Clear Enough

[Gerry]

Ezekiel 3:
18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
20 Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. {righteousness which: Heb. righteousnesses}
21 Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

John 15:
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

 

[sbbqb7n16]

A sermon totally utilizing 100% scripture! Awesome Gerry!

 

[Sharky]

Hey gerry that's a great one but i'm a little scetchy on the meaning. What does it mean to warn the wicked or suffer this etc?

 

[GraftMeIn]

Thanks for posting this Gerry. You probably don't know it, or maybe you already do! But this was the reason I had to go warn my brother. All I can say is he heard my words but refused to listen. But I did what I felt I needed to, and what I felt God wanted me to do.

Sharky let me see if I can explain it somewhat. God wants us to love one another. When we see someone we love going down the wrong path, doing what is evil, instead of what's right. We need to warn them about what they are doing, If we truly Love them then we will be willing to do this. We will do it out of Love. To not warn them would only show that you don't Love them enough to care about what happens to their soul in the end.

 

[BigEd]

Its a sobering scripture. Christ also reinforces this:

Mt. 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven
and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

That we must tell the world the truth, the gospel of Christ!

 

[Gerry]

Sharky there are so many Scriptures that explain this that it is difficult for me to figure where to begin.

But we are told: James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

So this is a sin of omission, and as we all know there are consequences for all sin, even though they may be forgiven.

That coupled with the Great Commission, as pointed out by Ed, gives us the foundation for this warning.

But as GraftMeIn pointed out the Love of God Constrains us.

Therefore, if we ignore all this we are effectively "quenching" the leading of the Holy Spirit, and one of the dangers of that is a hardening of the heart. In other words, the searing of our consciences.

 

[JagSayon]

Brilliant Gerry. We should all pack our bags and head on to General Apologetics to warn those people!.

Jag

 

[Gerry]

Originally posted by JagSayon
Brilliant Gerry. We should all pack our bags and head on to General Apologetics to warn those people!.

Jag

Good idea Jag! In fact I have done that, and will in fact do that again. But I will warn them only. I will not be drawn into a debate with them. They will not listen, but at least they will have been warned. Who knows, there may be that one someday that will listen!

 

[Gerry]

Originally posted by GraftMeIn
Thanks for posting this Gerry. You probably don't know it, or maybe you already do! But this was the reason I had to go warn my brother. All I can say is he heard my words but refused to listen. But I did what I felt I needed to, and what I felt God wanted me to do.

Sharky let me see if I can explain it somewhat. God wants us to love one another. When we see someone we love going down the wrong path, doing what is evil, instead of what's right. We need to warn them about what they are doing, If we truly Love them then we will be willing to do this. We will do it out of Love. To not warn them would only show that you don't Love them enough to care about what happens to their soul in the end.

Amen GMI. Indeed I did understand when you were talking about it before and I did not why you had to do what you had to do. I was very discouraged when some did not see it.

At any rate you followed the leading of the Holy Spirit and today you have Peace because of it.

 

[GraftMeIn]

Originally posted by Gerry

At any rate you followed the leading of the Holy Spirit and today you have Peace because of it.

Yes! I do have peace because of it

I would be feeling extremely convicted had I not said anything to him. And God provided the perfect opportunity for me to talk with him. This itself was amazing considering the fact that this was the brother who vowed to never speak to me again.

It certainly pays to follow the Holy Spirit. It brings much peace to the heart when you know you've done what's right by following it. No matter how difficult it might seem to follow the Holy Spirit at the time. God will provide everything you need along the way in order to accomplish whatever it is you need to do

 

[BigEd]

Originally posted by Gerry
But I will warn them only. I will not be drawn into a debate with them. They will not listen, but at least they will have been warned. Who knows, there may be that one someday that will listen!

 

I think sometimes debating with the atheists , agnostics and pagans is not a bad thing. I was once like them, and Praise the Lord, I had a christian friend who was willing to debate and discuse the issues with me, that helped (throught the power of the Holy Spirit) bring me to Christ. Of course it is a matter of picking and choising our battles. and of course we must, must pray for them.

 

[Gerry]

Ed, I have heard you mention this before. But am I wrong in remembering this was done pretty much in a one on one situation? Was he not speaking to one interested in listening for one reason or another? I think so.

If a question is posed and 1,000 positive res[onses are consistently met with a B-U-T, then it becomes clear someone is not interested in listening but is only in it for the debate. The debate that is going no where is a waste of time.

Witness, YES. Pray for them, YES! YES!!! Debate with them endlessly on some topic that means nothing without the Holy Spirit, anyway? No! That is a waste of time and Jesus has warned us to redeem the time, not waste it.

There is a HUGE difference in DISCUSSING and DEBATING!!! A discussion can be fruitful and beneficial, as you have so rightly pointed out on previous occassions. A debate is just a debate.

 

[AnnMercy2]

Thanks for this, you don't know how much I really needed that Gerry.

In Christ,
Anna

 

[BigEd]

gerry,
again i think it is a matter of picking what is worthy to discuse. When i see people throwing out of context scripture like hand grenades, then I must stay away. But there are times people have valid questions. I said BUT and NO an awful lot of times when i didn't believe. But praise God he didn't give up on me. he had crack my life open like a fissure to get at me but he did it. the athiests ang agnostics, may seem like they have the answers, but why do they keep coming back? Gerry, i think you do make a excellent point of avoid fruitless discussion, but there is time discussion can be fruitful.

 

[Gerry]

Interesting! I made a rather lengthy reply to this and I see it is not here. Hmmm. Silly computers. Oh well!

You do make a very interesting point. One which I have pointed out to many "so called" atheist. If Christians are such intellectually inferior and despicable beings WHY do you want to hang out and associate with them. What is the big fight to post in the Fellowship forum? WHY do you want to fellowship with a bunch of STUPID Christians.

And what do they offer the world? Christians offer life, and love, and hope: A future in Heaven. What do they offer? NOTHINGNESS-OBLIVION-HOPELESSNESS!!! Who needs are desires it? Apparently not even themselves.

Yet they come here selling nothing, and insisting on hanging out with silly Christians.

Well, some say maybe the Holy Spirit is drawing them here to be exposed to the Truth, and I think that is right in some cases. Others may say satan is bringing them here to be a negative force for evil, and I say that in some cases that is also correct.

The problem is that the Christians here get to squabbling among themselves as to what is necessary to be saved and next thing you know the one sincerely seeking is confused, frustrated and no longer interested. They then have new material to hurl at us saying we cannot even agree on the basics.

So what should we do to create some unity among the Christians in order to present a united front to the unbelievers? Pray? sure, but when we are done praying, what then do we do? Will we then be in agreement? Will those who are Catholics then unite with those who are non Catholics, and the Charasimatics unite with the non Charismatics, and the tongue talkers with those who do not speak in tongues and thoise who say you must be baptised unite with those who say it is not necessary to salvation.

I think not. I once thought this was a hopeless situation. But a strange thing happened. Such a thread happened here once not so long ago. A person asked about salvation and when it was posted what was necessary it turned in to an all out debate between all those mentioned above.

But I was shown that when the Holy Spirit is working, no amount of disunity or bickering will prevail. When I was sad because I thought this person was gone forever, I got a PM and guess what? Yep You guessed it.

So you are right to say we must do all we can and in the way we are led.
Because no matter what happens, in the end it is GOD Who is always in control.

I am very glad you are here with the background and experience you have.
I know you can relate in ways that few of us here can, and I pray God will use you to plant many seeds and do much watering, and reaping a harvest here as well.

Grace and Peace and Blessings

 

[Gerry]

Originally posted by Gerry
Ed, I have heard you mention this before. But am I wrong in remembering this was done pretty much in a one on one situation? Was he not speaking to one interested in listening for one reason or another? I think so.

If a question is posed and 1,000 positive responses are consistently met with a B-U-T, then it becomes clear someone is not interested in listening but is only in it for the debate. The debate that is going no where is a waste of time.

Witness, YES. Pray for them, YES! YES!!! Debate with them endlessly on some topic that means nothing without the Holy Spirit, anyway? No! That is a waste of time and Jesus has warned us to redeem the time, not waste it.

There is a HUGE difference in DISCUSSING and DEBATING!!! A discussion can be fruitful and beneficial, as you have so rightly pointed out on previous occassions. A debate is just a debate.

 

[Gerry]

Originally posted by AnnMercy2
Thanks for this, you don't know how much I really needed that Gerry.

In Christ,
Anna

Anna, what a priviledge and blessing it is to be used of God to bless another. God is surely using you too to bless others. Some of your post are truly anointed.

Blessings!