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Do Not Let the Word Depart - 11.10.2024 Bulletin
Do Not Let the Word Depart
I should hope that title calls to mind the song "Oh Why Not Tonight?". The first verse goes "Oh do not let the Word depart and close thine eyes against the Light, poor sinner harden not your heart, be saved oh tonight." A profound statement to be sure, which calls to my mind a saying I've heard before: "You are never closer to God than when you decide you don't need Him."
This is abundantly true for any sinner who has yet to receive the word. After all, only God can bring about forgiveness and salvation from sin: accept no substitute. Think about the example given in 1 Corinthians 3:6-8. It's a well known verse and normally when we quote it we are making the point that while we must do work to plant and water it in the hearts of men, it's ultimately God Who gives the increase. But let's think in a different direction, and combine it with the parable of the soils in Matthew 13. This parable is often known as the Parable of the Sower, yet I think the real emphasis is on the soils here. The Sower is God of course, the seed is His Word, and the soils represent the various ways men receive and react to it. Notably the first soil, the roadside, says that the seed was trampled underfoot and that birds came and ate it. The application is the roadside soil is where the seed falls and is utterly ignored, until the devil comes and takes it away to ensure it does not take root at all. It is true that God gives the increase, yet we must remember God does not compel anyone to receive His Word. If an individual will not let the word take root in the first place, then he is allowing the word to depart. He is closing his eyes against the light, and hardening his heart. As mentioned, you are never closer to God than when you decide you don't need Him.
It's sometimes easy to overlook this application if you're already a Christian though. You've received the word, responded to it correctly and been added to the Church. You are on the good soil. What more is there to do? The risk now is stagnation. Sure, you might come into church every time the doors are open and read your Bible daily (I hope Christians read their Bible daily), but are you truly absorbing it? Are you paying attention? Or is it easier to just sort of "autopilot" your Christianity and say that you are doing right simply by virtue of not doing wrong?
"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall", 1 Corinthians 10:12. I pose to you dear reader that for a devout Christian, this is the most dangerous thing: stagnation. Letting yourself assume that because you didn't let the word depart, that you will never let it depart. If you are attending services regularly and reading daily, I find it extremely unlikely you would instantly go from being faithful one day to being completely lost and walking in darkness the next. Satan is unfortunately quite clever, and he knows how to break even devoted Christians. It might not happen instantly, but it might start with something as simple as not actively paying attention in the pews. Letting a few daily Bible readings slip because "I've read it so much, I know what it says. I don't need to read it today." That is opening the door to allowing the good habits fall by the wayside, and we know what happens to seeds on the wayside. I'm not saying that if you do not have your Bible open and if you don't follow along with every single scripture the preacher or Bible class teacher calls that you will fall away. But small things have a tendency to grow into big things, much like a seed.
As surely as faithful and diligent study can produce a mighty "tree" of a Christian that's planted by the waters (Psalm 1:3), so too can careless neglect eventually culminate in a Christian becoming useless at best and falling away at worse. Through 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 and Romans 10:13-17, we know the "life-cycle" of faith. Similarly, we know the "life-cycle" of sin from James 1:14-15. Desire leads to enticement which leads to temptation which leads to sin which leads to death. I could only imagine the shame of knowing you fell away from faith for the nothingness of simply "giving up"; not even being drawn away by a sin, just ceasing to care. May it never be said of us, and may we never let the Word depart.
DY
- Glad_Tidings_11.10.2024_PDF.pdf (4.07 MB)
