No one receives
the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ without
first the intervention, discernment and
conviction of the Holy Spirit: "And
such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our
God." ( 1 Corinthians 6:11 KJV )
But we are warned
that at some point in time, failure of those to
heed the Holy Spirit's leading will result in God
withdrawing His Spirit from them:
"And
the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive
with man..." ( Genesis 6:3 KJV )
"Harden
not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in
the day of temptation in the wilderness:" (
Psalms 95:8 KJV )
"When
your fear cometh as desolation, and your
destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress
and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call
upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek
me early, but they shall not find me:" (
Proverbs 1:27-28 KJV )
Jesus even
instructed the disciples to "let
them alone" in regard to the Pharisees, because
their hearts were hardened to His Truth to such
an extent that they were beyond the point of
salvation:
"Let
them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.
And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall
into the ditch." ( Matthew 15:14 KJV )
In this age of
legislation promoting gay marriage, forbidding
prayer in school and removing the Ten
Commandments from public view, only to name a
few, the world as a whole does not want to hear
the Truth of the Gospel and thereby rejects the
Holy Spirit and His conviction. So God will, at
some point, reject those unbelievers by
withdrawing His Spirit from them. He will 'give
them up' to their own evil thoughts and
actions:
"Even
the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot
receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him..." ( John 14:17 KJV )
"Wherefore
God also gave them up to uncleanness through the
lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own
bodies between themselves:" ( Romans 1:24
KJV )
"For
this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:
for even their women did change the natural use
into that which is against nature:" ( Romans
1:26 KJV )
"And
even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, to do those things which are not
convenient;" ( Romans 1:28 KJV )
Another stern
warning is given to those who believe they have
plenty of time and are putting off salvation
until later. Those who have heard the Gospel
message and refused it before the Rapture of the
Church will not have a second chance at salvation
during the Tribulation. God will withdraw the
Holy Spirit from convicting their hearts and they
will believe a lie told by the Antichrist:
"And
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in
them that perish; because they received not the
love of the truth, that they might be saved. And
for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie: That
they all might be damned who believed not the
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
( 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 KJV )
There are many
countries in the world today where Bibles are
banned, Internet access to Christian sites is
limited and the preaching of the Gospel is
against the law. But during the Tribulation, the
Holy Spirit will pour Himself out upon the world
and many will be saved:
"And
it shall come to pass in the last days, saith
God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all
flesh..." ( Acts 2:17 KJV )
"After
this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which
no man could number, of all nations, and
kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before
the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes, and palms in their hands;" (
Revelation 7:9 KJV )
"...And
he said to me, These are they which came out of
great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb." ( Revelation 7:14 KJV )
So how are we
supposed to utilize this information the Lord has
provided? We need to use this Truth in our
efforts at evangelism. If we have an
acquaintance, friend or family member who is
unsaved, we should make known to them that the
longer they continue to deny the Truth that is
Jesus Christ, the closer they come to God
withdrawing His Spirit and salvation becoming
unattainable.
I realize that for
those of you who are saved, you may not want to
hear this. You believe that God is so righteous
that He would never withdraw Himself by way of
the Holy Spirit. But it is His righteousness and
intolerance of sin that makes it so:
"For
all that do such things, and all that do
unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD
thy God." ( Deuteronomy 25:16 KJV )
And, for those who
are unsaved, you may want to continue in your
current lifestyle of doing what you want to do,
when you want to do it, and believe that
salvation through Jesus isn't necessary, or that
it's available when YOU decide to receive it. But
God's Word tells us otherwise and reminds us not
to put off until tomorrow what should be done
today:
"Neither
is there salvation in any other: for there is
none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved." ( Acts 4:12 KJV )
"(For
he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted,
and in the day of salvation have I succored thee:
behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is
the day of salvation.)" ( 2 Corinthians 6:2
KJV )
Why do we need to
know about the withdrawn Spirit? Because time is
running out, and tomorrow may be too late.
Keith
07-22-2004
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