Text: “He
brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my
feet upon a Rock, and established my goings.”
Psalm 40:2.
Good morning, Christian in a horrible pit! Life for true and genuine, Bible-believing
Christians in this increasingly apostate 21st Century can be very
difficult indeed. IF we are seeking to
serve the risen Christ Jesus as the militant soldiers He has called us to be –
we shall experience many such metaphorical ‘horrible pits’. Fact.
If you and I do not suffer some form of persecution,
hindrance, marginalization at the hands of the world, the flesh, and the Devil
in this day of increased evil and unbelief – then I must conclude that we are
NOT really true Christians at all! Let
this sobering thought awaken us to harsh reality this morning! We must examine ourselves NOW!
“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
SHALL suffer persecution. But evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou
hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned them;
and that from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make
thee wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:12-13)
Verse 2. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit. All those
international recipients who have been receiving my weekly Bible Lessons consistently
over the past two decades, are well aware of God’s testimony of saving
grace to me, ‘a very real sinner, who was, and continues to be, in constant need of
a very real Saviour’! (See ‘More About
Kenny’ on the www.ulsterchristians.org Blog,
or purchase Brent Riggs’ Book, ‘Terrorist to Evangelist’ on his www.seriousfaith.com website)
The Lord God, through the reading of an old Prison
Issue Bible in 1979, while in solitary confinement, serving two Life sentences
as a political terrorist - granted me His gift of repentance, and faith to
believe that I was indeed ‘a chief among sinners’, on my way to a
Christ-rejecter’s Hell; and in desperate need of Salvation through the Cross of
Christ Jesus alone. Only God the Spirit can ‘quicken’, make alive, dead souls.
“For the Son of man (Jesus Christ) is come to seek and
to save that (Spiritually dead sinners) which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)
I was in a very ‘horrible pit’, the infamous H Blocks
of the High Security Maze Prison, here in Northern Ireland, UK. Only Christ Himself could ever lift me out of
that particular ‘pit’ – and He did, praise God He did!
He gave me faith to believe His Word, granted me
repentance from my vile 32 years of sin; redeemed me by His own sinless and
precious Blood shed for me on Calvary’s Cross – and on August 12th
1979, I was born again, saved for Eternity by the matchless grace of a truly
loving and merciful Lord God Almighty.
Hallelujah! This is REAL! Christ saves repentant sinners! Glory, Glory, Glory to the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sins of the world!
“Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is
none other Name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I
am chief. Howbeit for this cause I
obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all
longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to
life everlasting.” (1 Timothy 1:15-16)
Christ lifts the souls of ‘His people’ out of all
‘horrible pits’, bringing Salvation to the Father’s elect, and greater glory
indeed to His altogether Holy and lovely Name.
“Now unto the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the
only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
(1 Timothy 1:17)
Verse 2. “…An horrible pit. Some of
the pits referred to in the Bible were prisons, one such I saw at Athens, and
another at Rome. To these there were no
openings, except a hole at the top which served for both door and window. The bottoms of these pits were necessarily in
a filthy and revolting state, and sometimes deep in mud.” (John Gadsby 1862)
Verse 2. ‘…Out of the miry clay. Once
give a man a good foothold, and a burden is greatly lightened, but to be loaded
and to be placed on slimy, slippery clay, is to be tried doubly.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 193)
Verse 2. “…And set my feet upon a
Rock. There would be no lasting point in lifting someone out
of one pool of slippery, slimy, miry clay, only to place that person’s feet
back into another such quagmire of filth and slime. Thus, the Lord God not only lifts the
repentant sinner’s Spiritual feet out of the slimy clay of his/her sins, but
then immediately sets the saved one’s feet upon Christ, the Rock of our
Salvation. God grants us an Eternal
Standing – in Christ Jesus the sure and steadfast Rock. Hallelujah!
Verse 2. “…And established my
goings. When the
shepherd rescues his sheep out of a swamp, he always sets the feet of the
rescued sheep on solid and safe ground.
Otherwise sheep, being mere sheep, would just naturally wander straight
back into the mud and slime out of which they had been rescued. Sinful mankind will always do the same. That is why we need the Lord not only to save
us, but to establish our goings daily through the great Lamp that is His Holy
Word: the KJV Bible!
Thought: If you
are in some ‘horrible pit’ today – wait patiently and faithfully for the sure
rescue promised by the Lord God. Christ
will never let us down!
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