Not Judging, but Doing
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receive the word in faith, it will give you power to obey. As you give
heed to the light you have, greater light will come. You are building
on God’s word, and your character will be builded after the similitude
of the character of Christ.
Christ, the true foundation, is a living stone; His life is imparted to
all that are built upon Him. “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a
spiritual house.” “Each several building, fitly framed together, groweth
into a holy temple in the Lord.”
1 Peter 2:5
, R.V.;
Ephesians 2:21
, R.V.
The stones became one with the foundation; for a common life dwells
in all. That building no tempest can overthrow; for—
“That which shares the life of God,
With Him surviveth all.”
But every building erected on other foundation than God’s word
will fall. He who, like the Jews in Christ’s day, builds on the founda-
tion of human ideas and opinions, of forms and ceremonies of man’s
invention, or on any works that he can do independently of the grace of
Christ, is erecting his structure of character upon the shifting sand. The
fierce tempests of temptation will sweep away the sandy foundation
[151]
and leave his house a wreck on the shores of time.
“Therefore thus saith the Lord God, ... Judgment also will I lay to
the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.”
Isaiah 28:16, 17
.
But today mercy pleads with the sinner. “As I live, saith the Lord
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked
turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways;
for why will ye die?”
Ezekiel 33:11
. The voice that speaks to the
impenitent today is the voice of Him who in heart anguish exclaimed
as He beheld the city of His love: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which
killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her own brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house
is left unto you desolate.”
Luke 13:34, 35
, R.V. In Jerusalem, Jesus
beheld a symbol of the world that had rejected and despised His grace.
He was weeping, O stubborn heart, for you! Even when Jesus’ tears
were shed upon the mount, Jerusalem might yet have repented, and