It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
By Pastor Jim May
I received an email this week from a young man who realized that so much of the “gospel messages” that we hear today are not gospel at all. He has come to a realization that the messages preached by most TV and radio evangelists are no longer a message of repentance, personal sacrifice in service to Christ and living in obedience to the Word of God. Instead, the vast majority are messages of self-indulgence, prosperity and works that produce wealth. In some fashion, these works of “faith” that produce wealth in the life of a Christian are supposed to be a symbol of whether you are really saved or not. This young man confessed that he had been caught up in this modern doctrine for a while, but now he has renounced that and has come back to the truth of the gospel. He has given up a lifestyle that he thought was right and came back to what the Bible says is the right way. I only pray that more and more people will allow the Holy Spirit to bring them back to God in this same manner.
The problem is that so many today believe that salvation and serving the Lord can be done the way they want it to be done, ignoring what the Word of God says is the only way. They are convinced that the blessings in their lives, which they produce with their own hands, are the proof of their salvation.
Let me say it plainly – whether you drive a Mercedes Benz or an Opel Cadet does not prove you are saved. Whether you wear Armani Suits or Wrangler Jeans doesn’t prove how much faith you have. Whether you have enough money to fill up seven bank vaults or barely enough to get by from paycheck to paycheck has nothing whatsoever to do with your salvation.
Works may produce some of these things in you life, but works alone is not a proof of salvation. There are many who have attained wealth and status in this world who don’t know Jesus and likely never will. All of their works won’t earn them one instant in the New Jerusalem. The wealth of this world will perish, right along with those who claimed it unless they are saved.
So what proves your salvation? Your salvation is proven only by the obedience to the Word of God by repenting of your sin, recognizing and confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, sacrificed for your sin and raised from the dead, and then inviting Jesus to live in your heart and be the Lord of your life. That, and only that, and nothing else, is your guarantee of salvation. Everything that comes after that moment of accepting Jesus is called works.
So can works save you? NO! Does wealth and prosperity according the world’s standards prove your faith? NO!
Faith in Jesus Christ alone saves your eternal soul. The works of righteousness that you do will then be produced in your life but the product will not always be visible to the eye, nor can it always be touched with human hands, and neither will others always be able to see those works in you.
In Matthew 16:24-27, Jesus said these very words to those who would be called His disciples, “… If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."
You see folks, your works of faith will be rewarded, but it is God who is the “Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” according to Hebrews 11:6. Our job is not to seek after the reward. Our job is to seek the Lord with all our heart and serve him to the best of our ability. Then we are to allow God to choose the reward. AMEN!
But there are churches all across America today who are preaching a “prosperity doctrine” and there are hireling preachers who are standing in pulpits right now telling their people that they must produce prosperity, and give their offerings and tithes to the church, or they have no faith and they aren’t saved.
The Bible calls these preachers, in Matthew 7:15, hungry wolves in sheep’s clothing. What better description can there be than that of such people? They are preaching to a crowd who is starving for the truth of God’s Word. They are preaching to a congregation that, by-in-large, does not know Christ and that desperately needs salvation. But instead of preaching about the Blood of Jesus and repentance for sin, they are expounding on some “get rich, name it and claim it” false faith, and then draining those hungry sheep of their life’s blood, in an effort to increase the flow of money into the church coffers and eventually into their own pockets. It’s blasphemy! How many of those precious, yet deluded church members will leave their churches this morning thinking that all is well with my soul because I have the prosperity to prove it? How many will be lost in eternity, perishing with their prosperity, because they believed a lie?
Now I believe that those of you who are here this morning already believe what I have said and that you do not subscribe to, or agree with, the prosperity gospel that is being set before the church. You know that you salvation lies only in the Blood of Jesus and that the only way to salvation is through repentance and accepting Jesus as Lord.
But I see a problem still. I have often heard those who serve the Lord say something like this: “I don’t see where it’s doing much good for me to live a holy life. I can’t see where God is blessing me anymore than those who don’t serve Him. In fact, it seems that they are often doing better than I am.”
Have you ever questioned God by asking, “Lord, what’s going on here? I’ve tried to serve you as best I can, I’ve been as faithful as I know how, and yet I’m not doing so well this morning. I feel bad in my body. I don’t know where I’m going to get the money to pay the bills. My car is just about to fall apart, and the house needs some work, but there’s no time and no money to do it. I just don’t understand it. How can people, who don’t serve you, seem so blessed and I’m sitting here just “suffering for Jesus”?
It’s just so easy sometimes to get our eyes upon others around us, to see what they have and wonder why we don’t. How can they be doing so well when I’m just barely making it?
I know that life just never seems fair does it? That wicked, thieving, unscrupulous business man out there seems to be getting richer by the day, while here I am, trying to scratch out a living, and I’m the one having to pay the high price to business with him?
Have you ever passed through a neighborhood, or ridden down the road, and saw a huge home with a well-manicured lawn and wondered, how can they afford such a thing? What do they do for a living? I pass through some neighborhoods where every home is worth many times more than mine is and I wonder, what kind of job can they have to be able to afford the notes? Even with both spouses working good jobs, the economy in our area just doesn’t produce jobs that pay the kind of money they have to earn to afford such things. How can they do it?
One thing that I have come to realize is that most of them really can’t afford it at all. They forsake children, home and family to work several jobs just to be able to stay in the place of their dreams. Their values system is mixed up. I have determined within myself that the price I would have to pay to have such things just isn’t worth it.
Every one of us, at one time or another, will come face to face with a decision – what’s more important to us – time with our loved ones, or more money – all the trappings of a good life, or really enjoying life – keeping up with the Joneses, or enjoying what we have regardless of what the Joneses have?
So what is the problem that I see? The problem that I see in the church isn’t that many of us who truly love Jesus and who are really saved will accept the “prosperity doctrine” but that, if we are not very careful, our eyes will be drawn to what others around us are doing, and we will lose sight of what Jesus wants to do within us!
It’s only a short step from questioning God like I’ve just talked about, to blaming God for what we don’t have. That’s when we begin to walk upon dangerous ground.
Israel had stepped across that line in the Old Testament. They had gone from questioning God about the lack of blessings in their nation, to blaming God for their lack and then questioning whether it was doing them any good to believe in God or to serve Him at all? Where not the nations around them doing just as good as they were, and maybe even better? Where not they being blessed without serving God? What good was it doing for Israel to serve God? They weren’t being blessed more. Their needs weren’t being met any quicker or any better, and sometimes not even as good as the heathens around them. They began to believe that serving God was all in vain. They lost sight of the big picture and began to wallow in self-pity and then began to doubt whether serving the God of Heaven was worth the price.
Look at what God had to say to Israel in Malachi 3:13-15, "Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered."
Israel had begun to say some strong things against God’s provision and it was time for God to give them an answer for their accusations or questions against Him.
I want us to hear what God has to say, and remember His words when we begin to feel the same way that Israel did!
God told Israel that they had made some mighty strong accusations against Him. They had decided that it wasn’t worth serving God anymore at all. Israel had come to the conclusion that obeying God’s Law and living a life of repentance and sorrow for sin, just wasn’t paying off. Being obedient servants to the God of Heaven wasn’t worth it anymore. How many of you know that Israel was now only a very short step from going into idolatry and turning their back on God once again?
Israel looked at their neighbors and didn’t see them as lost without God anymore. They saw them as a blessed people.
God called them “proud”, meaning that they would not bow before Him and serve Him, but Israel called them “happy” because they had so much and lived a life that appeared to be happier and easier than Israel did.
God called them “wicked”, but Israel looked at them and said, “man, they are really set up for life aren’t they? They have everything they want. Just look at the lifestyle they live.”
Israel even looked at those people whom God called people “that tempt God” and laughed in the face of God, and Israel called them “delivered”, as though God was blessing them even the more for being rebellious.
Can you see that kind of warped view in our world today? Folks, it’s everywhere! And Christians are falling into this trap every day. When we get our eyes off of the big picture of eternity and what lies ahead, and we begin to get our eyes on the here-and-now, and how other people are living, we are headed for trouble.
God saw that Israel was headed for a major catastrophe if He didn’t stop them. So even though they were being doubtful, faithless and even accusing of God, He spoke to them in mercy and shook them back into reality, opening their eyes to see more than just the world around them one more time.
Malachi 3:16-18, "Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not."
Thank God that there is always someone who continues to fear the Lord and whose only desire is to serve Him. Sometimes they are called upon to intercede for the rest of us who tend to think like Israel did.
Those who feared the Lord in Israel began to see the problem arising in their nation so they began to preach about it, talk about it and have their prayer meetings on behalf of the nation. God heard their cry for help, and because of the faithfulness of these few in Israel, God came down and began a revival of faith.
God had to remind Israel one more time that they were His chosen people. He had to remind them that there was something more important than this life. There would come a day when they would be spared judgment when all the nations around them would face the wrath of God.
In that day Israel, you will be able to rightly decide whether God has been faithful or not. You will truly know who is blessed and who is not. You will fully understand the difference between being righteous and being rebellious. You will see clearly, the difference between those who serve the Lord and those who do not, because you will see the eternal consequences that will face both.
In that day, Israel, you will question God no more. In that day Israel, you will know that it was worth it all to serve your God, no matter what you may have lacked or what you may have suffered.
When will that day come? When will we know and fully understand that it was worth the price that we pay, even now, for serving the Lord? Will it really be worth all of the self-sacrificing, not partaking of the pleasures of the world and giving them up to be faithful to the House of God and to serving the Lord? Will the price of doing without much of the lifestyle of the rich and famous, or even the lifestyle of the happy-go-lucky, who seem to live without a care at all, be worth it in the end?
Will the price of being in church all the time, praying as much as you can, studying the Bible as much as you can, sitting under a preacher Sunday after Sunday, continually repenting of the sin that enters your life, getting up and coming out when you don’t feel like it, and not having more possessions because you are faithful to pay your tithes and give in the offerings instead, be worth it in the end?
God told Israel when that day will come, and I guarantee you that, when that day does come, you will know that it will have been worth it all to serve the Lord, no matter what the cost.
Malachi 4:1-2, "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall."
Folks, life is unfair, and it will always be that way! The world will always have a lot to offer that we may desire to have. But we must always remember that the price to have what the world has to offer is just too high of a price to pay because it will require too much time, and the forsaking of just about all of the things of God that are vastly more important to your eternal soul.
Every time you begin to look at the world with desire, with questions or even with a little bit of envy for the blessings and lifestyle that they seem to enjoy, bring the words of God back into focus and remember – there is a day coming when all that you see will be burned away and all the wicked will be burned forever.
You have a greater promise of a wonderful eternity in a place called Heaven and nothing in this life is worth losing that promise. Give your life wholly unto Jesus and serve Him with all your might.
While the wicked will be facing the fires of God’s wrath, you will be ushered into the presence of Jesus Christ. He will heal all your hurts. He will wipe away all tears from your eyes. All of the pain, suffering and unfulfilled dreams of this life will be remembered no more. Instead, there will be eternal wonders and glorious joy, and all of the pleasures and wonderful lifestyle that you can imagine, and even more, for eternity with Christ.
God said that Israel would “grow up as calves of the stall”. Do you know what that means? When a baby calf is born, it is cared for, looked after, and every need provided for by it’s mother and the farmer. That calf wants for nothing. That’s the way that God will take care of his people. He supplies our every need now, but in that day, He will supply our every heart’s desire as well. It just doesn’t get any better than that!
Is it worth the price of not having it all in this corrupt world, to have it all in the incorruptible world to come? You bet it is! I wouldn’t miss it for the world. How about you?
