Weary Christians or Wary Christians — Dan Mast

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

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These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. I've never been here on a Sunday morning like this. It looks quite different than it does on those meetings when it's all full of chairs and people and you can hardly find your way around.

Praise God this morning. It's good to be here with you. It's good to see some faces I haven't seen for a long time. And there's also many here that we haven't seen that I don't even know. So, trust that God will be with us here this morning and bless us.

Maybe we could all stand. We have a word of prayer together as we stand. Lord, this morning, we do thank you for your love to us through Jesus, for being merciful to us, for being kind to us. Lord, we thank you this morning that we can look up in faith to you and know that even though we live in a sinful world, we have a hope which is laid up in heaven.

A joy that is set before us. We have a race to run. We have a goal to reach. And we don't walk this path alone, but we have you, Jesus, to go with us. We thank you for that. We trust you this morning.

We just pray that you'll work in our hearts, work in our midst this morning, touch our hearts with your Holy Spirit. Show us our needs, bless us with conviction, bless us with purpose, bless us with life, bless us with eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Lord, we look to you in faith, trusting you. In your precious name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. I, too, want to greet each of you in Jesus' precious name. What would we do without Jesus? It would be a hopeless world, wouldn't it?

We have a lot to be thankful for, a lot to be grateful for. This past week, I don't know why this keeps going through my mind, but I was reflecting on a little experience, I guess, in Paraguay. We went to visit this falls down there, and it's also close to the same place there's a hydroelectric plant.

I guess it is the world's largest hydroelectric plant. And at this plant they had a falls, or a little zoo there. It was free, you could go in and walk around and see a lot of animals that you normally wouldn't see at a common zoo up here in the States.

The Snake, the Duck, and the Danger of Spiritual Complacency

And we came to this one cage, and in this one cage, at first I just saw a duck in there. I didn't see what was all in that cage. But I saw this duck, there's a puddle of water there, and there's this duck.

They're close to the water. Just relaxed and sticking her head in the water and just enjoying herself. But then we looked over on the side and there was a big snake. I mean, it was probably, it was stretched out, I don't know, it might have been 12 feet long.

And it was probably, I would guess, about the size of a 4 inch pipe, plastic pipe, at the largest. And it was stretched out there, just laying there as quiet as could be. You hardly would have noticed that it was alive.

If you look close you could see its eyes moving a little bit. And then back behind the snake there was a log. A hollow log, and in that log you could see some little rabbits in there. And I thought, we were talking about it there and wondered why would there be a snake with a duck and some rabbits together in a pen like that.

And then we were told that the duck and the rabbits, those little baby rabbits, are there for feed, to be food for the snake. And I don't know, I looked at that poor duck and I thought, I pitied that duck.

I suppose if I had a way to get a hole in that cage I'd probably let the duck out. But I was hoping that somehow that duck, it had wings, I thought maybe it could fly up. But that snake didn't look at all like it was very dangerous, it just laid there, so calm.

Finally it wiggled its way over, it was back about 6 feet from the duck and it wiggled its way over just slowly, real slow. You could, it just, by the water where the duck was, finally the duck was only about 2 feet, 3 feet away from the snake's head.

And I was just hoping, oh, I hope that snake isn't hungry right now. And that snake went down into the water, curled around the water, slithered around in there. Came back out again, went back, just laid there so quietly.

The duck seemed very unconcerned, it didn't hardly notice it. Now I don't know how that duck was in the beginning when they put it in there, I would imagine that maybe that duck was a little bit wary of that snake in there.

And maybe whenever that snake moved, that duck watched it. But it didn't seem to be real concerned about the snake, it probably had been in there for quite some time. And the rabbits were just sitting back in the log in their nest, having a quiet time there.

Somehow I kept thinking about that duck and that snake. And I still pity that duck. I don't know, if there'd be some way I could figure out to get that duck out of there, that would have been my delight, to rescue that duck.

I'd rather see the snake die than to eat that duck. And as I was meditating on that, I began to think about our life here on earth. I wonder how many of us are the duck. We're just like that duck. We get kind of used to the snake.

The snake don't move much. It's wary, eyes are looking around. And I wonder how many times people don't realize that that snake is right beside them. Could devour them at any moment. We're not for the grace of God.

We're not for the mercy of God. We'd all be devoured in a moment. The title of the message this morning is, I didn't know what to call it, but I thought I'll call it Weary Christians or Wary Christians.

Wary Christians, you know what that means? Christians that are aware, that know what's going on. That are alert. Can you picture this morning? A wayward soul. And I've seen this, I've seen this happen.

A wayward soul. Someone who once knew the Lord and became wayward and drifting slowly away. Little by little, the eye of that enchanting evil one watching that poor duck. That poor soul. Fastened upon him.

He's going to be looking for a meal. He's looking for a meal. Once they were saved, but today they're not aware at all of the evil serpent that lies out there to snatch them. I wonder if there's anyone here this morning that is becoming a prey to the evil one like that.

This made me think of what our brother shared. It just made me wonder. Is there someone who doesn't realize it, but you're locked up in a pen with a serpent. And you're not aware. You've become used to the environment.

We as Christians, sometimes we get so used to our environment here on earth. And we're not aware of the danger of that old serpent, the devil. If he'd come out and really show his face and stick out his tongue, we'd probably run.

But we won't run because we're used to it. We're used to it. We see things happening today that would have scared us ten years ago. And we're used to it. We're getting used to it. Will we survive that cunning old devil?

Will we survive him? I believe the Lord will give us wings to fly high above him. That he cannot get to us. But we need to be wary Christians. Wary Christians. And I believe this morning that I'm talking to people that are Christians.

For the most part, you know the Lord. You've been saved. You've found him and you're delivered. You've been translated into the kingdom of his dear son. But will you make it? That's the question. Will we make it?

And I'm not here to try to say that God's grace is just barely good enough to make it. Or just enough to get us through. You know, we read that verse where it says, The righteous scarcely be saved. Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Well, when it's talking about scarcely, I don't think it means that it's just barely enough grace to get us there. But I believe there is abundant grace for us to come and be saved. And to make it. To make it through this life that we will inherit eternal life in the life to come.

But there's abundant grace for that. But I do believe that we can't be careless. Or we can't be half-hearted. Or we can't be just a little bit. You know, enough religion to get us through. There is no such thing.

It's either all or none. If you're playing with the idea that you can live both ways. Like our brother shared. That's deception. You are beguiled by the devil. If that's your thought. If you think this morning, you can live with some hidden things in your life.

That you've just... Nobody knows about it. You've been beguiled by the devil. And you will be deceived by him. And you will end up a meal for him. You will. It's that way. Jesus said, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

You know, it wouldn't be so bad if the Bible wouldn't teach us that... That once we're saved, we're always saved. It doesn't matter what happens. But that isn't what the Bible teaches. It teaches us that we can fall from the place we're at.

We can fall. And that we need to beware of that enemy who is out to destroy us. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Another interesting verse. When Jesus talked about the ten virgins.

He said, there were five wise and there were five foolish. But it's interesting to note that he says, they all slept. They all slept. Slumbered and slept. You know, there's in a sense, I believe that even as Christians, we are not aware.

We are often not aware. We slumber and sleep and we're not aware of the dangers around us. Many times. We're not as wary as we ought to be. And I'm talking to myself as well as you all. Ephesians tells us, awake thou that sleepest, arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.

Wake up, your redemption draweth nigh. Look up, wake up. You know, there's a lot of calls in the Bible that tell us to wake up. How comfortable are we in this world? How comfortable are we with deception?

How comfortable are we with backslidden lives? How comfortable can we be when we're backslidden in our Christian life? Have we lost our weariness of the evil serpent? In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, the Bible tells us that Satan transforms himself into, or is transformed into an angel of light.

You wouldn't expect that, would you? You wouldn't expect that the devil would actually come. I mean, if I see an angel of light, you and I would stand up and take note, wouldn't we? But here he says, they're transformed into an angel of light.

It says his ministers will also be transformed into ministers of righteousness. Can you imagine that? Satan's ministers will actually, I believe that's saying that they will present good things. They'll present right things.

They will say some truth. But do you know when they tell you the untruth? Are you aware? Do you just come to church? Let me ask you this question. Do you come to church and you never open your Bible? Or maybe you sleep through the service and you think you've done your duty by coming to church and you feel pretty comfortable that way.

Or do you listen closely? Do you understand what's being taught? Can someone tell you an untruth from the pulpit and you don't even catch it? You don't even know that that isn't what the Bible says. Let's beware.

Let's wake up. Let's be wary of these types of things. Because Satan comes as an angel of light. There's a lot of people go to church and they sit down and they listen to false teaching. They listen to teaching that is not the truth.

And they'll believe it. Because they don't know what the Bible says. They never study the Bible. They don't understand it. You better find out what it says. You better know if he's telling you the truth.

Or you will be deceived and you'll be just like that duck that gets used to it. You just get used to it. And there's many, many false teachers out. The Bible warns us about that. If you didn't know that, read.

The Bible warns us over and over about that. There are many false teachers out. I would like for us, if you would, turn your Bibles to Colossians. I want to, by the help of God, go through some of Colossians chapter 1 and chapter 2.

Redemption and the Christian's New Identity in Christ

I'm always blessed with this chapter. Or these Colossians, the book of Colossians. I find so much encouragement in there. I begin to read here in verse 10. Paul, writing here to the Colossians. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

Who hath delivered us, praise God. He hath delivered us from the power of darkness. Hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Do we catch the vision here this morning? What he's saying here. He has translated. If you've been saved, if you've been converted, you have been translated from the powers of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

When there we have our redemption. There we have salvation and redemption through his blood. Even the forgiveness of sins. You know, we've been called out. One of the things that I believe dulls on us sometimes is the fact we live in this world and the world has a way to wear us down.

We forget that we have been called out. We are called out people. We are to be different. We are to live different because we have a different one living in us. We have Christ in us. We have the hope of glory.

We have Jesus Christ. We have joy unspeakable. It says according to his glorious power unto all patients and longsuffering with joyfulness. There is abundance of power available for us, I believe, to live above the devil and live above sin.

We don't have to live that close to him. Matter of fact, we don't even have to be in the pen with him. We can get out of the pen. If you're in the pen this morning with the old serpent, you can get out of there.

There's a key that will unlock that door for you. You don't have to be a sitting duck for the devil. There's redemption for you and me. Who is the image of the invisible God? Talking about Jesus, the firstborn of every creature.

For by him were all things created that are in heaven that are near, visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things and by him all things consist.

And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.

And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy.

Oh, praise God. To present you holy, unblameable. You won't have to be a duck anymore. You can be unblameable. The devil can't even blame you. And unreprovable in his sight. If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature, which is under heaven, whereof I Paul, and made a minister.

It says here, if we continue in the faith, not drift away into doubt. Sometimes we start off in faith, but we drift away into doubt. We wonder. And you know, when we start doubting and wondering, is this really true?

Am I really saved? Am I really a changed person? We can be changed and know that we're changed. God doesn't want us to live in doubt. He doesn't want us to live in doubt. We don't have to live in doubt.

We can live in confidence. Complete confidence. And we need to continue in that. That's the only way we have salvation. Is to live in complete confidence. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.

Whereof I made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. What is this mystery? Christ in you, the hope of glory. The devil won't like you. If Christ is in you, the devil won't like you.

Whom we preach, warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Accept the warnings. It says whom we preach, warning every man. Brothers and sisters, the preachers get up sometimes and you say, well they're pretty critical. They're always pointing out my fault. Please, let me tell you something.

Accept their warnings. You know what they're doing? They're awakening you to that old serpent that's laying by your side. They're awakening you to his tactics. They're awakening you that you become aware of what's going on.

Because we all tend to be like those foolish virgins who slumber and sleep. And we need one another. We do. We need one another. You know, that's why we need to come to church. To be together with believers, true believers.

We need to get together. We need to stir each other up. We need to warn each other. There's people today that get offended. You know, at the church, at people, and so they move off. Maybe go to another congregation where nobody will touch them.

Or maybe just sometimes it goes to the place where they don't even fellowship with anybody. But they are making themselves a prey to the devil. They're becoming like that duck. It tells us in Hebrews that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

Why? Because we need to provoke one another to love and good works. That's why we meet together. We need to be provokers. Praise God. Sometimes it doesn't feel good when someone provokes you. But it's alright.

We need it. We need it. You thank God this morning if you have a preacher that provokes you sometimes. He kind of gets under your skin maybe even. That's alright. Because we need it. We need to be aware.

So accept the warnings. Lose not the fire. Whereunto I also labor striving. Striving. That's talking about being zealous. That's talking about doing it with all our heart. Striving. We've got a goal. We've got something God has called us to.

We want to fulfill that calling that God has given us. Don't lose the fire. Don't let it go out. We need to stir one another in those things. Chapter 2. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you.

That's carrying a burden. Are you carrying a burden this morning? Yeah? It's alright for Christians to carry this kind of a burden. A burden to care for each other. Bury one another's burdens that way.

Conflict for... He said, for I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you. I believe that that drives people to their knees for one another. Oh, that that would happen among God's people. That it drives us to our knees for one another.

When we see someone... I have to think about people that I knew in the past. That once walked with the Lord slowly, slowly, slowly. They're becoming unaware of where they're at. And you try to... If you would try to point out to them, they would say, Oh well, we're okay.

We're Christian. But they've drifted. You can tell. You can tell. And they won't see it. Until that snake bites them. They won't see it. They won't see it. I believe that is so deceptive. That we often times can't see ourselves.

And we may sit here this morning. And we say, well, we're okay. We're on top of it. We're not like those people. We got our eyes open. But I'd just like to tell you that... The Bible tells us that he who think as he stands, take heed lest he fall.

We need to be aware. Sometimes we can be great Pharisees. And don't even know it. We think we have it all together. And we don't even know it. But we're nothing but a bunch of Pharisees. That think we have it together.

We need to realize that we don't have it together. We need God. We need the Lord. Chapter 2, verse 2. That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love. Unto all riches of full assurance of understanding.

To the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. Be filled with love. Carry a burden. Now it's be filled with love. We might be comforted together. Knit together in love. Oh, the love that we...

When that love, when that wax is cold. Doesn't matter how well we perform. When the love isn't there. Something's missing. When the love isn't there. Whether it's a preacher. Whether it's a brother or sister.

When the love isn't there. There's something wrong. There's something wrong. And we... And all those things make us unaware. When we lose that love. Then we also become unaware of that serpent. Who is there.

Trying to deceive us and destroy us. Number 7. Don't be deceived. It says here, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Christ. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. This I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. Don't be deceived. Be aware. For though I be absent in the flesh. Yet am I with you in the spirit.

Joying and beholding your order and steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As he have therefore received Christ the Lord. Christ Jesus our Lord. So walk ye in him. Rooted and built up in him. Established in the faith.

As he have been taught. Abounding therein with thanksgiving. To be safe from that enemy. We need that. We need that. To be rooted. To be built together. To be built up. And established. To be solid. To know where we're going.

Safe. In the arms of Jesus. That's who he's talking about. He's talking about Christ. Being built up in him. We need to encourage each other in those things. To be built up in Christ. We can have a lot of religion.

We can do a lot of things. But we can do it without Christ. But only Christ will shut the serpent's mouth. Only Christ will save us. Only Christ will satisfy us. Only Christ. There is hid all the treasures that you're looking for.

Let me tell you. There are hid all the treasures that you're looking for. We are looking for treasure. They're hid in Christ. In him we find it. In him we have it. We're satisfied. We're safe. We're secure in Christ.

I believe in eternal security. Yes, I do. But it's only in Jesus Christ. And we are safe in him. Beware. Beware. Verse 8. Lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. Here he comes again.

He's talking about men who deceive. Men who try to make you comfortable through philosophy and through vain deceit. There's a lot of philosophy floating around today. Yeah. I'd like to talk a little bit about some of those philosophies.

A lot of these philosophies have a root of deception in them. And we need to see those things. We need to see those things. There's a lot of times people go to church and they can become part of a church without ever being converted.

Do you know that? You don't have to be converted to be part of a church. There's plenty of churches you can go to that you don't have to be converted. I hope this church isn't like that. But there are lots of churches that it's that way.

People will come and they will... I recently heard where there were some young people who wanted to join church and all they needed to do was come to the instruction class. And they would instruct them and baptize them.

They were never asked whether they were converted or not. They were never asked if they ever had their sins under the blood. If they were ever saved. They never asked questions like that. All they needed was to be able to say yes to the right questions and they were included in the instruction class.

Deception. That's what it is. It's giving people comfort in their sin. It's deceiving them. Woe unto preachers that do that. Woe unto a church that will deceive its people. And some say, well, I've done good.

I'm better than most people are. If you think that way, you're deceiving yourself. Sometimes people say this one. I don't need to confess every sin. It's okay. God knows. It's between me and God. Nobody else needs to know it.

But you keep it hid in your life. You don't get rid of it. And you carry that along. And you are a sitting duck for the devil. We become a sitting duck for the devil. The devil looks for that kind of thing.

Because that keeps him in the pen. It keeps you in the pen when you have sin in your life. It keeps you in the pen. And the devil is looking for his lunch. I'm offended at this church. This is another philosophy.

I'm offended at this church, so I'll go find another one. That'll put up with me. With my offendedness. But you never will get away from that offendedness. You'll take it to a hundred churches. If you have a wrong spirit in your life.

And you don't deal with that thing. If you have bitterness in your life against a brother or sister. And you don't deal with that thing in your life. You'll carry it along to the next church. You'll carry it along to the next church.

You'll be offended to every church you go. And you're deceiving yourself. Because you probably think that, well, if I go over there, it'll be better. It'll be better over there. And you'll find out you have the same problem there that you had over here.

And finally, you come to a place, well, I'm not going to church anywhere. It's sad to say, but I know a lot of families like that. That have gone that route and they're not going anywhere. They're all by themselves.

And I don't know where to put all that. But I do know that we need each other. We do need each other. If you're a true born-again Christian, you need the church. It doesn't matter what I believe. As long as I'm sincere.

That's another common one. It doesn't matter what I believe. As long as I'm really sincere, then I'm okay. You're in a pen with the devil with that one. There are people who never had a believer's baptism.

And I'll mention this because I believe that baptism is a part of believing. If you believe, you need to be baptized as Jesus taught scripturally. You need to be baptized. But there are people who get converted.

And I think they do get converted, but they never want to get baptized. They don't go far. And you will go back into that same pen with the devil. You will never get completely free. I know people who have gone from one church to the next.

And they're running from that thing. From that very thing. But they will not find it until they obey God. I'm convinced of that. Because it's the step that opens up the way that God can pour His Holy Spirit.

I believe that God wants to give us His Holy Spirit. He's ready to pour it out upon us. He's ready to give us fulfillment in life. He's ready to pour grace down from heaven upon us. And it will come when we obey Him.

He will give the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. And it's just another step that God wants us to take to be obedient to Him. And He will give us the Holy Spirit. Those are philosophies. I don't know how much you have to do with them here, but they've been common.

They've been common, at least in my experiences. I can be buddy-buddy with my old buddies and still be a Christian. If you had bad buddies and you can be a Christian, and you be a Christian and they don't know it, once they find out, they either change or you have to leave.

You can't be buddy-buddy with the world. You can't be buddy-buddy with ungodly men. Joking around, having big parties with them and this type of thing. It'll drag you down. It'll drag you down. And you'll get in the same old pen you were in before.

What about some of the new theologies that have come out? Philosophies about morals. The world is changing on what they call moral and what they call immoral. America especially. I'm amazed that some of these other countries are more sound in some of those things than the Americans are.

Today, it seems like it doesn't matter. America is trying to say that it's okay for men to marry men, women to marry women. Homosexual marriages. I'm glad our president doesn't think so. But we shouldn't think so either.

But you know that if we live among that thing long enough, we're going to get used to it. It's wrong. We need to open our mouth against those things, I believe. Do we accept the ideas of the apostate religious world and blend in with their traditions and cultures that are wrong?

Now, we talk about culture a lot. I've heard quite a bit of teaching on culture and traditions. And sometimes, as a matter of fact, it talks here about it. It says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men.

After the tradition of men. And we think about tradition of men as only being Mennonite tradition. I mean, that's the first thing that comes to my mind when I think tradition of men. I think Amish tradition or Mennonite tradition.

But there are many traditions. The world has many traditions. They have many customs. Hollywood has designed many of the customs that the world has. I don't know who's behind all of Hollywood, but I know that those customs are not godly customs.

But some of us are adopting to that kind of custom. I don't know where some of these spirits... I was amazed already at some of the things I see in professing Christians. How they comb their hair. What kind of haircuts they get.

What kind of beards they have. What kind of clothes they wear. And you say, well, boy, you're... But it comes from that fashion that's designed in Hollywood. It comes from the old serpent. The old serpent himself has designed some of that stuff.

I think that's who's behind it. And not all those traditions... Maybe you can put so much oil in your hair and it's okay. You know, there's some that have to put so much oil in their hair that maybe you need...

Maybe you have a dry scalp or something. I don't know. But if you do it because of the fad and the fashion of Hollywood, you're in the pen with a serpent. So beware. He says, don't let any man spoil you.

Don't let Hollywood spoil you. Don't let them influence you in those things. Just because they shave their heads doesn't mean that God didn't design you with hair on your head. Now, I don't have much, but I don't shave it off.

I'd like to have more, thank God. But I don't think that it's right for us to follow those things. If you're following that kind of thing, I don't know where you get it. But you must be getting it from videos, movies or something.

Or you get it through the TV or something. I don't know where people get that influence. I know it's all over the world. But I see it in the churches. I see it in Mennonite churches who are strict on standards.

And they wear a straight cut coat. But underneath that coat, there's something else. There's something else amiss under that coat. Don't let anybody spoil you. Don't let any man spoil you after those things.