“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”
Ezekiel 22:30
I do not know anyone who has a greater responsibility today than fathers, to be the example, the husbands, and the leaders of homes that we ought to be. Just hearing the words “Father’s Day” should stir our hearts to be all the man we can be for God.
The man who stands for God in the gap, whether it is for his home or for his church or for his Sunday school class, who knows about God and what God will do and how God will bless or how God will judge, has an awesome responsibility laying on his shoulders that others do not have.
WE OUGHT TO STAND CONVINCINGLY
Know that God has put you where you are. There are times that nothing in this world can keep me here, or keep me right. There are times in the world that nothing else works except this one thing: to know this is where God put me. A deep settleness in my heart that this is the way God said for Clarence Sexton, “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21).
When you know God has done something like that for you, when the Lord has dealt with you that way, you can stand convincingly. There is a confidence. It is not cockiness; it is confidence that the Lord did this for you. God put you there.
WE OUGHT TO STAND COMPASSIONATELY
The love of Jesus ought to be in us. If people have the love of Jesus, they say certain things. If people have the love of Jesus, they act a certain way. People ought to be treated the way Jesus would treat them. The longer I live, the more I realize this world is full something. It is full of hurt: sin, yes, but also hurt because of that sin.
We are independent Baptists and I would not be anything else. We are Bible-believing fundamentalists and I would not be anything else. I believe Jesus was a Bible-believing fundamentalist, but when our Lord thought about people going to hell, do you know what He did? He cried. When our Lord was with hurting people, do you know what He did? He cried. When our Lord was under the heavy weight of all the responsibility He had to perform and people came to Him with their needs, do you know what He did? He stopped and He helped them. He was not too busy for them.
WE OUGHT TO STAND CONTINUALLY
The Lord said, “I’m looking for someone in a land that has been ripped apart with sin. I am looking for someone that will stand for me.” We ought to stand convincingly, compassionately, and continually; that means to be faithful.
How do you think I would feel if I went to see my brother, who has given his life to the Lord to serve the Lord, and I found my brother not serving God? It would kill me.
I have the sweetest Christian wife God ever gave a man. What do you think I would feel if I came home one day and I saw in my wife’s attitude and countenance that she had turned her back upon God? It would kill me.
There are many reasons that I ought to serve the Lord, but none greater than this. I ought to serve Him because of how good God has been to me. You ought to serve Him and stand for Him because of how good God has been to you.