Lonely Christians

 I have to keep going back to this verse often in my life: 

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

Psalm 23:4

FOR THOU ART WITH ME.  When no one else is or seems to be, He is with me. 

Our Christian walk is sometimes very lonely in this world and few are willing to endure taking up their cross because the cost is high, friends don’t come easy and family would rather you never spoke a word about this truth you cling to because it doesn’t seem loving to them.  This world is not getting better.  It’s not.  True Christianity just isn’t worth it to many.  Unless it comes alongside all that is shiny and fun and freedom to sin as one wishes the label is good enough but if it involves sacrifice in the least little bit then to the majority it isn’t the road they wish to walk.  It seems as long as you’re in agreement with the world friends are countless and always around.

Though genuine believers walk a lonely road we have a God who never leaves our side.  If not for this truth revealed to me at such a young age and clinging to it for most of my life I don’t know how I would have ever endured this life up until now.  I thank God for His word to comfort me, to bring me joy and peace and to sustain me.  I thank Him for true Christian friends who know the trials and temptations of this life.  It ain’t easy!  But oh for the grace of God!!!!  He is with me!  He shares in our weaknesses! He knows the temptations of this world!! He knows!

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  

Hebrews 4:15-16 NASB

This link I am sharing below is worth the read. If you’re a genuine Christian you’re going to understand just what this is talking about.  When no human seems to understand you can trust The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit to understand.

https://endtimesprophecyreport.com/2014/06/08/narrow-road-true-christianity-is-a-lonely-road/

You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Matthew 7:13-14 NLT

I have become estranged from my brothers And an alien to my mother's sons.  

Psalms 69:8, NASB

“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, will he find faith on the earth?”Luke 18:8

For the church, the outcome looks cold, bare and lacking.  Will He find genuine faith when He returns or superficial faith that does not save?  Oh that we all would engage more-so in knowing Him.  

“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”

Luke 21:17

For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. 

"He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  

Matthew 10:35-37 NASB

THE LONELINESS OF THE CHRISTIAN

By A.W. Tozer

The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone. The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way.

The man [or woman] who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.

It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else.

I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me.  Psalms 119:19

This world is not our home.  We are merely journeying through this kingdom of men on a mission for the LORD. 

Hebrews: The Preeminent Person of Christ

 Hebrews 1:1-4

Christ is superior to the prophets, writing and speaking prophets.

Hebrews 1:5-2:18

Christ is superior to the angels.  

- Angels are servants/ministers of God.

- Angels gave the law of Moses.

Hebrews 2:1-18

Christ’s superiority is not contradicted by His humanity or by His suffering.  Christ being the God-Man does not deny His being superior to angels and prophets.  It is easy to drift away from the truth about Christ.  Some will come with their teachings that deny His superiority, His deity.

Hebrews 3:1-4:16

Christ is superior to Moses.

- both Christ and Moses were faithful to God.

- Christ is the builder of the house, Moses was a member of the house.

- Christ is the Son over the house, Moses was only a servant in the house.

- Christians need to make use of Christ who is their mediator.

Hebrews 5:1-7:28

Christ is superior to Aaron.

- Aaron was the first priest under the Old Covenant, Leviticus priesthood.

The priesthood of Aaron

The priesthood of Christ

The priesthood of Melchizedek

Hebrews 8:1-10:18

Christ’s ministry is superior to the Old Testament ministry.

- Christ performs a better priestly ministry than the prophets, the angels, Moses and Aaron.  His ministry operates form a better covenant, a superior sanctuary and with an offering whose effectiveness is without question.  

The new covenant is solely based on God, not man.  It offers better promises.  God will give believers the desire and ability to obey Him, believers will have fellowship with God, believers will know God and God will forgive their sins.  

The old covenant was weak as sacrifices had to be offered over and over again and the law could not make anyone perfect. It could not remove the guilt that keeps mankind from access to God. Man still sinned and thereby was guilty before God and still needed repeated sacrifices to God to cover their guilt and shame due to sin.  

The promise of the new covenant makes us realize that the old covenant was insufficient or unable to do what the new covenant could do.  The new covenant provided a sacrifice that was offered once for all time and forgave sins past, present and future and appeased God forever.  The old covenant found fault with people and offered no satisfying remedy to God for all time.  The law was a constant reminder of sin. 

Psalm 40:6-8

“A body You prepared for me.”

All must come to God the Father through faith in God the Son.  Sins must be forgiven.  Hearts must be radically changed for Christ. Relationship with God cannot exist outside of Jesus Christ.  So how is this accomplished since mankind cannot be found innocent on their own?  The body and blood of Christ is the desired sacrifice required of God the Father.  No other sacrifice will do.  Good works will not override the sacrifice Jesus Himself made to appease the wrath of God that comes due to sin.

The superior sanctuary is in heaven, on the throne of God. Christ serves in the true tabernacle.

The effective offer was His body and blood. See Hebrews 10:1-18

Christ came to do what the law and Old Testament sacrifices could not do.

Gospel of Jesus Christ

BAD NEWS:

We are all sinners. 

(Romans 3:23) "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

We all deserve death as payment for our sins.

(Romans 6:23)"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

We are separated from God in our sins.

(Colossians 1:21) Left in our sins we are alienated from God.

We are His enemies.

(Romans 5:10) For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

GOOD NEWS: 

Christ died for sinners.

(Romans 5:8)"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Salvation is a gift of God:

(Romans 6:23)"but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

We must confess Jesus is Lord, we must believe with our heart:

(Romans 10:9)"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." 

We must make our appeal to be saved to Jesus Christ:

(Romans 10:13) "for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 

We are made righteous in Jesus Christ through faith:

(Romans 5:1) "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

In Christ we will never be condemned for our sins:

(Romans 8:1) "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." 

Being in Christ we have the promises of God:

(Romans 8:38-39) "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We must be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  He is our righteousness.  

(2 Corinthians 5:20-21) Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be recofnciled to God. 

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

GOSPEL VERSES: 

Mark 10:45: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 

Romans 5:8: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 6:23: The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:32: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

1 Corinthians 15:1

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

2 Corinthians 5:21: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 8:9: You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

1 Timothy 1:15: The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

1 John 4:10: In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Revelation 5:9: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

Revelation 5:9: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”