Christian Living
It Takes Work To Hold On To Your Salvation
Luke 10:16-20 he that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. And the seventy returned again with joy, saying Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name, and He said unto them I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven; Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
II Peter 2:4-9 If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment and spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds; the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.
To keep ourselves living naturally and spiritually it takes work. What are we willing to give in exchange for our soul? Is there anything in this world that is so important to us that we would walk away from God for? Will we compromise our position in Christ for things we want to accomplish in this life? It takes work to hold on to our salvation. It takes much work for us to keep breathing God’s air in our nostrils and it takes just as much work for His Spirit to keep our mortal bodies from Hell’s fire. Anything worth having in life takes time, energy and some sacrifice. God took His time to create the world, energize it with what was needed for his Created beings and giving of a sacrifice His Spirit to put himself in man that they become a living soul.
How hard is it to keep yourself breathing and alive when you are already dead? Even when we are dead to sin it takes work to stay dead. It is the desire of the enemy of our souls to cause us to miss out with God. We can serve God a lifetime and make one wrong turn in life and miss heaven. We can do one wrong thing and never forgive ourselves because we don’t understand how we could have done such a thing to hurt the heart of God as we have. It’s a trick of Satan to keep us out of God’s praise, presence, and glory. One wrong turn in life can keep us lost in sin forever. We have to become allergic to sin. Just because we have been saved a long time does not mean we are not apt to fall short. Falling short can have a long lasting effect on our salvation.
The religion of Israel was at an all time low when Eli was in charge. He failed to teach his sons to revere God as Moses had clearly instructed. Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas knew not the Lord according to I Samuel 2:12. Nevertheless they were allowed to assume priestly responsibilities, taking advantage of the people as they came to sacrifice and worship. They needed salvation themselves and stood in the way of sinners being saved. They sat in the seat of the scornful and they profaned the sanctuary with the common Canaanite religious ways. Eli’s sin was he didn’t bring correction to them. Samuel grew up in the temple being given to the Lord at an early age by his God fearing mother and was subjected to the evil, degrading influences of the sons of the high priest in the national religious center. Israel benefited from Samuel’s negative reaction to these ungodly pressures. He became conscious of God’s call in the early years of his life. It took work at his salvation not to fall lax as Eli had done.
Eli’s laxity provoked God’s judgment. He had been warned twice I Samuel 2:30 that he honored his sons more than he honored God. His lack of parental guidance and discipline extended to his priestly office as the sons assumed responsibilities at the tabernacle. Then in I Samuel 3 he was warned again when Samuel conveyed God’s message to him. It takes work at our salvation. This lack of work on Eli’s part affected the entire nation. In the course of battle with the Philistines the sons of Eli yielded to the pressure of the people to take the Ark of the Covenant out of the holy of holies in the Tabernacle and bring it to the battlefield to force God’s hand to give them victory. When we fail to work on our salvation we provoke God to judge us. Israel fell to defeat, the ark was stolen, Eli’s sons were slain and the report shocked Eli to death. We have to be careful how we handle God’s business and our relationship with God.
People God is real! Hell is real! Don’t be deceived Hell has been prepared for the Devil and his Angels and all of us that want to be adjudged guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Yes God loves us and yes it is his desire that no man perish but it’s up to us. It takes work! It takes a sold out life for Christ! It takes the keeping power of the Holy Ghost to rule and reign in our natural lives that we have the power to resist the Devil. If we resist him he will flee but what keeps us that causes us to deny Satan his wants for our lives? We need the power of the Holy Ghost! We need to be anointed to finish the course of work God has called us to. Jesus was the Word come down from Heaven and He had to be anointed. He had to be led by the Spirit. He had to subject himself to prayer and fasting. Why? Because He was in a natural body he had to endure the tests of the flesh just as we do today but the working of the Holy Ghost and the anointing upon Him He was able to go around the enemy and use the Word that had already been spoken of Him.
Well guess what Jesus is coming back again and with his coming is going to be a separation of the wheat and the tare but for now they must grow together. That means we have to continue to preach and teach the Word of Christ, feed off of its text daily and touch of the Holy Spirit that the two that works here in the earth will work together to bring us back to God once again. It takes work to keep our salvation that such a great price was paid for. It takes work on our part not to just nibble, scrape, or rub against Christ, the Word and Holy Ghost. We must be ready to dig in and eat the whole roll that we grip a hold on salvation that cannot be lost. We must seize every opportunity to enlighten our sights on Heaven. We must understand that to comprehend and perceive who God is we must take all that He has given us to know Him. If we follow Him closely we will be within his grasp and we can gravitate towards Him in a more significant, important, and serious way.
We are journeymen transitioning from earth to glory everyday not just at death. In this present time we must picture ourselves in that sketched visual graphic place that God has laid out for us in His Word. Oh Yes it is real and Hell is too; believe that! We will see the grandeur and splendor of Heaven but that don’t mean we are going inside that gate where our family if they make it there will be awaiting us. The magnificence, stateliness, beauty, ceremony and majesty reigns there just as the Word of God describes. God is gracious and courteous but he don’t condescend to make excuses for us committing sin; that’s why He sent Jesus to earth to redeem us from the curse of sin and death. Now how merciful, tender, loving, and kind are we to obey what He says?
We know it takes work to hold on to our salvation; so what are we willing to do to hold on to this gift of Salvation? We need to work on how we allow things other than God to rule in our hearts. We must take in account that we oversee what God has put to our hands to do in a proficient way. This means we take care in what we do for Christ and ourselves. It is important to God what kind of steward we be; we must be expert, skilled and able to show forth some knowledge and ability concerning God, His Word, and His Spirit. They showed forth professionalism in the Creation to come together and work as a team; one in Spirit, one in Mind, and one in Body. They took their calling and vocation seriously. When God spoke, the Word moved and the Holy Ghost acted. People we are the direct result of their teamwork. They are still productive workers together on our behalf when we yield and obey God’s Word.
To know God is to Love God, to Love God is to obey, and to obey Him is to keep His Commandments. This is the whole duty of man. In the times in which we live there is such a great grandstand of irreverence for God. We profane Him, abuse His Word, and curse His Spirit. How do we accomplish this? We have denied God in our lives, denied He is our means of living and our method for dying. Jesus went to prepare a place for us that where He is we also could be but we have broken protocol.
We rely on our own prospective, we are out of accordance with the Word, and we are no longer compatible with the Holy Ghost; He has run away from us; although He yet desire to be our proponent because of the Father. He still wants to defend us to the Father, advocate our salvation, and make us champions of Heaven. What else can God do? How long will we go on insulting God’s ability, talent and capacity to keep us? It’s time we keep the promises we have made to God and inspire someone else to come to Christ. As good as God has been to us we should be ready to incite a riot for the sake of Salvation.
The world loves its own people and they support their own. How much more should we promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has given so much for us? He is our proof of Heaven; the Holy Ghost is our propitiator; the promise that would confirm our residency in Heaven. It takes work to hold on to our salvation and we are incompetent in our own abilities to reach Heaven. Our shortcomings, failure, weaknesses and lack if allowed to will keep us out of Heaven and the first word we will hear God say after our spirit leaves our body is depart from me, I never knew you.
God didn’t make any mistakes for He is not like man; nor the son of man. God doesn’t lie and exaggerate; He is Truth. Man has lied by way of their lifestyles and said God made an error in making them; but they are deceived and candidates for Hell’s fire. How dare we impute such shame to God’s charge! There is an assigned place for the Devil and his angels and that includes you and me if we don’t repent and turn from our wickedness.
Why does it seem like God is not there right now? He is accessible and we don’t have to be so distant; He is right there at the door of our hearts knocking to come in. People sin separates us from God; God is not in some remote place waiting on us, He has already told us of Heaven. Stop angering God; sin sets up infection that sometime do not get healed. After all that God has done for us He has a right to be infuriated with us. We are a mess and are personifying the works of the Devil rather than God and will not stop. Well guess what; there is something that will stop you; death, hell and the grave. It takes work to keep our salvation and we have to stop killing our self naturally with the rudiments of sin for a season. Sin cannot be incessant, continual, ceaseless or constant in our lives and we don’t suffer consequences.
It takes work to hold on to your salvation. The Kingdom of God is come nigh to us today. He that will hear today; hear what the Word is saying. Despise not the Word in the day that we hear it; harden not your hearts. When God deliver us don’t get entangled again with unrighteousness for the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Peter said it would be better for us not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
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