“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matt. 25:21)
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” (Matt. 25:41)
There are two options, and only two, there is no third one, you either choose to serve the Living God and receive eternal life, the joy of His presence and pleasures forevermore, or you choose pain, the fires of eternal suffering.
If you have chosen the first option, you did not do so because of the knowledge of the truth of the second one, that is the truth of the sincere man.
Those who chose the second option do so with the full knowledge of the first, for the following verses are truth. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” (Romans 1:20)
And
“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” (Eccl. 3:11)
Adam taught his sons, and they theirs, but somewhere along the way things got screwed up, the accounts were modified, and so the flood came and only eight escaped by the grace of God.
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” (Gal. 4:4)
The Lord Jesus Christ, being the expressed image of the Father, arrived in part to set the accounts straight again, to reveal to us the will of the Father, and for a time for those who believed, the resurrection and redemption was all they needed to know to willingly follow our Lord. But as a wiser man than myself said, “The work of Christ has been stressed until it has eclipsed the person of Christ.”
Attending the Sunday morning service not to bow down in abject humility to worship at His feet, but simply to listen to the sermon and then go about their business, and worldly business at that. Offering Him the leftovers of not only our finances but our time, of our thoughts, instead of the first fruits, concentrating, when we find the time, on His works, not who He is.
This is our choice, and it is a choice that must be made every day.
Who Christ is, not what He did, that is rarely offered from the pulpits anymore, and so it is no wonder that praise has taken a back seat to a “life well lived,” that holy reverence of the Almighty Living God is not first on the list, but works done to ensure, in their minds at least, that they are still pleasing to the Almighty in their lives.
“And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” (1st Sam. 15:22)
Obedience is of course the answer. But then this, “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:10)
There is more to obedience than following the works of the Lord Jesus Christ, of adhering to His words, there is the heart that seeks His face diligently every day, in every possible way, solely for His glory, solely out of love.
This is the choice, and you must make it on your own, and of your own free will.
The wicked will never deny themselves, even when their “good deeds” are done openly, those who have been born-again do not first seek for those deeds, they first seek for the face of God.
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (James 1:22)
But my friends there are many, and probably always have been, who are doers before they hear, attempting to emulate the works of the Lord without a heart that seeks Him first. They profess Him with their lips, they have a form of Godliness, but they have never been still and listened for His voice.
The choice is yours, and now would be a good time to contemplate if you have made the correct choice.
If you are following the Lord Jesus Christ for who He is, then He will reveal to you the works that He desires you to perform, and your words every time will be, “Thy will be done.”
“For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:3)
Then he went to work for Him.
Sometimes there are doers who have never heard.
