seem very threatening, that this work as actually begun. For do you not see though yet not completely fulfilled, the awesome end and judgment of those who cleave to their wickedness. And do you not see the healing and the blessing of those who cleave to Me and fear My name.
And if it is not accomplished in its fullest measure yet, do you not see enough to know that it surely will be even as I have promised.
Tags: Encouragement, Judgment Wicked
You see how Solomon was directed by Me to build My house, and how after he prayed to Me I manifested My favor and My acceptance by filling the temple with My glory and consuming the sacrifices with fire. And though I showed such favor in glorifying the house which Solomon had built before Me, you see that I warned him that I would judge him and the house itself if his heart and the hearts of the people turned away from Me to worship other gods. And you know that though I clearly manifested My approval and gave admonition and warning, that Solomon did turn away from Me to serve and worship other gods, and to lead My people astray. And you know that this did bring judgment in the dividing of the nation, in the enmity and strife that followed, in the degeneration of kings, of priests, of prophets, in the further defiling of My house, in the departure of My glory from it, and finally in the destruction of My house, of My city, of the land, and the carrying away of My people into exile. The lesson that I want to emphasize to you today that is still true is, that even though My servant may be highly favored, and the manifestation of My blessing may be upon him, and that which he accomplishes in My name seems to glorify Me, that if he strays in his heart and resists My warnings and My correction, that My judgment will remove him and even all that he has done in My name may be swept away. For as I have told you time and time again, it is not by the outward things that I measure true faithfulness, it is rather by the consistency of the heart in remaining faithful unto Me. So be warned, and do not be overly impressed with the outward manifestations that seem to declare that My hand is upon My servant and the works that he does in My name are greatly favored and approved. And be warned yourselves and do not be overly impressed with those outward manifestations, but desire in your hearts to remain utterly faithful. And when My rebuke and My correction come to you, yield your hearts in repentance. Do not do as Solomon and allow your hearts to stray, for it is not the outward things in which I take delight, but in the constancy and the faithfulness of your hearts.
Tags: Correction, Guard Heart, Straying Heart