This message is very important!
It means to be His disciple, to bear much fruit for Him and His Father; this is to tell the wonderful news of salvation to those who don’t know. If you are ‘for Jesus’ you will be unable to help yourself from doing something for Him, whom you love. Jesus said, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John 15:8 NASB. To be for Jesus is to cast all on the altar to Him, to love and obey Him in all things. To be for Jesus is to be for Him all the way. But there are those who long for something better who haven’t discovered how good Jesus is yet, and do not know how much He and His Father love them. They try to be a better Christian, but sometimes struggle against Him, sometimes getting proud, and sometimes drifting away from Him. This was me before I had the change that I now have. I don’t want to go back to the old me, before I discovered how much God loved and loves me, and wanted me to have a better life with Him. But He knew that I was searching for a better life, and that I wasn’t satisfied with what I had and wanted something better. It is no real sacrifice to give all for Jesus and His Father when you know the value of what they offer you, and the sweet peace, love, joy and faith they will bring you when you yield fully to their love. It only seems like a sacrifice when you are unsure how good God is, or whether you want to completely surrender to Him or not. It only seems like a sacrifice before you have fallen completely in love with Him! Once you learn to love Him like this, then it will be an easy thing to surrender completely to Him, it will be no real sacrifice, because you get more than you lose - you get oh so much more! And you will lose your desire for the things of this world that you once thought you needed that God wants you to give up.
This is the status quo. All who are not fully His or those living their life for themselves, who look to have their own way will sometimes or always be against Him, whether they are in the Church or in the world. For those in the Church like this, this is a halfway conversion to Christianity: one foot in the Church and one foot in the world. The advantage to being in ‘the Church’ is to know the truth of the plan of salvation; to know how to be forgiven and to know how to be free from the slavery of sin. Unfortunately we believe that many people do not know how to become free, even though they are a Christian, to not be a servant to sin anymore. They are not being taught this, perhaps because their teachers do not know about how to be free themselves or do not care to know how to be free. But whether you are in the Church or not the real question is whether you are a servant of sin or not. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:31-36 KJV. Has the Son made you free yet? He wants to. If He has made you free, you will no longer be a servant or a slave to sin. Please let Jesus free you from being a servant of sin. Then you will be Jesus’ disciple and be ‘for Him.’ If Jesus has freed you from the bondage of sin, you will be ‘for him’, and not scatter from Him.
You don’t have to try too hard to scatter; your human nature will take care of this for you. The unrenewed heart, when it manifests itself, turns others away from the kingdom of Heaven. The biggest threat to Christianity are Christians who are not fully on God’s side. If you are not for Him all the way you will be working against His plan in some way at some point, in His plan to help other sinners repent and want to be saved. If you have given your heart to God, and have the Holy Spirit in your heart, you can’t help but be with Jesus and work with Him to help Him gather souls for His kingdom in Heaven. But if your love for Him is not paramount, you will be scattering to some extent, depending on how far you are from Him.
“Then Peter said to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?" And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Matthew 19:27-28 NASB. For those who have given up all to serve Jesus what will there be for them in Heaven? They will get the special honor in assisting God in Heaven and provided with thrones to sit on. They will be given the responsibility of assisting God in the judgement of ‘Israel’ like it says above. [The details on how this is part of the judgement is outside the scope of this article.] Jesus also says in Matthew 22:30 that the eternally saved will be like the angels in Heaven. Why? To serve God like the Angels do! What a joy! What an honor! Ransomed sinners allowed to act as messengers of God for the universe! That is what an angel is, a messenger of God. Do you want to be a messenger of God? Jesus then goes on to say in our Matthew 19 passage, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19:29 NASB. Whatever sacrifice you make for your Jesus, whom you love, will be more than amply repaid out of the eternal riches of Heaven! And whenever you help someone on their way to Heaven, you will accrue joy and happiness throughout eternity as they thank you over and over again for inviting them to Heaven or helping them get there, and you will be so happy as you see their peace, happiness and joy! And you will also have the most wonderful joy of knowing that your loving Heavenly Father is pleased with you, because He loves everyone so much! ‘For God so loved the world…’ John 3:16. You make Him happy when you help others know of His Love and help them to Heaven. What kind of price tag can you put on this? You can not. Whatever you give up for God or sacrifice for Him is small and paltry compared with your reward. But if you have God’s love in your heart, you will not be doing it for the reward of the pearly gates and your mansion and crown of Gold you will receive, because love and joy is the reward of those who serve Him, love is the true reward of the righteous. Your mansion and crown of gold is just icing on the cake, to use a common expression! And if you decide to yield all the way now to God and serve Him, you will start to get your reward now! Are you ready to get your reward?
Jesus declared, “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:35-36 KJV. If you want the promised great reward, you must also love and obey God and love your neighbor as yourself, and teach others to do so too.
Study more of the importance of loving and obeying God, and loving your neighbor as yourself in Matthew 5:19; 22:36-40; Psalms 19:7-11; 1 John 4:8; John 13:34-35; Romans 13:8-10; 1 John 2:7-10; John 14:15, 21, 23, 24. (We have also written much on this in other blogs and in some of our books which you can read as well. We recommend that you read all of our blogs.)
Because being in the middle and not being for Him all the way is not the way of peace, joy, and happiness. If you want God to be pleased with you do what He asks willingly. Give up all of your problems and indecisiveness to Him, and let Him help you be for Him all the way. It is not hard to do what God asks you to do, if you will just learn to love Him and let yourself yield to Him. God will help you, if you desire a better life and you cooperate with Him. But it is impossible to make these changes by yourself. If you will yield to God all the way you will be at your happiest, and have all the peace, love and joy you were meant to have! And you will have the promised great reward! But if you do not yield to Him all the way, you will eventually incur His displeasure, because you will work to scatter Jesus’ flock.If you are not for Jesus all the way you will scatter from Him, or teach others that it is OK to not love Him with all their heart, mind and soul, or to not love their neighbor as themselves, or you will teach them that God is not powerful enough to save those who turn to Him for help. Or if you are not for Jesus, you will work in some way to prevent someone else from being saved. If you are not ‘for Jesus’ you will not go into Heaven yourself, and will try to prevent others from going in there. Note here what Jesus said to a class of ‘God’s people’ who were doing this very thing: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” Matthew 23:13 NASB.
Sadly, many who call themselves Christian are not really for Jesus; they are only part time followers of Him. When it requires bearing a cross or separating from the world or worldly practices, they are not there yet. Mark 8:34; 10:21; John 12:25-26; Luke 14:26-27, 33. Unfortunately there are many preachers who tell them they are OK the way they are, since they are under grace (the implication is that they don’t need to consecrate themselves fully to Jesus and His Father since they are under grace). But to those who truly love Him, half-way service to Him will never be enough. They are so happy for the grace that they have received they can’t wait to tell or show it to others. Or to help others who are not as fortunate as they, the poor, the sick or to visit those who are in prison.
If you have God’s love in your heart, you will be completely for Jesus and the Father. But if you haven’t yielded your heart completely to them, you will not be completely for them, which means as Jesus said that you are against Him. There is no middle ground. Whoever is not totally on Jesus’ side will work against Him in some way or scatter in some way at some point. You are either for Jesus or you are against Him. Let this sink in. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. Romans 8:9. This is very serious. Do you want to belong to Christ? Do you want His Spirit? He who doesn’t have His Spirit is against Him, scatters, and does not belong to Him.
It is so sweet to belong to Him and to be ‘for Him!’ It has to be experienced to be understood. When you belong to Him like this, you will love Him with all of your heart, mind and soul, and long to serve Him, helping Him gather in the harvest for the end of the world. And you would do anything for Him! Then you are for Him all the way, and not scattering or leading souls astray. God can forgive you if you do not fully belong to Him yet, or if you have ever scattered from Him. There is still time to repent! But it is much better and much sweeter to belong to God all the way now, so you can enjoy the sweetness in life you were meant to have, and enjoy serving Him and loving others!
When you belong to Christ, you will be given ‘the Spirit of Christ’ and will be given all the help you need to serve Him with, and those unclean spirits of unkindness, ungratefulness, unforgiveness, no mercy, evil surmising, complaining, bitterness, and criticism of others will be gone and you will have sweet love in your heart for your brother or sister who has wronged you or gone against your beliefs, and not living right as some would say. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7 KJV. Then you will help the sick and dying in this world from sin, and thus you will prove to be Jesus’ disciple, and will bear much fruit for the kingdom of God, and God will be pleased with you. John 15:8.
Dear reader are you with Jesus or are you against Him? Do you gather with Him or scatter?
We hope and pray that the grace of God will be with you as you ponder this message. And He will be with you if you will listen to His voice. Please study and restudy this message, with much prayer and believe that God loves you and will help you, if you will seek after Him with all your heart. Amen. Jeremiah 29:11-13.
By John Foll, finished writing 11/04/2017 and 11/05/2017
© Copyright 2017 John Foll
#Jesus #Not #With #Against #Scatters #For #Disciple #Fruit #Spirit #Sacrifice #Love #Joy #Please #Church #Free #Sin #Slave #Servant #Reward #Righteous
Originally posted 2017-11-05 13:00:00.
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'” Luke 14:26-30 NASB. Are you able to finish the course that is set before you? Hebrews 12:1. You will be able to finish the course that is set before you, if you count the true cost, and the true value of the surpassing riches that God wants to provide you. “And raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6-7 NASB.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down His life for His friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:13-14 NASB. Jesus is the good shepherd who laid down his life for His friends!Jesus said, “Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?” Luke 6:46 NASB. We are Jesus’ friends if we do what He says. Doing everything that He said is doing everything that He has commanded us.
How to know if you are born again and belong to God? Do you love to tell of Jesus and His Father’s love? Or do you love to tell the faults of others? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Does doing the right thing, being a good witness, and sharing your faith seem like a duty or a pleasure? Do you have a nagging guilt that you should do something for God and others? Or do you have a burning desire to serve God and help others? Are you so happy that you are free? Or are you bound in slavery and guilt?
Certificate of Achievement: This acknowledges that [blank] is a servant of God because he/she loves Jesus. [Your Name Goes Here?] Signed by the Holy Spirit. Today’s Date? Please look at this certificate and ponder the importance of what it is trying to teach, it is really quite simple, yet powerful. This pictorially shows us how we can please God, and know if we are on the right track or not. It is not just trying to be cute, but to help all to see the truth.
Give your heart to God every day! Why not? He loves you! If you promise to love and serve Him, by His power, and ask Him to bless you in witnessing to others of His love, He will be happy with you! Even though we are cautioned by Jesus not to vow, because we cannot turn one hair of our head white or black, He is talking about any promises that we make in our own strength. The key here is that we cannot keep an oath that we made ‘by our head,’ or by ourselves. But we can vow by the mighty power of God!
“Therefore they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’” John 6:28-29 NASB. What shall we do that we may do the works of God? Believe in the one God sent, Jesus. Yes, we repeated it. When you want to really understand a text, it is often helpful to read it again, because the Bible explains itself. Both the question and the answer are both contained in this text. This is another way of stating righteousness by faith!
The inspiring testimony of Charles Fitch - how he came to receive the Holy Spirit and have a closer walk with God. He learned how God could make him more like Jesus:
It is now several years, since, after a season of spiritual gloom and sadness, I came fully to the conclusion, that there was something in the religion of Jesus Christ, to which I had been a stranger. I had seen myself to be a sinner before God, richly deserving His everlasting indignation. I had seen that God would be holy, just and good, and worthy of universal and eternal adoration, while punishing me with everlasting destruction from His presence and from the glory of His power. I had also seen in Christ a Saviour, who, after atoning for all mankind on the cross, was able, on the merits of that atonement, to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him; and on that Saviour I had cast myself as my only hope, and trusted in Him, and Him only, as my Deliverer from the wrath of God.
Peter said, “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” Acts 5:32 NASB. So obedience to God is the condition for receiving the Holy Spirit! There is a true Holy Spirit, and there is a counterfeit. How do you know which Holy Spirit is the real Holy Spirit? If you are obeying God in what He has revealed in the Bible, or if you want to obey Him, He will give you the help you need and the continued desire to obey Him in everything He has said.
The force of this is found in the fact that the Christian life, which is the result of faith, is progressive. The Christian life is a continual growth. Peter says: "Beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 3:17, 18. The only way to keep from falling from that which we have, is to grow. David says of the righteous man that "he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water." Ps. 1:3. This means continual growth.
