Deliver those who are drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
The World English Bible puts it this way:
PROVERBS 24:11
Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!
To Listen to this message from the SHINE BRIGHT Church YouTube Channel, click this link.
Here are some quotes on death:
“The only differences between death and taxes is that (1) death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets and (2) you can cheat at taxes!” Will Rogers.
“I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t wanna be there when it happens!” – Woody Allen.
“Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Just be grateful that it happens in that order!” David Gerrold.
Here’s a quote by the character of Dr. Soran from the film Star Trek 7: Generations. “They say that time is the fire in which we burn. If there is one constant in the universe, it’s death… We’re all going to die some time. It’s just a question of how and when. Aren’t you beginning to feel time gaining on you? Oh, you can try and outrun it with doctors, medicines, new technologies, but time is a predator: it’s stalking you! And in the end time is going to hunt you down and make the kill.”
JAMES 4:14b
For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
The fact of the matter is that we are all drawn unavoidably towards death, that is physical death and a departure from this world. From here all souls are either ushered into the fullness of eternal life that we saints enjoy in Christ here and now, or ushered into damnation, that is, the second death.
As you have heard from this pulpit before:
Those who are born once, die twice. And those who are born twice, die once.
That is to say, anyone who is born once, physically, but not born spiritually in Christ will experience physical death and eternal death.
Those who are born twice: physically and also spiritually in Christ will only experience physical death, but not eternal death. And that generation that experiences the rapture – Christians alive at that time, won’t even experience physical death. And we certainly could be that generation!
Dr. Soran said that “time is a predator [that is] stalking [us]”.
Time is the great dragnet of life.
A fisherman tosses a dragnet into the sea, with all of its edges lined with weights to drag fish down and immobilize them and finally, the fisherman drags them up to the surface, helplessly caught – to be skinned, deboned, fried and eaten (with a bit of lemon juice and tartar sauce on the side).
Likewise, time has us caught in its net, and is dragging us continuously, relentlessly – moment by moment onward where we will be dragged from this world, and appear before GOD in judgment:
HEBREWS 9:27
…it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Physically we die once – and we are not reincarnated back into this world. There are no do-overs, no remedial course in the test of life. We are born, we live, we die – then comes judgment.
PROVERBS 24:11
Deliver those who are drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
Charles Spurgeon, rightly named the Prince of Preachers said,
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them, to warn and pray for them.”
He also said, “Think lightly of hell and you will think lightly of the Cross. Think lightly of the sufferings of lost souls, and you will soon think little of the Savior Who delivers them.”
So, in Proverbs when it admonishes us to “deliver those who are drawn towards death”, we understand, we really have no power to deliver lost souls. We can warn lost souls, we can preach the Gospel to lost souls, we can pray for lost souls, and we can point lost souls to JESUS, but lost souls must for themselves repent and turn to Christ Who alone can deliver them from death.
Pastor Sonny and I were talking the other day about how privileged, how honored we are, that the LORD allows us to participate in the work of the Gospel. Sonny said, “We’re kind of like the LORD’s sidekicks!”
He lets us tag along and play a small, but significant part in reaching the lost souls of this world.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:20-21
20 …we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He [GOD the Father] made Him [Christ the Savior] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Every born again disciple of Christ is an ambassador for Christ, for the Kingdom of GOD! Do we fully appreciate the honor of this office?
An ambassador is an official that represents the country that they are from and can speak on behalf of their country’s leader. When given instruction from their leader and they convey the orders of their leader to the foreign nation, that ambassador speaks with equal authority of his leader. The ambassador also exemplifies the qualities and the admirable aspects of his nation’s culture.
As an ambassador of Christ, when you present the Gospel to the lost, you’re doing that by the command of and in the authority of Christ, the Head of the church. So, if anyone tells you to mind your own business, you can say “Christ has made this my business as His ambassador!”
If they accept Christ by faith and receive salvation, you have the authority to declare that their sins are forgiven.
And if they reject the Gospel, you have the authority to declare that they are yet in their sins and heading for judgment (JOHN 20:23).
As an ambassador of Christ, you represent the LORD and display all of the benefits of the Kingdom of GOD. You are a recipient of the grace and truth of GOD (COL 1:6), you have the authority to be called a child of GOD (JN 1:12-13); you are able to exhibit all the fruit of the Spirit – the love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, temperance, etc. (GAL 5:22-23). These are qualities that the world can’t produce itself, but longs for – and looks for – in all the wrong places!
They think (as we all once did) that joy can be found in material wealth; that peace can be found in a bottle or a needle or a prescription medicine. They think love is what happens between the bed sheets. They think contentment is found in self-esteem. That the secret to success in life can be found in self.
For the most part, they don’t even want to think about death, and they’ve convinced themselves that “you only live once” and then it’s all over (there is no heaven, there is no hell, there is no God). And they believe that based on the authority of their own or someone else’s opinion.
We have a Book, the Holy Revelation of GOD, inspired by the One Who came down from the right hand of the Father in heaven, Who revealed Himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life, Who died, rose again and ascended back into heaven. This is the One who preached more about hell than anything else.
We have it on the authority of Christ that death is not the end; that there is an eternal destiny of either heaven or hell for every soul ever conceived!
If more preachers didn’t shy away from talking about sin, about death and judgment, about eternal damnation; if they simply stayed faithful to what the Word of GOD declares, I believe we would see far more souls pressing into the Kingdom of GOD!
But it’s not just the preachers – the Gospel is the Great Commission that Christ gave to His disciples, not just His apostles. Why aren’t Christians sharing their faith? I believe it’s a heart condition: generally speaking, we’re content to be saved ourselves but are uncaring about the souls of others. This is why the church is in desperate need of revival! And in some cases, Christians don’t share their faith out of fear of rejection or because of a lack of training.
Let’s pray for revival, let’s pray that GOD restore to us a hunger for holiness, let’s seek GOD with all of our hearts – He has promised if we do, we will find Him (JER 29:13).
And like Isaiah who saw the LORD high and lifted up, and abhorred himself in GOD’s Holy Light, but then was touched by the fire of the Holy Spirit and was purged; he was made a clean vessel suitable for the LORD’s use. When the LORD called out, “Who will go for us?” the prophet was able to say, “Here I am, send me!”
If we are ever going to deliver the those who are caught in the nets of time, being dragged to their date with death and judgment, we the church need to be delivered from our own comfort zones, our complacency, our carnality; from our cool, lukewarm spiritual condition.
We need the flaming coal of GOD’s Spirit, taken from off the altar and have it touch our lips and being sanctified, use those lips to speak truth, to speak grace, to declare the Gospel to this lost generation.
President Trump can do a lot to fix our nation politically, economically, socially (and please continue to pray for his protection and that of his administration), but he can’t do anything to restore America spiritually – only GOD can, and He will if we the church return to being the salt and light the LORD has called us to be – when we return to our first love! And if not a revival nation-wide, then in pockets of revival in regions and communities across the land.
HEBREWS 2:14-15
14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
I came too close to dying twice in my lifetime before I reached the age of 8. Growing up, I always felt that death was just an arm’s length away. In my B.C. days (Before Christ) I was messing around with occult things; I had a morbid fascination with death and the spirit world. At the same time death petrified me, to such a degree that I was afraid to cross the street for fear of not seeing an oncoming car, and I would die on the street and go to hell. I didn’t need convincing that I deserved damnation.
But the second I received Christ, in that very instant, not only was I not in bondage to that fear, but death was something I looked forward to with joy! Because it meant that I would be in the presence of my LORD and Savior. While the process of death might make me a little nervous, death itself holds absolutely no terror for me in the least!
Death is just a door that leads to my LORD and Savior!
This is the hope that we can share with those still in bondage to that fear of death!
Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist prophesied concerning his son as the heralder of the coming Messiah and prophesied of the Messiah Himself:
LUKE 1:76-79
76 "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, 77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, 78 Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring [that’s our JESUS!] from on high has visited us; 79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
King David wrote in the beloved 23rd PSALM:
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
The Shepherd’s staff is always used to steer and to guide sheep in the way; the rod is used as a weapon against those who would want to bring harm to the sheep.
PSALM 48:14
For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.
And as for our enemy named “death”, we know it no longer holds any sting, no victory over us saints (1 COR 15:55) and by the “rod” of GOD’s authority death ultimately will be destroyed entirely and finally (1 COR 15:26)!
PROVERBS 24:11b
…and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
There is an obvious reference to the custom of making proclamations before a prisoner, when he was led forth to execution, that any person able to prove his innocence should come forward and do so: ~ Commentary from the Annotated Bible.
JAMES 4:17
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
From the Commentary of Thomas Scott:
Verses 11-12: If any man knows that his neighbor is in danger of losing his life by false accusation, or a malicious prosecution, or in any other way, he is bound to do all in his power to deliver him. But if concern for self, cowardice, or reluctancy to incur expense or inconvenience, induce him to remain quiet, he will be deemed an accessory to the crime.I can think of no greater, no more relevant example of defending the innocent from being slaughtered than the pre-born segment of this world, these innocent lives that are snuffed out before they are even known by their parents.
In vain [he will] say that he was not fully acquainted with the matter, or aware of the danger; that it was none of his business, and he knew not how to prevent it. (We see this in PROVERBS 24:12).
The Lord sees through, and [exposes] such fallacious excuses. ‘This chiefly belongs to magistrates (judges), who ought not to be overawed by great men from undertaking the protection and relief of those who are unjustly oppressed.’
Many of the proverbs no doubt, were particularly intended for the instruction and warning of rulers, who may [have a higher regard for] a great king more than inferior men.
But there is generally an important meaning, in which each proverb is applicable to the case of every reader.
‘The [judge] ought to be the guardian of innocent men’s lives; and private persons, in their places, ought to oppose, without sedition, unjust severity as much as they are able.
There are many examples of this in scripture. Jonathan opposed his father and helped to preserve David. Obadiah fed the prophets whom Jezebel designed to have killed. The eunuch pulled up Jeremiah [the prophet] out of the dungeon; and the midwives [in Egypt] saved the Israelites’ children; as Rahab afterwards did the spies.’
But they are known of GOD: Like Jeremiah the Prophet, GOD knows each of their names, where they would live, the schools they would attend, the friends they would make, the jobs they would hold, the ones that they would marry, and the children they would have.
GOD knows their hopes, their dreams, their struggles and heartaches: there isn’t anything that GOD doesn’t know about these preborn humans who have been, are now even as we meet here tonight, and those who will be aborted –
And here in Arizona, they can murder a baby up to full-term.
What can we do for these precious ones that are being led to death?
We tried to change the Law for our State – that didn’t work out. But we can keep trying to get this ungodly, unlawful law changed. Understand that just because it’s legal, abortion is just an option provided as a choice. Unlike China, it’s not mandatory here.
So, we can pray for women who are pregnant, and ask the LORD to touch their hearts and change their minds.
We can donate to Pro-Life ministries that do an awesome job in reaching out to pregnant women and prove to one and all that fetuses are human beings too.
We can even join with Pro-Life ministries in reaching out to people, speaking to them with our voices for those innocents who don’t have one. If you missed pastor Sonny’s message “FIGHTING FORAMERICA’S PREBORN BABIES, you need to watch this 48 min message on the SHINE BRIGHT YouTube Channel uploaded about a month ago.
Then there are those souls that are “stumbling to the slaughter” who are anything but innocent – the dragnet of time is drawing them to Judgment Day. How are we to “hold back” these rebellious souls?
By warning them of Judgment Day and of hellfire; by admonishing them to consider Jesus Christ and all of His claims. To understand that the grace of GOD is being held out to them and that salvation can be theirs for the taking, when taken through repentance and by faith in Christ alone.
By our intercessory prayers, petitioning GOD to soften their hearts, to deter them from the course to destruction that they are on!
These souls that “stumble” – this world is full of spiritual cripples who are unable to walk in righteousness before GOD, and we can give them the good news: they can be granted salvation whereby they can be accounted righteous, and by the indwelling Spirit enabled to walk in righteousness.
For more on this, check out the following TTUF articles:
MARCHING ORDERS AGAINST MOLECH
STAND FOR LIFE – DEFEND THE INNOCENT!
JEREMIAH THOMAS' LETTER TO HIS GENERATION
BLOOD MONEY TRAILER
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