When Fear Becomes Complacent – I'm Following Jesus

King James Bible Study – “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” – Mark 8:34

Date: Thursday, February 25, 2021
Chapters: Numbers 5-6
Message: When Fear Becomes Complacent

Hello My Friend,

[Fear; To feel a painful apprehension of some impending evil; to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotions of alarm or solicitude. To reverence; A holy awe of God and His Law, which springs from a just view and real love of His divine character.]

When we first get saved we do have a great fear of something bad happening if we sin against God, and that keeps us from doing the things that bring us to sin. Believe it or not, the longer we walk with Christ the less fear we have, not in the sense that we lose our faith in Him, but that we become complacent. This is why Jesus tells us that repentance is necessary in our walk with Him, [Revelation 2:2-5 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.]

Now, we know that our salvation has nothing to do with our works or keeping our salvation, but if we want the blessings of God, we need to be careful to maintain good works. That does not mean that if we sin we will get struck down, that means we need to be repentant or we might see Jesus before our time. Sin is actually like having Covid, it separates us from everyone and keeps us from doing the things that we truly enjoy doing until it is cured. And there is a reason why God separates His faithful from the unfaithful, sin spreads like Covid, and gets others infected if it is not contained. When God gave His Law, He included that anyone who had any kind of disease, virus, or even been around someone who died was to be separated from the healthy or clean.

[Numbers 5:2-4 Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead: 3 Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. 4 And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the LORD spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel.]

[and whosoever is defiled by the dead:] The dead, those who are not saved. We need to be careful that we do not get comfortable living among those who are not saved, they will defile us and we too will become defiled. The same goes for the saved, if they are living in sin, we need to be careful not to get too comfortable with them, or they too will defile us. I do not care how strong we think we are against sin, we need to avoid people who would infect us. If we are going to be around them, then we need to take the power of Christ with us, He is the only one who can keep us from being defiled by them, [I John 2:1-4 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.]

Keeping God’s commands is not what saves our soul, it is our sole faith in Christ that does, it is what saves us from suffering the repercussions of sin. There is a difference between someone who sins and is repentant, and one who sins and is not, and this is what John is referring to. There are two types of Christians when it comes to those who are living in sin, babes, who have only heard the Gospel and never been fed the milk that leads them to obedience beyond their salvation and those who willingly live in sin, justifying it by their salvation. Sin is sin, salvation has never been about our works, even from the beginning, God knew that we could never obey every command, which is why He sent Jesus, and came up with the temporary fix until He sent Him. If someone who loved God sinned against Him they would pay restitution along with the sacrifices required.

[Numbers 5:6-9 Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the LORD, and that person be guilty; 7 Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. 8 But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him. 9 And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.]

[Then they shall confess their sin] It is all about confession. God knows what we have done, but it is up to us to come to Him and confess that we have sinned against Him. This goes back to John, if we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves and are a liar, just as if we continue living in sin without one morsel of repentance, [I John 1:7-10 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.]

Any saved, born again Christian, who is faithful to Christ is actually repentant continuously, the second they commit that sin they are begging for His forgiveness. They feel the guilt and shame of letting God down, and that alone brings them begging for God to bring back that fear they seem to have lost. Are we always going to do everything right? No. That is what grace is for. Grace does not give us the free pass to live as we please and not face the consequence of unrepentant sin, but it does give us God’s favor when we are repentant. God knowing that His people are incapable of going without sin, comes up with a way that they can learn to discipline themselves by what is known as the Nazarite vow.

[Numbers 6:2-3,5-7 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD: 3 He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. 5 All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body. 7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head.]

[He shall not make himself unclean for his father,] This reminds me of what Jesus said, [Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.] Believe it or not, the ones we love are often a big factor in our walk with Christ. I have truly come to understand what the Bible says about an unmarried woman tending to God more than one who is married or betrothed, she tends to her husbands needs often before God’s, [I Corinthians 7:34]. It saddens me when I fail God because I put others needs over His, I feel defiled and the need to repent. Whenever someone was not able to fulfill their vow, they needed to be cleansed of what defiled them.

[Numbers 6:9-13 And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. 10 And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: 11 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. 12 And he shall consecrate unto the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled. 13 And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:]

[but the days that were before shall be lost,] This is a great reminder that nothing we do before we were saved counted, that even at our best, we still become defiled and often lose out on blessings because of that. Nevertheless, we are still saved by grace, and will never lose our entrance into heaven. Amen! I was thinking back to the day that I dedicated my life to Christ, it was the day that I got baptized and professed that I was trusting in Him as my Saviour before all the world. God reminded me of two things, the new life that He gave me since I dedicated my life to Him, and the roller coaster faith I had whenever I got around someone who did not dedicate their lives to Him. It is actually through those roller coaster rides that I learned something valuable, God is longsuffering and those things that I overcame are what He uses for me to lead others to Christ. We may not always fear God as we did when we first God saved, but everything that we go through is used for the cause of Christ. So, never let any of your failures keep you from continuing your walk with Christ or your work, He works everything out for good, [Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.]

Jesus Christ Magnified: [Numbers 5:8-9 But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him. 9 And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.]

Today’s Prayer: God, Thank You for the gift of eternal life that You have given to all who received Your Son as their Saviour. We do not have to work to recompense what we owe for sin, we just have to trust that Jesus paid the price for us. The life we live now is not to keep our salvation it is give glory, honor, and thanks to You for your great mercies and grace. When we fear You there is nothing that You will not do for us, even when we do mess up from time to time. Lord, lead us and guide us, fill us with Your power, mercy, grace, wisdom, and the discernment to stay away from sin, and even the appearance of sin. Let us be reminded that confession and repentance is the key to Your blessing us when we do sin. And teach us to use our experience to reach the lost, I ask these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.

God Bless You, I am praying for you,

Christina

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