A retired pastor, veterinarian, and good friend of mine was often quoted as saying (paraphrased):

~ “Some Christians treat Jesus like a man who marries a wife at the altar, kisses his new bride, and then leaves! But before he walks out of the church he turns around and says to her, ‘Oh, by the way, I’ll meet you back here next Sunday morning at 10:45!’”

~ “Put the blinders on after you get married, not before!”

~ [My friend quoting another medical professional friend; a prominent psychiatrist]: “If preachers would go back to preaching against sin, you could probably empty out half of the mental health institutions.”

~ “Your heart can become like a callous that gradually builds up on your hand after repeatedly using a shovel. Eventually it becomes so thick and hard you can stick a pin through it and feel nothing.”

Each time Israel tested God with their murmuring and complaining in the wilderness, their faith waned a little and their hearts – just like that of the Pharaoh who had enslaved them – became a little more hardened. It did not happen all at once. The same thing happened to King Saul. Over time, his initial humility and zeal for God turned to pride, self-will, and finally, outright rebellion…to the point that he could order the slaughter of scores of Levites and not even feel a pang of conscience!

The crossing of the Red Sea was an Old Covenant “type” of salvation and baptism for our generation under the New Covenant. But that first generation of Israelites (save two over the age of twenty) who came out of Egypt were destined (not predestined) to die in a parched, desolate wasteland. After their tenth documented rebellion and God’s declaration through Moses that the nation would not enter into Canaan for thirty-eighty more years, they finally “got it!” By then it was too late, and when a number of them presumptuously rose up the next morning and strapped on their swords to “take” the land of promise, they were soundly defeated and humiliated by their enemy. God had rejected that generation from crossing the Jordan river. Again, a type; this time of entering into a promised place of spiritual rest, blessing, and empowerment through Jesus Christ.

Oh, those poor, stubborn Jews! It’s a good thing I’m living under grace in my generation. That could never happen to me under the New Covenant. I could never possibly become God’s adversary, much less an enemy of the Cross!

1 Corinthians 10:12 NASB “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”

Consider a newly-married Christian couple…”Until death do us part.” Their relationship starts out on a solid footing. Their respective walks with Christ are also, at first, characterized by a degree of intimacy. But over time, they become more concerned with their own needs and interests than those of their spouse, not to mention those of Jesus. That small, quiet voice of conviction repeatedly says: “I know I really shouldn’t say that to my spouse”, but the words “slip” out of their mouth anyway, and there is a subtle, but prideful sense of gratification and empowerment in it. Little by little, day after day, month after month, there is a gradual, reciprocal escalation of selfishness and anger until, inevitably, the word “divorce” pops up in the conversation. From that point, it may be only a matter of time until bitterness has resulted in another broken marriage and family, and the name of Christ is once again dishonored.

Like it our not, my marriage is probably the best barometer of my relationship with Christ…OUCH!

Hebrews 4: 1-3 NASB “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, ‘As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,’ although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

Remember, as the writer James took great pains to explain and clarify in his epistle, true faith, or believing, is inextricably and invariably linked to a conscious “action” response on our part whenever God’s Word is spoken or revealed to us. That response can only be ONE of two things; either (1) obedience OR, (2) disobedience.

A child can understand this basic principle, just like when Dad orders you to take out the trash (or when your boss tells you to stay late to meet a deadline).

The choice is OURS, just as it was with Israel!

That choice we make can, over time, become either a positive or a negative pattern of behavior, a good or a bad heart habit that can have not only temporal, but eternal consequences. Beware of teaching that tries to convince you that a Christian’s conscious, deliberate choice of obedience to a direct command from God (or from God’s Word) is equivalent to – or translates to – “works”, i.e., the same thing as charitable, or good “deeds” or “effort” (gr., ergon) and that therefore, as we all know, our “works” of obedience (by that out-of-context definition) “can have no bearing whatsoever on our salvation, as per Ephesians 2:8-9.” This is a very unscriptural leap of flawed logic and interpretation.

Hebrews 4:11-16 NASB “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Romans 15:13 NASB “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The following is a Youtube link to the sermon that finally broke through my thick, pharisaical skull and opened my blinded eyes back in 1993; it became the catalyst for my own personal “Gethsemane” and my salvation experience. WARNING: It is not an “easy” message to listen to, but it was exactly what I desperately needed to hear from God. It may be what someone else (a serious seeker perhaps or someone who is spiritually “stuck in the breach”) needs in order to get a “breakthrough”…

🙂 Bryan