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How terrible to be without God!
Since the Lord promises throughout the Bible that He will not leave His people…how is it possible that one can be without the Lord?
If God does not leave us, the action is on our side of the court.
We have left Him.
There is evidence of many throughout the Bible who leave God.
Firstly, let us consider the life of Samson.
You know the story well. It is one of the early childhood stories from the Bible that we learn in Sunday School.
We remember that Samson was not to cut his hair, and was blessed by God with truly amazing strength.
However, when pressured, he told Delilah of his strength, and she had his hair cut.
But let us back up a moment.
We can read the full story of Samson in Judges chapters 13-16.
An angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s mother before she became pregnant with him, letting her know of the blessing God was sending her.
She will have a son, and he must be raised as a Nazirite.
The vows of the Nazirite have strict moral and dietary codes. Throughout Samson’s life, he was to obey these codes and follow God. His hair was not to be cut.
He was set apart for God.
Sadly, over time and in many, many ways, Samson began to break each of these codes. By the time he gave the information about his strength to Delilah and she betrayed him, he had already pulled far away from following God.
Judges 16:20 NKJV 20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
It was the fact that the Lord had departed from him, that caused him to lose his power.
He was now like any other man.
His Joy was gone.
His joy of being set apart to serve God was gone.
He was taken captive and his eyes were gouged out, rendering him to live in prison in total blindness and without power.
How many of us have turned to following the ways of the world around us, instead of following God?
Little by little, we lose the resolve to be steadfast to the morals taught us as children by our Christian elders. We turn from the teachings of our Sunday school teachers, or those of our parents or grandparents. We instead follow the crowd, and one day, our moral strength has ebbed away.
These two examples are perhaps seldom looked at together, yet we will see similarities.
In our next passage, we are in the New Testament, and John tells us of the Last Supper.
Jesus institutes Communion.
It will be the night of his arrest, and the next day will bring His incredible torture and the agony of the cross for the sins of you and me and the rest of sinful humanity. He will die to gain us eternity in Heaven, though we deserved hell.
Judas has promised to show the chief priests which one of the group was Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, and thus, betray Him. (Luke 22:1-6, Matthew 26:14-16)
John 13:30 NKJV 30 Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night.
In these few words, we read that Judas takes the bread from Jesus, symbolizing the gift of His body for our salvation.
Judas takes it without valuing the gift. Perhaps, he tosses it away as he hurries to meet up with the chief priests to fulfil his part of the bargain for which he has been paid.
Jesus will be handed over to those who will be involved in His death.
Notice that the moment Judas leaves Jesus, it is NIGHT.
The dark of the soul.
When we turn from Jesus, just as when Samson turned from God, there is loss.
Samson lost his sight and power.
Judas lost the light and was in the darkness of his soul. His salvation was cast away.
It had been their choice.
Furthermore, every time You turn from God, You lose too. One day, will you stand with silver coins in place of Salvation, or choose to live in darkness instead of in the Light of Christ?
You know the right way.
You know what is at stake.
For the sake of your soul and Eternity, choose the Lord.