Saturday, December 08, 2007

The Day Shall Declare It

1 Corinthians 3:13 KJV
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
John Gill says of the day mentioned in this text, "meaning not the day of judgment, though that is often called the day, or that day, and will be attended with fire, and in it, all secrets shall be made manifest; but the apostle intends a discovery that will be made of doctrines in this world before that time comes: wherefore this day rather designs a day of tribulation; as of persecution, which tries men's principles, whether they are solid or not; and of error and heresy when men are put upon a re-examination of their doctrines, whereby persons and truths that are approved are made manifest..."

I read this morning in the Judges 3:1 KJV
Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
God left these Canaanite nations to prove Israel. They served, if you will, as a day of judgment. So in our day, there is also for us all a day of judgment when our faith and our labor for God are tried as to what sort it is. Christians in our day have followed after many men whose work appeared magnificent, but whose day had not yet come. Over and over we hear of so-called heroes of the faith, who have gathered large followings, but in the end, have proven themselves to be builders of wood hay and stubble.

This is why none of us can afford to put much stock in men. We have our leaders to be sure, but our first loyalty must be to the Lord and to His Word. We must let our faith stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men, or it will not pass the proving of fire.
We must be Christians.
We must be disciples
We must have our eyes upon Jesus


Only then will we ourselves find our work is the right sort when it passes through the fires on that day.

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