GOOD FOR NOTHING

Lev. 26:20

Morning Meditation 10/17/17

"And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits."

The Lord is instructing Israel in their personal behavior. It is personal and national. When a nation goes wrong, it is because individuals go wrong. God had redeemed Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Israel became a Theocracy. God was their King. So in our text He is instructing them and laying down the penalty for breaking the rules. He tells them in Leviticus 26:18-19 what will happen if they disobey Him, "And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:" God gives the rules and tells them what will happen if they do.

The word "harken" means to hear with the ear and give heed to what is heard. In other words, God was giving them personal and national instructions, and He put a heavy penalty on them when they ignored what He said. One may ignore a human leader and get away with it, but not so with God.

It is very important for us to see what God is doing here. He so instructed them that there was no excuse for one not doing right.. God Himself told them what to do and what not to do. If they didn't do it, it was not because they didn't understand. It was because they made a definite choice to reject what God said. God does not take it lightly when His children deliberately disobey Him.

He told them "And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins . . ." John Gill comments on this statement thusly: "that is, abundantly more, with sorer punishments, and these (see vss 16-17) more frequently repeated." None of us enjoys chastening. Now when we see someone else breaking the law, we hope they will get caught and chastened. I personally experience that attitude when I'm driving the interstates. I will be pushing the speed limit and people will be passing me as if I were standing still. If I did that I would get caught. To be perfectly frank with you, there's times I break the speed limit. If I were to get caught, I would complain and feel sorry for myself and I would say (to myself of course), "Why don't you get out here and catch these guys who are really breaking the speed limit!!! My conclusion in that matter is that I'm a mess and have an old sin nature that is self centered and needs the continual filling of the Holy Spirit to put to death the works of the flesh. Paul said as a holy man of God in Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." The Christian life is a battle and the biggest enemy is ourselves. Galatians 5:17, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." The secret of victory over the flesh is in Galatians 5:16, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."

Then the Lord adds, "And I will break the pride of your power." The Lord had blessed Israel with power so that the powerful nations around them were definitely afraid of them. Israel also was a proud nation and took great pride in her victories. In fact, I am certain that they took credit for the power that God had given them. Sampson is a good illustration of this. If you read the life story of Sampson you will find that his power source was the Lord. When God took His hand off Sampson, his strength was gone, and his power was no more than that of any other man.

All God would have to do would be to withdraw His power from the nation, and two things would happen. First, they would no longer have victories to brag about. Second, they would lose many of their men on the battle field. For a nation who had been so blessed of God, it seems incredible that they would forsake God and become a bunch of losers. But God knows the future and He knew what they would do. So He warns them and gives them every opportunity to stay right.

Then included in the warning of chastening is "I will make your heaven as iron." This means that their prayers will not be answered. Then He adds, "And your earth as brass." Have you ever tried to grow a crop on brass? Do you see what God is saying? Remember this is a Theocracy. God warns them with these words. If God tells us in advance, if you break this rule, heaven will become iron to your prayers, and the earth will become brass to the seed you sow. I would feel I were committing suicide to go against God's word.

Finally we come to the text: "And your strength shall be spent in vain . . ." God tells them that they will be good for nothing. He puts it like this: "and your strength shall be spent in vain." Your work will be good for nothing. Have you ever felt that your work was in vain. In other words, you work hard, but after it is done there is nothing to show for it. And the tragedy is that you have tried over and over again and it all turns out the same way. You either have or you feel like throwing up your hands and quitting.

Now let's look at some things:

THE WORK OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE CAN ONLY BE MEASURED BY GOD

1 Corinthians 15:58, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

First of all, Paul is writing this to the same people he exhorted to clear up the divisions in the church. 1 Corinthians 1:10, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." Unity among believers is of prime importance. There are two things that really stick out as you study the church in the book of acts. There was unity. Read the early chapters in the book of Acts and see how many times that the words "one accord" are mentioned. The first place is Acts 1:12-14, "Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren."

Then Paul says to the brethren in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?"

These were believers and Paul did not tell them everything had to be right before they could live an effective life for the Lord. Our goal should be Christian maturity. We should never settle for any thing less than the best for the glory of God. It is good that God does not throw us away when we fail.

Many times we feel good for nothing because we have tried and failed so many times. If you are going to come into victory, you must try by faith what you have tried before and failed.

Luke 5:4-6, "Now when he (Jesus) had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.." Jesus asked Peter to let down your nets. Peter had a problem with that. He told the Lord that they had fished all night and had caught absolutely nothing. He was the "big fisherman." He knew they wouldn't catch any fish. Peter believed if it was possible to catch fish that they would have caught them during the night. Peter and the disciples were a failure at this point. Jesus asked Peter to do something he had been doing before and failed at.

You know the answer. Peter, to satisfy the Lord said, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net." Notice that Jesus said, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." So Peter in reluctant obedience said, "Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. Notice Peter's reluctant obedience. Jesus told him to let down the nets and Peter let down the net. How much faith did Peter have? He had enough to reluctantly obey the Lord.

How much faith do you have to have to walk in victory? You must have enough to obey the Lord even if it is to do something you have tried before and failed.

If you are a Christian, you are not a failure. Just being saved puts in a different category completely from the world around you. Your name is written in the Lamb's book of life. You are a child of the King. You are going to heaven. At the very worst, your works would be burned and you would be saved "so as by fire" (read 1 Cor. 3:12-15). But you don't want that. There is victory for you in the Lord Jesus. You can walk in victory. When a baby begins to walk, he will fall over and over again. What if he said the first time he fell, "Ouch! I'll not try that again!!!" But he doesn't do that. He gets up and tries it again. Sometimes with the help of mother. Then he takes a few steps with no one's help. The first thing you know he is walking up a storm to the dismay of mother. It is amazing how much the baby controls the house. Mom starts saying, "Don't touch that. No! No! Until the baby thinks its name is No! No! Then after moms best efforts, she begins to put things up out of the baby's way. Something she said she would never do.

We are going to fail but we can't quit. We must trust the Lord to help us as we retry what we know He wants us to do. If you continue you will discover He will put His invisible hands under you arm pits and you will take steps. He will take you by the hand and lead you.

However, there is one thing you are going to have get over. You must try again. You must not settle for failure. Here are some basic things you must avoid:

1. Do not compare yourself with others.. 2 Corinthians 10:12, "For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." Your Spiritual gift may not be the same as the one you admire.. When you try to develop in your Christian life to accomplish what he does, you are making a judgment of yourself that is unscriptural.

2. Do not let someone decide what is right for you life. The Lord is the only one that can do that. Seek the Lord through His word. To be a happy Christian you must walk under the Lordship of Christ and not some other man. When we do God's work God's way, it will not be a burden. 1 John 5:3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." The word "grievous" means, "burdensome."

3. Do what the Lord leads you to do. When you do this, you will be a success on God's scale. 1 Thessalonians 4:1, "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more."

4. Use your Spiritual gift in the local church. This is where God gets glory from your life. Ephesians 3:21, "Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."

Do you feel good for nothing? Do you feel that all your efforts to serve the Lord are in vain. It is possible for Israel did just that. The Lord said to Israel, "And your strength shall be spent in vain." If you believe that you are just spinning your wheels, it is true only to the extent to which you are unwilling to confess this to God and begin again and serve Him according to His word. If you ask for forgiveness you must believe you are forgiven. This must be claimed by faith. You can't be more right with God than the blood of Christ makes you when you honestly confess your known sins. Now you are ready to go to work. Now your life with count. It will not be "good for nothing." May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White