Month: October 2018

Every day you live, you are getting nearer the time of Christ’s Return.

When he comes, will you be ready to leave the world and go to be forever with Him, like Enoch?

Enoch disappeared one day, and the Bible says it was because God took him. Why did God take him? Because he kept good company. The Bible says that “…Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24).

It will pay you to examine your situation and make sure you are keeping good company. The apostle gave sound advice when he exhorted the believers to separate themselves from the lawless, the people who walk in spiritual darkness, the people who make idols of earthly things. To those who separate themselves from these people, God says, “..I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)

Paul posed these questions to the Corinthians but did not answer them, for the answer is self-evident. You may say, “But we have to work together, and live in the same neighborhood. We have to be friendly and cooperative.” Yes, but we don’t have to be intimate.

What Paul is opposing is the yoking together of believers and unbelievers. This would include the marriage yoke, the business yoke, the social yoke-any voluntary binding of oneself together in intimate association with unbelievers. He calls it an unequal yoke. It can be a very galling yoke.

How different is the yoke of Christ! Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

When the Lord comes to catch away his people, it will pay us to be found keeping good company and walking with God, like Enoch.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS

1. TRY THEM

1 John 4:1-3  ^“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

2. MARK THEM

            Romans 16:17 “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”

3. REBUKE THEM

            Titus 1:13 “This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;”

4. HAVE NO FELLOWSHIP

            Ephesians 5:11 “¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”

5. WITHDRAW THYSELF

            2 Thessalonians 3:6 “ Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”

6. RECEIVE THEM NOT

            2 John 1:10-11 (KJV) “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

7. HAVE NO COMPANY WITH HIM

            2 Thessalonians 3:14 (KJV) “And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.”

8. REJECT THEM

            Titus 3:10 (KJV) “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;”

9. BE YE SEPARATE

            2 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV) “ Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”

Too many people are looking to man for guidance rather than the clear teachings of the Words of God.

There are some practices and some phrases of worldliness which are so clearly unscriptural and inconsistent with true Christian testimony that there is no question as to the right and wrong of them. They are clearly recognized as in violations of proper Christian conduct. But there are other things which are not so obviously contrary to the Bible concerning which many Christians young people, and other folks alike, are puzzled. Desiring to be true to the Lord and obedient to His Word, and yet wishing to avoid unreasonable extremes, they sometimes find it difficult to decide as to their participation in a particular thing.

The Bible has a lot to say about the world. It uses the word world in three different ways: 1) The world of lost men. “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16); 2) The material world we live in. “For we brought nothing into this world…” (1 Timothy 6:7); 3) The third use – the one we are interested in – refers to the conditions and the influences around us that are opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, Jesus said, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).

Jesus is saying that believers are in the material world, but they do not belong to the system that controls it! In other words, there is an invisible “world” of evil that uses the material world and its activities to keep people from coming to Christ and obeying Him. It is that unseen system controlled by Satan that we refer to when we talk about the “world.” “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” (Ephesians 2:2)  “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

True Christians are recognized because they have no part in the activities of the Christ-opposing world around them. What a powerful testimony! “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) “…know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4) Take notice and you will find that in all places where man finds his worldly enjoyment, he shuts out Christ-lest He should come in and spoil his pleasures.

We realize that part of the problem today is that standards are drastically changing. Deed and acts that were once labelled “unbecoming” for a Christian or “worldly” are now accepted and acknowledged without shock or shudder. What is your attitude toward all this? Are you going to accept the lowered and lowering standards around you? May God help you to say, “Most surely not!”

May you seek to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ and to daily guard your conduct. His standards have not changed – nor should ours.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)

“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13)