Page 26 - Potters Vessel - Vol 1, Jan 2018

FINAL 2 - Jan 18_Potters Vessel - First draft 13/01/2018 18:08 Page 26

End Time Scenario

God Has A Word For This

Hour!

his is a not hear the voice of
t r e m e n d o u s the Lord, and
T hour in dimmed our spiritual
human history. ness, indifference, and the sight so we have lost
There are ominous movements in dangerous sloth and sleep. the vision of a world ripe for
the world. But I am constrained to They must repent of their car- harvest, and palsied our hands and
ask, Has the Lord no plan for this nal strivings for position and made us unfit for His service –
hour? Has the church no message? place, and of their deadly leaving us carping and critical
Is there no word from the Lord church quarrels and denomi- Christians (Song 2:15; Eccl. 10:1; 1
concerning the spiritual recovery national jealousy. The unre- Cor. 5:6; Gal. 5:9). “By Their Fruits
of this hour? If not, then this is pented, unconfessed sins of Ye Shall Know Them” (Matt. 7:20)
the first time in history that a God’s people have chilled the
major crisis has arisen under a atmosphere of the church In the Song of Solomon, which
silent heaven. until people are driven away. contains wonderful church truth in
figurative language, the Heavenly
Before God destroyed the earth It is high time for the pulpit Husbandman says: “Take us the
with a flood, He put His message to thunder and burn with the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the
of warning in the mouth of Noah. power and fire of the ancient vines: for our vines have tender
When God judged Egypt, He sent prophets and apostles of our grapes” (Song 2:15). If we are to see
Moses and Aaron to Pharoah with Lord! It is high time for God’s a great harvest, we must take out
a divine pronouncement on their people to awake from their the little foxes. They seem inno-
lips. God raised up Elijah, Isaiah, Laodicean slumber, and strip cent and harmless but they kill the
Jeremiah in times of crisis in Israel themselves from their love of fruit. The little sins and compro-
and Judah. They had God’s word the world and love of self, and mises with the world, the flesh and
for the hour in which they lived from the deceit, sham and the devil – these kill our useful-
(Heb. 11:7; Ex. chaps. 5-14; 1 Kgs. hypocrisy of their shallow ness. They must be taken out of
17:1). And God has a word for this professions – and to turn to our vineyard of the Lord.
hour! the Lord with all their heart,
with fasting and tears, and Let us confess and forsake all. We
A Call to Repentance! with contrition and confes- will be amazed to find how greatly
People are awakening to the fact sion and restitution. we need a spiritual housecleaning
that we are living in a solemn hour, if we will let God search us and the
and that our nation’s greatest need Where is the church “terrible Spirit probe us to rock-bottom
is a revival that will bring us to as an army with banners” (Psa. 139:23-24; 1 Chr. 28:9). Some
God. There is a swelling tide of in- (Song 6:4)? Where are the of us will find we have not put God
tercession to God – pleading for Lord’s people whose prayers, first in our lives but rather we have
God’s intervening mercies and for like John Knox’s are the terror given place to personal ambition,
a new Pentecost upon the of evil rulers like Bloody carnal comforts, and have yielded
churches. Mary, Queen of Scots? to the demands of friends and rela-
Where is the Gospel being tives and made God second. Some
What was true of Israel of old is preached with such unction of us have sinned directly towards
true of us today. Whenever and power from God that the God by rebelling against His
declension of ¬spiritual power is enemies of God say, “These known will and stopping our ears
felt, the root cause is sin in the that have turned the world to His call to lay down our lives in
church. Whittled down a little upside down are come hither His service.
closer, the root cause of conditions also” (Acts 17:6)?
in the world is the sin of individual Then there are the gross sins of the
Christians. This is a time for flam- Why are not these things true uncrucified self-life – self-will,
ing messages, inspired of the Holy of us today? Because of the self¬pleasing, self-glorifying,
Ghost, preached fearlessly by men failure of God’s people, be- self¬seeking, self-pity, self-confi-
who do not fear the consequences cause sin is tolerated in their dence, selfish affections, desires,
– calling men everywhere to lives and hugged to their bo- motives, choices – all of which
repentance! soms. It is not perhaps great, grieve the Spirit and unfit us to an-
blatant sin. It may be only a swer the call of the Lord to His
Unconfessed Sins multitude of little chiseling people in this hour.
In God’s program for this hour, re- sins which have cooled off our Some of us readily get angry, pouty,
pentance must begin with Chris- love for Christ and our pas- irritable. There is among us an un-
tians, who must turn in penitence sion for lost souls, and dulled forgiving spirit, jealousy and envy
from their worldliness, prayerless- our spiritual ears so we can-

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