Three Favorite Verses About Doing Right

I want to be honest with you, dear reader, about something. This week I got discouraged. I have said in church before that the biggest difficulty for me when it comes to pastoring is my desire to make people happy and for people to like me. It is a weakness of mine. I understand that making people happy is not a bad thing, but at the same time we must have an understanding that when you do the right thing and you stand up for it there are going to be times, plenty of times, when you will not be liked for it. My family was at Disney World a few weeks ago, as we were walking to an attraction we came across a cast member who had a big grin on her face, she was holding a bubble wand that blew bubbles all over the place. Children and parents alike were giggling and playing with the bubbles and having a good time. I thought to myself, “Man, that sure is the life! Your job is simply to make people happy!” But the truth is, and this is nothing against this girl or any of those cast members for that matter, a smile is short-lived doing right has eternal rewards. I say all of that to say this: My desire to make people happy is strong, but I have to constantly keep that in check with God’s calling on my life, and that calling is to do right. As Ron Hamilton wrote in song, “Do right til the stars fall, Do right till the last call, Do right when there’s no one else to stand by you. Do right when you're all alone, do right though it’s never known, Do right since you love the Lord. Do right, DO RIGHT!”

It is times when I am discouraged in doing right that I am reminded of these verses, I want to share them with you today.

1. Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua was giving the children of Israel his final address. He knew that the children of Israel were prone to wander and to rebel against God. It was in light of this that Joshua stood and made an example of himself and of his family. He told them that they needed to choose who they would serve (something they would truly struggle with for generations to come) the Canaanite gods or the Lord. But then he says this, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!” What was he saying? Basically, “If you all choose to worship the false gods of the Canaanites, me and my family are still going to serve the true and living God!” Joshua was committed to serving the Lord, even if it meant doing it alone. I’ll be honest with you today, the path of doing right is a lonely path. There are many who will oppose you, there are many who will walk with you for a little while and then turn back, unsaved people will mock you, many in the church will scorn you, even hate you. But you must determine to do right. Remember the song, “I have decided to follow Jesus”? One of the most touching verses to that song, yet one of the most difficult to sing is, “Though none go with me, still I will follow, no turning back.” Determine this, “Even though I stand alone, I will do what’s right!”

1. 1st Peter 1:16, “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

Some Christians get saved and then after that go about living their own way. Time does not permit me to delve into the churches that propagate this false teaching, but suffice it to say that these people believe they can do whatever they want because, “Jesus died on the cross for all my sin, therefore all of my sins are forgiven, I can do whatever I want because my sins are forgiven already.” What a carnal way to look at salvation and the Christian life! But this is part of the mindset behind Christians being involved in much of the wickedness that the unsaved world is involved in. Name any sin that an unsaved person regularly commits and you will not struggle to find a saved person who has, is, and relishes in doing the same. The reason I point out this verse is because it is a direct command of God. It is not a suggestion, it is not a good idea, it is a command. And it is a command to be HOLY. Holy means to be set apart. What basically God is saying is that we ought to be set apart from the world, we ought to be different from them. We ought to look different, act different, talk different, and be different. Why? Because we ARE different thanks to the blood of Jesus Christ! When I am tempted to hang in the towel on doing right, maybe just ease up a little, I am reminded that God has called me to be this way. To not do right is to go against the command of God and why would I want to disobey the one who has given everything for my salvation?

I don’t want to misrepresent myself here, I do fail sometimes often. I am by no means perfect, some of you who are reading this know me pretty well and you can attest to that, I am a sinful person. But I still strive to do right, and it is this command that helps me continue on.

1. Daniel 3:17-18, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

We know the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (their real names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah and I am sure they would be offended by us calling them by Babylonian names, but that is a different post for a different day) they did not bow down to the idol and so they were thrown into the fiery furnace, and, as we know, God spared them from the flame. Before they were thrown into the furnace, they testified to Nebuchadnezzar the verses that I posted up above. What are they saying? Basically, “We know that our God can deliver us from the flame of the fiery furnace, but even if he does not WE WILL NOT BOW!” They believed in the power of God, which we all should, but they determined that even if it was not within the will of God to protect them from the flame, they would do what is right. The truth is, doing right sometimes hurts. You will sometimes face real troubles for doing right. The eternal rewards are wonderful, but let’s be honest, it is difficult to think about the eternal rewards for doing right when you are hurting right now for doing right! The three Hebrew boys said, “Do whatever you want to do, you can kill us, you can throw us into the fire, but we will not disobey our God!” What steely determination! It makes me think of the martyrs who burned at the stake for standing up for the Word of God and their beliefs. They would not recant for anyone, even if it meant burning at the stake, being drowned in the lake, or being cut with the sword. And when I think of the testimonies of these brave Christians it breaks my heart that so many times I am so quick to give up on doing right over the smallest of oppositions! We must be like these three boys and determine to do right, no matter what difficulties may come our way for doing so.

Do right! We see that we ought to do right even when we must stand alone, we see that we ought to do right because it is commanded by God, and we see that we ought to do right although we may face hardships for doing so.

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My Three Favorite Verses On Eternal Security

There is a false teaching that is spreading all over Christian churches today that has created great destruction in people’s walk with God, and that is the false teaching that one can lost their salvation. Preachers all across America are telling their churches that if you sin after you get saved then you have to confess in order to continue to be saved. This belief yields itself to a lack of certainty in the Christian life. As I read my Bible, I see that God wants me to have certainty in my beliefs and in my future. 1st John 5:13 says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” That passage tells me that God wants me to be certain about my eternity. In this post, I would like to highlight three different passages in the Bible that show me that I am eternal secure in my salvation

Ephesians 4:30, “…sealed unto the day of redemption.”

This may be my favorite Bible verse on the matter of eternal security. This passage tells us that we are sealed unto the day of redemption. The “day of redemption” being referred to in this verse is the day that the transaction of our salvation is completed, and that is the day we arrive in Heaven to be with the Lord. So we are sealed until the day we are in Heaven with Jesus. But what does “sealed” mean. This is where the truth gets amazing! To be sealed means to be marked for ownership or to be held securely. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you put yourself under the ownership of God, and the fact that we are sealed means that nothing will change that until the day of our redemption. There was a practical illustration of this in Bible days, that Paul may have been alluding to: When lumber was being sent from one place to another the person who owned the wood to sell would put his mark (or seal) on it, this mark would indicate that it was his. The only time the seal could be taken off of the shipment of wood would be when it arrived to the person to whom it was being sold to. Do you see the simple truth here? When I got saved, I was sealed. That seal can only come off once I reach Heaven, because that is my final destination. You would get upset if you had a loved one who tried to mail a package to you but instead of it getting to you, instead it went to the mean neighbor across the street. The same is true here, you have a specific destination that God had you starting toward once you got saved. It can’t be Hell, it certainly is Heaven. Do not forget that you are sealed.

John 10:29, “…no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

We often use this group of verses as proof of the deity of Christ, and of course, this is a go-to passage for that. It is spelled out plain and simple. But this is also a passage about eternal security. First, let’s identify the “them” in this passage. Several verses previous to this, Jesus is referring to his “sheep”, when he says, “My sheep hear my voice…” The “them” in this verse is the sheep. Who are the sheep? Those that believe on Jesus, in other words, those that are saved. That makes me a sheep! Pretty cool. This also makes sense because of what we saw from Ephesians 4:30, we belong to God once we are saved. All of that being said, this verse tells me that since I am saved, I have been placed in the hand of God and no man is able to pluck me out of the Father’s hand. There is not a single person in this world that can make you “unsaved”. Let me ask you something: Are you a person? I’m sure the answer is “yes”. If you are a person, than you are a part of this “no man” category that this verse refers to. You cannot do anything to be taken out of the hand of God once you are saved.

I like to explain it this way. What if I were to go out today and commit a heinous crime, let’s say that I killed someone (remember, this is just an illustration, I have never actually killed anyone). After I commit the crime I call my dad and tell him what I did. Now, would my dad be happy with me? No way! He would be incredibly disappointed in me. But would I still be his son? Of course I would. Ultimately, nothing could change the fact that I am my father’s son. I have his DNA inside of me, his blood runs through my veins. It doesn’t matter what happens in life, I will forever be the son of my father. When you got saved, you became a child of God, Jesus’ blood covers you and accounts for you. You are securely held in the Father’s hand, and no one, not even you, can change that. You cannot be plucked.

1st John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This truth is very simple. When you got saved, you were cleansed from all unrighteousness. Does the verse say, “All past unrighteousnesses”? No! It says “all”. I once heard a preachers say, “all means all and that is all that all means”! Very true statement. When I asked Jesus to save me, he cleansed me from all unrighteousness past, present, and future. After all, future unrighteousnesses are a part of “all”, aren’t they? You may ask, “How can that be?” But let me rebuttal with a question of my own, “How can it not be?” How long ago did Jesus die on that old rugged cross? It almost 2000 years ago. I do not know a single person on this planet who has lived for 2000 years, that means this, every sin that you ever committed was committed in the future for Jesus. Your past sins were committed in the cross’s future. Remember, God transcends both time and space, therefore, he is able to cleanse us of our sins, even before they are committed. When I came to Jesus and confessed my sin to Him and believed that he would save me from them, not only did he save me from my past, but also from my future. The Bible calls those of us that are saved “justified”. Justified means to be “declared righteous”. When I got saved, I was declared righteous before God, that is what makes it possible for me to go to Heaven. But how can I be declared righteous? It isn’t because of anything I did, it is because Jesus cleansed me from my unrighteousnesses. I can only be righteous by not being unrighteous, and that is what Jesus did for me when he saved me, took away my unrighteousnesses.

Ultimately, you need to understand the essence of salvation. Salvation has nothing to do with you but it has everything to do with Jesus. Salvation is not dependent on your goodness or the thing that you do, it is dependent on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. If I can be saved by the grace of God, but then lose my salvation because of bad works, then ultimately Jesus’ death was in vain (Galatians 2:21). You are not saved by grace and then kept by works, that doesn’t make any sense (Romans 3:28, Galatians 3:1-5) Salvation is either all about Jesus and his saving grace or it isn’t really salvation at all. And that is enough for me to believe that what God promises he will do, that he will do. The Gospel is simple, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”, let’s not add man’s doctrine because we think God’s plan is to simple. I am saved by grace, through faith, and not by works. In just the same way, I am kept saved, I am eternally secure because of the grace of God.

If you have any topics for me to write about in "My Three Favorite" series, let me know in the comments!

Curtis King is the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA