Frankly, we feel very much alone today, and we feel very weak. I’ve talked with a Christian, and her problem was that she feels very much alone, feels very weak. I’m confident that every Christian would say that. I’m sure you would. But you’re not alone! That’s the great truth of this age is that God is in the world. God, the Holy Spirit, is in the world today. And He will work and He does work and He is working in the lives and hearts of those that are God’s. And He’ll work in the heart and life of any individual that will open his heart and life to Him. Now that’s important. He’s God in the world today.

We need to get rid of sin, my beloved. And God alone will deliver men from the penalty sin if they’ll trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God there’s coming a day when God will deliver men from the presence of sin. Someday in His presence we’ll be rid of this awful thing. Oh, it’s spoiling so many lives. But the holy God is prepared to justify you, not by doing something, but believing in Him. He justifies the ungodly who don’t do any more nor less than simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You and I can’t stand under the banner of the Ten Commandments; they condemn us. But there is redeemed ground that we can stand on, and that redeemed ground is ground that’s been made by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. And even a holy God who says to you and me, “Your ways are not my ways; your thoughts are not my thoughts. I am high and holy.” But that high and holy God tonight says to you, “Come. I invite you,” He says, “to come.” There is a new and a living way to God which He has made. He’s consecrated it through His own flesh by giving Himself upon the cross.

If you love Jesus, you’re going to live a life of obedience to Him and you will be courteous to other people. Well, may I say to you that today there’s a great deal of “churchianity” that’s bland and bloodless, tasteless and colorless. It’s devoid of the warmth and feeling. There’s no personal relationship with Christ that is meaningful and productive. That’s the thing you have to have, my friend, is a personal relationship with Christ. And your ritual and your liturgy is not worth a snap of your fingers unless it’s got a life that is related to Jesus Christ. Let’s stop playing church today and start loving Christ and living for Him.

Now I get letters of people saying, “Well, I can’t do very much for God.” My friend, if you are working for God and in God’s plan and purpose, and I don’t care how small that might be—might be a mother today that has one little boy or one little girl, and you bring that one up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and they go out as a missionary or they become a real worker for God. May I say to you, who is going to determine whether it’s great or not? God is the one that’s to determine that! And if you’re in the plan and purpose of God and you’re doing what God wants you to do, well, I’d say to you that your work is as important as anyone’s work at the present hour.

God today has put us under grace. And He has given to us the Holy Spirit whereby that we now can have the fruit of the Spirit in our life, which is love, joy, peace, and longsuffering, and those things were never in the Law. What then is the relationship of Law today to the Christian? Well, let’s clearly understand we’re not talking about how you become a Christian. The only way in the world you can become a child of God today is through faith in Jesus Christ, and He’s called you to a higher plane than the Ten Commandments. He wants you to have joy in your life. He wants you to have peace in your life. He wants you to have love in your life. These are the things that only the Spirit of God can produce in hearts and lives.

There are many symbols of the nation that are used in Scripture. One, of course, is the burning bush that Moses saw. One is the vine; Isaiah develops that. And today the Lord Jesus is that vine for the church. You are saved today not by belonging to a nation or belonging to a certain class, group, or going through a ritual, or belonging to some religion or performing some religious ceremony. He is the genuine Vine, and it means whether you’re joined to Christ or not. Therefore, what does it mean to be saved today? It means to be “in” Christ, and you get in Christ by trusting Him as your personal Savior.

“Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” In that day the whole earth will keep silent. Won’t that be wonderful? We talk about freedom of speech, and there’s going to be a marvelous freedom of silence in that day. Why? Because God is in His holy temple. That looks forward, friends, to the millennium that’s coming on this earth someday. It ought to be an encouragement to us today that God has a plan and purpose for each one of us, and He’s working in your life and my life. Don’t fear God. He’s working in your heart, both to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Oh, to be in step with Him today and to be going the same direction He’s going.

“Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.” Now that looks down the future! So, these people can recognize that they’re working in the plan and program of God that’s going to extend down through the future. And what an application for Christians today. Are you and I working in something that has eternal value? Are we actually working in the light of eternity? And we should keep that in mind.

It’s so easy for us to get the wrong perspective of the Christian life. We get our nose pressed right up to the window of the present, and we don’t see anything else. As someone has put it, “You can put a dime over your eye and blot out the sun.” Well, that dime is like the present, it blots out God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Don’t be discouraged because present circumstances and present things are not working out for you. Recognize that for the child of God that “all things work together for good.” That is, a good that’s off yonder in the distance.