| Chapter 26 Some Final Words Up to this point we have been concerned with our salvation experience, the difference between the saved and the unsaved, why we are saved in the first place, and some fundamentals of spiritual first aid. Is that all there is to it? No, there is more. We see not only through the Lord's actions, but also through the actions of the apostles, especially Paul, that there is a need for more action than just to free Satan's captives. One scene that sticks in our memories of the end of the Second World War, is a picture of the freed prisoners from the concentration camps. They were literally skin and bones, with vacant, bewildered, pitiful looks on their faces. Psalm 28 says, "Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up. Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up forever.". Matthew 5:6 tells us: "Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.". From these two passages we begin to see that our responsibility to Satan's prisoners doesn't end with their release from captivity. Just as with the concentration camp prisoners who 205 ______________________________________________________________________________ were released, the newly saved have to be fed. Not only fed, but in most cases, a program of feeding must be supervised to assure that their spiritual stomachs are systematically restretched and conditioned to be able to handle not only a full meal, but also, more than just gruel. If they are left on their own, they will either gorge and sicken or fail to eat, and in either case, approach, while not quite reaching, spiritual death even in the presence of charity. Acts 20:17-38 shows us Paul in this action, "And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by laying in wait of the Jews: And how I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold I go bound in spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night 206 _______________________________________________________________________________ |
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