13
which is good.” (1 Thess. 5:21). “Examine
yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove
your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates?” (2 Cor. 13:5). Reprobates are un-
approved, rejected, or worthless.
The book of Hebrews gives solemn warn-
ing. “He that despised Moses’ law
died without mercy under two or
three witnesses: Of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy,
who hath trodden under foot
the Son of God, and hath
counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was
sanctified, an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the
Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:28-29).
This tells us plainly how God evaluates
every disobedience. Only if men repent of
their disobedience and turn from it, do the
mercy of God and the blood of Christ become
effective.
We are without excuse in the light of the
warning and example God has given us in His
word. These include Achan, King Saul, Uzzah
and Ananias and Sapphira. God is proving His
people today. Does He find us faithful or want-
ing? Will we hear the welcome call, “Well
done, thou good and faithful servant… enter
thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Mat. 25:21).
May we always remember that “many are
called, but few are chosen” (Mat. 22:14).
Jesus also said, “But as the days of Noe were,
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood
they were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the day that Noe en-
tered into the ark, And knew not until the
flood came, and took them all away; so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Mat.
24:37-39). Because these people did not re-
pent and obey his message from God, they
were not saved and knew not, though they had
heard it repeatedly from Noah’s preaching.
They knew not, because they reasoned that
what he said was unreasonable. “For after
that in the wisdom of God the world by wis-
dom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe.” (1 Cor. 1:21).
In these last days many such like people trust
their own reasoning rather than to obey God
(see Matthew 25:44). “But the mercy of the
LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon
them that fear him, and his righteousness
unto children’s children; To such as
keep his covenant, and to those
that remember his command-
ments to do them.” (Psalm
103:17-18).
T
he focal point of our call-
ing is holiness – without
which, says Paul, no man shall
see the Lord. Holiness is a very
comprehensive and expressive term. Its
basic meaning is “set apart or separated.”
James expresses this separateness as
keeping ourselves “unspotted from the
world.” Now John says that “All that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, and
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
Holiness, then, is a state of cleanness,
and a state of cleanness is accomplished
by obedience to God’s commandments.
There is no other standard. They must be
kept in daily remembrance, and they
must be kept.
We have been called with an holy calling
– called to glory and virtue – called to be
sons of God. When Jesus appears in his
Kingdom, they that will be with him will
not only be called, but they will be chosen
and faithful.
Oh, may these thoughts
possess each breast,
Where’er we rove, where’er we rest;
And since Thou dost Thy children see,
May we be holy like to Thee.
Holiness