by John C. Shafer
(But it will not return to Him void=not having achieved its purpose)

If the word does not save, it will damn and destroy. If it does not come convicting, breaking, ploughing in preparation for God’s working, it will harden and bring men to fight against God and His rule. (Study the parable of the “soils” and parable of wheat and tares).

Rolfe Barnard (1904-1969) always preached strongly on these points especially to church people. “It is not admiring Christ, but a vital devotion to Him. To know Christ is to experience Him and to experience Him is power, the power of a changed life comes from Him who sits on a throne. To know Christ is to love Him, and to love Him is to serve Him with utter loyalty and devotion. Those who come to know & experience Christ are those who are seekers after Him.

If sin is damning its thousands, religion is damning its tens of thousands.

I judge people by their attitude toward the Word of God. A lost man does not believe the Bible. You know God has to work a miracle in a man to get him to listen to something he doesn’t believe. The Lord said to the Jews in His day, “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me.” People don’t believe the Bible is God’s Word, and yet the only way a man can get saved is by listening to that which he doesn’t believe. What a miracle it will be if God ever fixes you so you’ll not just attend services, but where you will begin to LISTEN to God’s Word. I think I have been preaching all these years to a generation of people who seem to wish to trust in the work of Christ, but not be inclined to be governed by Him and desire to yield a loving obedience to Him. Hell is full of people who believed some facts, but who were never savingly joined to Christ. I cannot understand that type of salvation or what a sinner expects when he doesn’t desire to be under the rule of Christ, but continues to rebel against His rule.

I cannot understand a salvation that turns out men and women who do not intend in the deep recesses of their soul to become willing bondslaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. I say to you, my friend, that church folks who do not pant after holiness are in mortal danger and they know it not.

On this day...

• Are you sure that's what it said? - 2008
• JESUS A MODEL SOUL WINNER - 2008
• FACE THE FACTS - 2008
• GOOD GROUND HEARER - 2008
• Salvation is of the Lord - 2008
• TITLE DEED OF MY LIFE - 2008
• WHAT THEN CAN I TELL A SEEKER TO DO? - 2008
• QUESTIONS WE ASK - 2008
• The Judgment Seat of Christ - 2008
• Renewing Your Passion for God - 2008