Prescribe and Administer

05.12.09

J.A. Matteson

"As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord." James 5:10

On pilgrimage grace affords heirs of the Lord Jesus Christ continuous opportunities to develop the fruit of patience; a familiar means is the prince of darkness who directs the hearts of fallen men to detest the children of light—(for what fellowship does light have with darkness?) through manifold afflictions at their hands. To remain steadfast while suffering unjustly for the sake of righteousness requires grace, and in as much as grace supplies and directs all the mercies of God toward the saint—it is sufficient for every occasion—holding within it the promise of victory, “… If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).

And grace supplies divine unction whereby the saint is afforded insight into the supernatural unseen battlefield on which he contends. Grace engenders spiritual perception and perception produces the fruit of patience in the face of protracted affliction. While forty years of wandering in the desert by the children of Israel serves as a perpetual warning of the peril of unbelief, so too is the example of the prophets who did not acquiesce to the taunts of depraved men to be silent, but who remained faithful ambassadors and delivered their message under threats of death. Grace infuses the heart with compassion towards those who reject the message of the King and His Kingdom, the mind is illumined to the reality that it is not fallen men who are the enemy of the Gospel, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

The Lord of Hosts is redeeming to Himself a people—the Church—who previously were partakers in the fallen human race. The saint can placate a man’s depraved soul with false words of peace or risk enraging him by a dire warning of condemnation due to sin accompanied with a plea to repentance, that by God’s grace he may be saved and escape the wrath to come. The prophets were vessels in the hand of the Lord bringing either judgment as a result of unbelief or justification by faith, often being informed beforehand that their preaching would likely fall on deaf ears, “The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen--for they are a rebellious house--they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious” (Ezk. 2:4-7).

Nevertheless, in light of this reality they preached faithfully. The proclamation of the Gospel is the saint’s obligation and privilege; the outcome of his evangelistic enterprises is Lord’s imperative and he need not concern himself with it other than to rejoice when the gift of repentance and faith are bestowed and to continue engaging all who reject the word of life in the hope that they might yet be saved. To alter the Gospel in the slightest fashion in the expectation of blunting its jolting and offensive declarations, to aim at appeasing the desires of the flesh so that peace with depraved men may be maintained, to do these things is not to love ones neighbor as commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ, rather it is to hate him, to reveal inner disdain for him, to advance self-preservation at the expense of redemption for the man in bondage to sin and in danger of hell. As the children of Israel who were bitten by vipers in the wilderness were urged to look upon the bronze serpent by faith for healing, so too the sons of Adam this day must in faith look up and gaze upon the Savior, Christ Jesus, and thus appropriate His shed blood for the remission of their sin and be healed, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24).

The poison of sin is terminal and the pilgrim possesses the only life saving antidote to it—Jesus Christ. Let the saints of the Good Shepherd be moved with His compassion and love to boldly and without shame prescribe and administer to a dying world the Gospel of Life, heralding all men to look upon the Savior, Christ Jesus, to the glory of God the Father.

Copyright 2009 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8)