Many Wounded

“For the love of money is a root of all evils, for which some being greedy, have strayed from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”  1st Timothy 6:10

 

“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not unto death. There is sin unto death. I do not say that he should ask about that.  All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not unto death.”  1st John 5:16-17

 

“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord comes.   But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief comes, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be dug through.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man comes at an hour you do not expect.  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made administrator over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Truly, I say to you that he will appoint him as administrator over all his possessions.  But if that wicked servant says in his heart, My master delays his coming, and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not expecting him and in an hour he does not know, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Matthew 24:42-51

 

“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.  And many will follow their destructive ways, through whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.  By covetousness they will exploit you with well-turned words; whose judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.  For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those intending to live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the lustful behavior of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, his righteous soul was tormented from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds); then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust for the day of judgment, to be punished, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.  Whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.  But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who consider it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; accursed children.  They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.   These are wells without water, clouds being driven by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through wantonness, the ones who have actually escaped from those living in error.  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.  For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the full true knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the end is worse for them than the beginning.  For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.  But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to his own vomit, and, a sow, having been washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”  2nd Peter 2

 

In this article I am going to include a link to a writing by my good friend called Twelve Types of People.  Now while there is an absolute wealth of information in such writings, normally I wouldn’t post something, as these things tend to be linked to more links and more, so that if someone is searching out these matters, probably their questions, if they are willing to open their Bibles (Acts 17:11) and study them, they will get the answer from the Bible, however the fullness of what was written can not be fairly ascertained unless all of the sub-links are readily available.  However, in this case I believe this article will suffice on it’s own and benefit those who might read it, while still including the main Q/A’s as originally found.

 

Now I want to take a moment and discuss the seriousness of the Christian soldier who is right now at battle against the wiles of the devil.  As mentioned in the last article, we often believe, but don’t believe God’s Word to be absolute Truth. 

 

We tend to read over things, not giving too much thought and actually understanding that these things are probably in many cases a lot more serious than we could imagine.  We don’t see the chariots of fire (2 Kings 6:17), nor the angels ascending and descending (Genesis 28:12). 

 

There are Believers or those who call themselves Christians who will readily tell you about how the have undergone some sort of satanic attack or are under attack.  They may very well be telling you the truth, particularly if they are Saved, however, for those who are reading this article, if you profess to be Saved, to have repented toward God and by faith believed into Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior (Acts 20:21), let me get your attention for a moment. 

 

Many wounded Believers, that I will define as those who have largely lost their effectiveness to be able to properly do the work of the Lord, due to carnal living.  For instance, a Believer, yes I said a Believer, who is still smoking, will not be effective in preaching the Gospel to those whom they come across with a pack of smokes sitting in their pocket and their clothing smelling like an ash tray.

 

So too, those who can’t quite seem to get picked up and shake these sort of sins that constantly harass them, truly repent and move along from these immature behaviors or perhaps the cares of this world are simply making them unfruitful, as there is little or no growth, whatever the case, consider the following thoughts.

 

Someone acknowledge when they were trying to do right all sorts of things happened and then they would get off of track.  So what I am going to simply mention here is not to make Salvation seem too difficult or surmise that someone who is not ‘perfect’ are not really Saved, etc., for that is not what the Bible teaches, but rather to instigate to continue to fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12), as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3).  To remind the reader that indeed this is a TRUE spiritual battle that every Believer faces.

 

“Beloved, do not be astonished at the fiery trial which is to try you, as though something unheard of was happening to you; but rejoice in so far as you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also rejoice with exceeding joy.  If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. According to them He is blasphemed, but according to you He is glorified.  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a meddler in other people’s matters.  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this regard.  For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?  Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?  Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”  1st Peter 4:12-19

 

Imagine contemplating your life, your ineffectiveness due to certain sins in your life to truly live fully for God.  This could simply be focusing too much on the world, not studying enough, for some, an iniquity, for others horribly backslidden.  This constant ‘nudge’ from the Holy Spirit to get up, repent, do what is right! 

 

You want to, sometimes you try, but you always end up failing, sitting there barely doing anything or doing nothing for Christ.  Time goes on, perhaps years turns into decades, your life is becoming spent, you could already have long been home with the Lord, the possibility was there, but one day you hear that ‘nudge’ again, you think of the lukewarmness in your own life, you remember Jesus’s Words in Revelation 3:14-21 and you fall down on your knees in prayer before your Creator.

 

You, in your heart, truly repent of these things that hold you back and you determine AT ALL COSTS to do that which you should have done all along, to die to self COMPLETELY (Galatians 2:20) to focus only on Christ (Philippians 1:21) to die each day (1 Corinthians 15:31) no matter what happens, knowing that absent from the body is home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).  Suddenly this change of mind regarding what might have been seen as simple things between you and God become evidence of the warfare that is all around you.

 

If you could perhaps you would see yourself having become determined at all costs to follow the Bible wholeheartedly no matter what the outcome might be to expend the remainder of your life focused not on the things of this world but on Christ and Christ alone (1 Corinthians 2:2), to give everything to Him who gave you all (Titus 2:14).  If you could see behind the scenes what would you view?

 

In what people could call my vain imagination, I will tell you what I imagine it to be like.  If I wanted to liken it to a movie (no pun intended) then I would have to liken it to The Matrix where Neo wakes up on the ‘battery wall’ and unplugs himself, seeing where he is really at.  Rather than use such an example where many would not understand a movie or have forgotten the details, a flick that was popular with the alternative/underground/conspiracy news network quite some time ago, due to the comparisons made, it should be looked more as the Bible states, part of the warfare.

 

So you have these Christians, some who are more valiant than others, some who are hundredfold, some who are thirty (Mark 4:8), some who are carnal (1 Corinthians 3:3), some who are in big trouble, some who are not Saved, but think they are Saved, others who just tread water.  Take those who are not doing so well and assume they, through Christ who strengthens them (1 Peter 5:10), decide that they no longer want to be displeasing to God in any way or form, but they want to serve Him with their whole heart, as the Bible says to (Mark 12:30) and they endeavor to do so, repenting of their carnality, their sin, forsaking it and pressing forward on the ‘narrow and winding’ path (Matthew 7:13-14).

 

An analogy could be had that the second they have determined to do a 180 degree turn on these things that made them ineffective that they could be likened to someone who was just taken out of a coma in a hospital ward.  Could you imagine what they could see?  Remember we can not actually see the warfare, but war has wounded, war has prisoners, war has the dead and war has the heroes. 

 

Perhaps as they are revived they sit up on their hospital bed and they look around.  All around they could see Believers, some who are wounded, some who are healing, some who are on life support on beds, dying, all of them due to having taken enemy fire (they turned to the left or right and sinned against God). 

 

Though greatly resisted, the one who has determined to forsake all and press forward serving Christ NO MATTER WHAT, looks around, seeing enemy soldiers coming around them, but knowing, all they have to do is follow Christ, not turn to the left or right and do His good will, serve Him, knowing that if they sin, they can seek forgiveness from Him and be cleansed (1 John 1:5-10). 

 

There they are in that situation, determined to be an elite soldier of Jesus Christ, only having to get up, walking out, with Christ overseeing them, at all cost.

 

My friends, perhaps it is too much to understand, perhaps you are scratching your head, perhaps you just don’t know, maybe you are not Saved, maybe you question your Salvation.

 

Please understand that Salvation is simple (2 Corinthians 11:3), there are no works that save you, it is a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9) but the just shall live by faith (Hebrews 10:38). 

 

Basically my whole life I have been myself in the same boat for many of years and seen many people who proclaim to be Saved, some who I wholly believe are Saved, yet they can never get moving along.  They can never seem to actually live right for the Lord, sometimes they get up, but quickly they are back down, ineffective.

 

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on all the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies.  Therefore take up all the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand firm therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints; and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”  Ephesians 6:10-20

 

This is the warfare that we don’t see and a Believer must press on, we will not be perfect or sinless, we will get our feet dirty from time to time but Christ will forgive us (1 John 1:9) if we confess our sin.  Sometimes we will be chastised for such folly and we should expect it (Hebrews 12:7-8), but those whom I can think of off hand always say they want to do these things, but never seem to quite be able to do them. 

 

I could think of these verses:

 

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unyielding, slanderers, without self-control, savage, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away.  For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning, but never able to come to the full true knowledge of the truth.”  2nd Timothy 3:1-7

 

God knows the heart, for some of these I firmly believe they are Saved, but the wiles of the devil have made them largely ineffective for Christ.  They are sitting in a hospital on spiritual life support, without even knowing it, yet years go by and they life for Christ scarcely produces any fruit.

 

Time is running out, have you not noticed that it is the end times, seemingly the very last days, if not now, then when will you wholeheartedly serve Jesus Christ?

 

We want to hear Christ’s “well done” (Matthew 25:23).

 

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”  2nd Timothy 4:7

 

Amen!