Be Steadfast In Your FaithSpeaker: Dr. D.G.S. Dhinakaran Gist: Never lose your faith regarding the death of our Lord on the Cross. Be steadfast in your faith. Preach until your last breath, only about Jesus and His Crucifixion, agonies and pangs. His heart will rejoice and use you more mightily. St. Paul, answering the question what to believe gives a beautiful explanation, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). "From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness" (2 Corinthians 11:24-27). Having summed up crisply all the tribulations he had gone through for the sake of our Lord's ministry, St. Paul finally and firmly asserts, 'I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me'.
The Bible says, "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."(Romans 10:10)
"For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."(Romans 4:3)
"The just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." (Hebrews 10:38)
"Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2:4)
All the above verses stresses the truth about those who follow the steadfast path of faith are the people who work righteousness.
After I had started my ministry, even though several years elapsed, there was no power in my message; I was lamenting to God about this. One day Lord Jesus carried me in spirit, to heaven and addressed these words to me, "My son, do you want to pack power in your sermons? Have a look at the open book there, at a distance. The chapter that is kept opened for you to see is the most important chapter. Implant in your mind all the truths found there and preach on them. Then your sermons will show My might!" I ran there hastily and peeped at the Book anxiously. I was quite surprised to see that the Book was a Bible. Curious to discover the most important chapter as pointed out by the Lord, I peeped into it, and found that the open chapter was the 53rd chapter of the Book of Isaiah. The whole chapter was a description of the tribulations, which our gracious Lord Jesus underwent for each one of our sins, sorrows, sufferings, weaknesses and diseases. The Lord asked me to preach about this theme. That is why, in all our 'Jesus Calls' Good News Meetings, we portray the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross as a culmination of all our sermons.
One profound Biblical Scholar, having listened to our messages in the Public Meetings, once told me, "Sir, I was listening to your messages all the five days from the rear section of the audience. Both you and your son, close the sermons after passionately mentioning the passion and pangs of crucifixion of Lord Jesus. The vital force of the sermons hinges on that. I realised." How wonderfully true it is!
St. Paul also always dealt with the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross in his sermons. St. Paul himself says, "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness."(1 Corinthians 1:23)
"O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?"(Galatians 3:1)
The Bible also says that, "Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them."(Acts 8:5)
My dear friend, is there any tribulation that Jesus did not encounter, any bitter vinegar He did not drink, any pain that He did not taste? "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us"(Galatians 3:13). We see Lord Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone"(Hebrews 2:9). Therefore, let us not lose our faith regarding the death of our Lord on the Cross. Let us be steadfast in our faith, clinging to Jesus. To keep us sustained in this faith, let us pray, daily. Let us preach until our last breath, only about Jesus and His Crucifixion, agonies and pangs. Then His heart will rejoice and use us more mightily in His ministry. We will grow in Justice - more and more!
Prayer:
Wonderful Heavenly Father,
O Lord, give me the strength to preach about You and Your sufferings on the Cross. Let me not lose faith on Your travails; let my tongue be protected from indulging in vagaries of an empty philosophy not based on Your sufferings for the sake of the whole mankind. In Jesus' mighty name I pray.
Amen. |