God Put You Here "On Purpose" - Part Four

 

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

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Every once in a while, I come up against somebody that says, "If you are once saved you are always saved, aren't you? Isn't that what the Bible teaches? Then that means that as long as you believe, you can do as you please, right?" It doesn't mean anything of the kind. It means just the opposite. If I am once saved it is because He has begun a good work and He will keep on perfecting it until the day of Jesus Christ. And when He saved me, He put me in a road and said, "I have created these good works that you should walk in them." There's no question whatsoever of the Christian saying, "Well, I'm saved. I can now take the bit in my teeth and go any way I wish." True, there are moments when the flesh rises and seeks to have its own way. But, nevertheless, the general trend and tendency of the life that is in Christ must be in the path that He prepared for us, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

 

Well, what are these good works that were created before I was born? Where are they? Why, they are in Christ. God wants Christ to be in me. Every good work that we see in Christ was prepared in order that we might work the same works. So then, if you want to know what God saved you for-whatever the pattern of your life may be at your work or at your rest or whatever it might be-you are to live Christ. And what does that involve? Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. This is the path God has for us. Christ lived and exhibited these fruits of the Spirit. These are the works that God "hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

 

God has a plan for you. This must go into every part of the being of the Christian. It must affect every phase of his life. The plan includes steadfast love, which is going to show courtesy.

 

If a Christian man has power steering, he will not steal the parking space of someone that doesn't have it, even though he could get in quicker. He will not be a menace to anyone else's driving along the way. Love will be manifested in the way he speaks to those who are less fortunate in life. We seek to be Christ in the place where God has put us, seeking to touch men and women with the hand of Christ. For God has no other way of touching men and women today, except by your hand. God does not work from heaven on the cases of misery that are in the world. If anybody is going to be touched by Jesus Christ, they are going to be touched by your hands.

 

It is interesting, and very relevant to this issue, that at the time of the judgment of the nations Jesus says to men, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

 

"When did this ever happen?'

 

"I was hungry and you fed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited Me. I was in prison and you came unto Me-when you did it unto the least of one of my brothers." (See Matt. 25:35-40.)

 

I can remember an incident that took place several years ago. In England I met a man who was an officer in the Cold Stream Guards. He was the handsomest man you'd ever want to meet, every inch an English nobleman, officer and gentleman. Major William Bach was house officer in Buckingham Palace, probably chosen because you couldn't find any human being that would look better when he was wearing the big bearskin hat and the scarlet coat on parade.

 

Bill was coming to the United States for a visit. I had made all the arrangements for him to be entertained in different homes, and for him to speak to some people in the business and social centers of our country that needed someone to come with a profound word. When I met him in New York at the airport, I took a couple of hours to show him New York City. First we stopped down at Wall Street in order that I might take him to the skyscraper office of a friend of mine, whose windows commanded a beautiful view over New York Bay. There was traffic congestion and we had to wait for a place to park. Eventually we drove into a service station and I said, "Can I have the car oiled and greased?" It was the only way that we could get a place to park-anyway, the car would be needing to be oiled pretty soon, so we were killing two birds with one stone.

 

And as we got out of the car, there came up to us one of the most miserable human beings that I have ever seen. The man looked as though he had slept in a coal bin for weeks. Filth and dirt and coal grime were in the pores of his skin. His hair was matted. There were sores on every visible part of his body, as though his body were being eaten away by an advanced case of syphilis, or some disease of that kind. He was one of the most formidable looking creatures of despair that I had ever seen.

 

He came up to us and put out his hand and said, "Will you help me?"

 

This English nobleman, who didn't have any American money yet, put his hand in his pocket and said, "Oh, I don't have anything."

 

I put my hand in my pocket and I said, "We give you this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

 

Then the man began to cry. Tears ran down his face and he said, "I know, I was brought up in this." And as we spoke to him there about his soul, he said, "You know, I have gone down to the docks at least ten times and said, `O God, I'm going to throw myself in and drown myself,' but," he said, "there's always something that keeps me from doing it."

 

We talked there for fifteen or twenty minutes, gave the man a little money, told him not to use it for drink, and gave him the name of a mission where he could be taken care of. And the man said, "Oh, thank you, thank you."

 

We said, "You know we give you this in Jesus' name."

 

"God bless you," he said.

 

Now, I don't know that man, but when I think of Christ on the earth, I think of that man. For Christ said, "Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of one of these, you have done it unto Me." Furthermore, the Bible says, "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord' (Prov. 19:17).

 

The world says to them, "Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" But I wonder if God has not put them round about us and that we should take the opportunity to say, "I want to touch you and minister to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." And when you do that, God says; "I've put you on earth in order that you might see straight, that you may not see with the eyes of a world that idolizes and honors success."

 

Someone once said that a banker was a person who would lend money to those who could prove they did not need it, but would not lend to those who really need it. Perhaps that's a cynical commentary on banks; but believe me, there is a truth here to which the whole world's philosophy is geared: Our kindness and generosity are for those who do not need it. That's why Jesus is needfully saying, "When you invite somebody to dinner, invite somebody that will not be able to invite you back." When you do something for somebody in the name of Christ, do it for somebody that will not be able to return the favor. "This," says the Lord, "pleases Me." For it shows that the life of Christ is in you, and it shows you recognize that He who has begun a good work in you is taking you out of the world which says, "Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost," and is putting in you the Spirit of Christ which says, "I have sent you here. As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you."

 

Go right now and be Jesus Christ to those around you. That is God's purpose in saving you.

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