faith. The reason we know our Lord Jesus has been exalted is because of our faith in the Word of God. It cannot be proved by logic necessarily, but when we accept the testimony of the Word, then our guarantee is, “Thus saith the Lord.” The Saviour .is coming back again to vindicate the fact of His exaltation; to vindicate the fact of His resurrection; to vindicate the fact of His ascension. We rejoice in that truth that He is coming again. He is coming again to vindicate Himself and to show to the world that He did not die as a martyr for a lost cause. SOUL WINNING To win the insincere man, I must be sincere; To win the liar, I must be truthful; To win the stingy man, I must be liberal; To win a heart full of hatred; My heart must be full of love; To win a lazy man, I must be in dustrious; To win a discouraged man, I must be encouraged; To win a dead professor of religion, I must be a live professor of Christianity; To win the impure, I must be pure; To win the unsettled to Christ, I must be settled in the truth of God's Word. Then, too, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again to vindicate those of us who live for Him by faith. Sometimes, in your darkest moments of discourage ment, you may have asked the ques tion, “Does it really pay to serve the Lord? Crime seems to pay; dishon esty seems to pay; a lack of loyalty seems to pay; and a lack of integrity seems to be the popular feature of the day.” Peter answers that age-old ques tion, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the d a y of (judgment) visitation” (1 Peter 2:11 and 12). But someone may ask, “How will they glorify God? I
don’t see sinners clapping their hands for joy because I try to please the Lord.” But the glorifying of God is when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and the books are open so that all things are made public and before Him. You and I will be vindicated and our faithfulness will be rewarded. We will then see that crime, dishonesty, immorality and all manner of sinful living does not pay. Judgment shall be the portion of those who practice such things. Those who may judge and disrespect us now, will glorify God then because of our faithfulness. They will be forced to admit that we lived holily before them; they will be with out excuse because of our witness to the saving faith of our Lord Jesus Christ Our Lord will also vindicate us con cerning death. If you know and love the Saviour, you will not be at yOur own funeral. We believe that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Of course, the world laughs at us for such a belief. Why does the Christian believe that in after life we will be with the Lord? Simply because of the testimony of the Word of God. In faith, as humble believ ers, we hold this to be true. The Lord Jesus is coming again to vindicate this fact and to show to the world that death does not end all. That, is what Paul meant when he wrote, “For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body (that is, the body of our weakness and limita tions), that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself’ (Philippians 3:20 and 21). How wonderful to be vindicated in our faithful living for Him. Some day, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come, He shall completely vindicate Himself. The world will see that we were not foolish when we trusted in Christ and lived in the Spirit of “thus said the Lord.” May your faith be en couraged as you look forward to this great day of vindication. 7
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