“BRINK LIVING OR BREAKTHROUGH LIBERTY?”
JANUARY 19-20, 2017
Would you call “brink living” as “living on the edge”, but sadly not entering in to one’s “land of promise”? There is an interesting word in Isaiah 29:13-16 when the Lord said, “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden. (My Pastor son, Scott Fisher, called this JUDGMENT or better still: “Shock and awe!”)
Isaiah heard God say more when in Verses 15-16 he recorded God’s words: “Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; they say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?” Surely you have turned things around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me’? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
In Proverbs 10:14 we read: “Wise people store up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is NEAR destruction.” Is ‘brink-living’ drawing ‘near’, yet in reality it means “far away”? When it comes to ‘spiritual reality’ is ‘brink living’ marginal with hope or “missing the mark for the prize of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus”? Is an ‘edge’ the eternal entrance?
I find it so interesting that the “praise-writer” of Psalm 100, Verses 4-5, wrote: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” But, by some, is “truth” perverted, diluted, spoiled, and ‘soiled’ by a rebellious mind and heart? In Romans 1:24-25 we read: “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness , in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (or ‘so be it’!).”
They ‘exchanged the truth of God for the lie’? “The lie”? That’s saying that one can sin without the consequences of ‘death’ as its payment! But Romans 6:23 declares, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And what did the Lord Jesus say in John 8: 12 to the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more,” unless you buy in to one’s self-promoting interpretation: “You can’t do anything but sin until you get to heaven”, conveniently denying the Truth, the authority, and the power of the Indwelling Christ to KEEP YOU FROM SINNING!
Did the psalmist write, guided, governed, and given Truth by the Holy Spirit? And, if so, has ‘Truth’ endured, or is it blighted, denied, overlooked by ‘self-centered extremists’ who love their sin natures and have no desire to be set free from that nature? Oh, the ‘sin-bound’ continue in their bondage, but, yes, billions world-wide live under the awesome authority and presence of the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords, convicted, converted, and consecrated to God’s glory by the Holy Spirit!
Are you familiar with Paul’s testimony found in Acts 22:6-8? Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” So I answered, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said to me, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.”
Are you aware of the consequences in Paul’s life related to his religious prominence, his ‘favored placement by ‘men’ in a respected role’, or the cost he would have to pay for his, yes, all-out surrender to Christ’s Lordship? There came a moment when the religious elite of his day said of Paul, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live.” [There did come a day when he paid with his physical life for his surrender to Christ’s Lordship!].
I’m convinced that one of those life-changing events, like the man born blind in John 9, is a powerful testimony still standing in our modern day! It was the Sabbath Day, and on this ‘holy day’ the man born blind from birth, met Jesus who challenged him in John 9:11 and then made clay and anointed his eyes and told him, “Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.” So I went and washed, and I received sight.” And in John 9:25 the “newly-sighted disciple of Christ” said: “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” He trusted Christ! And in John 9:39 the Lord Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made (permanently) blind.” There are ‘blind’ folks, not only physically, but spiritually who need their spiritual vision banned by Jesus, and new vision given that is of the eternal realm! And there are some who “see” for themselves but inwardly blinded to eternal reality! This is why Jesus said in John 9:41, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” Self-deception is spiritual blindness!
This is exactly why Jesus said of national Israel (about 700BC), instituting national judgment, Hosea 4:6-7, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me; Because you have forgotten the law of Your God, I also will forget your children.”
Dare I tell you that “the just (or justified)” shall, do, and are living on, in, and by the eternal foundation Holy God laid in and through and to the honor of Christ alone? In Romans 1:16-21 the Apostle wrote: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
“Brink living”? The ignoring of the righteousness of God because one determines ‘self’ is more important than a “Savior”, that the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men shouldn’t be judged, penalized, or refuted even if by a “God”, that one’s self-determination of what one sees ‘truth’ to be is just as legitimate as what God says it is, vile passions is normal and natural even if ‘your Holy God’ disagrees, that societies, lives, families, nations, even churches, have choices – “and if my unbelieving mind, spirit, and heart disagree with God’s declarations, so be it, we’ll live with the consequences!” And they do! “The wages of sin is death!”
One of the sad realities of a life that ‘straddles the fence of separation from God’ because of “brink living,” living on the edge of fleshly indulgence while wanting ‘to be spiritual’, is a frame of mind and heart that isn’t aware that Christ Jesus knows one’s mind and heart condition! Jesus IS the eternal discerner of every man’s heart! In fact, in John 2:23-25, John unveils Jesus’ awareness of every man’s mind and heart. It says: Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But JESUS DID NOT COMMIT HIMSELF TO THEM, because he knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.”
Of course, there are those who live a “brink living” lifestyle that, yes, because of the divine conviction of the Holy Spirit, choose to ignore, block out the Spirit, self-convincing themselves their sin and guilt is not as bad as it seems, but CONVICTED, will deny the Spirit and choose to live with the aching abyss of their guilt, and ‘whitewash’ their minds and hearts that they are ‘OK’, but refuse to receive Christ’s love, forgiveness, hope, and power, more despairing of Him than themselves!
But, hear me! John 3:14-21 declares eternal truth from the very lips of Jesus Himself! It says: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For everyone practicing evil (and continues to do so!) hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (Would Paul’s statement, “I die daily,” line up with what our Lord said? “I die daily” that His Resurrection Life may be manifested in mortal flesh!? Have You “come to the Light”?)
Beyond “brink living” is the reality of eternal hope in and through Christ alone BECAUSE Jesus and God’s Holy Word assures us on “the break-through to liberty and freedom in Christ’s Resurrection Presence in the man of a repentant heart”, desiring to be the vessel of Jesus’ ever-abiding life, one is assured of the help, hope, and holiness of a victorious, overcoming, Christ-honoring life!
Do you think that if we were crucified with Christ, old man buried with Him, and then raised to “new life”, that because of our repentance toward God and faith in our Lord’s finished, victorious work through the Cross and empty tomb, that today we are blessed to walk now and forever in His “newness of life”? In Romans 6:5-7, and 17-18, Paul illumines and encourages ‘the life crucified with Christ” and “raised in eternal hope”!
Romans 6:5-7, “For IF we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, KNOWING THIS, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:17-18, But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
Freed from the bondage of sin and death! Freed from the “old Adam sin nature”! Freed from the blindness, “There is no God!” Freed from the slavery of the powers of darkness! Freed from the emptiness and vainness of Godless living! Freed from the deathliness of faithless living and the scourge of the fallen, separated from, alienated from God sin nature, and the deep darkness and strangulation of unbelief that clouds the “Son-Light” of Holy God’s redeeming love and grace!
But in the aloneness of sin and self-affliction, in the affliction of separation from God, in the present or coming thwarting of ‘pleasure’ and its emptiness of divine intent or eternal purpose, here comes the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come, opening your eyes and hearts and minds to Sovereign grace, mercy, and love, unveiling the “Loving Redeemer” who went to the Cross to purchase you out of your bondage to sin, to death, to meaninglessness, to fleshly emptiness, even to the ‘slavish indifference’ to the love of God!
So…”New Life” in Christ! What about a “new, never-dying song of praise” in the inner man? Would a “new tree of life” abundant with the “fruit of the Spirit” stir your interest, capture your attention, and overflow you with awesome appreciation and thanksgiving because you see, taste, and rejoice in His, yes, fruits of righteousness abounding in and around you? ‘Temple living’ in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ? 2 Corinthians 6:16b declares: “For you ( in Christ) ARE the temple of the living God!” And, of course, there is a huge war that continues because of, yes, daily yielding to one’s ‘flesh’ or fully surrendered to the Spirit of Jesus within us! Have you ever wondered why Old Testament servants of God were challenged to “choose YOU this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord?”
Are YOU willing to be the “new cart” in and through which Christ Jesus chooses to “ride” and “reign” through? Does “new kingdom allegiance” guide you, govern you, and grace you with the eternalness of His everlasting Kingdom-reign? “New garments”, like clothed with our “habitation which is from heaven”? “New name”? Consider that His eternal kingdom has no end – and when the earthly dwelling “dies” and we begin the after-physical-life journey, does it matter to you what name the Lord has already determined for you? Certainly, it will be a “new name” explaining to others how He saw your earthly journey and how that “name” will be upheld forever and ever!
“New creation”! Old things passed away because they were crucified with Christ on the Cross, and His “new man” was blue-printed out by Sovereign, Holy, Purposeful God in designing you as His special tool to touch your world with His witnessing presence! He captured you by His “new and living way,” and hear how Hebrews 10:19-23 describes His manifested Presence in and through each born-again believer and servant of the Resurrected Christ!
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us DRAW NEAR with A True Heart in Full Assurance of Faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” Do you walk, work, worship, willfully offer yourself daily to His Holy, High, and Heavenly plan? And you walk in His liberty and freedom? You walk in “the new and living Way”? I close with verses from John 1:35-36 that says, Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
What will be said of you as you ‘walk’, having professed: “I serve the King of kings and Lord of lords”? Is there the unveiling of “the Lamb of God”? Are YOU His “new creation” walking in “breakthrough liberty and freedom”?