The Lord never says things to hurt us, He never says things without having a purpose. And because He is love, He wants to jolt us into repentance after we see our true state before Him. Jesus is all Love, but He is also the Truth. So, He will always give an honest appraisal of our true condition to help us to become righteous and stay righteous so that we can make it to heaven.
This is what he says in Mathew 5: 13[American Standard Version] Ye are the salt of the earth (talking about believers) but if the salt have lost his savor if you are the salt and you lose the saltiness - the Christian character and qualities, then what good is the salt, why should we use that salt? “It is” therefore, Jesus says, “good for nothing.” Notice He says, “You are the salt.” If you don't have the character of the salt, just like common table salt, we will trash it because it’s no use. It's used to give a certain flavor - to preserve - but mostly to give a flavor when we dine.
The Lord says, “That's how distinct your Christian life has to appear before the world and before the Father. If it is not what it should be by virtue of your obedience, then it is good for nothing and to be trodden under foot of men.” That's very clear that He is not just saying it’s good to put on the shelf so that it can renew itself and bring back the saltiness. That’s not what He says. He says, “You have to have the character or you don't.”
Similarly in John 15: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” He says, “If you have the fruit that goes with the character of the vine, then you are truly the branches”. But if not, what is he saying? “Let's prune it and let's graft some other things in to make it better?” He said, “It has to be cut off” and He goes further, “It's fit only to be burned.” So very graphically and very conclusively He says, “There is no middle ground. If you are my disciple, you have to obey me. If you don't obey me, you don't have the genuine faith.” Going further if Jesus is the light and we claim to be in the light but walk in darkness, who is the hypocrite and the liar? Is it the Lord or the person who is disobeying? Certainly not the Lord! He is always the Truth. He is always the ‘Yea and Amen’ of all the promises of God. So when the Lord finally disowns those who are in the churches or those who are even preaching for their disobedience, He is not the one at fault.
He says to the Church in Laodicea Revelation 3:15, 16 “I know what you do, I know your actions.” He says,
15. “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.
16. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
He says, “You are not hot, you are not with me and you are not even against me verbally or vocally. You want to associate with me and get the blessings but you don't obey me. Therefore I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Again very startling and striking words from the Lord. The Jesus of love is the Jesus with the eyes of fire. We must always remember that Our God is a consuming fire. He is holy. When we have that reverence for Him, we will automatically obey Him because we know who we are dealing with.
A wrong and a sub-standard view of God is what gets people into trouble. When things become casual, then we start minimizing His warnings and we think I am saved by grace, I am Ok, don’t judge me, leave me, and my Lord, he understands me. The Word is given and preachers of righteousness preach the truth precisely because God wants to get that message to everyone including Paul and Peter, who said, “Judgment must begin at the house of God." "Brothers, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” So that obedience again is so plain to see that it must be in the faith.
Now when people use the term works, that’s a confusing term for many because the moment "works" are mentioned our mental and spiritual block goes up, that I am not saved by works. It’s almost like a mantra. We are not saved by works; it is only by His Blood, is only by faith but, James says, “Faith without works is a dead faith.” So if we can make an equation we can say this: Obedience equals works; the works that God has created us, in Christ Jesus, to perform to be the light and the salt.
In the New Testament, we have command after command, so many commandments. But Satan comes in and he disguises the true gospel or he blinds the eyes of the people from seeing the true gospel by throwing the scripture out of context and then a whole slew of people go under that banner never thinking that they are in eternal danger. What the Lord said at Sinai, the same thing He says today, He doesn’t change. The law was fulfilled but Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law. In Romans, it says that “Because we are born again, we fulfill the law through His Spirit working in us.” We cooperate. So that is very important to know. In 1 Corinthians 10:5 it says this, “But with many of them God was not well pleased.” If we stop right there, many people can run off on a tangent and preach in this way: "Sure, God gets upset. Sure, He is not always happy with everything I do. But He is a good God. He is a forgiving God. He will never disown me.”
The second half of that verse says this, “For they were overthrown in the wilderness.” God is an awesome God. He is a Holy God. If we are going to be like Him, we must not disobey His voice. Jesus, Himself purposely stated in the Bible, that I always do the things that please my Father and if a man loves Me, he will keep my commandments even as I kept my Father’s Commandments. This is all we have to live by. Any deviation from this is a subtle false gospel. We have to be on guard especially today because once again scripture can be taken out of context and it can sound so good to the itching ear, but our soul meanwhile is on a downward slope to hell.
But the moment we wake up, the Lord says, “Even the person who gives that message is one who has saved a soul from a multitude of errors or sins that leads to death”. That's how critical God views that - that true gospel. So how does this work out practically? God says this- once again as we said at the outset, It’s not simply I have to not steal. I have to not commit adultery. That’s involved for sure, but it goes deeper. As I am walking with God in intimate fellowship, as we said, He may touch my hobby, He may point His finger at a relationship, He may point His finger at the way I spend my time. This is all the leading of the Holy Spirit? Why? To keep me in constant obedience to perfect me so that I have no doubt, I can have a full assurance that I am in the Will of God and I am going to heaven. So it’s not a blanket statement of saying, "I am saved by faith and I can't lose my salvation."
Salvation, that final salvation Peter says is, “The grace that’s to be revealed at the appearance of Jesus or at the revelation of Jesus.”
Why does it say that? Because salvation is a progressive thing. It's gained at the moment I believe - I am justified - but I must grow in that salvation and prove through my probationary period I am walking worthy of it. That's why he says, “Walk worthy of the One who loved you.” So in the end, there is a final entrance into heaven. Spiritually we are with Him now but physically we are not. He wants the total man to be blameless - spirit, soul, and body, enter into heaven finally. The apostle says, “ I labor with all the striving of God in me.” He says, “ I don't want to miss the crown.” Same thing in Revelation. So this is how it's so important for us.
James 4:17 says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him, to him - it is a poor choice, it’s too bad?” He said, “it is sin.” Sin keeps us out of heaven. That means that even by conscience the things that God brings up and we know we ought to do even though it’s not explicitly stated in the scripture or categorically, we have the obligation before God to say, "Lord, whatever You say, I will do.” That's the true disciple, that’s the child of God. But of the one that disobeys God says, “I don't know you.” So there are many more passages. But once again, faith without works is not just deficient but is dead. There is no faith really. It's not saving faith. The topic is the faith that saves. Are you saved, that's the question? Am I saved? If we can answer, “I obey God therefore I am assured that I am saved,” then all is well and good. But if we can say I believe God, but I don't always obey Him, that's a contradiction, because belief and obedience are one and the same thing in the scripture.
In fact, in John's gospel 3:36, there is the word belief and that word Jesus says this, He says that the one who believes, will be saved but the one who does not believe is condemned, the wrath of God is upon that person. It says exactly this verse: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on Him. More accurate translations say that word believeth not is actually obeys not. Now there is controversy on that, depending on which manuscript they use. But it's really immaterial to us in the sense that all over the rest of the scripture we have the truth that faith means to obey. Plain and simple. So anytime someone says, "I believe in Jesus", obedience has to be there, otherwise they don't believe Jesus. And we have to examine ourselves saying, "Lord, am I obeying you?"
There was a missionary in the early 1900s. He gave up everything for the Lord and he was a promising sportsman in England - C.T. Studd and he was a cricketer. He went to Africa and towards the end of his life, he was in the dark jungle at night time with a little kerosene lamp or candle and he was flipping through the bible vigorously and his son-in-law happened to witness this and he said, "Is everything Ok? What are you searching for?" And he said, "I am searching for any commandment of the Almighty that I have left undone." See, he is at the end of his life. And I am sure it was not just the end of his life but was throughout because he was sincerely looking to see if I have pleased my Lord. See, it's not an obligation as a servile kind of mentality, servant mentality where I have to make sure because I don't want to anger Him, I want to earn something. Rather, it's, "I have a love relationship with Him and I want to please my Father." That’s how Jesus operated. He said, "I love my Father, My Father loves me because I always do the things that please Him. So let's raise the bar and standard in our lives. Let’s say, "Lord, have I been living sub-standard to the voice of your Holy Spirit.
Have I compared myself with others and felt good because I am not disobeying like them or am I not to compare myself with anyone? As Paul says with the Word of God, with the Spirit of God speaking to me. And you will find all at once, your walk with God will become very strong, the light will shine brightly, the salt will be very salty so to speak. The distinction will be clear and conspicuous. And people will be drawn to that. God will open up opportunities for all kinds of witnessing either by people watching the life or by your word so that by your deed and doctrine you can save yourself and the hearers.
