Our Own Works

By Doug Cook

Not knowing how to begin this in my own words, I will borrow Paul’s to the Galatians; “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”

As I continue to learn from Paul, I find that after he established the churches and the Lord moved him to another location, he would have to write back to them not just for encouragement, but mostly to correct because they would be falling away from the truth he had instilled in them.  They couldn’t claim ignorance because he knew what he himself had taught them.  The Lord would allow reports about his churches to find their way back to Paul which caused him to generate a return letter trying to get them back in line with the true gospel.  In fact, I might dare say most of his letters emanate from his deep concern for believers, which knew better, veering away from the truth.  As I am called to the same office with the Lord moving me to another assignment, He also allows tidbits of information about those that have been a part of our fellowship to find their way back to me.  And as the flesh would have it, there are those that stray from the knowledge they were taught.  “There is nothing new under the sun.”  More and more here lately I identified with what the apostle Paul was coping with.

Brothers and sisters, we are in the last times and we must keep focused on the Lord and not forget the things we have learned.  If we are not still growing in our love for and knowledge of Him then we are falling back.  He will allow things to happen or require us to do things that we absolutely despise, yet expect us to do them cheerfully and have peace in the midst of the storm.  He uses these situations to grow our faith and trust in Him.  “He works ALL things after the counsel of His own will.”  If you’re in it, God put you there – end of discussion, not your husband, wife, or some other person.  You’re in that place by God’s hand and our own decisions, no matter where we think He told us we were supposed to be.  The Lord has told me many things He would do for me – some of them took years to manifest and some have yet to transpire.  Going through a very difficult time (on our way to our place called “there”) is not an excuse for straying from the faith and feeling sorry for ourselves, especially if we’re the ones who caused it by trying to make it happen with our flesh.  We need to release the “woe is me” bondage we’re in and ask the Lord what we’re supposed to be learning from the experience.  We may be in difficulty simply because we are trying to do things in our flesh instead of leaving it in His hands, and chances are we’re going to stay in that place until we learn to die to our flesh and trust the Lord.  I have had many challenges here lately and have to constantly remind myself of the things the Lord has already taught me and not be lackadaisical about following the many commandments he has written on my heart over the years.  This is the day that the Lord has made… I will rejoice and be glad in it (even though there’s no sun, snow everywhere, and freezing outside).  “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Whatsoever is not of faith is not of God.

A change of our perspective may help a lot.  How would our trivia little trial we’re going through compare to us waiting in line at a concentration camp to have our head cut off?  This is what awaits many of God’s people.  Will we have the faith to proclaim the gospel with our last breath or believe that God will put the guards to sleep and send an angel to open the gates, or will we be feeling so sorry for ourselves our witness will be worthless?  I’ve heard many a believer claim they will come through for God when things get really bad even though they aren’t doing it now.  NO… They won’t! If we can’t do it now, we won’t do it then.  He that is faithful in little will be faithful in much!  He will not give us any more than we can handle, so He puts us through little tribulation now so we will be prepared to bear more in the future.

Of great concern lately is the way we treat other people, whether they be believers or not, when the Lord sends persecution our way.  I think we need to be reminded of the manner we, as believers, should behave in respect to others we come in contact with or have relationships with.  I not only hear of erring from scripture from my previous fellowship but I have experienced the same attitudes in my current location, so this is a problem throughout the body of Christ.  This is a huge issue with our flesh and the only way we can follow scriptural commands in relating to others is with the power of the Holy Spirit working with us to overcome this flesh.

I’ve included two passages where Jesus didn’t speak in a parable, but instead laid it out so well we would have to have the devil help us misunderstand what He was trying to convey.  I’m sure every one of us have read these at least a few times, but for a memory refresher, please take the time to read these slowly and try to understand how contrary it is to the way we have handled relationships in the flesh all of our lives.

Matthew 5:38-48 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.  And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.  Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Luke 6:27-38 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.  And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.  Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.  And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.  For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.  And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.  And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.  But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.  Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.  Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:  Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Wow!  Are any of us truly doing this?  We quote some of these verses, but do we actually walk them out daily?  It’s not about what we’re saying, it’s about what we are doing that convinces others we are different from the world.  It’s taken the Lord years to get some of this through my thick head. And what took the longest was not concerning worldly people, but showing forgiveness to “Christians” who knew better!  I’m not saying I’ve completely arrived, but I’m a long way from where I used to be.  Look at what the Lord said about believers who do evil:

Hebrews 10:26-30 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.  He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?  For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

Can we be a better judge of other believers than the Lord.  At one time, I thought I was.  Then I grew up!  He commands us to leave the vengeance to Him.  “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”  We need to forgive lest we be the ones that fall into His hands of judgment.

In the Old Covenant God allowed them to seek an eye for an eye for revenge.  The Lord also had them set up refuge cities for the people to go who may have harmed someone by accident.  The cities were to protect the person from the “eye for an eye” law.  Whatever someone else did to you, you could get the judges to repay with the same offence as explained in Exodus 21.

Jesus tells us in these passages about the New Covenant that we are not to seek revenge for anything.  If someone hurts us we are to turn the other cheek and forgive.  If they steal from us, we are to forgive.  If they take us to court, we are to give them what they want and forgive them.  It doesn’t matter if we’re right or wrong.  And we’re not only to forgive our enemies but also to love them.  We are to go even further and “bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for then which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” Take a look at this passage in Romans 12:19-21 “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.  Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”  Not only are we supposed to bless and pray for them, we are to give them food and drink as they perform their evil against us.  Can you imagine the evil world bankers sending their cronies to our door to take what they want and us asking them if they would like to stay for milk and cookies?  And I’m not trying to be funny here.  That’s what this passage is saying.

The Lord goes on to say we aren’t just to forgive our fellow brethren of those that are part of our sect, but these principles apply to everyone we come in contact with.  I’ve seen a lot of denominational people that easily forgive those in their little group, but find it difficult to forgive, feed, clothe, and pray for believers of another denomination.  We’re having trouble following these commandments with other brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, much less with enemies of our faith.

We are to be merciful as our Father has been merciful to us.  He reminds us that the Lord showed us great mercy by forgiving the little evil that is being done against us.

We are supposed to have the mind of Christ because we have the Spirit of Christ in us and have access to the power of the Holy Spirit.  If our God is merciful, longsuffering and forgiving and He is dwelling in our temple, shouldn’t we be outwardly showing the same qualities?

Unfortunately, what I see in the majority of Christendom is just the opposite.  Believers take it upon themselves to try to get some kind of satisfaction or revenge by using our old ways of doing things in the flesh:  Believer taking believer to the carnal court system to try to solve disputes:  Believers going to the law to try to punish someone for doing something evil to them.  And even recently to the network media, of all places, to try to expose other believer’s shortcomings.  This type of revenge is all of the flesh and none of it will work out for the good.  Romans 12 is very plain “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

As I have said for many years, “This is a trust issue.”  Either we trust the Lord to deal out the proper vengeance or mercy as He sees fit, or we don’t trust Him so we proceed with out worldly manipulative ways and try to get revenge on our own.

These are spiritual battles which can only be resolved in spiritual ways.  PRAYER!  Many times there are demon forces involved influencing others to commit evil acts against us and, if we try to fight in the flesh, we may eliminate the person but leave the demon in place to torment us again.  On the other hand, it’s not always a devil so we shouldn’t try to cast a devil out of every person that commits a sin.  We are commanded to pray for our enemies.  If we are truly praying for them and not trying to seek revenge, the Lord will direct us on how to pray for the individual and what demonic forces may be involved that need to be dealt with.

The situation where it’s hardest to forgive those that do evil is in the relationships that are the closest to us, such as marriage.  Emotions run high sometimes and it is difficult even for a strong believer to turn the other cheek.  If one spouse says that God told them to divorce you and marry another, and you know they understand God’s Word enough to know better, you can bet there is some kind of demonic influence that has deceived them.  Instead of attacking the spouse we need to attack the devil and let the Lord work on changing the individual.  There is no black and white set way to deal with marriage problems as each one of us are in a different place with the Lord.  However, my advice every time is to focus on the Lord and ask Him to correct yourself in the places you are in err and leave your spouse in the Lord’s hands.  It may be best, if we are caught in the emotion of the moment, not to pray for our spouse for a season until we are able to distance ourselves from our feelings and pray in faith.  Always remember, no matter what the outcome of the conflict, we have to end up with forgiveness in our hearts as the Lord is the Judge, not us.  And by the way, the bible does say “our enemies will be they of our own household.”  Again, how are we supposed to treat our enemies?

Colossians 3:12-13 Put on therefore, as the elect (saved believers) of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

1Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

Romans 14:10-13 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

In our efforts to get revenge through the works of the flesh, we place stumbling blocks in the paths of others.  Because we are operating in carnality, we have no idea how the Lord is using the situation to minister to other people.  1Corinthians 8:2 “And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”  In our zeal to help the Lord out, we walk all over other people and give them another example of a hypocritical religious person and just one more reason why they shouldn’t follow Christ.  If we cause someone to miss eternal life by winning a battle with an opponent in the flesh, is it worth it?  Is that a price we’re willing to pay?  Or should we allow ourselves to be wronged and give the Lord the opportunity to use the “coals of fire” to bring the person to repentance and salvation, and possibly several others who were watching the outcome from the sidelines as well?

Jeremiah 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Matthew 7:1-5 Judge not, that ye be not judged.  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Unfortunately, most Christians see the violence against them coming from other people, so they get violent against the person and try to take it back by force.  They forgot to include the rest of the counsel of God to truly understand where the violence is coming from.  Paul Explains in Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”  It’s not people we are to wrestle with, it’s spiritual demonic forces that are creating the violence.  And it is okay to get mad as long as the anger is directed in the right place.  We are to get violent against spiritual wickedness and take back by force what the evil one has tried to take from us in the spiritual realm.  No place in the bible does it say to forgive a devil – only people.  We are to take authority over these devil’s and not allow them to keep us in bondage.

Ephesians 4:17-32 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.  But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:  That ye put off concerning the former conversation (previous behavior) the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:  Neither give place to the devil.  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Paul says it much better than I, so I won’t try to add anything to them, only repeat a critical line:  “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Your servant in Christ.