“THEREFORE LET ANYONE who thinks he stands [who feels sure that he has a steadfast mind and is standing firm], take heed lest he fall.” 1 Corinthians 10:12Therefore….We are to look back on that record of that splendid privilege of the children of Israel, being led by Jesus and fed by Him in the wilderness and of their terrible fall and learn from them the solemn lesson of self deception.
For our diagnosis of the heart is not God’s diagnosis; He who “searches the heart and tests the mind” knows every thought and intention. We can fool all others, but never can we fool the Lord. These were led forth by divinely appointed leaders, “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea”, overshadowed by the Almighty Himself, supported by divinely given food and drink, “and they drank of that spiritual Rock and that Rock was Christ” the vast hosts of Israel had passed from the bondage of Egypt into the glorious liberty of children of the living God; yet amid all those who seemed to stand so secure in their relation to God, most fell, “but with most of them, God was not pleased”.
Christians, called forth from a more deadly bondage into a more glorious liberty, are in like peril. Let the one who thinks that he stands secure take great heed, lest he fall. The murmuring against their appointed teachers, the longing to go so far as they could in indulgence without committing actual sin, were terribly significant indications in the Corinthian Church.
When you feel yourself beginning to dislike those who warn you against sin, and when you find yourself measuring with minute casuistry what is the smallest distance that you can place between yourself and some desired object of indulgence without actually sinning, then let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. When you seek to find comfort outside of obedience, let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. When you look at others through a microscope and your own life through rose-colored glasses and you accuse another who has a speck in his eye, but there’s a plank in your own eye; let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
When you call evil good and good evil and you turn on the righteous ones who are preaching, “Repent!” and you think you are doing God a service, let him who stands take heed lest he falls. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. “You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.” Romans 11:19-21 #runyourrace
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