Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Plett Foundation

man, I have set you as a watchman over the house
of Israel; whenever you hear something out of
my mouth, you shall warn them for me. When I
now say to the godless, you godless must surely
die, and you don’t warn them to turn from their
wicked ways, they shall die in their iniquities,
but their blood I will require at your hand. But
if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways,
and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked
shall die because of their sinfulness, and you have
saved your soul.
We don’t preach only with words, but also
with our walk. In I Cor. 9 and 27, the Apostle
Paul says, “I tame my body so that I don’t preach
to others and I myself become a castaway.” Yes,
whoever as shepherd and messenger of the Gospel
has not already looked at himself, observed
his weakness and has sighed – so I must with
sighs call out with Isaiah, “ Woe is me for I am of
unclean lips and live among people with unclean
lips.” Isaiah 6:5.
If I had looked only at myself to the work
I’m now beginning, dear ones, then I would
truly despair, but the Lord be praised that I am
not relying on my own strength, but pleadingly
look up to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and
pour out my heart to Him, for He is the author
and finisher of our faith. Where we feel weak,
there He is strong and where we feel poor He will
make us rich. O beloved brothers and sisters, let
us always look up to our Lord Jesus Christ, and
learn only from Him. When He says “Come unto
me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I
will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn
of me for I am meek and humble in heart, so
you find rest for your souls” Matthew 11:28-29.
Shouldn’t we take it to heart much more because
of the promises of the Lord, and learn more and
more, know His promises and walk in faith and
honesty with Christ so that your faith will be
more genuine and found to be more precious than
the perishable gold which is kept through fire to
the praise and honor of the Lord. Christ whom
you have not seen, but yet loved and believed,
will be revealed. Although you do not see Him
now, you will rejoice with inexpressible and
precious joy, and obtain the goal of your faith,
namely the One who is our soul’s salvation. I
Peter 1:7 & 8 “Walk in love just like Christ has
loved us and has given Himself for us as a gift
and offering to God as a sweet smelling savor.
Walk as children of light. The fruit of the Spirit
is all kinds of goodness, righteousness and truth.
So be careful to walk, not as the unwise, but as
the wise.” Eph. 5.
O Lord, I am a poor sinful man and come
before your Holy face with a weak prayer while
I am stirred in my mind, convicted of my many
sins. . . totally crushed in spirit, for your hand
presses me day and night. Therefore I come now
in true repentance and acknowledge to you my
sins that are not hidden from your Holy face. I’m
sorry that I so oft offended you with my sins, gracious
God and Father! Don’t punish me in your
anger and don’t cast me, a poor sinner, away,
but look at me graciously with the eye of your
fatherly mercy according to your great goodness;
blot out my sins according to your unsearchable
riches, show me grace and mercy according to
your Word, cleanse me from my offenses through
the precious merits of your dear Son who innocently
shed His blood. Now let my stirred-up
conscience and my soul be comforted – also give
me a new true spirit that I in newness of life be a
faithful servant in true obedience to your glory
and according to your good pleasure, in holiness
and righteousness walk by faith and become a
child and heir of eternal salvation. Amen.
Now dearly beloved, in order to further edify,
in order to be really on guard, so that our soul’s
welfare will result in a truly acceptable walk, so
that the words of our text give us occasion – while
we however by ourselves are not in a position to
do good, to speak or to think, so let us first of all
ask the giver of all the good and perfect gifts. .
. Come to Him in a sincere prayer that I a poor
and weak servant learn, as well as you listeners;
so He may give His Godly blessing, and that this
may be to His honor and result in our salvation.
So join with me in a sincere prayer.
Now in the hope that the Lord has heard the
request we made from Him, I want to turn to the
words of my text which we find written in the
Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:7 reads thus.
“Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you
shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto
you.” Brothers and sisters, I will seek the One in
my great weakness with these words of our dear
Lord – and add an additional point, how we in
honest prayer plead in order to receive His gift,
to be constantly seeking in order to find Him,
and by striving and knocking it will finally be
opened to us.
Much loved ones, certainly when Sunday
after Sunday we in the congregation hear God’s
word, consider it, this alone is not enough that
we draw to God in general formality by hearing
the Holy Word. Rather we must all direct our
thoughts and our whole mind to God whose word
we listen to and whose Holy characteristics we
eagerly inhale, to always think more keenly, and
to better recall the wonder of the great mercy
which He shows us in the work of redemption
– and still daily show us. Yes, what a loving
and generous Father we have, how He has done
many good and Holy things for us which through
His word were permitted to be announced and
promised long ago.
Loved ones, it is highly important that we
have contact often with God, with His word, and
when our service to God is upright and honest,
and is according to the context of the Word, then
God is everywhere. and with us. For when our
Lord sent His disciples to preach, He also told
them at the same time, “I am with you all the
days unto the end of the World.” Matthew 2:20
and in Matthew 18 the Lord Jesus says “Where
two or three are gathered together in my name,
there I am in the midst of them.” But if our
conscience and failings toward that which was
just mentioned are slack, let us go to the words
of our text and compare; with heads look up and
look at the text’s words. Ask and it shall be given
you, take them to heart and we will find that all
the promises we can trustingly claim. For the one
who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds,
and whoever knocks it shall be opened unto him.
Oh, could we always take God’s overly big grace
and goodness, and consider how he permits them
to flow to us out of pure love and mercy. We are
so often ungrateful in spite of the fact if He should
withdraw His hand, we are not in position to do
any good – not to speak nor to think.
Oh, how will we survive with our weak and
lazy faith? So often we have gone against His
commandments and are so seldom concerned
with seeking the Lord as our text teaches us.
(Seek and ye shall find.) Let us try to prove
whether our faith is genuine before God. Isaiah
says, “Seek the Lord while he can be found, call
upon Him while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6 “The
godless forsake his way and the evildoer his
thoughts, and be converted to the Lord; then He
will have mercy upon you, for by Him is much
forgiveness.” Isaiah 53:6 & 7.
So let us honestly repent before Him and seek
the Lord. For with God it depends on the heart
whether it has been cleansed and made righteous.
Yes, what else does His teaching demand? That
we be converted and that we give ourselves whole
heartily to God. Then through our Christianity,
we find Him to be our reconciled Father whose
love is fatherly and inexpressibly loving toward
us in that He spared not His only dear Son, but
gave Him for us.
Let us with full earnestness begin to show in
word and deed. In II Peter 1, where He speaks
to His every kind of godly power (which serves
for the godly life and walk) given to us with the
assurance that the One who has called us through
His glory and virtue, through which we have
been given the most holy promises, namely that
we through these become partakers of the godly
nature, that you will flee the perishing lust of the
world. But if we do not heed nor flee from them,
then we cannot comfort ourselves with these
precious promises. If God the Lord didn’t spare
the angels who sinned, but has with everlasting
chains cast them into hell, reserved them for the
judgment, nor spared the ancient world, except
He spared Noah the preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly, and turned the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an
overthrow – making them an example unto the
ungodly who come thereafter, who live ungodly
lives. II Peter 2. The apostle helps us understand
that the previously mentioned destruction happened
as an example to unbelievers – so that we
consider and cleanse ourselves from evil things.
All that is written in the Word of the Lord is
written for our learning. Romans 15:4.
Dearest friends, our text embraces in its
entirety how souls seeking God can through His
rich gospel and through His word in this Holy
domain, come to Him by asking, seeking, and
knocking. They can receive and arrive! Our loving
Savior says in the same chapter as our text,
“if you being evil can give good gifts to your
children, how much more will our heavenly
Father give good things to them that ask Him,
and what you will ask in my name, that will I do
so that the Father will be honored in His son.”
John 14:13.
Calling God in quietness through prayer,
can and will, give us new strength and help us
walk virtuously – we will remind ourselves of
Preservings No. 25, December 2005 - 65