PLEASING THE MASTER IN TIMES LIKE THESE –  PART TWO

Friends, today we want to continue from where we stopped last time: Pleasing the Master in Times Like these.

PRAYER

Our Father and our God, we want to say thank You for the way You have been with us these days, the blessings we have received, those you have touched. You’ve ministered to us in various ways. Thank You for safety, thank You for salvation, thank You for healings in Your presence…in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Pleasing the Master in Times Like these

Let me refresh our memory by reading the short scriptures we started with.

1 Timothy 4:1-2

¹Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, ² speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

In 2 Timothy 3:1-7,

2 Timothy 3:1-7

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: ² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, ⁴ traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! ⁶ For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Jude 17-19

¹⁷ But you, beloveth, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:

¹⁸ how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk at to their own ungodly lusts. ¹⁹ These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

What does times like these mean? From the above scriptures, and we found last time that, the following are clear regarding the times in question:

1. We are in the times already – as indicated by latter times, 1 Timothy 4:1;
2. In the last days, 2 Timothy 3:1;
3. And in the last time, Jude 18.

And we found last time that:

1. Experience tells us that the times the scripture spoke of are upon us already.
2. Secondly, these times are engineered by deceiving spirits and deceiving men and women. False preachers, false teachers who do not have the Spirit of God in them: which means they are not born of God – for any one who does not have the Spirit of God is not of His – Romans 8.

• Thirdly, these times are times of religious apostasy. The time of departure from the faith marked by false teachings, spiritual blindness, extreme selfishness, unspeakable wickedness or cruelty, moral decadence, dysfunctional families and many social or societal ills.

1. Fourthly, these times are dangerous times; they are times of uncertainty.
2. And then fifthly, they are times of untold difficulties and hardship.

We are in those times.

Today we find that the religious landscape around the world and also where we live is awash with unimaginable strange doctrines everywhere. And these strange doctrines attract adherents – followers in the millions. Fables are paraded as Gospel Truth.

We see legalized infanticide – the murder of helpless babies within the divinely mandated safety of their mothers’ wombs: abortion. It is legalized in a number of places.

Today, we see the divine institution of marriage and family turned up-side-down. Legally in many parts of the world today men marry men; women marry women; incestuous relationships are explained away as normal or near normal.

“You and I live in a culture which no longer has the tools necessary to determine right from wrong.” This quote is August 12^th 2016.

For those of us who live in Nigeria we do not only see many of the evils and dysfunctions the scriptures reveal – we also experience personally the uncertainties, the difficulties, the economic hardships, brought about by man’s inhumanity to man – nicknamed corruption. Corruption in the Nigerian context has been defined so narrowly that the corrupt people sit in judgment over corrupt people. I don’t know what corruption is anymore when allocation of resources and appointment are so unfair that they shout to the high heavens and yet are not heard by those who are responsible for them.

In Time Like These – does the Master still expect us to please Him? That’s a big question. The title of the message is: Pleasing the Master in Times Like These.

Does the Master still expect us to please Him in times like these? The answer is a thousand times – YES! And you’d say, “how”? How do we please the Master in times like these? I will give you just a few:

1. We please the Master in times like these by remembering the warnings that the Master has given us in His Word.

Those who neglect the Word of God can never please God. They please Him who tremble at His Word – according to Isaiah 66:2. Those who tremble at His Word please Him. The warnings concerning times like these are aimed at helping us to avoid being caught up in the ugly web of such times.

Dear child of God, do you want to please the Master in times like these? Pay serious attention to the Word of God.

1. Secondly, we please the Master in times such as we are in – these dangerous times, we please the Master by resting in the Spirit of the Lord. In times like these we need an anchor, the song writer says; and this anchor helps us to get a firm hold of the Solid Rock – and the Solid Rock is Jesus Christ.

Many Christians forget that Jesus went back to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit: Act Chapter two – who enables us to live the life that is impossible in times like these. It’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can live this impossible life – in times like these.

Let us note that it is in the context of the leading and the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit, Romans 8, that the scripture says, that, “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37.

And from this stand, the bible proceeds to say, from verse 38 of Romans 8

³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38 and 39)

Beloveth, you need the fullness of the Holy Spirit in times like these. In times like these, we please the Master, not only by remembering His warnings, not only by resting in His Spirit, but also in resisting the enemy – the devil. The Master says in James 4:7:

James 4:7

⁷ Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Today, people fear demons and fear the devil so much – so much so that you begin to wonder, do they really know that He who is in them is greater than He who is the world?

• And we resist the devil by denying him permission to rewrite the bible. We resist the devil by denying him permission to rewrite the bible. That is, we refuse to accept the false doctrines he propagates through his agents.
• Secondly, we resist the devil by rejecting the immoral lifestyle he recommends which we see around the world and where we live today.
• Thirdly, we resist the devil most effectively by rescuing those under his control – depopulating hell and populating heaven. Please the Master very well.

No wonder the pleasure of the Master is expressed three times. In Saint Luke’s Gospel 15:7,10 and 32, in the parable of rescuing the one who was held captive by sin and Satan.

In Luke 15:7, says,

⁷ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

In verse 10 – Luke 15,

¹⁰ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

In verse 32, the Father said [to the second – prodigal son who came home: verse 32 of Luke 15,

³² It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

But today, evangelism has become a rare commodity among Christians. And that is the most effective way of resisting the devil in times like these. The devil is the architect of those times we are talking about. And a means of pleasing the Master well is when we resist him: when we resist him by not giving him permission to rewrite the bible for us.

We resist him by rejecting the immoral lifestyle he wants to impose upon us. We resist him by rescuing those who are enslaved by the devil. In many of our churches today if you call for evangelism you will count on one hand the number of people who would show up. If you call for prayer you’d count on one hand or perhaps two hands the people who would show up. How in the world do you think that we can please God in times like these – these times in which we live, when we don’t take these means of grace seriously? – When we are not prepared to serve the Master. He expects us to please Him in times like these. He’s not expecting too much. And that is because He has made the provision for us to be able to do that through the – Holy Spirit.

I call upon you, beloveth, that we’d go with the fire of God in us to please our Master, the fire of God in us to rescue the perishing, the fire of God in us to love our Master.

Shall we Pray.

PRAYER

Our Father, we want to say thanks again for leading us through these times secluded to seek your face. Lord, we are trusting that as many as have sought You with their whole heart shall find You. And Lord, are there some still who do not know the Savior, it is my prayer that the Spirit of God will go after them with conviction  – conviction of sin of righteousness and of judgment – and then not only to convict but to convert them that they would become children of the Living God. And those who have made up their minds to please You the Master, to love You with their whole hearts, it is my prayer, Holy Spirit, that You would enable us, that You would enable everyone who has taken this position –  this stand; for You know apart from You we can do nothing. Glorify Yourself in Your saints, O God. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen!