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Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing
Not all who profess His name and wear His badge are Christ’s.
Many who have taught in My name, said Jesus, will be found wanting
at last. “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and
in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess
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unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”
There are persons who believe that they are right, when they are
wrong. While claiming Christ as their Lord, and professedly doing
great works in His name, they are workers of iniquity. “With their
mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetous-
ness.” He who declares God’s word is to them “as a very lovely song
of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument:
for they hear Thy words, but they do them not.”
Ezekiel 33:31, 32
.
A mere profession of discipleship is of no value. The faith in
Christ which saves the soul is not what it is represented to be by many.
“Believe, believe,” they say, “and you need not keep the law.” But a
belief that does not lead to obedience is presumption. The apostle John
says, “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
1 John 2:4
. Let none cherish
the idea that special providences or miraculous manifestations are
to be the proof of the genuineness of their work or of the ideas they
advocate. When persons will speak lightly of the word of God, and set
their impressions, feelings, and exercises above the divine standard,
we may know that they have no light in them.
Obedience is the test of discipleship. It is the keeping of the
commandments that proves the sincerity of our professions of love.
When the doctrine we accept kills sin in the heart, purifies the soul
from defilement, bears fruit unto holiness, we may know that it is
the truth of God. When benevolence, kindness, tenderheartedness,
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sympathy, are manifest in our lives; when the joy of right doing is in
our hearts; when we exalt Christ, and not self, we may know that our
faith is of the right order. “Hereby we do know that we know Him, if
we keep His commandments.”
1 John 2:3
.