A great old salvation truth.
Come inside the ark!
One of my favorite illustrations is the brass serpent. Just look and live. Refuse to look and you will die. I can just picture some obstinate Israelite who gets bit by a Snake and insists that looking at the snake is just too simple and it can't work. So rather than looking up and living, he crawls back to the camp looking for a snake oil salesman and dies on the way back.
"There is the brazen serpent on the pole."
I guess I am not so great at switching trains. I had to pray really hard last Sunday and beg God for repentance. It doesn't come easy for me.
Still he went on with a pretty long sermon anyway.
Maybe the man in question should look for another preacher or religion that he can get this "saved' thing quicker and easier - maybe even one where the "what must I do" part is less.
Who knows, maybe, if he shops at a lot of different religion dealers, he could find a better deal, a better value of saved for less cost.
At the VERY GRAVE risk of starting of starting ANOTHER Calvin-Arminian diatrib, I found the following interesting:
"In the first place, there is the ark. There was a minute when Noah was outside of the ark, and another minute when he was inside. And, bear in mind, it was the ark that saved Noah: it was not his righteousness; it was not his feelings; it was not his tears; it was not his prayers. ...But, you see, it was the ark that saved him."
I was reflecting on this and came to the conclusion that Noah was saved BEFORE he entered the ark. The ark was a method for saving Noah's household. Please consider:
Heb 11:7 "By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
2Pe 2:5 "...and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;"
I've thought for a long while that Noah preached for 120 years and didn't save a soul. Reflecting on this in this article, this must not be correct. The ark was the method of whereby Noah faithfulness to God helped save seven others (albeit himself as well). But in order for him to have saved them Noah must have been saved prior to entering the ark since he preached. Is this a case like Abraham where Noah believed God (about the flood) and it was reckon to him as righteousness?
Thoughts? Comments? Am I'm all washed up? :O)
For me, I came to Christ late in life and I know when within the day. While I occasionally yet lament having been so wrong for so long and wasted so much of my life, being able to see so crisply within myself the fruit of regeneration described in the bible. To be able to literally know, albeit after the fact, and see the sanctifying evidence of the Holy Spirit has been most affirming. Those of us who did not grow up saved from childhood or adolesence, do have a marked "before and after" comparison which can strengthen and straighten our walk with Jesus.
God says, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Some people say, "If I were only as good as that minister I should feel so safe" or, "If I were only as good as that mother in Israel who has been praying fifty years for the poor and unfortunate, should I not feel very safe? " My friends, if you are behind the blood, you are as safe as any man or woman who has been praying for fifty years. It is not their righteousness and good works that are going to save them. They never saved any one. God says, "When I see the blood I will pass over you."
This is where the issue of "faith alone" confuses people. The issue is not the strength of one's faith, but the strength of the object of one's faith. As an adult, I have great faith the sun will rise tommorrow but that won't save me. As a believer, I only need a mustard seed of faith that the Son already rose, and He can save me. The new believer's faith is that of a child; untested, immature, faltering. But the object of that faith - Jesus - is not. If our faith is in Jesus alone (and not in ourselves or others or doctrines) and assuming it is a sincere faith, then it is God who sees the blood and passes over. Our faith is in God and His promises, not our prayer.
Now, there is nothing in looking at a piece of brass which can cure the bite of a serpent. It is God who cures it, and the looking is the condition. It is obedience; and that is what God will have.
This can not be emphasized enough.
God requires obedience. To Him, His Son, His Spirit, His Word. If one sincerely puts their faith in Jesus and repents (obeys), the fruit follows. They become doers of the word, not merely hearers. Their works are evidence of their salvation. No obedience, no doing of the word, no fruit, - no salvation, the faith in Christ was insincere.
Obedience is not easy. It has been remarked that it is not that following Christ has been tried and found wanting, but following Christ has been tried and found difficult. Believers are in fact promised trials and suffering (it is in fact evidence of the Refiners fire), but He will equip and strengthen us and use it all for our good.
The sinner's prayer and baptism (when done sincerely, honestly) are merely expressions of faith in, and obedience to, Christ.
HarleyD, hopefully we are all washed up. In the blood of Jesus.
Brings to mind a hymn that starts off, "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stains..."
1st Corinthians 15:1-4........This 'Jesus' (The ONLY-God-Man) understood and received personally as God and Saviour.
The 'Qualifier' ALWAYS being,......'According to THE SCRIPTURES'.....!!!
No 'doctrinal' nonsense. Just a clear forthright presentation of Christ -- with tremendous immediacy and common sense. The Ark. The brass serpent. The runaway slave. Who could not have his heart beating fast thinking of being there?
It happens that here in (normally) beautiful Northern California, it pelting rain today. I couldn't help but appreciate the Ark. Would any of us hesitate? Would any of us have any doubt about what saved us?
O Lord, give us more Moody's today. We need this simple, yet overwhelmingly forceful presentation of the Gospel which takes our breath away. Thank you, Lord, for being our Ark.