CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY!”
EPHESIANS 5:14
God says: “Awake, you who ‘SLEEP’, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light!”
Isn’t it amazing to you that the Holy Word of God is so filled with biblical Truth about those “choosing” to “live in the dark,” “sleepy-time lives”, totally unaware of their ‘fleshly destinies’? In Proverbs 6:4-5 the wise man wrote: “Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from THE hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler (or ‘hunter’ who seeks to slay you!).” And then in Verses 6-11 the wise man continued, desiring to “wake us all up” from the “sleep” of spiritual death, alienation from God, incapable of personal deliverance from its powerful sentence of spiritual death – a ‘sluggard’ of spiritual inactivity, a ‘sluggard’ of perpetual spiritual sleep, a ‘sluggard’ of slothfulness and indifference to the “Holy Truths” of God, and, yes, even indifferent to His amazing love and grace and mercy, just satisfied to live in “the darkness of a deep spiritual sleep,” unconcerned about his void of spiritual life and faith and purpose, or its penalty!
So, Proverbs 6:6-15, declares so wisely, so convicted, “Wake up, go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, ( no Savior, no Redeemer, no Lord, no loving spiritual caretaker), overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? WHEN WILL YOU ARISE FROM YOUR SLEEP? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep – SO SHALL POVERTY (that’s spiritual poverty and spiritual bankruptcy!) COME ON YOU LIKE A PROWLER (one who comes to steal, like the devil!), AND ON YOUR NEED LIKE AN ARMED MAN (or robber or thief, yes, “the powers of darkness”!).”
Verses 12-15 then solemnly, seriously, and in convicting fashion, describes the end of a sleeping, spiritually negligent, self-serving individual, who resists his need of “spiritual awakening”: “A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth (“that Bible may be what YOUR God says, but I don’t care!”); He winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet, he points his fingers; Perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually (that’s ANYTHING THAT LEAVES GOD OUT OF ONE’S ‘MIXED-BAG-OF-LIFE CHOICES’!), he sows discord, (Opposition to eternal Truths). THEREFORE his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.”
Oh, but there is “hope that is eternal”! There can be, must be, if you let Him, an “awakening” from spiritual sleep and slumber, spiritual death, spiritual hopelessness, to the reality of the true, merciful, spiritual awakening in and through “Christ Jesus” alone!
In Joel 1:5 the word of the Lord had come to Joel: “Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.” Is this ‘literal’ speech or ‘metaphorical’? The ‘drunkards’ are ‘sinners separated from Holy God ‘intoxicated’ in unholy, unbiblical, un-redeeming truths! The ‘drunkards’ are ‘willful sinners’ intoxicated with the ‘devil’s brew’ of unbelief, rebellion, disobedience, self-centeredness, and purposely, willfully, so intoxicated with self, one has ‘no sense’ or ‘will’ or ‘desire’ to live for God! “IS IT EVIDENT IN SOME ‘MODERN-CHURCHES’? WITHOUT ANY DOUBT! But loving, merciful, caring, compassionate God takes on the mission to awake those who sleep, resurrect those who are spiritually dead, and by repentance toward Him and faith in Christ Jesus’ “finished work” at the Cross, the ‘dead’ can be, will be, have been “raised from spiritual death’ from the ‘slumber of the devil’ INTO THE REALITY OF THE SAVIOR’S MERCY,LOVE,&GRACE!!
Get ready! It’s going to be an interesting, awe-inspiring ‘journey’ from spiritual sleep to “awakened by the love, mercy, and grace of GoD”!! FIRST! LET’S LOOK AT THE REALITY OF GODLESS MEN/WOMEN,TEENS/CHILDREN, WHO “ARE” CAPTURED IN BIRTH BY THE REALITY OF A COVETED SIN-NATURE, ‘STRIVING’ TO “LIVE”, BUT WITHOUT HOLY GOD! GOD HAD NO DESIRE IN BIRTHING MEN WITH NO “FREE WILL” because He knew it’s consequences, “BUT THE ‘FREE WILL” OF ‘FLESH’ had to be because Holy God was not interested in seeing men & women as automatic robots”, and certainly, natural birth WAS & IS NOT “LIFE IN THE SPIRIT OF HOLY GOD”! THIS IS WHY JESUS CONFRONTED ‘REALITY’ OF THOSE SEPARATED FROM GOD WHEN HE ‘MENTIONED’ IN JOHN 1:13 ABOUT THOSE ‘BORN NOT OF SPIRITUAL BLOOD BUT OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH’, THE WILL OF FALLEN MANKIND!
IN ACTS 7:51 STEPHEN HAD BEEN CALLED BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN TO ANSWER QUESTIONS THEY HAD ABOUT HIS “OPEN CHRISTIAN WITNESS” – THEY WERE READY TO KILL HIM! HAVING BEEN THREATENED, HE SAID TO THE PUBLIC OFFICIALS & ISRAELI LEADERS, “YOU STIFFNECKED & UNCIRCUMCISED IN HEART & EARS, YOU DO ALWAYS RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT: AS YOUR FATHERS DID, SO DO YOU.”+ (DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT “RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS” WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF THE SAVIOR AS LORD, BIRTHS A GREATER ‘BONDAGE’, A STRONGER ‘RELIGIOUS PRIDE’ THAT CRUCIFIED KING JESUS, & MULTIPLIES DEEPER DECEPTION & RESENTMENT OF TRUTH ABOUT “TRUSTING” WHEN THEY’RE SO DEVOTED TO THEIR ‘RELIGIOUS TRYING’, TO THE POINT THAT WHEN KING JESUS SAID, “FORSAKE ALL & FOLLOW ME”, THE UNBELIEVERS & RELIGIOUS PRETENDERS UNITED TO SEE THAT HE, JESUS, WAS CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS, FAILING TO UNDERSTAND ‘THE CROSS’ WAS GOD’S PLAN, BUT THEIR EMBITTERED ‘RELIGIOUS HEARTS’ & SPIRITUALLY ‘BRAIN-DEAD MINDS’ ACTUALLY WAS “USED” BY HOLY GOD TO CARRY OUT HIS ETERNAL PLAN OF “BLOOD REDEMPTION” THROUGH THE SACRIFICE OF HIS OWN SON ON CALVARY’S CROSS!
THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH ! THE NATURAL MAN, UNREDEEMED CAN SIN, UNAWARE IT EXPOSES THEIR ‘SPIRITUAL DEATH’! SIN-NATURES “DO NOT NATURALLY BIRTH ‘SAINTS’, BUT BIRTHS SINNERS UNDER SATAN’S MANAGEMENT CONTROL, A LOST WORLD’S DEFENCELESS DECEIT, &, YES, THE SINNER’S ‘OPINION’ THAT ‘SIN DOESN’T PRODUCE DEATH –IT’S FUN’, BUT HOLY GOD OVERSEES & SETTLES THE ETERNAL DESTINY OF THE UNRESPONSE TO HIS LOVE & GRACE AS BEFORE HIS JUDGMENT SEAT THEY DID, DO, & WILL STAND BEFORE HIM AS HOLY GOD ISSUES FOR ALL, SINFUL OR SINLESS, WORLDLY OR HEAVENLY, PERSONAL PERSUASION OR PRINCE OF PEACE’S PRESENCE IN THE REPENTANT, REDEEMED, RECONCILED, REWARDED, & RELEASED “TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD” WHO “GO OUT TO SHARE HIS GOOD NEWS OF ETERNAL SALVATION IN & THROUGH CHRIST’S BLOOD SACRIFICE & THE FREE GIFT OF RECONCILIATION IS GRANTED”!
SECOND, LET’S EXAMINE THAT “FREE GIFT” & HOW “HE” SHOULD INSPIRE OUR DAILY WALK OF “CHRIST IN US OUR HOPE OF GLORY”! IN THE “ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS” (P183) IS A QUOTE BY ST. PATRICK (SIGERSON,tr.), THAT SAYS: “GOD’S MIGHT TO DIRECT ME, GOD’S POWER TO PROTECT ME, GOD’S WISDOM FOR LEARNING, GOD’S EYE FOR DISCERNING, GOD’S EAR FOR HEARING, GOD’S WORD FOR MY CLEARING.”
IN MICAH 7:1-7,&18-19! THE PROPHET SAID: “WOE IS ME! FOR I AM AS WHEN THEY HAVE GATHERED THE SUMMER FRUITS,AS THE GRAPE-GLEANINGS OF THE VINTAGE:THERE IS NO CLUSTER TO EAT:MY SOUL DESIRED THE FIRSTRIPE FRUIT. THE GOOD MAN IS PERISHED OUT OF THE EARTH (“THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH”!); & THERE IS NONE UPRIGHT AMONG MEN:THEY ALL LIE IN WAIT FOR BLOOD;THEY HUNT EVERY MAN HIS BROTHER WITH A NET.
THAT THEY MAY DO EVIL WITH BOTH HANDS EARNESTLY, THE PRINCE ASKS, & THE JUDGE ASKS FOR A REWARD; & THE GREAT MAN, HE UTTERS HIS MISCHIEVOUS DESIRE:SO THEY WRAP IT UP. THE BEST OF THEM IS AS A BRIER:THE MOST UPRIGHT IS SHARPER THAN A THORN HEDGE: THE DAY OF THEIR WATCHMEN & THEIR VISITATION COMES;NOW SHALL BE THEIR PERPLEXITY. TRUST YOU NOT IN A FRIEND,PUT YOU NOT CONFIDENCE IN A GUIDE:KEEP THE DOORS OF YOUR MOUTH FROM HER THAT LIES IN YOUR BOSOM.
FOR THE SON DISHONORS THE FATHER, THE DAUGHTER RISES UP AGAINST HER MOTHER, THE DAUGHTER IN LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER IN LAW; A MAN’S ENEMIES ARE THE MEN OF HIS OWN HOUSE. THEREFORE I WILL LOOK UNTO THE LORD; I WILL WAIT FOR THE GOD OF MY SALVATION:MY GOD WILL HEAR ME.”
THEN IN VERSES 18-19 THE PROPHET EXPLAINS! “WHO IS A GOD LIKE UNTO ‘YOU’, “HE” PARDONS INIQUITY, & PASSES BY THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE REMNANT OF “HIS” HERITAGE? HE RETAINS NOT HIS ANGER FOREVER, BECAUSE “HE” DELIGHTS IN MERCY. HE WILL TURN AGAIN, HE WILL HAVE COMPASSION UPON US;HE WILL SUBDUE OUR INIQUITIES; & HE WILL CAST ALL THEIR SINS INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA.” THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA? THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA OF GOD’S FORGETFULNESS? THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS REALITY FOR SINNERS WHO REPENT & “TURN”, FULLY SURRENDERING TO CHRIST’S BLOOD ATONEMENT, HIS FORGIVENESS, & BECAUSE YOU TRULY REPENTED, HE MAKES YOUR BODY ,HEART, & SPIRIT, INTO A “NEW HABITATION” THAT BECOMES HIS TEMPLE OF EARTHLY RESIDENCE, NEVER TO LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US! GLORY!
“AWAKE YOU WHO SLEEP! ARISE FROM THE DEAD,& CHRIST JESUS WILL GIVE YOU LIGHT!” THERE MUST BE IN THE 21ST CENTURY ANOTHER GREAT “SPIRITUAL AWAKENING” WHERE THE “LIGHT OF CHRIST JESUS IN REPENTANT, BORN-AGAIN HEARTS & MINDS” REVEALS HIS MISSION THROUGH THEM AS “WITNESSES FAITHFULLY TO NEEDY, UNSAVED, SEPARATED-FROM-GOD PEOPLE, UNREDEEMED, WHO MUST BE RECONCILED TO HIM FOR HEAVENLY GLORY TO “REST” IN THEM & THROUGH THEM, BEING HIS “HOLY TEMPLES” OF ETERNALLY ABIDING PRESENCE”!
THIRD, KNOWING CHRIST JESUS GIVES ‘LIGHT’, DOES THAT INCLUDE THE NECESSITY OF GRASPING THE UNDERSTANDING OF TRUE SPIRITUAL GROWTH & MATURITY IN HONORING CHRIST, OBEYING CHRIST, & YES SHARING CHRIST BEYOND THE FOUR WALLS OF ONE’S CHURCH? JESUS SAID IN MATTHEW 4:4 THAT, “IT IS WRITTEN, MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY (PHYSICAL) BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.” SO “EATING BREAD ALONE, FOR MY ENJOYMENT & SATISFACTION”, BUT IGNORING THE STARVING, EMPTY HEARTS & MINDS OF THE “LOST”, ALIENATED FROM GOD, IN NEED OF CHRIST’S “BLOOD REDEMPTION”, BUT YOU LOCK IT & THE NEEDY IN THE SEA OF FORGETFULNESS & “LET THE WORLD AROUND YOU “GO TO HELL”?
FOURTH, AS A “FOLLOWER OF CHRIST”, ARE YOU COMMITTED, NOT ONLY TO “FAITH”, BUT ALSO “OBEDIENCE”? IF YOU’RE A “TRUE FOLLOWER” OF CHRIST, IF HE SAID & SAYS, MATTHEW 4:19, “FOLLOW ME & I WILL MAKE YOU ‘FISHERS OF MEN.’ IN PROVERBS 11:30 WE READ, “THE FRUIT OF THE RIGHTEOUS IS A TREE OF LIFE; & HE THAT WINS SOULS IS WISE.” EVEN THE PROPHET DANIEL HAD A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MINISTRY OF MEN & WOMEN ‘RECONCILED TO GOD’! HE SAID, IN DANIEL 12:3, “AND THEY THAT BE WISE SHALL SHINE AS THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE FIRMAMENT; & THEY THAT TURN MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, AS THE STARS FOR EVER & EVER!” TELL ME! “HOW’S YOUR TESTIMONY TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU WHO LIVE APART FROM RECONCILED TO GOD, RE-BORN, & ‘SHINING’ ON OTHERS THE PATH OF “BLOOD REDEMPTION”?
I CLOSE THIS PARTICULAR TEACHING WITH THE WORDS OF AN OLD HYMN ENTITLED “RISE UP,O MEN OF GOD”, (FOUND IN THE 1940 PUBLICATION OF “THE BROADMAN HYMNAL,” BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN.). IT SAYS: “RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD! HAVE DONE WITH LESSER THINGS; GIVE HEART & MIND & SOUL & STRENGTH TO SERVE THE KING OF KINGS.
RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD! HIS KINGDOM TARRIES LONG; BRING IN THE DAY OF BROTHERHOOD AND END THE NIGHT OF WRONG.
RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD! THE CHURCH FOR YOU DOTH WAIT, HER STRENGTH UNEQUAL TO HER TASK; RISE UP, & MAKE HER GREAT!
LIFT HIGH THE CROSS OF CHRIST! TREAD WHERE HIS FEET HAVE TROD; AS BROTHERS OF “THE SON OF MAN”, RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD!”
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY”? IS IT ‘REAL’ FOR “YOU”? IF ‘YOU’ ARE YIELDED TO THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS, ARE “YOU” OBEDIENT OR COMPLACENT? COMPLACENT? “SATISFIED IN ONE’S SELF, UNCONCERNED ABOUT WHAT HOLY GOD HAS TO SAY,INDIFFERENT, & EVEN UNCONCERNED ABOUT GOD’S MISSION THROUGH YOU AS A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST IN BEING “HIS WITNESSES” TO UNREDEEMED, INDIFFERENT, UNCONCERNED ‘FOLKS’ ABOUT THEM BEING RECONCILED TO GOD? ARE “YOU” OBEDIENT TO THE “CALL”, “GO & SHARE THE GOSPEL!”
ONE MORE HYMN OF “CHALLENGE” FROM THE SAME OLD HYMNAL,P.187! IT’S ENTITLED, “O JESUS, I HAVE PROMISED”! IT SAYS: “O JESUS, I HAVE PROMISED TO SERVE YOU TO THE END; BE THOU FOREVER NEAR ME, MY MASTER & MY FRIEND; I SHALL NOT FEAR THE BATTLE IF YOU ARE BY MY SIDE, NOR WANDER FROM THE PATHWAY IF YOU WILL BE MY GUIDE.
O LET ME FEEL YOU NEAR ME, THE WORLD IS EVER NEAR; I SEE THE SIGHTS THAT DAZZLE, THE TEMPTING SOUNDS I HEAR:MY FOES ARE EVER NEAR ME, AROUND ME & WITHIN; BUT, JESUS, DRAW YOU NEARER, & SHIELD MY SOUL FROM SIN.
O JESUS, YOU HAVE PROMISED TO ALL WHO FOLLOW THEE THAT WHERE YOU ARE IN GLORY THERE SHALL YOUR SERVANT BE; AND, JESUS, I HAVE PROMISED TO SERVE YOU TO THE END; O GIVE ME GRACE TO FOLLOW MY MASTER & MY FRIEND.” ARE YOU A TRUE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST, AVAILABLE TO SHARE HIS LIFE, EXTEND HIS LIFE, & EXPRESS HIS LOVE TO OTHERS?
BOOK OUTLINE OR CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: “WAGES OF SIN OR GIFTS OF GOD?”
CHAPTER TWO: “FAITHLESS ASSAULTS OR FAITHFUL ASPIRATIONS?”
CHAPTER THREE: “OPTIONAL EXPRESSIONS OF LIFE, HUMAN OR DIVINE, FLESHLY OR SPIRITUAL, TEMPORARY OR ETERNAL?”
CHAPTER FOUR: “MOUNTAIN PRAYERS OR MOUNTAINOUS PRTIVILEGES?”
CHAPTER FIVE: “IT IS DONE – “IT IS FINISHED”
CHAPTER SIX: “THE ANGELIC SONGS OF THE REDEEMED”
CHAPTER SEVEN: “THE DIVINE MIRACLE OF A TRANSFORMED MIND”
CHAPTER EIGHT: “CONSIDERING A WORLD OF ABSURDITIES”
CHAPTER NINE: “FAITHFULNESS OR DISTRESSING DISGUISES?”
CHAPTER TEN: “WHEN MERCY IS MERCILESS BIRTHING FATAL FORGETFULNESS”
CHAPTER ELEVEN: “GOD AND GOVERNMENT”
CHAPTER TWELVE: “WORLD PHILOSOPHERS OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: “SUICIDE A SIGN OF HOPELESSNESS IN CHRIST – A SIGN OF HELPLESSNESS IN ONE’S SELF”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “NATIONAL DAY OF REASONING OR NATIONAL AGELESS RECEPTION OF GOD’S REVELATION, REACHING OUT TO HIM, AND RESTING IN HIS BLOOD REDEMPTION”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “PRAYER BANKRUPTCY OR PRAYER BLESSINGS?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “PIERCING THE DRAGON – PIERCINGS BY HIM OR PIERCING HIM?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: “THE PRICELESS PURPOSE – A DIVINE AWAKENING NECESSITY!”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: “THE CALL OF TRUE DISCIPLESHIP – THE CALL TO DEATH!”
CHAPTER NINETEEN: “CHAINED” – A SUPERNATURAL AWARENESS AND BLESSING!”
CHAPTER TWENTY: “AWARENESS AND APPROPRIATION OF DIVINE CONTENTMENT!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: “FLESHLY DESIRES AND FLESHLY INTERPRETATIONS OR THE FULL COUNSEL OF GOD?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: “AMIABLE REBELS OR ANOINTED RULERS?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: “AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? THE MOMENT OF TRUTH?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: “AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? THE SHOCK OF THE DESTINY OF DECEPTION AND DELUSION!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: “AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? ENDURING THROUGH OUR FAILURES, FIRES, AND FIGHTS!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: “AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? THE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: “AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? THE KINGLY REIGN OF CHRIST!”
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER ONE
“WAGES OF SIN OR GIFTS OF GOD?”
The Apostle Paul was inspired by the Spirit of Holy God to write an awe-inspiring word from Him in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 when he said: “For though we walk in the flesh (As “redeemed” human beings by “the blood of the Lamb”), we do not war (in the spiritual warfare of ‘flesh’ against Spirit, deceit against Truth, or sinful nature against the divine nature) according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience (in ourselves!) when your obedience (to Jesus) is fulfilled.” What an awesome Word and serious choices the merciful God gives to us: “Our ways or His Way?”, “the ‘flesh’, or the devil’s lies, or the ‘sin-nature’s deceit’, OR Christ Jesus declaring, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but through Me”?
Are you unaware or oblivious to the eternal truth that (Romans 6:23), “the wages of sin IS DEATH, but the GIFT OF GOD is eternal life IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD”? The Apostle Paul sent a powerful, convicting word to the Ephesians when in his Ephesian epistle he wrote: [Ephesians 4:17-24],
“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, (unbelievers!), in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the BLINDNESS of their heart; who, being past feeling (of anything or anyone that relates to redemption!), having given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not so learned Christ, IF indeed you have heard of Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth IS IN JESUS (only): that you (must) put off, concerning your former conduct, ‘the old man’ (the old ‘Adam,” the old sin-nature), which GROWS corrupt because of the ‘deceitful lusts’, and BE RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF YOUR MIND (and heart), and that YOU PUT ON THE NEW MAN WHICH WAS CREATED ACCORDING TO GOD, in true righteousness and holiness.”
“The wages of sin”? Sin is sorrow without relief or release, but the love, grace, and mercy of God “in Christ” IS freedom from sin, with the eternal result of the fullness of His Indwelling Presence!
Sin is ‘separation from God, not an open door to Him; the ‘sin-nature’ is NOT ‘remind-full’ of divine pleasure and eternal intent, but ‘satisfying that old sin-nature’, ‘satisfying that rabid-dog nature’ of sin and death birthed by Satan himself!
Sin? It’s one’s declaration of independence from God and an insane declaration of allegiance to one’s old sin nature and separation from God without an ounce of remorse, guilt, or even awareness of separation from Him!
Sin? It’s like William Allingham’s explanation in his “Blackberries” writing: “Sin we have explained away; unluckily, the sinners stay,” because an unredeemed, ‘separated from God’ sin nature has no awareness of the gulf, the grip, the devastation of separation from Him!
Did Thomas Carlyle nail it when he said: “The deadliest sins were the consciousness of no sin.” Most unbelievers are completely unaware that their sin-nature and constant sins have separated them from God and from His love, grace, mercy, Truth, and Redemption’s plan, provision, and present ‘offering’: “The Lamb’s shed blood at Calvary in their place!”
Sin and the old sin-nature? Didn’t we read from Paul in 2 Corinthians 10 about “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God”? And be assured: Flesh effort against one’s sin nature IS nothing more than vain imagination and mind-full deception! Only Christ Jesus, through His sacrificial death in our place, delivers from one’s sin stronghold, the human heart, yes, alienated and separated from Holy God!
Your life without Christ is like an old, ancient city with high, thick, strong walls of self-sufficiency, protected by strong, self-shaped bricks, stones, and ramparts that are firmly rooted in opposition to the will, the purposes, the plan of God, and the ‘door’ to reconciliation- the ‘one door’-, determined with Sinatra, “It’s my way!”
Sin? Does the Holy Word of God declare “all unrighteousness is sin”, meaning ‘only’ the righteousness of Christ, in us, gains approval from Holy God? The prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 64:5-7, declared wisely, “You (God) meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned – in these ways we continue; and we need to be saved. But we all are like an unclean thing, and all our (fleshly) righteousnesses are like filthy rags (or ‘menstrual’ cycles!); we ALL fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities.” So true! But only half the story!
The other half of the story? 2 Corinthians 5:21 announces: “For He (Holy God the Father) made Him (Christ Jesus the Son) who knew no sin to BE SIN FOR US, that we might become THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.”
Do you “see” the biblical significance of 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, and verses 9-10? “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort WITH WHICH OURSELVES ARE COMFORTED BY GOD. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast (even if it is ‘your’ sufferings in temptations or, yes, willful sins?), because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also YOU WILL PARTAKE OF THE CONSOLATION (The Savior’s forgiveness through His shed blood for your sins?). Verses 9-10, Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and (still will, desires &) does deliver us…”!
I was reading Gil Strickland’s “Marketplace” Chaplain’s Edition, (Summer 2016). Gil is the founder of “Marketplace Ministries”, and about 60 years ago was a cheer-leader or Yell Leader at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where I was a running back and defensive safety when he “cheered” us on to some great seasons, especially when we went to the Sugar Bowl, January, 1957. One of his associates, Jason Brown, had an article entitled “Chaplain Covering”, introducing me to Martin of Tours.
His article says: “Martin of Tours was born about 316 A.D. to a pagan family in Pannonia, a Roman Province. He became a Roman soldier and one day was passing by the gates of Amiens in Gaul, today’s France, on a very bitter, winter’s day.
Martin came across a beggar who was freezing by the side of the road. Several others on horseback simply passed by without rendering assistance. Martin was MOVED WITH COMPASSION and decided to help. He took the one valuable possession he owned, his cape (his cloak ‘covering’), cut it in half with his sword and gave it to the man in need.
Later that night Martin had a dream in which he came to realize the beggar was Christ Himself. That experience impacted Martin so much he decided to follow the Christian faith and was later baptized by Bishop St.Hillary. Martin left the army to devote himself to the church and later became Bishop of Tours and even founded a monastery in Eastern Europe.”
How dramatic! Yet, many have spiritual encounters but fail in the reception of and commitment to “relationship”, yes, union with the Redeemer through repentance toward God and full faith in Christ Jesus’ “Blood Atonement” at the Cross!
I was awed when I read from Gil’s magazine “The Chaplains’ Prayer”, out of “Devotional Prayers” by Henry Thornton [Edited and Introduced by James S. Bell, Moody Press – Chicago, Ill.]. It says: “Make us patient and contented, kind and loving, humble and spiritually minded. We pray you also to make us diligent and useful in the world in which you have placed us. May we not misspend our time, nor neglect any opportunity of doing good, but be willing daily to deny ourselves, that we may more abundantly minister to the various wants of others. We ask you O Lord, to give unto each of us grace to know the several duties to which we are called, and to be both faithful and zealous in the performance of them.”
Sin and its awareness in the sinners’ hearts? Oh, sometimes there are those who have no adverse, angry reactions to the truth of their sinfulness – they’ll acknowledge it but without any concern of “rescue” from the bondage of their sinful state. Others are shocked: “I’m a sinner, I’m under the judgment of God? If I don’t repent, I’m bound for Hell?” And they begin to cry out for mercy! Still others will willfully acknowledge their sinful state, deciding, “Maybe later I’ll call for “The Great Physician” to heal my sin-sickness’, BUT, not now!”
In Matthew 18:1-11 we find “HOPE” through ‘child-like faith’, not brainless and heartless souls and sin-bound supporters of spiritual darkness! It says: At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted (‘born-again’?) and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.” Oh!
But Jesus went on: Verses 6-11, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense[denials, rejections, accusations against “blood redemption”] comes!
If your ‘hand’ or ‘foot’ causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter life lame or maimed, rather than two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.” [Wrestle with that!].
Sin? The sin-nature is death? Sin-consequence is eternal separation from God, and the eternal result of allegiance to one’s sin-nature, ‘a residence in Hell and ‘hell-fire’ forever’? I love Edwin Hubbell Chapin’s statement: [From Frank Mead’s “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, [Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, Copyright MCMLXV],
“The worst effect of sin is within, and is manifest in poverty {spiritual poverty], and pain, and bodily defacement, but in the discrowned faculties, the unworthy love, the low ideal, the brutalized and enslaved spirit”. – And that ‘enslaved spirit’ is constantly brutalized by Satan himself, deepening, darkening, and distancing the “sinner” further and further away from Holy, Loving, Merciful, Caring God – the “sinners” only hope!
“Sin? AND ITS CONSEQUENCES”? Sin separates one from the love and mercy of God! The ‘sinner’s life’ is eternal separation from Holy God apart from “blood redemption” in Christ, eternal separation from “forgiveness” and “reconciliation”, eternal separation from His divine intent – “vessels of Holy Presence” and “vessels of Holy Purpose” and “Vessels of Holy Ghost Power” honoring, revealing, blessing through them the “Name above All Names – the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ”!
Proverbs 14:9-19 IS a powerful ‘warning’! “Fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is favor. [The ‘upright’? “Those who ‘LOOK UP’ to God with repentant hearts and faithful trust?”]. The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy (because he knows its fleeting, false joys, with no lasting fulfillment?). The house of the wicked will be overthrown, but the tent of the upright will flourish.
There is a way that “seems” right to a man (of ‘faithlessness’) but its end is the way of death. Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above (‘himself’).
The simple believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) every (revealed) word (of the ‘fallen’, even the devil himself!), but the prudent (the wise) considers well his steps (or, are they in “the footsteps of Christ alone”?). A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident. A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a man of wicked intentions is hated.
The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. The evil will bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.”
Where do you “stand” RIGHT NOW? In the “ways” of sinners or “THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE, THAT IS IN CHRIST ALONE”? Let’s examine, research, and “rest” in “The Gifts of God”! In Luke 11:9-13 Jesus declared: “So I SAY TO YOU, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who ASKS receives, and he who SEEKS finds, and to him who KNOCKS it will be opened.
If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!
In Acts 26:12-18 Paul recounted his encounter with the Resurrected Christ and Jesus’ explanation and invitation to His eternal presence, provisions, and plans for every true ‘born-again’ disciple “in Christ”! Paul said, While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.
And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I AM Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you FOR THIS PURPOSE, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the ‘Jewish” people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins AND an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
WHAT AN AWESOME DECLARATION! But, of course, even many “professing believers” think and state: “Well, that was for Paul, but it’s just not true of ‘all believers’!” And I say, “phony bologna”!! “In Christ”, YOU receive “forgiveness” of sins and YOU receive His “divine commission” – “I DELIVER YOU, and I SEND YOU as a minister and a witness both of the things you’ve seen and “of the things, through My Word, that I will yet reveal TO YOU!” Yes, YOU, disciple of Christ!
Do you think this is why Jesus said what He did in John 3:20-21? “For everyone practicing evil 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”! Is that what Paul spoke about when in Ephesians 2:10 he declared: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus FOR GOOD WORKS, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Before Christ’s ascension, in Luke 24:46-49, the Resurrected Christ said to His disciples then and now: “Thus it is written, and thus it was NECESSARY for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day, AND THAT repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And YOU are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
Forgiveness of sins! Resurrection Life NOW “in Christ”! THE divine commission! “You shall be My witnesses!” Really? How many “church-sitters” see themselves as ‘holy witnesses’ anointed by the Spirit to willfully, purposefully, faithfully, regularly, share their testimonies with others?
Do you remember “the song of the redeemed” out of Revelation 9b-10? “..For You (“LAMB OF GOD”) were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth,” – that’s where we are: on the earth, with His divine commission! “My witnesses, extending My kingdom, expressing My love, and proving My power!”
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, reconciled to God, birthed as “new creations”, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses, growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, examining, unveiling His eternal intent through us, and, more and more, ‘leaning not to our own understanding, but in all our ways, giving Him His rightful place’ as sovereign and sure in us and through us!
Anybody who has read any of my writings the last twenty-thirty years knows that I am a ‘fan’ of Oswald Chambers and his writings in “My Utmost For His Highest”, SO, [pps. 93-94], he wrote about Proverbs 29:18, (R.V.), “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint,” or, Holman’s Study Bible, the NKJV Edition, of the same Verse, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint”, and indulge in disobedience rather than obedience to be His witnesses!
In seeking to close this first chapter, this initial chapter, I was reminded, impressed, and urged by the Holy Spirit to include 2 Peter 3:11-18 where Peter challenged disciples then and now: “Therefore, since all these things (earthly, fleshly, manly indulgences, rules, and regulations) will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, (maybe “the high, unholy thoughts of godless men”?), and the elements (of sinful intent?) WILL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, and I had to ask, “Lord, is this ‘future’, like some think, or, presently,, even in the 21st Century, are You “dissolving what needs to be dissolved”, are You ‘melting’ what needs to be melted, and are You, with greater intensity and determination, making ‘waves’, causing ‘storms’, or simply being Yourself as the “storm-stopper”, the “Great Awakener”, the “Unceasing Redeemer”, intent on “BEING YOURSELF”?!?
That’s the Savior still being the Savior! That’s the Redeemer still being the Redeemer! That’s the Promised Messiah still coming, still witnessing, still laying down His life ‘through us’, and willfully birthing new disciples who become available ‘vessels’, and He keeps on doing what He came to do, just leaping forward to the 21st Century, being Himself, and calling out new instruments, new players, new choruses, new “born-agains”, and anointing them in the heavenly Spirit, the Holy Word, and the eternal mission!
Yes, men of “new-birth” reality, men of residence in the Living Word, men anointed in the Spirit, many consumed with His holiness, His greatness, His majestic wonderment, with minds and hearts and wills one with the message of God’s grace, mercy, and love, dead to self but alive in Him, dead to fleshly ambitions but consumed with passion in loving and saving and delivering a ‘Hell-bent’ rebellious world, and ushering in the Kingdom of God on earth!
“GOD, HELP US IN THE 21st CENTURY! WE NEED YOUR NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH, HERE, NOW, WHERE CHRIST REIGNS, TO YOUR HONOR, YOUR GLORY, AND YOUR PRAISE!”
CHAPTER TWO
“FAITHLESS ASSAULTS OR FAITHFUL ASPIRATIONS?”
An assault is defined as a violent attack with the intent of doing ultimate harm or serious damage, and certainly the opposition against Christ Jesus was intended to end His “assertions”, but three days after His crucifixion there was “The Resurrection”, eternally cementing the “Faithful Aspirations” of reconciliation, restoration, re-birth, and eternal recovery!
In the midst of hyperbolic exaggerations relating to “Redemptive Faith”, there are the true “soldiers of the Cross” who stand firm and faithful in the midst of humanity’s assaults against “Holy Truth”! In fact, across America today, whether in institutionalized universities or in the streets of illegal intruders or in the hearts and minds of truly ‘faithless’ people, you find a strong, vocal, demonic opposition to Eternal Truth.
Certainly you see and sense those clouds of terror, clouds of triviality, clouds of fleshly treason against the One True Living God, with God’s calling to the servants of “Faithful Aspirations” to stand firm, faithful, and fully clothed in His garments of true salvation, healing, and deliverance!
It’s the day and time and opportunity of remaining faithful in the very center of ‘faithless opposition’, living in submission and obedience to the King of kings and Lord of lords, or choosing, much like a majority of religious pretenders today, to live as consumers or confessors of religious fabrications, rather than converted and re-born in the “dress” of Eternal Truth in Christ!
Are you familiar with the word ‘pretense’? The Random House College Dictionary of 1975, by Random House,Inc., describes ‘pretense’ as “feigning, make-believe, a false show of something, insincere or false profession”, as one who professes but never possesses the reality of “new birth, born-again,” or truly “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb,” or biblical “At-One-Ment” with God Himself!
It was so interesting that my wife, Sue, shared with me, I believe, a “Facebook” post from a Dave Brat, dated February 20, 2016, about Judge Antonin Scalia, former Supreme Court justice who died sometime during the past six months to a year ago (?) – unsure. Brat said of Scalia, “He was a profound thinker with a simple faith, who urged Christians to live fearlessly.” His quote by Judge Scalia, “God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools… and He has not been disappointed…If I have brought any message today, it is this: ‘Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.’” [That’s Justice Antonin Scalia, 1936-2016.].
“Faithless Assaults” are unmerciful, untruthful, unfounded, and sadly reveal how far and to what extent unbelief blinds, corrupts, and poisons many minds and hearts. “Faithless Assaults” are the “bad fruits” of godless lives, insulated through demonic activity, and though godless lives are normal, natural, and necessary, for them, in firmly establishing godless foundations to lives, families, the ‘fellowship of the fallen’, and their futures, they live and promote boisterously, “Who needs God?”, as their declaration of independence!
A “sophisticated world” today? But my question is, ‘has it ever changed’? I hate to be the one to tell you, but it’s been a “sophisticated world” from Adam and Eve to our senseless world today in most nations and peoples with both perilous times and perilous people who firmly believe they don’t need a “savior”! Paul described fallen humanity in his day and ours when in 2 Timothy 3:1-7 he wrote:
“But know this, that in the last days [of historic Judaism] perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Just how descriptive do you find those words of ‘yesterday’ for Today? Are there “Faithless Assaults” that are operative today across this modern world? Sadly, some believers see the “gift of salvation” as the “road of deliverance” from any trouble, torment, or even testing, when our Lord clearly said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” And, in Psalm 50:15, wise David wrote of Holy God testifying to His own people, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
“Faithless Assaults” are troubles that can lead to torments that become testings as to whether or not we live in biblical trust or simply “try your best to overcome.” I’m sure this is why Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:11-12, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places.”
“Faithless Assaults”? I find Paul’s writings in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 so illuminating as to a believer’s wrestling with “thorns in the flesh.” He said, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
But, as in Jesus’ day, so even today, He still says: Matthew 17:17, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” And you’ll remember the context: “And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour.”
Sadly, a modern-day culture thrives on faithlessness, perversity, and satisfaction with the deplorable, the darkened, the demonic, and the devil himself! What was true in Timothy’s day is just as true today when we hear Paul instructing Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “Now the Spirit [the Holy Spirit] expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…”
But it’s not only a modern-day culture in the world that experiences “faithless assaults” – it includes the “church-world”! In Acts 20:25-30 Paul said, “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I KNOW THIS, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.”
And “many savage wolves” are still devouring, deceiving, and destroying human lives, both in the natural realm and the spiritual realm! Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her writing entitled “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,” [J.E.Beale, Book Department, The Fancy Fair, Bournemouthe], wrote “The Soul’s Travailling. And as I read Browning, I wondered if her heart truly broke over “the mournful breath we name our souls! (Self-spoilt!), ‘traveling vainly’ to the grave”!
Psalm 2 begins with what I personally entitled “The Realness of Rebellion.” Verses 1-3 says, “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.” And the next verse 4, speaks of “The Rareness of Laughter,”, “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision;” oh, but then Verses 5-6, God speaks of “His Revelation of Compassion”, “Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion,” with Verses 7-9 upholding “The Richness of Relationship and The Declaration of Sonship” with His ‘birthed followers’! “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.” And Holy God closed out His commissioning in Verses 10-12!
“Now therefore, be wise (“rest in His Light, His Word, His instructions”), O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are those who put their trust in Him.”
Are you aware that Christless, faithless, rebellious lives, though vocal in “faithless assaults,” will one day stand before Holy God at the Judgment Seat of Christ to give an account of their “faithless assaults”? In Romans 14:9-12 Paul wrote: “For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all attend before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God."
In fact, in Matthew 7:21-23 the Lord Jesus declared, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
Let your world know it, let your family and friends know it, let your neighbors know it: “Accounting Day before the Lord Jesus for every human being is clearly announced: Judgment Day has come – were you one of faithless assaults or the faithful aspiration of “complete in Christ alone”?”
No more faithless assaults, but now, commitment, surrender, repentance and faith in Christ’s finished work, and our lives now offered as lives of faithful aspiration in what He did for us, in our place, suffering, bleeding, dying, then resurrected to the glory of Holy God, because death could not defeat Him, death could not destroy Him, death could not separate Him from Holy God, which, no doubt, is why Paul asked: “Death where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?”
I hate to be the one to tell you, but B.B. McKinney’s hymn, back in the 1920’s about “The Wayfaring Pilgrim” was intended for “good”, but overlooked the “Lord’s finished work” in all true, born-again, Spirit-filled, divinely-commissioned witnesses!
I’m not “poor” – I’ve been ‘enriched’ with “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”! I’m not a “way-faring pilgrim” – I’m a “blood-bought, heavenly birthed son or daughter of the eternal family of God – now, not ‘someday’, now,” not in ‘the sweet by and by’! I’ve been ‘crowned’ and sovereignly ‘commissioned’ NOW – not when I get to heaven! It’s not ‘when I die, I drop the cross of self-denial’ – when I repent, I have already accepted ‘crucified with Christ’, finished with the “old man of sin in me” NOW, not “in the sweet by and by”!
I’ve “read my title clear” and ‘already, in Christ’, I’ve “bid farewell to every fear”, and Now, I rejoice in His “finished work”! I have been “re-born”, I have been “in-dwelt by His Resurrection Life”, I have been ‘indwelt by His Holy Spirit’, I have been anointed in His fruit, His gifting, His promises, and I live in “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ” NOW!
What did Jude write in Jude 24-25? So interesting, so illuminating, so inspiring! “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” But especially Verse 1 where Jude said: “Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Christ Jesus.”
And I want you to know that I personally was inspired and enriched by the Holman Study Bible editors who defined in their introduction to the Book of Jude the “Circumstances of Writing”: They said, “Jude called himself ‘a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James” (v.1). The James to whom Jude referred is not the son of Zebedee. He can be ruled out of consideration because he was martyred at an early date. (Acts 12:1-2). The James to whom Jude refers to is surely the well-known leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:13-21; Gal. 2:9). THIS IS SIGNIFICANT, for this James was the brother of Jesus (Mark 6:3). If Jude was a brother of James, then he was also a brother of Jesus. Rather than call himself Jesus’ brother out-right, Jude chose humbly to designate himself as Christ’s servant.” What a lesson to learn, what an attitude of mind and heart to be inspired by!
Do you think it might be that, by his life choices which often may be seen as “pride”, that Jude humbled himself, desiring to be known as Jesus’ “servant” – not a human, fleshly brother?
This may be why 1 Corinthians 10:31 gets the “high-level mark” of true disciples: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” AMEN?
CHAPTER THREE
OPTIONAL EXPRESSIONS OF LIFE – HUMAN OR DIVINE, FLESHLY OR SPIRITUAL, TEMPORARY OR ETERNAL?”
A life bleak or blessed, a life scarred with sin and the old sin nature, or a life conceived by the Holy Spirit, a life trying or trusting, a life programmed by the world, the flesh, and the devil, or a life purposed, promised, and spiritually prosperous in God’s Kingdom because of “new births”, or a life experiencing, exposed to, exasperated by, encapsulated by fears, anxieties, worries, doubts or a life enraptured with, enduring, exciting, and exhilarating in the joy of Jesus’ indwelling, overcoming, victorious Resurrection Presence?
What is your life? Is it the life in Christ Jesus with a peace that passes all understanding or is it a life of spiritual death of the guilty, a life of sinful flesh to offer as best one can, or the “Life in Christ” graciously granted in victorious, overcoming, rejoicing- in- Jesus hearts with symphonic Hallelujahs and glorious praise and thanksgiving from a new-born heart?
A ‘worldly life’ sustained by physical bread alone and the best ‘fallen flesh’ has to nibble on without an ounce of true repentance or pure sustenance or purified heart and mind, void of the Holy Spirit, void of the “fruit” of heavenly love, eternal peace, and life-changing joy that never subsides, wanes, or falters, is a life, though mentally religious but never “born again”, that tries to imitate, even pretend, and attempts with all flesh has to offer, but falls short of the reality of truly transformed hearts and lives by the miracle of the “new birth”!
Do you ever consider, think about, evaluate ‘God-less –living’ as empty, self-centered, mindless, purposeless, unfulfilling, unrewarding in its long haul, or a life filled with the manifestations of Holy Presence in Christ?
Do you remember Jesus saying, “Come to Me, learn of Me, rest in Me, and you’ll find “rest” that is eternal and blessing for your soul” that truly is indescribable?
Is your life based on fleshly ‘fairy’ tales or a life blessed on the divine, eternal, revelation of the Christ of Resurrection Life, Resurrection power, and Resurrection Hope?
The enemy of the “God-Life”, the devil, deceives, entraps, blinds men to the “Christ-in-you-Life” of Holy presence, Holy purpose, and Holy power, with ‘imitation’, ‘non-redemptive,’ ‘fleshly intents alone,’ without any consideration of the miracle of “new birth,” the blessing of “Christ-in-you,” or the fulfillment of divinely-ordained, eternal intent, or sovereignly, ordained, and graciously given “Oneness” with the divine nature in and through Christ!
It was Philip James Bailey, in his “Festus, A Country Town,” who once wrote: “We live in deeds, not years; in thought (or Truth) not breath: In feelings, not figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life’s but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end of all things – God.”
What is YOUR life? “Hell’s bells” or “the Joy-Juice of Jesus’ Presence”? A fleshly flame revealing failing, futile living or the pure flame of the Eternal Son and Sun of Life within us, the Crucified, Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords?
Life is not a ladder finitely stepped – never has been, never will be – Life was extraordinarily given to give men personal choice of ‘flesh-life’ or the “Divine Life” – life without God or life in Him – not fleshly dreams, finite feelings of sensual pleasures, or faltering feelings of human successes, but a life, not of temporary thoughts of pleasure and satisfactions, but one of eternal peace, resurrection presence, and heavenly joys!
Is your life the “bondage” of your ‘old- as- ADAM’ SIN NATURE OR THE “BLESSING” of LIVING IN, BY, and FOR THE LIFE OF ANOTHER, EVEN CHRIST ALONE THE HOPE OF GLORY?
A man who lives only to satisfy his Adam’s original nature, his flesh, his old, ancient sin nature, his selfish ambitions, is a man who never discovers perfect peace in Christ, selfless surrender to the sovereignty of God, or complete liberty and freedom and desire to honor, bless, exalt, and please the Savior, the Blessed Redeemer only!?!
A life that is satisfied with ‘flesh’ (the old sin nature), that knows no ‘self-denial’, that accepts the devil’s ‘slant’ that ‘You Can Sin And Not Die, That Thinks “devotion to God” is unnecessary, that’s been deceived by the powers of darkness, that loving the world and its lust of the flesh is not evil, never submitting to the reality that THAT world of idiotic, fleshly foolishness, is fading, failing, unfulfilling, and that the lust of it is death constantly just warmed over, and is passing away into a dark abode of demon presence, insisting it’s ‘OK’ – and that’s a life ‘OVERCOMING’ ?– just not overcoming by the blood of the Lamb?
You’ve heard it: “Live while you live – satisfy the passions of your old sin nature, realize you are your own, do as you please, never silencing the demons, and you “just go to Hell” – “it’s OK” – “everybody does it”; while that’s true for the most – it’s not true for God’s redeemed, blood-bought remnant – they find the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life!
How sad that many never come to know the Life that is “in Christ”, never know the true pleasures that never fade that Jesus brings, that never experience the peace that passes all understanding, that never knows “death to self” and “Life in the Savior”, or “death to the fallen nature” and Life in the fullness of the divine nature, or the “death of bad fruit” and not the Life of “the fruit of the Spirit”!
Are you aware of the man-made philosophy that ‘best effort here’ is worthy of life in the “here-after”, that “fleshly best ensures life forever”, that “trusting is good for humanity,” even if God says trusting in Him alone is your only hope?
“Live while you live as your ‘flesh’ dictates” or “Live in Me alone” as Jesus declared? “Live while you live for the pleasures that satisfy your fleshly tendencies” or is it “Live for the purpose of honoring the God who made you, lost you, but bought you with a price, even the blood, innocent blood, of the precious Lamb of God?”
How many do you know who see “life is living it to the fullest for yourself as YOU see it for yourself,” or is it “Life is living as God desires, defines, declares, and delivers me to through a repentant heart, fully trusting and receiving forgiveness, and the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Have you ever heard it? “A man’s ingress into his own world is knowing, satisfying, and promoting himself with all due diligence”, without any consideration of the eternal purpose of God of ordination as a vessel or container of divine life and holy presence? It’s not ingress in ‘self’ but INDWELT by Resurrection Life in Christ alone!
Facts of human existence are not as Fosdick once spoke of as ‘loose types with many meanings,” but human existence was intended before time began to be habitations of Holy Presence as “temples” of a loving Lord and Savior, but many have fallen victims desiring the “Las Vegas’ residences of self-indulgence, unbelief, and fleshly rebellion”!
Can you even ‘see’ in fallen humanity the reality of “chaotic disarrangement” and “self-centered”, self-serving, cynical or godless arrangements, fleshly affirmations and loyalties, and descents into hellish, hollow, and ‘holey’ attempts at life in the flesh alone ,but wanting spiritual existence on their own terms? That’s nothing more than fragments of existence offered as one’s best but never aligning or becoming one with God’s intent! But in 2 Corinthians 4:7-15, (Is this the testimony, not simply of your existence but God’s Indwelling?),
“But we have this treasure in earthern vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed (at times), but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”
Do you see it? Do you sense it? Have you settled it? Are you aware of it? There is the reality of one’s “best”, the “fleshly unfulfilled”, or God’s “best”, the spiritually re-born, indwelt, regenerated, Spirit-anointed, and “blessed” with the Resurrection Presence of the Living Lord, OR there is the unending evidences of the godless OR the eternal workings of Christ in the “Spirit-Man”.
Yes, there is “the sufferings of the saints” who ARE SUSTAINED BY THE SAVIOR, and who know both toughness in determination to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, and at the same time are tender followers who show others the way of Redeeming grace, purpose, and power! And though most saints are “forgotten by the world”, they live “fulfilled, blessed, contented, peaceful lives in and through Christ alone”! They are prayers, prepared, and equipped by the Word and the Spirit!
Do you comprehend “fleshly lives as containers of man’s best” or “spiritual lives birthed by the Spirit as recipients and containers and vessels of God’s best, the Living Christ, crucified, resurrected, ascended, reigning, and available to any repentant heart willing to be the temple of the Eternal Christ”?
In ‘fallen flesh” the “best” of human existence is only ‘variations’ and ‘shadows of the True’, but only ‘IN CHRIST’ is there the ‘victory over sin and death and emptiness and meaninglessness’, when only in the flesh is there the rewards of God’s enemy; but ‘IN CHRIST’ is the reaping and receiving of everlasting Life in Him! Christ-less lives are “oil-less lamps” with no ‘Light” that shines forth God’s glory.
Christ-less lives are ‘fragmented’ left-overs of ‘what could have been’ rather than Christ-Indwelt lives, fully revealing a God-ordained, and God-birthed Resurrection Presence!
Fleshly lives at the human-level “best” is only a cheap imitation of illumined, divine, resurrection presence of eternal life, eternal hope, and eternal fruit.
Free men? That’s not ‘freedom’ to do as one “damn well pleases”, but spiritual freedom in the Spirit to honor Christ alone! Only “in Christ” are men truly liberated to honor Holy God!
Most men, apart from God, arise each morning thinking, “What will really make ‘my day’ and ‘pump my flesh’ to historic levels?”, rather than, “What will honor God and exalt Christ through me to the world around me?”
A mortal man is only committed and satisfied in his self-complacency, his self-promotion, and his self- indulgence , but the “Christ-man” desires, longs for, driven by, and holds onto “honoring Christ alone, the hope of glory through me, as a vessel!”
Everything that promotes ‘flesh’, even ‘flesh at its best’, gives honor to the ‘old sin-nature’, turns a blind eye to the will, the Word, and purposes of Holy God, and is a clear exposure of one’s spiritual nakedness and his ‘egression’ willfully further away from God, and not his willful ‘ingression’ in Him by “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ alone.”
Misspent lives apart from the presence of Christ are like ‘empty glasses or vessels’ rather than residences of Christ in them as His Holy Temple!
Useless living is ‘born in sin’ with no desire to be reconciled to God, just indifferent to His Word and will, with no desire or longing or fleshly impulse to reconciliation or understanding of His Word or anything different from ‘fleshly satisfaction’ or even a thought about ‘birthed in Christ’ through repentance and faith! Yes, millions live without any desire to be “citizens of the Kingdom of God”, living consumed in promoting ‘self’ , not understanding the rebellious attitude that is the ‘death-nail’ to eternal purpose. Personal imagination and personal intent is not divine life nor divine presence nor divine power, but simply “best of the flesh” honoring “self-made men” of temporary existence, fading fame, tainted rewards, and terrible, eternal residences apart from the God who loved them, wanted them, but lost them by their lusts, their stubbornness, indifference, and mindlessness and heartlessness to His good, acceptable, and perfect will –“best effort” or “fallen flesh” is acceptable to them, and not even the Crucified and Resurrected Christ matters to them!
It’s not even ‘how long you lived’, but “in Whom you lived”, not the “best of self-effort existence in the sands of life” but “the solid foundation” of the True Rock who is Christ alone.
Do YOU fathom, do you understand, do you comprehend lives that are nothing more than ‘helpless pieces’ on “Life’s Game-board” with no submission or open door in them to the True Author of Everlasting Life, Purpose, or Divine Moves on their ‘play-boards’ of one’s earthly existence? Apart from Jesus it’s emptiness, vainness, personal game-playing – not the unveiling and revealing and revelation of Eternal Intent!
Life ‘found’ for one’s self apart from the Savior and Lord is a life guaranteed of eternal loss and one of serious desperation and consequences, but life “FOUND” in Christ for His honor, His glory, His praise, will stand eternally before Holy God, constantly reflecting, radiating, revealing Jesus’ everlasting Presence! It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his “A Psalm of Life,” who wrote: “Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal,” but I’m not sure if he even grasped, “Life is eternal” – and it’s either ‘in your best’ or Jesus’ “Resurrection Life and Holy, Resurrected Presence”; yes, there is life that continues beyond the grave and Hell with all its demons, devil, and unbelievers, but with the “graced saints” graciously living in God’s gift of eternal life in and through Christ’s “finished work”, there IS Heaven! Yes, Jesus Only!
Any definition of ‘life’ that has no foundation under it of honoring and glorifying Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior is ‘fruitless’, even ‘hollow religions’, ‘unregenerate church members’, or ‘temples steeped with ‘hypocrites’! But Jesus IS “the Light”, and “Jesus Only” is the ONLY UNVEILING OF LIGHT within men!
Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, Promised Messiah, IS the “Life”, the “Bread of Life”, is the “Author of LIFE” and that more abundantly, IS the “gift of God” and the only door to “eternal life”, and Paul says, “To live ‘in Christ’ is to flourish, and to die ‘in Christ’ is to gain eternal Presence and an eternal home in Heaven; life apart from Christ is a ‘vapor’ that only ‘exists’, and that ‘forever’ with flesh’s author and finisher who is the devil, but ‘in Christ’ there is victorious presence that never dies, falters or fades away in insignificance, but constantly joins Heaven’s Angels in the “Hallelujah Chorus”!
Unhappy lives or even ‘happy lives’ are not “God-blessed” or “Spirit-birthed” but just Adam-seeded, sin-natured attempts at “doing one’s best” with even totally unconcerned, misinformed, or blinded allegiance to God’s purpose in their ‘creation’. Have you ever heard someone say, “The purpose of life is just be yourself to your fullest and be happy?” when God’s intent is one being through with himself, accepting God’s judgment of his/her death with Christ as his/her only hope, and rejoicing daily in His Resurrection Presence in their repentant, redeemed, reconciled to God hearts!
It was Shakespeare, in his “Macbeth”, [Act V, sc.5.1,26], who wrote: “Life…is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” Did the prophet mention the one who says, “Peace, peace, but there is no peace?”
You do understand, you do comprehend, you have evaluated the consequences of “Godless-men, nations, individuals” who ‘try’ to live with “no need of God”! Leo Tolstoy was right on target when in his writing “The Kingdom of God,” (Chapter 12), he said: “The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God; and this can be done only by means of the acknowledgement and profession [and I, JFF, would add ‘confession’ and ‘acceptance’] of the Truth by each one of us.”
I like what Augustine said when he spoke, “Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves”! “The wages of (“my”) sin is death, but the ‘gift of God’ IS eternal life in and through Christ ONLY!” And as a result of receiving the “finished work of Christ AT THE CROSS,” resurrected to the King’s Presence, His Kingdom, and His witness in us and through us, He gives us graciously the “gift of the Holy Spirit,” and Romans 8:16 declares: “The Spirit (the Holy Spirit!) Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”
As a result of the amazing miracle of grace and the habitation of the Risen Christ within repentant hearts, and the recipients of the Holy Spirit “bearing witness in us and through us,” do you doubt, or just never informed and discipled to be led by the Holy Spirit? “The Spirit bears witness!” Is He “bearing witness” in you and through you?
I love Oswald Chambers’ explanation of “The Witness of the Spirit” in his amazing writings entitled, “My Utmost For His Highest.” (p.218). “We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, wanting the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. “Why does not God reveal Himself to me?” He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as you won’t abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself. He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses instantly to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before the reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives the witness. As soon as you abandon reasoning and argument, God witnesses to what He has done, and we are amazed at our impertinence in having kept Him waiting. If you are in debate as to whether God can deliver from sin, either let Him do it, or tell Him He cannot. Do not quote this and that person, try Matthew 11:28, – “Come unto Me.” “COME”, if you are weary and heavy laden; “ask”, if you know you are evil. (Luke 11:13).
Chambers went on to say: (p.219), “The Spirit of God witnesses to the Redemption of our Lord, He does not witness to anything else; He cannot witness to our reason. The simplicity that comes from our common-sense decisions is apt to be mistaken for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason. If we try to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder we are in darkness and perplexity. Fling it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give the witness.”
That’s so true “IF”! “If any man be in Christ, If any man is finished with his old life, old sin-nature, and his ‘fleshly ambitions’, willing ALL old things “are passed away,” then the “new-creation man”, indwelt by Resurrection Life in Christ, is then ready to “receive the Holy Spirit” to guide, direct, empower, and overflow in you and through you with, yes, “the gifts of the Spirit,” ready to reveal a redeemed, re-born, Spirit-filled, appointed, anointed witness to the glory and honor of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!
In the old American hymnal of Robert Coleman’s, published by The Broadman Press in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1933, I came across the song By Horatuis Bonar entitled “I Heard The Voice of Jesus Say.” It says:
“I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest; Lay down, you weary one, lay down your head upon My breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad; I found in Him a resting-place, And He has made me glad.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold I freely give The living water; thirsty one, Stoop down, and drink, and live.” I came to Jesus and I drank of that life-giving stream; my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s light: Look unto Me, your morn shall rise, And all your days be bright.” I looked to Jesus and found in Him my Star, my Sun; And in that light of life I’ll walk Till all my journey’s done.”
Old man – “new man”; flesh – Spirit; the sinner’s man – His saint; the Undone – in Him a “finished work” complete in Christ lacking nothing; grit, grease, garbage, and gall – “in Christ” is grace, victorious virtue, “fresh springs”, and perfect “God-Likeness”; empty, insignificant, earthly dwelling of ‘human flesh’ – “in Christ” is eternal Life, Holy Presence, and All-Sufficient grace; ‘flesh-poverty? – how about “enriched in Him, heirs, sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, co-laborers in the Savior’s eternal, redemptive work, recipients of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, blessed with “amazing assurance”, divine anointings, holy callings, the natural crucified but resurrection Life amplified, Kingdom living and resident address, Kingdom presence, Kingdom power, Kingdom privileges, and Kingdom testimonies, visions and dreams, and Holy anointings in fulfilling His good and acceptable and purposeful will, citizens of the eternal Kingdom, members of the divine Family, appointees “in Christ” to the mission of world-wide “redemption” through our testimonies of “the blood of the Lamb and His Resurrection Presence in every “born-again” life! “Rise up, O men of God!”
CHAPTER FOUR
“MOUNTAIN PRAYERS – MOUNTAINOUS PRIVILEGES”
You’ll remember, no doubt, that in Luke 18:1 Jesus spoke to His disciples after the Pharisees had asked Him about the coming of the Kingdom of God, and said to them [and us!], Then He spoke a parable to them, that “MEN ALWAYS OUGHT TO PRAY AND NOT LOSE HEART, SAYING…”, and He illuminated the importance, the necessity, the faithful ‘heart-cries’ unto God, like the prayers of desperation of the widow who knew that in her life there was no hope except in the loving, caring, merciful God, who gives His kingdom-rule and presence, like “little children” who trust, lean, and depend upon Him ALONE!
Do you realize, comprehend, or discern why many “church-goers” are like many “American voters”, confused with true allegiance to “religion over relationship,” or “pretense over possession”, or a “fleshly substitute over the spiritual reality of you ‘must be born again’”, or “surrender to Christ’s Lordship”, or “yielded-ness to Resurrection Presence”?
In my Random House Collegiate Dictionary (1975, Random House Inc.), I read about “mountain-sickness” and wondered if that is illustrating many poor, praying, professing disciples of the Lord Jesus! It says: “Mountain sickness” is defined as: “a condition characterized by difficult breathing, headache, nausea etc. caused by the RAREFACTION OF THE AIR AT HIGH ALTITUDES.” “RAREFACTION? – “extremely high or elevated; lofty; exalted: rarefied thinking, understanding, or rarefied art”!!!
Have YOU ever heard that “prayer” or “the wings of prayer carrying one high and far” – even into the presence of Holy God and His Throne”? In Matthew 5:1, as Jesus saw the masses, the multitudes following Him, “He WENT UP ON A MOUNTAIN…” like, Exodus 19:3? “And Moses went UP to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, Saying…”! “Mountainous Experiences”? Mountainous experiences like “prayer”?
Several months ago I read Eric Metaxas’ book, “Miracles”, [Copyright@ 2014 by Metaxas Media,LLC], and in his ‘preface’ before his own Introduction, he quoted G.K. Chesterton, from his book “Orthodoxy”, saying: “But my belief that miracles have happened in human history is not a mystical belief at all; I believe in them upon human evidences as I do in the discovery of America.” Do I believe in the “miracles” of prayer? Just as assuredly as I believe in the historical discovery of our great nation”. Chesterton went on to say, “That is, you either deny the main principle of democracy, or you affirm the main principle of materialism – the abstract impossibility of a miracle. You have a perfect right to do so; but in that case you are the dogmatist. It is we Christians who accept all actual evidence – it is you rationalists who refuse actual evidence being constrained to do so by your creed.” [Would that be the “creed of self-actualization” apart from the need of any divine intervention?]. Chesterton went on: “But I am not constrained by any creed in the matter, and looking impartiality into certain miracles of medieval and modern times, I have come to the conclusion that they occurred.”
Have YOU come to the conclusion in the 21st Century that Holy God is still the God who hears and answers your prayers, with miracles or without one in your journey?
Oh, and then, in his “Introduction”, Eric Metaxas wrote, “Most readers will consider this volume a departure from my previous oeuvre, [ ‘the works of a writer, painter, or the like, taken as a whole,’], (Random House College Dictionary, 1975, Random House Inc.), and from my recent biographies it is certainly a departure. In fact, the subjects of those books, William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, do not seem to have had any experiences that could be described as miraculous, at least not in the sense of that word as it is used in this book. Their deeply inspiring lives – their extraordinary actions and accomplishments – were manifestly fueled by their passionate faith in the God of the Bible, yet we have no record of that God speaking to them or revealing Himself to them in any ways that would qualify for mention in a book like this SO perhaps we should let their exemplary lives stand as evidence that one can have a world-changing and even saintly life of faith without miraculous experiences,” which I too believe to be true, but not apart from the “prayer-life and ministry”, which should be the testimony of every true disciple!
In fact, please remember Christ Jesus, in Matthew 5:1, “went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him,” and He shared the blessed “Beatitudes”, but went on in Matthew 6:5-13, saying, “And WHEN YOU PRAY, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward ( what’s that? “seen of men” but not by God!). But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. [Isn’t that amazing to you? Jesus acknowledged that ‘heathen’ pray, even though with vain repetitions!]. For they THINK that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (Satan). For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.”
Do YOU understand, grasp, and live by the inevitable, unceasing, empowering ‘heart-cry’ of the truly transformed? Psalm 145 is David’s song of prayer and praise to the Holy God of majesty and indescribable, unending, deserving worship, and never-ending availability to the humble, needy, yielded vessel of true faith and blood redemption! It says:
“I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever, (just not today?) (No!). Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable (Maybe even “indescribable”?). One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy.
The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. [Are YOU one of His works?]. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints (those “set apart” to His honor and praise!) shall bless You. They SHALL SPEAK OF THE GLORY OF YOUR KINGDOM, and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. {Under God’s “Heaven on earth, what have YOU been waiting for, looking for, or hoping for ‘someday’ out there in “the sweet by and by”, when the Word declares His kingdom rule is for here and now in all true believers’ lives, whether they know it or not!!!}
King David went on in Verses 13-21, Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord upholds (even) all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down (ever been bowled over, bowed down by “tribulations” that Jesus said you would experience in your world, but, you realize, you know, you are not to “Lean to your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him”, giving Him room to be Himself, in you and through you”! David went on:
The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in ALL HIS WAYS, gracious in ALL HIS WORKS. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and save them.
THE LORD PRESERVES ALL WHO LOVE HIM, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His holy name forever and ever. “ { And “all flesh” praises Him forever, even if it’s while bound in Hell!}.
Psalm 145 declares: 1) The personal expression of praise and extolling God the King! Verse one.
2) It is the perennial occupation of the “redeemed”! Verse two: “Every day I will bless You, and praise Your name forever and ever.” Really?
3) It is the powerful overture of symphonic praise! Verses 3, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.”
4) It is to be a “passed-on priority”! Verse 4, “One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”
5) It is passion for His majestic ways! Verses 5-6, “I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness.”
6) It is poured-out, overflowing, abundant declarations (even in YOUR prayer to Him, “The sacred instinct, the ‘natural’ spiritual state of one redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!”) Verses 7-9, “They shall utter the memory of Your goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness: “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.”
7) It is the inevitable heart-cry of the transformed, the royal revenue of a redeemed, regenerate heart, the holy heritage of hearts helped by Him, and the continuing, on-going, eternal ministry and thanksgiving and “hallelujahs” of the “blood-bought”, the “joint-heirs” of God “in Christ”!
Psalm 149:1-2 declares: “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints. Let Israel (the people of God, the ‘remnant’), rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.”
“Mountain Prayers – Mountainous Privileges!” As Eric Metaxas started his book, early in the first chapter, (p.13), he stated, “It is vital that we do not have a “Disney” theology that only says “Believe!” – one that is ‘merely’ about childlike wonder – because if we aren’t careful with what we believe in, we will end up believing in anything”. How true!
But, at times, “professing believers” live in a ‘spiritual’ (?) state of blindness, even thoughtlessness, and often times even hyper-critical of God “for my present circumstances – where are You, God?”, and, with Metaxes, see themselves in “thoughtless gullibility on the one hand, and flippant, dismissive cynicism on the other”, while “prayers” are steeped in prayer-faithfulness, even IF it’s a long-time coming!
Are you aware of the humblest servant, the ‘least’ gifted, the unknown faithful witness of “amazing grace”, being used by Holy God to exalt, exemplify, explain, and interpret the Living Jesus through their ‘unglazed’ but “graced” walk of true discipleship? Do YOU discern, witness, and are heart-broken because of so much “pretense” apart from “faithful practice” and “faithful seeking” and “faithful proclamation and privilege of”, yes, “sharing Christ Jesus with others”? Is there such a thing as “biblical, redemptive, life-changing faith” that is “salt and light” to the unredeemed, ‘lost’, alienated and separated from God individuals, and, yes, even “dead religions” and “dying, though professing, godless nations”?
From “the mountain” our Lord and Savior was led to the Cross! Yes! “In the world you will have troubles – but, be assured, as I have overcome through prayer and faith in My Father’s finished work, even so you, trusting disciples, will walk through the valleys of the very shadows of death into the “mountainous privilege” of relationship, intimacy, blessing, and fulfillment and finishing of the redemptive work He is doing in you and through you!” Glory
B.B. McKinney, in 1929, wrote the chorus, “Over the Line”, which says, “Over the line, Over the line, Step over the line to Jesus; Out of your night, into the light, Step over the line to Jesus”; and there is “the line” between ‘darkness and light’, between ‘life or death,’ between “best efforts” and “Blessed Assurances”!
“Mountain Prayers – Mountainous Privileges”! Have you ever said: “Father-God, WHY am I here?” How profound, personal, praise-worthy, was the prayer of Christ Jesus in Matthew 6: 9-10, as He taught the disciples then and now, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
YOUR prayers should be, must be, will be, the seeds of sowing for the ‘heart of God’ to find fertile fields through our available lives! And as Phillip Brooks once said, “Prayer is not laying hold of God’s reluctance, but (us) taking hold of God’s willingness”! Glory!
In fact, as we pray, as we search the Scriptures, as we witness the powerful testimony of our Lord and Savior, as we read dynamic testimonies of our overcoming “fathers of the faith” and “mothers of the mission” and “sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of the walk of faith”, we see “prayer-warriors” overcoming, “prayer-warriors” empowering the ‘saints’, “prayer- warriors” celebrating “the promises” and “the privileges” and even “the paths” Holy God directed them to walk upon and the fires, even, that He brought them through! Do you believe Romans 8:28 is as valid today as it was when Paul wrote it? Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that ALL THINGS work together FOR GOOD to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose,” going on to say in the very next verse that we were “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Do you remember Paul writing to the church at Colossae and us about our “Mountainous Privileges”? Colossian 1:15-23 declares, “He (Christ Jesus) IS the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. ALL THINGS WERE CREATED THROUGH HIM AND FOR HIM. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, THAT IN ALL THINGS HE MAY HAVE THE PREEMINENCE”!
I challenge YOU to consider: “Does Christ Jesus HAVE PREEMINENCE IN YOU, IN YOUR MARRIAGE, IN YOUR FAMILY, IN YOUR BUSINESS, IN YOUR STATE, NATION, OR WORLD, AND ESPECIALLY YOUR PRAYER-MINISTRY?”
I do not know Samuel Henry Price. I came across a statement he once made, found in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” [edited & compiled by Frank S. Mead, and Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey]. He wrote: “The world is full of faces, black with anger, green with envy and red with shame, which could be made radiantly white with holiness and spirituality aglow by the transfiguring power of prayer.”
Dare I say, “enough of prayerless disciples, enough of prayerless preachers, enough of prayerless leaders wherever they reside”!?! Yet, how ‘the dark cloud of prayerlessness’ seems to ‘hang’ over lives, families, churches, states, and nations! Yes, passionate ‘pray-ers’ and prayers unleash divine willingness, not reluctance! Prayers open the “flood-gates” of divine willingness and sovereign desires and holy ambitions in lives, churches, cities, states, nations, whether political, social, or spiritual!
In Colossians 4:2-4 Paul wrote this challenging word to the Colossians and us: “Continue EARNESTLY in prayer, BEING VIGILANT in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains (imprisoned for the faith!), that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” Is that word ‘ought”, yes, our own “holy mandate” and “sovereign commission” as “ambassadors for Christ”? Without a single doubt! Every believer, every disciple, every servant of Christ, every man, woman, child of faith, are Commissioned by Christ Himself to “pray without ceasing” and “persevere in endurance” to touch our world with sovereign grace, mercy, and love, as WE “pray them into the kingdom”!
Do you believe it? “If God created the world, and He did, can He raise the ‘spiritually dead’ to “life everlasting” in and through Christ Jesus”? Dare I tell you? Believe I will: “Faith in Christ Jesus, because of intercessory prayers, births “new-born” lives into the eternal kingdom of God in Christ, and “they” are the “pray-ers” interceding for “world redemption”! They lay hold of the horns of the altar, and they won’t let go!
CHAPTER FIVE
“IT IS DONE – IT IS FINISHED”
In John 17:1-5 Christ Jesus prayed to the Father, lifting up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
The hour that came in the life of the Son of God, on earth, birthed in the Virgin Mary, cared for by Mary and Joseph for many years, watched over by Father-God and the army of angels appointed and anointed by Holy God, did “the appointed hour” come, having been established before the world had even been created, that God, through the “Son”, would invade this world to reconcile a rebellious world unto Himself? Of course He did!
Not only, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” but before its beginning, Holy God saw the “Fall” and determined “The Fall’s” reconciliation to Holy God through the sacrifice of God’s only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!
And IF God did it for Adam and Eve, if God did it for a Moses or a prophet, if God did it for all of fallen humanity, was it just simply for them alone in the past, or is there “a finished Work”, an “It is done” for every birthed individual past, present, or future?
In Acts 10:34-43 Peter declared: “In truth I perceive THAT GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, PREACHING PEACE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS – HE IS LORD OF ALL – that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging Him on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness, that through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
But a “fallen world”, without an awareness of the need of “reconciliation” to Holy God, will manufacture, invent, substitute, all kinds of human inventions to seek to appease their guilty, alienated from, blinded, sinful hearts by multitudinous, impotent, self-assertive ways of improving, over-looking, or excusing their sinful state!
And in spite of many of fallen mankind’s ‘fleshly innovations’ of ‘spiritual disciples’(?), even man-made religious systems, God overlooked, God intervened, God proved His love for fallen mankind, through the blood sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, on Calvary’s Cross!
Do you remember God “testing” Abraham in Genesis? Follow the Word! [Genesis 22:1-18], Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Then God said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.
And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” [“We will come back to you”? “WE”? Abraham and Isaac? You mean he understood, even before the sacrifice of his son on the altar, that , though willingly offered as the sacrifice, Holy God was able to raise his son from the dead?!?].
So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.”
Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.
Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, ‘The-Lord-Will-Provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’
Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son – blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, BECAUSE YOU HAVE OBEYED MY VOICE. “
What was God’s intent in His testing of Abraham? If there is a willingness to obey, God sees the heart through which He can reveal Himself! In fact, In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said to Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”, but that was after He had said in Matthew 4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 4:23 then tells us that Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom…”. Do you know what Isaiah 52:7 says? “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaim peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”
And Abraham, and Jesus, or you as His disciple and follower and servant? Do you know about “beautiful feet”, about “proclaimers of good news and peace” and about those “who proclaim salvation”, saying, “God reigns” – will you allow Him to reign over your life, your home, your family, your business, your community, your nation? Jesus said what? “It is finished – It is done!”
FIRST, NOTICE, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S CONCERN FOR HIS CREATED WORLD! I remind you of what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 because it relates to every follower of Christ in the time period of his/her present existence in whatever nation, state, or circumstance: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; (So) that the man of god may be adequate, equipped for, (or thoroughly furnished) for every good work.”
And if that is true, and it is, then are you and I to be alerted to what Jesus has to say, not only to the Israelites in Jerusalem or the nation of Israel, but to every disciple, regardless of his present residence – the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa? What did our Lord say in Luke 21:10-28?
Then He [Christ Jesus] continued by saying to them (but not to you?), “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.
It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance (or a mouth) and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.
But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on account of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives (or souls).
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city;
Because these are days of vengeance (for the blood covenant), in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people,
And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (That’s the “Present Age” to the Advent!!).
And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among the nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, (or a flood of words), men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And THEN they will see The Son of Man Coming In a Cloud with power and great glory. “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
LOOK UP! YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWS NEAR! LOOK UP! JESUS CHRIST IS ON THE THRONE, RULING AND REIGNING, AND HIS KINGDOM HAS COME AND HIS RULE ASSURES YOU OF YOUR VICTORY IN YOUR WORLD OF TODAY! God cares about YOU, and has never taken His eyes off of you or your circumstances in your world!
SECOND, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S CARE FOR THE LOWLIEST OF MANKIND, FOR THE WORLD’S INSIGNIFICANT, FOR THE ONE NO ONE CARES ABOUT BUT GOD HIMSELF!
I think Daniel 4 was eternally sealed by the Spirit for this very point: “No unawareness of God’s Care for the most insignificant of mankind, but His care for the ‘least’, or the most well-known of all mankind?”
Daniel 4:1-17 is an amazing declaration and illuminating Word from Holy God: Nebuchadnezzar the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth: “May your peace abound!
It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me. How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.
I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream and it made me fearful; and these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.
So I gave orders to bring into my presence all the wise men of Babylon, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the conjurers, the Chaldeans, and the diviners came in, and I related the dream to them; but they could not make its interpretation known to me.
But finally Daniel came in before me, whose name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my god, and in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and I related my dream to him, saying, ‘O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream which I have seen, along with its interpretations.
Now these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed: I was looking, and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree became large and became strong, and its height reached to the sky, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.
Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches, and all living creatures fed themselves from it.
I was looking in the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed, and behold, an angelic watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven. He shouted out and spoke as follows: ‘Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit; let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches.
Yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field; and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth.
Let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let a beast’s mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him. This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers, and the decision is a command of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes, and sets it over the lowliest of men.”
King Nebuchadnezzar knew of the sovereignty of Holy God and God’s concern for the “lowliest of men”, yet a humble spirit was unknown to him, and God removed his sovereignty from His life, even though he ‘professed’.
But in Ezekial 34:31 Holy God declared that days were coming when He would establish a “new covenant” – and we know that “new covenant” was the blood covenant through the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, Emmanuel, which means “God with us”, not like the old covenant which the Israelites willingly broke, even though they’d entered ‘marriage’ with Him.
Jeremiah gave us even a clearer picture of this “new covenant”. Jeremiah 31:31-34 says: “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know Me, FROM THE LEAST OF THEM to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and THEIR SIN I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”
How is that? BECAUSE YOU AND YOUR OLD SIN NATURE WERE “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”, PUT TO DEATH, AND YOU THROUGH REPENTANCE AND FAITH BECAME THE RECIPIENT OF RESURRECTION LIFE, RESURRECTION POWER, AND RESURRECTION HOPE! Through the blood of the Lamb, from the “least” to the greatest, new life has come!
THIRD, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S COMPASSION FOR THE LONELIEST OF THE ALONE! Ecclesiastes 4:7-12 is a powerful, piercing, heart-wrenching explanation of individuals who, yes, more than not, CHOOSE to walk through life alone, unaware of the Greatest Friend the lonely have ever known! It says:
Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun: There is one alone, without companion: he has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, nor is his eye satisfied with riches. But he never asks, ‘For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?’ This also is vanity and a grave misfortune.
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep him warm; but how can one be warm alone? [Insert! How many ‘alone’ people have crossed your path and you’ve witnessed their ‘cold’ nature?]. Verse 12, Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Who is the third cord in the two-fold relationship of friend to friend or husband to wife or wife to husband or parent to child or child to parent? Consider that two-fold union plus the presence of the Resurrected, Reigning Christ Jesus!
Consider even Jesus Himself! Even his intimate disciples left Him & He stood alone often, yet He said in John 8: 16b, “…for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me,” and in Verse 18 The Lord Jesus said, “I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.”
You do not have to walk through life alone! God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit has “knocked on your heart’s door before and still does now”! Revelation 3:18-22 says, Jesus speaking, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
There’s an interesting verse in Jeremiah 49:31 where the Lord says, “Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely,” says the Lord, which has neither gates no bars, dwelling alone.” Dare I tell you that the man rich in himself with his personal determination of wealth in himself without God, living in a false security state of mind, dwelling alone, and God says, “That’s the man I love, that’s the man I want to be One with, The loneliest of the alone – I love him, I seek him, I find him, and I say to that lonely man, – Matthew 11:28-30 –Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
FOURTH, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S COMPASSION FOR THE ‘LEAST-SENSING ‘ INDIVIDUAL! To say, like some, “Your God doesn’t care”, is without a doubt a senseless assertion, but in a time of great stress, even men like David, could complain, (Psalm 142:3-5), “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; NO ONE CARES FOR MY SOUL.”
But then, at least King David, had the saneness and senseness of “I cried out to You, O Lord”; I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” But there are ‘senseless’ individuals whose hearts, minds, and brains are totally dead to the compassion and care of Holy God!
There are times in life’s pilgrimage when affliction deadens some’s ‘faith’, troubles and temptations harden their hearts, disappointments, rejections, betrayals, a serious sickness, a horrific betrayal of wedding vows or betrayal of what seemed to be ‘a true friendship’, hardens some hearts and lives, and they never consider “God’s compassion” for the sin-bound, the troubled, the lonely, or the fearful – they just stiffen in their dumb-foundedness of His love, grace, and mercy. Perplexity becomes their ‘cry’ rather than redemptive faith in the Lord’s ability to transform trouble into triumph!
It was Peter who was given a wise word in 1 Peter 5:5-11, “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves UNDER the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.”
Holy God, Mighty God, Omnipotent God, is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or even think! And though YOU may sense, “NO ONE CARES FOR MY SOUL,” GOD DOES! LOOK AT THE CROSS AND THE EMPTY TOMB! The ‘least-sensing servant’ Jesus cares for and proves His love!
LASTLY, NO MORE UNAWARENESS OF GOD’S COMPASSION FOR THE CITIZENS OF EVEN REBELLIOUS NATIONS! Do you ever reflect upon, study, search out Psalm 2? The psalmist wrote about “the realness of rebellion”, but then amplified the Coming Messiah’s victory and triumph and Kingdom rule over sin and death! It says:
“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS ANOINTED [The PROMISED MESSIAH!], saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.” He (Holy God) who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His displeasure: Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, “You (Jesus) are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. BLESSED ARE ALL THOSE WHO PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM (THE PROMISED MESSIAH!).”
Rebellious nations may rage, unbelieving leaders plot ‘vain things’, senseless rulers and self-centered individuals pool their foolish thoughts against God, but the Father begot the Son, and the Son lived and died in our place, and still reigns in Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope! And 2 Corinthians 7:10 declares, “For godly sorrow produces repentance LEADING TO SALVATION, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.254-255), “The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I HAVE SINNED. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself. The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance.”
Repentance is not the license to continue sinning, but the freedom to walk in holiness and purity! Hebrews 10:14 the author superbly declares: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Are YOU?
Holy God, through the offering of Jesus on the Cross, offers the rebellious life through the sacrifice of Christ, a new life, a new hope, an eternal future with Him around the Throne forever and ever, but if one sins willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries”! Are you an “adversary” or true friend of the Christ of the Cross and the Christ of the Empty Tomb? “Blessed are all those who put their trust in “The Promised Messiah”!
CHAPTER SIX
“THE ANGELIC SONGS OF THE REDEEMED”
In Psalm 91:9-16 (NASB) there is an awesome and amazing revelation about “the redeemed” and their “care-taker angels.” It says: “For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor any plague come near your tent. For He [Holy God] WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU, TO GUARD YOU IN ALL YOUR WAYS. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent (dragon) you will trample down. Because he has loved me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
He will call upon Me, and I will rescue him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue and honor him. With a long life I will satisfy him, and let him behold My salvation.”
Has Holy God ‘given His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways? Have YOU ever experienced, been alerted to, aware of, and amazed by His “angelic presence” as the “Redeemed of God”, or just unaware of His angelic ministry?
Are you acquainted with “the heavenly hosts” that surround, stand by, and guard you, as a child of the King, in all your ways? Even though you may see yourself as a fleshly creature of mere existence, God, in His infinite wisdom, mercy, and grace, surrounds you with His ministering and caring angels.
Sadly, most men apart from Christ, are more familiar with demons than they are the caring angels of God for His children!
William Cowper, in his writing entitled “CHARITY”, (1.435), wrote: “When one holds communion with the skies Has filled his urn where these pure waters rise, And once more mingles with us meaner things, ‘Tis’ even as if an angel shook his wings.” HAVE YOU OBSERVED “THE SHAKING OF ANGELS’WINGS”?
I tell you, “Angels’ wings are not fiction but a taste of Holy, Heavenly Presence, with the awesome responsibility of unveiling redemptive faith, not reckless fiction! There’s an old French Proverb that once spoke of “young angel, an old devil.”
Gerald Massey, in his writing, “Ballad of Babe Christabel”, wrote: “In this dim world of clouding cares, We rarely know, till ‘wildered eyes’ See white wings lessening up the skies, The angels with us unawares.”
Don’t you think this is why Hebrews 13:2 tells us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Are you not aware that often “the shepherds” who tend God’s flocks are not only pastors but angels?
Skakespeare, in his writing “Hamlet”, spoke of “A ministering angel shall my sister be.” Do you welcome “ministering angels”? Do you remember Mary giving birth to her first-born son? Luke 2:7-14 declares: And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.
And the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.” Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
But you are unsure about angels attending, watching over, caring for, encouraging every new-born son AND DAUGHTER OF Holy God through Christ Jesus? Religions birth demons – Jesus blesses His children with angels!
Several things we must be aware of concerning “The Angelic Songs of the Redeemed”:
FIRST, IN PSALM 91:11, WE READ IN THE BEGINNING, THAT “GOD WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU, TO GUARD YOU IN ALL YOUR WAYS.” Are you at all familiar with “green lights” or “red lights” or “yellow (caution) lights”?
If you’re a Word of God student, you know that in Hebrews 1:13-14, the author declared: “But to which of the angels has He ever said: ‘Sit at My right hand, UNTIL I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet’? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?”
In Titus 3:5-7 Paul taught Timothy and us, that “He (Christ) saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
And as “eternal insurance” caring God gives us not only His Word but His angels to see us through this dark maze of men’s and the world’s “self-imposed godlessness”!
Whether you as a true believer have heard it or not, whenever trouble comes to a son or daughter of faith, the angels sing about God’s divine protection! They sing of His abiding Presence every step you take in your walk of faith.
When trials come, the angels’ song of triumphant victory is sung, rings out, and covers you! When traps are laid by the powers of darkness, the angels sing about the door of deliverance! When the deep seas and oceans of life erupt in destructive waves by devilish powers, the angels are singing, “Peace be still!”
Can you even begin to imagine the roars of the Heavenly Chorus of Angels when the true believer takes his last breath of earthly, fleshly existence, and is then welcomed by the angelic chorus to the Heavenly Presence around the throne of God and the King of kings?
SECOND, THE ANGELIC SONG OF THE REDEEMED IS THE SONG THAT HONORS THE KING WHO STEPPED DOWN FROM HIS THRONE TO TAKE ON HUMAN FLESH, SERVE THE NEEDY, AND BLESS HIS PEOPLE IN SACRIFICIAL TESTIMONY AND GOD’S TRIUMPHANT WAY OVER SIN AND DEATH!
Do you remember Mary standing outside Jesus’ tomb weeping, and then, as she stooped and looked into the tomb where the body of Jesus had been lying, she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying. Then said to her, “Woman, Mary, why are you weeping?”
She said to the angels, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Then Jesus appeared to Mary, and she initially didn’t know who the Resurrected Jesus was – she supposed Him to be a gardener! But Jesus spoke: “Mary!”
Dare I tell you, Mary grabbed Jesus and held on and in Hebrew called Him ‘Rabboni’! Graciously Jesus spoke to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”
John 20:21 says, “Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, and that He said these things to her.” Do you think she may have sung “a new song”? Maybe B.B. McKinney’s “He Lives On High”? [The American Hymnal, by Robert H. Coleman, Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee. 1933].
“Christ the Savior came from heaven’s glory, To redeem the lost from sin and shame; On His brow He wore the thorn-crown glory, and upon Calvary He took my blame.
He arose from death and all its sorrow, To dwell in that land of joy and love; He is coming back some glad tomorrow, and He’ll take all His children home above.
Weary soul, to Jesus come confessing, Redemption from sin He offers you; Look to Jesus and receive the blessing, there is joy and victory!
He lives on high, He lives on high, Triumphant over sin and all its stain; He lives on high, He lives on high; Someday He’s coming again.”
Yes, and He gently knocks on your heart’s door: “Open – and I will come in to sup with you, and you with Me!”
THIRD, THE ANGELIC SON OF THE REDEEMED IS THE SONG OF JOY IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ANGELS OF GOD OVER ONE SINNER WHO REPENTS.” THAT’S LUKE 15:10! A redeemed heart causes the angels to sing! A sinner transformed is the eruption of angelic hymns of praise and thanksgiving! A redeemed life is the key and the eternal note and music of angelic songs of praise and thanksgiving and the Hallelujahs of “Blessed Blood Redemption”!
Heirs of immortality, blessed with Holy Presence, are continually over-shadowed by angelic choruses of thanksgiving and praise! Recipients of Sovereign grace and mercy become the celebration ‘key-notes’ of Heaven’s Eternal Praise, Presence, and awesome angelic choruses of hymns and praise!
Psalm 34:7 declares: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.” And you’re unsure that “rescue angels” have a reason for singing?
Have you wrapped your mind, your heart, your spirit, as a redeemed child of God around Psalm 98? Do you think it just might be an angelic song about REDEMPTION? BLOOD REDEMPTION THROUGH THE MESSIAH, EMMANUEL, or “GOD WITH US”?
“O sing to the Lord a new song, For He has done wonderful things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.
The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the lands of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Shout joyfully to the Lord with the lyre; with the lyre and the sound of melody, With trumpets and the sound of the horn Shout before the King, the Lord.
Let the sea roar and all it contains, the world and all those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands; let the mountains sing for joy Before the Lord; for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.”
HEAR ME!! SINGING HYMNS OF PRAISE is because redeemed sons and daughters of God join in with Heaven’s angels to exalt gratify, rejoice in, thank, and praise the King of kings and Lord of lords who came and sacrificed His life for you and me!
Again, what did Jesus tell the scribes and Pharisees about “one sinner who repents”? Luke 15:10! “I TELL YOU, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Angels sing? Angels rejoice? Angels celebrate THE “Amazing Grace” of a redeemed sinner blessed with the gift of Resurrection Life? Angels gather, angels take their trumpets, their horns of celebration, their drums of unceasing joy and blessing of God’s “new-born” sons and daughters of faith, and they sing?
Angels KNOW THE WORD OF GOD, not the flimsy reasons of pretenders and preachers, yes, many unsure of “everlasting life”? Yes, “there is joy in the presence of God over one sinner who repents.”
Angels HAVE HEARD JESUS SAY OVER AND OVER, (John 10:27-30), “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
FOURTH, THE ANGELS’ SONGS OVER THE REDEEMED ARE, SHOULD BE, MUST BE, THE CONGREGATIONAL SONG OF THE REDEEMED OF GOD’S AWESOME MERCY, OF HIS EMANCIPATING GRACE, AND HIS LIBERATING POWER TO THOSE YOU LOVE, CARE ABOUT, PRAY FOR, AND YOU CELEBRATE IN THE DEVIL’s KIDS BECOMING SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ETERNAL FAITH AND HOPE, CELEBRATING THE “NEW COUNTENANCE” OF A REDEEMED HISBAND, OR A WANDERING WIFE BROUGHT HOME, SONS AND DAUGHTERS CAPTURED BY THE MASTER’S GRACE AND MERCY POURED OUT THROUGH LOVING PARENTS, OR THE BUSINESS ASSOCIATE ENSLAVED TO THE PASSIONS OF THE UNGODLY, FREED FROM BONDAGE TO CELEBRATE WITH YOU IN JESUS’ EVERLASTING PROMISE OF ONENESS WITH HIM, THE FAMILY OF GOD, AND WITH THE HOLY ANGELS!
Today, God calls for true heroes of saving faith, of the blood redemption through Christ’s Cross, that they be men and women whose heart’s desire is to honor their Master and Lord and Loving God and the Holy Spirit, through their awareness that Christ’s work of redemption is God’s willingness to establish the Kingdom of Heaven ON EARTH through their repentant hearts and their redeemed lives, becoming God’s gathering of born-again believers whose very lives become God’s Throne on earth, and their hearts and homes becoming “open doors” to a needy world.
Does it have to be said of You, “Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night”, because you live with a songless faith or purpose? [Job 35:10].
But what if you know “the angels’ song of TRUST”? Job 13:15, “Though He slay me, I will hope, I will trust in Him.”
HELL MAY ERUPT – BUT HEAVEN ON EARTH OVERCOMES! DEMONS MAY ROAR – BUT ANGELS AND SAINTS REJOICE. FALLEN HUMANITY, CURSED NATION,GODLESS GOVERNMENTS, may celebrate their decadence, but the redeemed of the lord and the heavenly chorus of the angels sing: “AMAZING GRACE”!!
CHAPTER SEVEN
“THE DIVINE MIRACLE OF A TRANSFORMED MIND”
I was recently reading a new book by pastor-friend, Jim Hylton, entitled “Being At Ease”, subtitled Thinking At Ease – Lessening Disease. It is a powerful, challenging, encouraging, informative read that every disciple of Christ ought to read. My son, Scott, bought the book for me and had Jim sign it with “To Farrell a special friend!” Jim Hylton, with a scripture reference, Luke 12:32, then shared Jesus speaking, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
I’ve often wondered how many ‘pulpit pastors’ have majored on the reality of “kingdom living” through “The Divine Miracle of a Transformed Life”! Are you familiar with Romans 12:2 where Paul challenged the Roman disciples and us saying, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be [‘being’] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
It was after the Bruce Jenner – Caitlyn Jenner diabolical disaster that Sue and I heard a psychiatrist, Dr. Paul R. McHugh, speaking about Jenner, and spoke of “the disorder of assumption” – and I’ve often wondered about how many so-called ‘Christians’ who are “pretenders” having never experienced, lived by, or taught the truth of “The Divine Miracle of a Transformed Mind,” but are, too many, ‘professors of faith’ who will someday fall into the perilous state of Hosea’s word from God when in Hosea 4:6 the prophet recorded Holy God saying, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.”
To be ‘found in Christ’ is what Jim stated as “the mystery of God” or the “secret of God”, quoting Colossians 1:26-27, [The Message Version of the Bible], “This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of his or her background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you; therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple.”
But the sad reality for many, even some ‘professors of faith’, is never being possessed, owned, bought, indwelt by Christ, through repentance toward God and faith in His finished work at Calvary’s Cross, resting in “saved by grace through faith”, and being declared by God Himself as a true son or daughter of the blood redemption, but living with or contending with or conquered by the sad reality of a worldly mind with no eternal purpose, practicing mental and spiritual gymnastics apart from the thoughts and truths of God, even educational geniuses of worldly thought apart from the thoughts, truths, or mind of Holy God, or, yes, even a redeemed life with an uninformed mind or a born-again believer living on a starvation diet apart from the ‘bread,’ the ‘milk’, or the ‘meat of God’s Word’.
Pre-salvation is a state of mind and heart, void of redemptive faith, but governed by an attitude of “enemies of God”, “helpless”, “hopeless”, yet loved by God to the extent of the sacrifice of His Son on the cruel Cross that we might be redeemed through “the blood of the Lamb,’ reconciled, regenerated, restored to His eternal state and plan as sons and daughters of true redemptive faith, “sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling” (1 Corinthians 1:12), no longer enemies or pretenders or professors, but “possessors” of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope that is eternal!
In 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 Paul gloriously declared, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we thus judge: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God IN HIM.”
Are you at all familiar with Ezekial 11 as God informed the prophet and Israel and us of His “New Covenant” that was coming? Verses 19-21 declares: “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes (or My Word) and keep My judgments and do them, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord.
There’s a description in Isaiah 28:14 about scornful men in Israel who lived in deception, professing one thing, but living another, even the religious majority of Israel , living in deception with their idols, with sexual immorality, and the shedding of innocent blood as some offered their own children as bodily sacrifices in God’s Holy Temple! Isaiah 28:15 tells us of many in Israel who “made a covenant with death”, even admitting, “For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”
And in Isaiah 29: 13-16a Holy God prophetically declared for both then and now, Therefore 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; [my son, Scott, described it as “shock and awe”!], for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” 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!” In fact, earlier in Isaiah 1:12-21, Holy God spoke:
“When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies – I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting !!! Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. IF you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. How the faithful city has become a harlot!”
What you’ve just read is a sad indictment against “pretenders” who “profess” religious loyalty but deny “blood redemption” through the sacrificial Lamb of God! It’s like Moses and Aaron confronting the Pharoah of Egypt with Pharoah saying in Verse 2, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go,” telling him, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness,’” eventually leading to Pharoah and his armies being swept away in the Sea of God’s judgment!
If you are familiar with the Psalms, you’ll remember in Psalm 1:1-2 that David described “the blessed man” who “walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night;” then stating in Verses 4-6, “The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
Psalm 2 then unveils “the realness of rebellion”, which is people plotting “vain things”, taking personal counsel against Holy God! As a result, in Verse 4-5, God describes “the rareness of personal laughter” because Holy God, yes, does and will “distress them in His deep displeasure”! Oh, but then in Verse 6, Holy God unveils “the revelation of compassion” as He sets His King on “My holy hill of Zion” called Mt. Calvary! Then, Verses 7-11, Holy God introduced “the richness of relationship”, Yes! “You are My Son, today I have begotten You,” with holy sons and daughters, “serving the Lord with fear, and rejoicing with trembling” faithfully “kissing the Son” because they no longer have any desire to experience God’s anger or perish in their self-centered ways, but long for, pursue, and rest in “the blessing” of putting their trust in Christ Jesus only!
“The Divine Miracle of a Transformed Mind”! I find Colossians 3:16 to be such a powerful word of encouragement as Paul wrote, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
How did David describe this attitude of heart and mind in Psalm 100? “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 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.”
I, years ago, highlighted Psalm 34 as one’s “Lordship Ministry”, 1) Calling for a life of praise, “I will bless the Lord at all times,” 2) Calling for a life of continual seeking of Him and His will and Word, Verse 4, 3) Becoming aware of His “birthing changes”, Verse 6, as this Poor man cried out, the Lord hearing, and saving him out of all his troubles, 4) Verse 7, Awed by His release of angelic ministries, 5) Awed in Verses 15-16 by His fastened eyes and opened ears to the cries of His righteous ones, 6) Promising us deliverance, Verses 17-18, as the “righteous cry out to Him, God hearing, and God delivering them OUT OF ALL THEIR TROUBLES!” Hear me! Verse 18, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit,” 7) With a firm declaration of Lordship ministry! Verse 19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Our Lord and Savior transforms trouble into triumph, pain into praise, even ‘wars’ into righteous deliverance!
In the process of “The Miracle of a Transformed Mind”, at times the walk of a true disciple is faced with the clouds of terror, the clouds of temptations, the clouds of triviality, and, for some, the clouds of fleshly treason against the One True Living God and the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords, and even against the Holy Spirit! At the same time, God empowers His true disciples to exercise fortitude in the midst of faithless, formidable, frightening opposition! And “The Miracle of the Transformed Mind” is KNOWING there are consumers of religious fabrications or confessors of eternal Truth!
Some walk in their path of redemptive faith apart from the divine revelation and explanation of God’s eternal intent that His children of faith live, not under a man-made philosophy, but under revelation of holy truth and divine authority! In Colossians 2:1-10 Paul wrote:
“For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power.”
How clear was Paul to the Ephesians and us, when he instructed “the saints who are in Ephesus, and [the] faithful in Christ Jesus”, testifying in the Lord, that [Ephesians 4:17-24], “you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, AND THAT YOU PUT ON THE NEW MAN which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” How awesome is that?!?
Do you understand, receive, and walk in “the new beginning”, that through Christ Jesus alone God has granted to you “a new spirit” under a “new covenant”, miraculously birthing “a new creation”, instructing us to sing to Holy God “a new song”, yes, with “shouts of joy”? The biblical command you read in the previous paragraph is: “put on the NEW MAN which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
Colossians 1:6-7 declares: [NASB], “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord [or received Christ Jesus as Lord over your life], so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and NOW being built up in Him and established [or “made to stand”] in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”
If Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life”, and you are now “in Him”, are you experiencing day by day resurrection life, resurrection power, resurrection presence, and resurrection hope? Do YOU think, ‘as He is so am I’? If Jesus IS “the Light of the world”, and He now lives in you, how do you explain unfruitful works of darkness in your pilgrimage with Him? If Jesus ‘overcame’ and He lives in you, then why is there, in you, at times, the ‘overcoming spirit’ of the world of lawlessness, indifference, or ingratitude?
Or, for you, with Paul, does “the thorn in the flesh” speak to you at times? In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 the apostle alerted us, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
“The Miracle of a Transformed Mind”? Though ‘birthed in the world with an old sin nature’, and ‘thorned in the flesh’ by the devil and demons, even ‘held captive by a godless world spirit’, the Savior came whose Name is Jesus, and the “new day” dawned for a blessed deliverance.
Though ‘birthed in bondage’ as a slave to the sin nature, blackened in mind and heart to a destructive life, void of trust in God’s eternal purpose, mankind wandered in a world of unending strife.
Though ‘best’ effort arose in place of a ‘blessed life’, humanity continued in godless strife; “I am able to do as I please” without a thought of sin’s dreaded disease – a state of mind, a darkened heart, a fleshly will that set God apart. No need of Him – we’re fit and trim, happy in sin, unaware of any consequences.”
Though ‘birthed in spiritual death’ sinners sincerely try to make sense of their emptiness, their godlessness, their imaginary happiness, even declaring for themselves that darkness is light, that self-determination is might, and that willful rebellion to Holy God is a fleshly right.
Though going through life in defense of self-will, they blind themselves to God’s holy will; and walking alone apart from divine purpose, fallen mankind walks in pride and arrogance, never knowing their spiritual emptiness and brokenness, never receiving the gift of God’s mercy and graciousness.
Though granted by God with an awesome free-will, most men in their selfishness never take time to be still; time to look inward, time to look upward, for most men is time to be selfish, time to be enslaved to the pleasures of flesh, but no time to look inward to their godless existence!
Though challenged by God and calling men out, most will relax in their sin-natures of drought, deaf ears to God and eyes that are blinded to God’s invitation and His awesome provisions – oneness with Him and His blessed intent to fill each new heart with Sovereign promises, His Holy Presence, and a heart of assent, raised from death to life, from poverty to wealth, a child of the King in His family of the blessed!
“The Miracle of a Transformed Mind”? I close with Paul’s words to the Philippians in Philippians 3:7-14, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have (fully) apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Amen?
CHAPTER EIGHT
CONSIDERING A WORLD OF ABSURDITIES
When individuals go through a God-created, God-ordained, and a God-sustained world without any consideration of His intent, desires, and pleasures, they void from their lives the awesome discovery of God-blessed lives. Without hesitation, a ‘God-less world’ is ‘a world of absurdities’!
An ‘absurdity’? The ‘Random House Collegiate Dictionary’ of 1975 defines it as “contrary to all reason, or common sense, illogical, ridiculous, untrue; absurd, ridiculous, preposterous, inconsistent with reason or common sense.” I then liked the dictionary telling me ‘preposterous’ “implies an amazing extreme of foolishness.”
That definition may be why the Holy Word of God tells us in Psalm 14:1, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
You do understand that highly distinctive people you meet in your lifetime can be superbly blessed people who look inward to themselves and their upbringing with no consideration at all of God’s divine intent or eternal purpose for His reason, desire, intent, or purpose for their existence – they just ‘journey’ in love with who they are and no consideration of “WHO” God IS! They ‘journey’ void of the awesome treasure of being “reconciled to Holy God”!
Just as sad is the person who acknowledges “God is” but has no intention of giving Him His desired place in their hearts and lives, content to make “my way in my world by my personal choice of ‘god unto myself’”!
A little more than two thousand years ago Holy God used strong, influential, political and religious figures of the day, powerful men, to bring about the awesome historical reality of the crucifixion of His Son, the Promised Messiah, not even understanding that they were ushering in His eternal plan of “blood redemption.”
Here’s God’s eternal heart: John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Superbly blessed people, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights, often “choose” in moral stupidity, to go their own way with no concern for the awesome love of God and His eternal purpose in and through His Son and the only Savior from sin and death! Multitudes turn blind eyes and deaf ears to His unchanging love and awesome sacrifice choosing recklessly to go their own way void of eternal intent and purpose.
Selfish utilization of divine intent is the “door-closer” to eternal intent of heavenly blessing! When Paul wrote Ephesians 2:10 he had been sovereignly blessed with the eternal awareness that he existed in the divine plan through the heavenly door of Resurrection Life, Resurrection power, and Resurrection purpose and intent: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Unselfish living is the “door-opener” to dynamic living of a life honoring the reality of the “Indwelling Christ”! It’s that “sentence of death daily that the Resurrected Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh.” There is not a redeemed person living void of eternal intent – every new-born believer has been “gifted” by the Holy Spirit, yes, in some dramatic way, to honor and glorify the Indwelling Christ as they willfully choose to express His love and prove His power.
In 2 Timothy 1:9-11 Paul testified about ‘the gospel according to the power of God’ that He “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, and apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.”
It should be so very clear to you that every disciple has a true, distinct, God-honoring call through Christ Jesus, their Savior, Lord, Master, and Guide to the Father’s glory. I want to major on two things in this teaching: First, Our Calling, and Second, Our Commission.
First, Our Calling. Did we just read in 2 Timothy 1: 9, that ‘the gospel according to the power of God’ is that He “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,” which tells us of Creation, the Fall, and God’s determination of the need of “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.”
How clear do you find 2 Timothy 1:10 about “God’s own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus BEFORE TIME BEGAN”, “now revealed (clearly) by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, WHO HAS ABOLISHED DEATH AND BROUGHT LIFE AND IMMORTALITY TO LIGHT THROUGH THE GOSPEL,” opening the Door to:
- Following Christ as Lord, Savior, and Master over our earthly existence, transforming fleshly life into Heavenly Presence! “Christ in you the hope of glory”! What did Jesus say to His first and all disciples after them? “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” When the Savior and Lord of life calls you it is the calling of hearing, submitting, and following His Sovereign leadership – a new door opened to touch the world around you with His love, grace, and mercy! We extend His life, express His love, and offer His power to transform others!
Paul said Christ “abolished (spiritual) death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” and that ‘life and immortality through the gospel’ births disciples submitted to His Lordship and His eternal purpose, “I came to seek and to save that which is lost,” which results in
- Disciples who worship Him and submit to His Lordship and leadership! “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but you do not do what I say?” Worship apart from submission? Worship apart from doing what He says? Worship apart from yieldedness to the divine intent of expressing His love, sharing His power, and expressing His eternal desire to reconcile all men to Himself?
- Are YOU the tree “planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither; and does what prospers and honors His Master, Lord, and Savior”?
- Examine “the fields” around you! In John 4:34-38 Jesus said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
- Be ready, be prepared for His coming to you and for you! I often wonder if any consider regularly as they arise, “This may be my final day, hour, or breath. Am I ready to meet my Lord and Savior? Have I fulfilled all He asked of Me?” I tell you: This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Gladness or grief? Gladness or sorrow over His unfulfilled desires for your life, walk, and witness? Gladness in obedience or sadness in your failure to fulfill His calling?
SECOND, CONSIDER A WORLD OF ABSURDITIES! Did I begin this teaching emphasizing ‘a godless-world is a world of absurdities’? I said, “When individuals go through a God-created, God-ordained, and a God-sustained world without any consideration of His desires, His intent, or His pleasures, they void from their lives the awesome discovery of God-blessed lives”!
They ‘breathe’, and have no appreciation of God’s blessing – breath to them is ‘natural’, not super-natural, human without any consideration of divine intent, one’s fleshly ‘best’ without even a thought of eternal purpose, divine will, or sovereign significance!
- Consider a world of absurdities that there is willful sinfulness and no recompense! Have you never heard Romans 6:23? “For the wages of sin is death…”!
What did the Apostle Peter write in 2 Peter 2:1-22? But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
(for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) – then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.
They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.
But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.
They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.
They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’.”
Sin without recompense? That’s destructive heresy! Sin and no penalty? That’s the devil’s lie and the sinner’s reward! Sin and no judgment? That’s the destructive way of denying the word of truth and blaspheming the very Name of Christ! Sin and no consequences? Paul said under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
- Consider a world of ‘profession’ but no possession. Our Lord and Savior declared in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”
A profession but no possession! A talk but no walk of true faithfulness and submission. A song but the wrong writer, wrong theme, and wrong intent, which is ‘pumping flesh’ and strangling the Spirit! Though dressed like a sheep, they walk inwardly as ravenous wolves! That’s ‘planked eyes’ that cannot see revealed Truth! That’s lives hearing the sayings of Jesus but never does them because their ‘house of faith’ has no true foundation, and when the floods come and the winds blow and beat on that ‘empty house’ of professed faith, it falls – and great and sad and eternally lives with its reward: kinship with the devil and his demons and a condemned world of faithless people! Jesus will say, “I called, but you refused; I implored, but you ignored the call of the laid-down life; I entreated, but you retreated into your own spiritual world of ‘make-believe’ when I invited you to heaven on earth!”
- Consider a world of ‘claimed allegiances’ but with no responsibilities, accountabilities, or true devotion! To Titus Paul wrote in Titus 1:10-16, “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.
- One of them, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. THEY PROFESS TO KNOW GOD, BUT IN WORKS THEY DENY HIM, BEING ABOMINABLE, DISOBEDIENT, AND DISQUALIFLED FOR EVERY GOOD WORK.”
Profession is not possession! This is why in 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 Paul declared: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ THROUGH the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are SANCTIFIED IN CHRIST JESUS, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Called to be saints? That means “set apart” by God from enmity against God in the flesh to oneness in Him in the Spirit through the sacrificial death and resurrection of God’s Son and our Savior by repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross!
But, sadly, some have been deceived by the powers of darkness, that they cannot but sin until they get to Heaven one day when Jesus said, “Go and sin no more”!
I’m not surprised at all that Paul had to expose those who taught opposite of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, yes, denying the ‘doctrine which accords with godliness’, saying that they are ‘proud, knowing nothing, even believing ‘that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.’ [1 Timothy 6:3-13!].
Before Christ – alienated from God; In Christ – united with God! Before Christ – enemies of God; In Christ – one with God! Before Christ – owned, controlled, dictated to by the powers of darkness; In Christ – transformed into sons and daughters of the Holy Family of God!
Paul closed out his writing to Timothy saying in 1 Timothy 6:20, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is called knowledge – by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.”
Some live by ‘grit’ apart from grace and receive an unbeliever’s reward rather than “blessed in and through Christ alone”! Sainthood is a life lived in continual gratitude to Holy God for His amazing love and awesome grace!
CHAPTER NINE
“ FAITHFULNESS OR DISTRESSING DISGUISES?”
I don’t know how you’ll respond to the title of this chapter because only you really know the secret chambers of your heart and mind. Why? Appearances can be deceiving; outward ‘show’ can be simply fictitious, uneventful heart-change, or a desire not to be exposed for what one really believes.
It was C.S. Lewis who once wrote: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because of it I see everything else.”
But then in a real world of life and death, success or failure, blessing and disappointment, true examples and pretenders, wise or blinded, divine fruit or diseased or dis-eased citizens, people will either “press in to Him” or fall away by their own free will.
Don’t you find it interesting, convicting, and challenging, that in Revelation 2:10b, Jesus tells us: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”? Is it possible that some begin the walk of faith, are faithful for a period of time in what they know, and then walk away? “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
Are bad turns made away from the highway of holiness that lead to ‘dead-end’ places? Does disappointment in one’s self or others mean, “I choose to be disappointed in Jesus also”? If a ‘Texas dust storm’ can restrict your vision, can a believer’s storm of doubt cast dark shadows on one’s devotion and allegiance and all-out surrender to the King of kings and Lord of lords?
Oh, and hear me – can a preacher-pastor’s ‘falling away’ be the ‘straw that breaks the camel’s back,’ and you decide, “I want nothing more to do with ‘phony Christianity’?
In Ezekial 18:23 God spoke: “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” And whatever is opposite of the Word and the will of God and His ways is determined wicked and brings a judgment of death – and God says, “turn from YOUR ways and live!” He went on to say in verses 31-32, “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord. “Therefore turn and live!”
I know, and I assume you also know, that there are “distressing disguises”! It’s so evident by spiritual blindness, unholy hearing, willful rejection, painful indifference, yes, even deeply-wounded scars from spiritual events of the past that one holds on to, residence in a jail of unforgiveness because someone, somehow, somewhere led them down, they believe, to a place, a practice, a persuasion that didn’t line up with the desire for a ‘godly lifestyle’ but an ungodly lifestyle even when the Word declared and still declares ‘separate from sinners.’
I’m really sorry, but I do not see projected in God’s Holy Word ‘comfort’ or ‘comfortable’ or ‘pleasurable for the flesh’ in a world where Holy Truth is seen as needed to be suppressed and certainly worthless in schools, universities, or any governmental institution locally or nationally!
How dangerous is it for men of all standings, places, ranks, abilities or inabilities, education or the absence of it, to find themselves in a place they don’t feel comfortable, identifying themselves as men unreservedly sold out to Christ so they ignore the church Jesus loved and gave Himself for, going the way of “silent allegiance” when Jesus instructs us to identify ourselves as His true followers and devoted to build up, strengthen, and, yes, laboring for His church-body’s success?!? “Distressing disguises”? Are you ever confronted by those who once have known Truth and then, all of a sudden, because of multitudinous fleshly crises, the door was opened to cast doubt on the Word of God? Sadly, I’ve known men over the years who so devotedly shared God’s Holy Word, but crisis came from business, family, spiritual family, resulting in undefinable criticism, and like a wounded ‘puppy’ they crawl away from upholding Truth!
“Distressing disguises”? Are you aware of those who have been ingrained with partial truth and they profess “Peace, peace! When there is no peace”? [Jeremiah 6:14]. It’s as if the ‘gospel’ they held onto was ‘peaches and cream’ without Jesus’ word, “In the world you will have tribulation!” I would urge every disciple over the next three to four months to devote himself/herself to the four gospels and determine if Jesus ever talked about a ‘trouble-free walk of discipleship!’
“Distressing disguises”? Do you remember in the Gospel of John Jesus telling the scribes and Pharisees that denying Him was the result that they never knew the One True and Living God? In John 8:13 they told Jesus, “You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true.” In the eighth chapter alone Jesus told the ‘religious crowd’ about 4 times, similar to verse 21, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”
“Distressing disguises”? I hope it doesn’t seriously offend you if I tell you that there are “sticklers” for legalism apart from God’s grace, mercy, and love! On the tablet of stone God carved out and imprinted Ten Commandments that exposed men as true ‘law-breakers’ in need of mercy, grace, and love, but deception blinded men to their true need of God because they graded by the ‘curve’, wanting acceptance by self-effort rather than acceptance through the finished work of Christ at the Cross, with God then writing His love, His law, and His liberty on a redeemed heart! How about your devotion? Is it by law or the very love of Calvary’s Cross and the reality of Jesus’ empty tomb and His present residence in Heaven at the throne of God interceding in your behalf?
“Distressing disguises”? Have you not wrapped your mind around the fact that fallen humanity is fully absorbed in the mind-set and heart-absorption of materialism, and the more one has, the nearer he/she is to God? Yet, our Lord and Savior and True Master of all of life has said, Matthew 16:24-26, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life [for himself] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
“Distressing disguises”? You’ll remember as Moses was leading Israel to the Promised Land there came a time when he went up on the mountain for an alone-time with God that became a long time – and his people became anxious.
They went to Aaron and told him, Exodus 32:1, “Up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what is become of him.” Verse 4 tells us he, Aaron, received golden earrings from the people, and fashioned it with a graving tool into “a molten calf”; and the people said, “This be our gods who brought us out of the land of Egypt.” Then the end of verse 6 then tells us, “and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” God then told Moses, “your people, Moses, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.”
Has anything changed? What is it that has become your own ‘distressing disguise’? But reality also speaks so loud and clear as when Samuel said in I Samuel 10:19, about some in Israel, “And you have this day rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us!’”
At least David had the sane attitude of brokenness, repentance, and turning from that which scarred him and others so deeply. In Psalm 25:17-22 he prayed: “The troubles of my heart have enlarged; bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. Keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You.”
I’m sure you’ll remember Paul challenging the church at Corinth when he said in 2 Corinthians 6:12, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.” And he paid a heavy price for standing in truth! He said to the Corinthians and us in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. For when I am weak, then I am strong [in Him].”
Paul further testified in 2 Corinthians 13:4-6, “For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.”
In Christ you are made to soar, not to sink; you’re a new creation in Him to live victoriously, not defeated; in Him you overcome the devil himself and his temptations, not swallowed up in a sea of denial of truth or ocean depths of drownings in deceptions opposite of Holy Revelation, Eternal Truth, and His ever-abiding presence in you!
“Distressing disguises”? I picked up again recently Mark Levin’s book entitled “LIBERTY OR TYRANNY,” sub-titled “A Conservative Manifesto.” I read it several years ago, but on the back cover of his book he had a statement of Abraham Lincoln, spoken in 1864. Lincoln said, “We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names – liberty and tyranny.”
Do you remember the unbelieving Pharoah of Egypt? In Exodus 5:1-2 we read, “Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharoah, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ And Pharoah said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.’”
It’s certainly not always true, but it seems, for some like Pharoah, that ‘wealth’ or ‘riches’ lead an awful lot of people to bow down in idolatry and not live in worship, praise, or thanksgiving, with adoration and submission and loyalty to the God who laid down His Son at the Cross! “That’s not MY calling!” – have you ever heard that? “I serve the Lord who blesses me,” yet the Lord God Almighty, Emmanuel (“God With Us”), Savior and Lord, Master of all of life said: Deuteronomy 30:14-20, “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, THAT YOU MAY DO IT. [“Why, YOU legalistic God! Who would want to submit to Your Word, Your will, Your way? Not me!”] See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God WILL BLESS YOU in the land which you go to possess. BUT IF YOUR HEART TURNS AWAY SO THAT YOU DO NOT HEAR [and some choose, ‘I don’t want to hear what God says!’] and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today THAT YOU SHALL SURELY PERISH; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
[And just as a reminder if you have questions about what you just read and its spiritual relevance to New Testament disciples, John 8:56 says, Jesus speaking: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”]
“Distressing disguises”! I pastored a church many years ago in which a very visible leader became involved in an adulterous relationship with another church member. In my office he denied it and assured me it never happened.
A few weeks later I received a late night call to hurry to a particular home where the police had already arrived. The church leader was in the home of his adulteress mate with an irate, almost uncontrollable husband.
The church leader had lied and then resigned his visible office in the church. I advised our church officers or deacons that this situation required church discipline, but they all said, “He’s our friend, and it won’t happen. He deserved better than having to care for a sick wife!” Within a short time, God moved our leadership role as pastor elsewhere!
When open sin is ignored it manifests itself in abundant rebellion to God’s Holy Word – I heard years later that adultery, broken marriages, and a suffering church had about died, until several pastors later God placed His man in a strong place of leadership – now, the church prospers spiritually.
“Distressing disguises”! Consider it, examine it, reflect upon it – what’s the result of half-hearted allegiance to a local body of believers, yes, the local body Jesus suffered, bled, and died for? What’s the result of the negligence of whole-heartedness; what’s the result of divided allegiance; what’s the outcome of ‘profession’ apart from possession of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ; what’s the ‘fruit’ of a ‘couldn’t-care-less’ attitude concerning a needy fellowship of believers?
Is it really possible that believers feel no sympathy for, devotion to, or commitment of their lives to a needy church fellowship or even comfort and healing grace to despondent saints, a battered pastor, or, yes, immature church members? But they find ‘their’ place where the crowd gathers, where the smiles abound, but in far too many living a “laid-down life” is omitted! It’s even happening today that ‘forsaking of the assembling of yourselves together’ is like an old ‘wives’ tale’ – “we don’t need the church assembling”!
I was reading Spurgeon recently. [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.15, pps. 78-79]. He said: “Is it so, that because you are yourself a member of a flourishing church, and because you enjoy all sorts of Christian privileges, you therefore harden your heart concerning dying churches and desponding saints? Do you imagine that the body can be sick, and yet you as a member of it will not suffer? I tell you, if the church of God goes aside it will be to your injury;’ if the truth of God be not preached you will be a loser; if Christian life be not vigorous you will be weakened.”…(p.80), “If you are not creating a holy warmth, the chill of sin is freezing you.”
‘Ice-berg city’ – the gathering of chilled believers! ‘Ice-berg city’ – the union place of divided allegiances! ‘Ice-berg city’ – the creeping sickness of unconscious allegiance to self-birthing of paralyzed infants who don’t know where they came from or where they are headed. The Lord Jesus said in Revelation 3:11, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” [It would be worth your effort and time to research about “your crown.”]
“Distressing disguises”! It was so interesting and challenging recently when in Luke 16:1-13 I read about the parable of the unjust steward. Read carefully and consider your walk as a professing disciple of Christ! Jesus also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.
So he called him and said to him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.” [I pray you realize “stewardship” has much more to do in your walk than what you “give” in money!]
Then the steward said within himself, “What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.” So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.
He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Is Jesus teaching us about faithfulness in ‘little things’? Is He teaching us about money and its blessing or curse? Is He informing us about faithfulness in what belongs to another man? But now, let’s transition from “distressing disguises” to “FAITHFULNESS”! We’ve just witnessed Jesus talking about “faithfulness” in three ways. Is there more in His precious and powerful Word we should discern and apply?
It’s not difficult to grasp or understand or comprehend the subject of “faithfulness” – the battle comes when faith and faithfulness must be exercised and YOU must discern for yourself, ‘a walk of fleshly sight and its desires OR a walk of faith and faithfulness to honor the God of the Cross and the empty tomb!
I do not know or understand how a person reads or hears read Ephesians 2:4-8, 12-13, and determines to walk away from saving grace! It says: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…Verses 12-13, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH AND BY FAITH ALONE! That’s what you just read!
WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH! Examine Romans 3:19-26 very, very carefully: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Do you remember the lame man outside the temple asking alms as Peter and John were about to go in? Follow Acts 3:6-16, 19-20, 23, 26: Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them – walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.
Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: ‘Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pontius Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.
But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.
Verses 19-20, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before..
Verse 23, And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people… Verse 26, To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”
WE ARE TO CONTINUE IN THE FAITH. In Acts 14:21-22 Paul was endeavoring to build a solid foundation in new disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. It says: “And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND, RECEIVE, WALK IN THE WALK OF OUR HEART, MIND, SOUL, AND SPIRIT PURIFICATION BY FAITH. Acts 15:6-9 says: Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”
WE ARE TO WALK IN THE PEACEFUL REST OF FAITH LIKE ABRAHAM. In Romans 4:1-8 we read of the faith of faithful Abraham: “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”
WE ARE TO BE EMPOWERED BY FAITH – NOT IN THE EARTHLY WISDOM OF MEN. I Corinthians 2:4-5 instructs us: Paul speaking, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
WE ARE TO BE AT PEACE IN OURSELVES BECAUSE OF OUR FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS. Galatians 2:20 illumines our minds and hearts as Paul tells us: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Verse 21, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
WE ARE TO BE DILIGENT TO THE END BECAUSE OF OUR INHERITANCE OF GOD”S PROMISES. In Hebrews 6:11-12 we see our calling as true believers: “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
WE ARE TO BE WELL-TRAINED, PERSONALLY DISCIPLINED, AS A TRUE SOLDIER IN GOD’S ARMY, NOT GIVEN AN ‘AWOL’ SPIRIT, BUT DEVOTED TO HIM AND THE CHURCH JESUS LOVED AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR. Paul wrote young Timothy as a wise spiritual father, 2 Timothy 2:1-4, “You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”
Earlier, in I Timothy 6:12, he told Timothy, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
You do understand that we serve a God and Savior who is so ever faithful to us! In Lamentations 3:22-27 Jeremiah shared both a broken heart because of Israel’s sin but also a peaceful heart and soul because He knew the faithfulness of God’s compassion:
“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS!! ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.”
And I have no doubts that this is why Isaiah encourages us in Isaiah 25:1 because he knew God’s faithfulness: “O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.”
Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, His people sprout and bear His fruitfulness! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness to us, our faithfulness to Him is not to be a probability but a sure certainty! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, we don’t enlist for a seat in a church pew but a place in the front-line of a holy war! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, we’re not to be inventers of simply religious activities but fully surrendered lives available to His presence, power, and promises to be expressed through our available lives!
It was the old “The Defender” who had this quote: “Faith is dead to doubt, dumb to discouragement, blind to impossibilities.” How true!
Off-key lives are invaded by the “Master-Tuner” and discords vanish and perfect harmonies erupt! When repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross finds a permanent home, empty barrels become the overflowing presence of His never-ending LIFE!!
Faithfulness is not a philosophy but Divine Presence, holy certainty, continual blessing, and a sacred marriage of eternal bliss!
Faithfulness is the Shining Sonlight of the resident Christ within, the evidence of God’s Holy Presence, and the certainty of the Holy Spirit’s fulfilling ministry in sons and daughters of faith.
It was B.B. McKinney who wrote the old hymn, “Have Faith In God.” “Have faith in God when your pathway is lonely, He sees and knows all the way you have trod; Never alone are the least of His children; Have faith in God, have faith in God.
Have faith in God when your prayers are unanswered, Your earnest plea He will never forget; Wait on the Lord, trust His Word and be patient; Have faith in God, He’ll answer yet.
Have faith in God in your pain and your sorrow, His heart is touched with your grief and despair; Cast all your cares and your burdens upon Him, and leave them there, oh, leave them there.
Have faith in God though all else fail about you; Have faith in God, He provides for His own; He cannot fail though all kingdoms perish, He rules, He reigns upon His throne.” AMEN?
CHAPTER TEN
“WHEN MERCY IS MEANINGLESS BIRTHING FATAL FORGETFULNESS”
I don’t know how you respond when you read a verse like Isaiah 27:11, but it does tell us our Lord is speaking of people who have “no understanding.” It then says, “Therefore He who made them WILL NOT HAVE MERCY ON THEM, and He who formed them will show them no favor.”
I love what Peter wrote about “mercy” as a heavenly inheritance when in I Peter 1:3 he said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” What did Peter call God’s mercy? ABUNDANT MERCY! But there are those upon whom He will have no mercy!
Why is that? It’s ‘fatal forgetfulness’ – mercy is not a ministry of God, an event of epoch proportions, they are interested in. Oh, they may at least on the surface be aware of the mercy of God, but it’s not a road they need to walk down – about like Solomon who said in I Kings 3:6, “You [God] have shown great mercy [Underline that! At least Solomon knew God’s mercy was great!] to Your servant David my father, because He walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.”
Solomon was saying what? “God, You’ve shown great mercy to my dad, and you were merciful giving me his throne, but as for me mercy is meaningless – merit is my ambition and I’ll earn whatever I set my mind to!” Does Solomon reflect at all on modern man today who find mercy meaningless to their existence? Look with me at Psalm 103:17-18,
“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.” The mercy of God is for WHO? Those who “fear Him,” to those who understand blood covenant relationship and keep it, to those who sense His commandments are to be kept! [Why do some miss ‘mercy’? “That’s salvation by works”!!]
But, sadly, many are blinded to the misery of fallen sin natures and sense no need to cry out to God for “mercy”! You’ll remember Jesus making that visit to His hometown in Mark 6:5-6 that says: “Now HE could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief…” Does that explain “mercy” as “meaningless” to some people?
Have you forgotten the Galatian dilemma? It explains tons of understanding about “when mercy is meaningless”! In Galatians 3:3 Paul asked: “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
And do you understand that meaningless mercy is not only for heathens or pagans or the self-assured – it’s for deceived masses in the borders of Christendom who substitute repentance for the rigors of personal disciplines and pats on the back of their self-sufficiency!
But…it’s not what YOU achieve but what you receive as a gift from God! It’s not what YOU earn but what you receive by His grace. It’s not a portrait you paint of yourself but the precious privileges God grants to you! It’s not “trying harder” – it’s trusting God more and more.
Deaf ears, blinded eyes, clouded senses to the nearness of God in a man’s life assign him to a meaningless existence weighed against the eternal purpose of God for one’s life. But put that up next to the story of Joseph! In Genesis 41:50-51 Joseph named his firstborn Manesseh and said: “It is because God has made me FORGET all my troubles and all my father’s household.”
But some men manufacture forgetfulness of God, establishing in their minds and hearts that “mercy is meaningless”, but God mercifully blots out our troubles, blessing us with the forgetfulness of man-made miseries and builds in us Heaven’s blessings!!
Men manufacture forgetfulness of God like a Pharoah who says in his mind and heart: Exodus 5:2, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” Men easily obliterate the memory of God because they’re bound to the god of self-rule, self-adulation, self-importance, and are comfortable in their state of godlessness and their paralysis of self-analysis!!
But God remains the same! Acts 17:24-31 says: “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
In fact, in Matthew 5:45 Jesus said of Father-God: “…for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous…”
Listen to A.W. Pink in his “The Attributes of God – The Mercy of God”: “…let us note how vain is the presumptuous hope of the wicked, who, notwithstanding their continued defiance of God, nevertheless count upon His being merciful to them. How many there are who say, ‘I do not believe that God will ever cast me into Hell; He is too merciful.’ Such a hope is a viper, which if cherished in their bosoms will sting them to death. God is a God of justice as well as mercy, and He has expressly declared that He will “by no means clear the guilty,” [Exodus 34:7]. Yes, He has said, “The wicked shall be turned into Hell, all the nations that forget God.”
The willful pride of blindness to God’s mercy, the fleshly forgetfulness of God’s graciousness and kindness, the soulish settling on “me, my, or mine”, deludes one into darkened, defeated, devilish, disillusioned misery with eyes, ears, minds, and hearts off of mercy, God’s mercy, into a state of despair, in which one is comfortable because he’s in control!
There are those who even unashamedly seek to defame, deny, disgrace, and seek to delude the ‘infinite efficacy of the Savior’s atoning death.’ IT WASN’T FOR THEM JESUS SUFFERED, BLED, AND DIED ON THE CROSS! Yet II Corinthians 5:15 clearly tells us: “and He [Jesus] DIED FOR ALL, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”
I was reading Spurgeon recently when he told of a man who decided to keep a ‘tame’ leopard in his home. The man had nursed it from a cub and allowed free roam in the house. The man was sleeping soundly one day when the growing cub licked his hand and it licked a cut where the blood was still seeping…and all the jungle instincts kicked in and the beast began to feed…awakened, the man knew he was in trouble – a life or death situation was before him and he knew it was his life or the leopard’s life.
There was a loaded pistol beside the couch and without hesitation he aimed it at the hungry leopard and killed it!….Whether you believe it or not the leopard of sin, rebellion, disobedience, unbelief, is out to drain your blood – give up your precious leopard of lust, livid sin, furious fleshly instincts – leave them at the Cross where Jesus willingly and gladly took them and yourself upon Himself and willingly laid down His Life for you!! Jesus killed your leopard sin-nature!
I know it’s so hard for prideful men and women to admit the bankruptcy of their births; it is so hard for some and so easy for others to acknowledge high treason against Holy God. In fallen man there are no glamorous genes or heavenly glories or personal worthiness that merits the favor of God!
There’s an amazing confession of King David in 2 Samuel 7:18-22! Hear it:
Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: ‘Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord God? Now what more can David say to You? For You, Lord God, know Your servant. For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore, You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.” I ask you: ARE YOU LISTENING TO GOD?
And before you came to faith in Christ, I’m sure you wondered like David: “Who am I, O Lord God, that You’ve shown me YOUR MERCY?” Without faith in God, mercy is meaningless to many. Without Holy Spirit conviction, mercy is a futile term. Without the historic crucifixion of Christ, mercy is an insignificant, unimportant eternal truth.
But for those who know “the narrow way that leads to life,” they understand deliverance from the pit of destruction; they are aware of God’s lifting them up out of the miry clay of sin and deceitfulness; they clearly grasp freedom from a prison of sin, selfishness, and self-importance apart from God; they rejoice that God’s mercy is His eternal heavenly light, leading them out of the darkness of Egyptian bondage of sin, separation from His “Holy Land,” and the silence of the lightning bolts of eternal revelation and purpose. They know God has shown them HIS MERCY!
But still, for me, there rages an ever-building question, repeated often: “Why, for some, is mercy so meaningless? Why does intentional forgetfulness of God’s mercy dominate so many lives?” WHY?
FIRST, BECAUSE SOME WILL ACCEPT MERCY IF THERE’S NO CALL UPON THEIR LIVES TO WALK MERCIFULLY WITH OTHERS! In Micah 6:8 there is an illuminating verse that reveals why some miss God’s mercy. It says: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
How does one ‘do justice’ when he/she could care less about others? How does one ‘love mercy’ when he/she is so merciless toward others? How does one ‘walk humbly with God’ when they’re so proud and so self-sufficient, void of the need of God to be God in and over their lives?
Come to Matthew 18:23-35 which is such an eye-opening, heart-convicting story that calls for examination of ourselves, yes, testing ourselves to see if we’re truly of the Faith and the faithful: “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. [Before inflation that was about $18 million dollars!!].But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had,, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave the debt. But [THEN] that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; [about $18] and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt [$18 million!!] because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry; and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
What does Luke 1:50 tell us? “And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.” It’s why in 2 Corinthians 5:11 Paul wrote: “Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men…” Proverbs 1:7 tells us: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…”
Come to Proverbs 14:26-27. “In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.” Beside this passage I wrote in my Bible the following statement – I don’t remember if I wrote it or it was a quote, but the sentence says: “Even what one likes, that is not necessarily evil, can become an entrapment of death, like cheese in a mouse-trap.”
Here is Jesus’ amazing challenge to those who believe or border on mercy being meaningless for them and hold no fear of God – Matthew 11:25-28 – At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
SECOND, FOR SOME MERCY IS MEANINGLESS BECAUSE THEY DENY SIN, CONCEAL SIN, EXCUSE SIN, OR ACCEPTING THEIR SINFUL STATE BEFORE HOLY GOD AS NORMAL OR NATURAL! But look at Proverbs 28:13!! “He who conceals his sins [transgressions, wrongs, violations of God’s laws] does not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes and renounces his sin finds mercy.”
Do you remember John’s word in I John 1:7? “But if we walk in the light as He [Jesus] is in the light…the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” I love what Oswald Chambers said about the truly conscious awareness of sin in a person: “The evidence that I am delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me.”
Concealment is a covering and convincing of one’s self that sin may be a problem for others but not for the deceived mind. And because of that there are God-sent, God-mandated, even God-initiated consequences in one’s life – like an empty prosperity that never satisfies, like a barking, biting dog in the inner man that never quits or quiets down, like a rich man who loses all his monies because the bank within him is bankrupt, like a criminal who believes he’ll never be caught but lives every moment expecting arrest and final judgment!
I love the call of God on our lives as true believers as expressed by Paul in Galatians 6:1-2 [NIV], “Brothers, if a man is trapped in some sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself; you may also be tempted…Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way fulfill the law of Christ.”
Listen to John Piper in his book, “A Godward Life,” [p.77], “Don’t be muzzled by the comment that you can’t force your religion or morality on others. You are not forcing it; you are commending it for serious consideration. Declaring and persuading are not forcing. Commending is not coercion. The fact is this: Everybody’s idea about what should be done is guided by some kind of prior commitment. Secularists as well as Christians have a world-view that governs their opinions. Every policy suggestion is rooted in view of how things should be.”
Exposing sin is merciful. Exposing sin is an act of grace. Challenging sinners with the claims of Christ builds foundations of possible super-structures in the new lives He can birth and bless!
THIRD, FOR SOME MERCY IS MEANINGLESS BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER BEEN CONFRONTED WITH GOD’S CLAIMS OF JUDGMENT. I want you to come to Nahum 1:2-8. “God is jealous, and the Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies; The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts. The mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at His presence, Yes, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him. But with an overflowing flood He will make an utter end of its place, and darkness will pursue His enemies.”
Two things that are easily discernible here: 1) God is ‘slow to anger,’ and 2) God “will not at all acquit the wicked.”
In Spurgeon’s Sermons, his “Memorial Library,” the great English preacher preached on the verses we just read. Hear Spurgeon: “God ‘will not acquit the wicked.’ Let me unfold this, first of all; and then let me, after that, endeavor to trace it also to its source: God ‘will not acquit the wicked.’ How do I prove this? I prove it by this. Never once has God pardoned our unpunished sin; not in all the years of the Most High, not in all the days of His right hand, has He once blotted out sin without punishment. What say you, were not those in heaven pardoned? Are there not many transgressors pardoned, and do they not escape without punishment? Has He not said, ‘I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities?’ Yes, true, most true, and yet my assertion is true also – not one of all those sins that have been pardoned were pardoned without punishment! Do you ask me why and how such a thing as that can be the truth? I point you to a dreadful sight on Calvary; the punishment which fell not on the forgiven sinner fell there. The cloud of justice was charged with fiery hell; the sinner deserved it; it fell on him; but, for all that, it fell, and spent its fury; it fell there, in that great reservoir of misery; it fell into the Savior’s heart…It is Jesus suffering all the plagues of sin. Sin is still punished, though the sinner is delivered.”
It was Orin Philip Gifford who said: “You may juggle human laws, you may fool with human courts, but there is a judgment to come, and from it there is no appeal.” I pray you find God’s court of mercy, because in His court of judgment, Daniel 5:27 says: “You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting.”
I want you to be confronted with God’s claim of judgment. In Jeremiah 5:3 Jeremiah asked the Lord, “O Lord, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return.”
Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 6:10, “To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it.”
Do you see it? Do you hear it? Do you sense it right now for yourself? GOD DESIRES TO GIVE YOU “THE SURE MERCIES OF DAVID.” [Acts 13:34]. SURE MERCIES ARE REDEMPTIVE – God bought you out of slavery to sin that you might be servants of Christ.
SURE MERCIES ARE REGENERATIVE – God takes you out of spiritual death unto His ETERNAL LIFE.
SURE MERCIES ARE REFLECTIVE – we see no longer a man in his bondage and brokenness – we see Christ in His fullness.
SURE MERCIES ARE RESPONSIVE – in Jeremiah 29:11 God says: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Hear me! Jeremiah 31:3 says: “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
And I say to you: Sense His tug, surrender to His Sovereignty, and side with our Savior and Lord!!
You may have denied it – but today is the day to side with Sovereign Mercy! It was Edwin Hubbell Chapin who wrote: “Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars – not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole. It is the bow that rests upon the bosom of the cloud when the storm is past. It is the light that hovers above the judgment seat.”
This is why David came to say in Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
In the old Broadman Hymnal there is a song simply entitled “Calvary”. It says: “On Calvary’s brow my Savior died, It was there my Lord was crucified; it was on the cross He bled for me, and purchased there my pardon free…
‘Mid rending rocks and darkening skies My Savior bows His head and dies; The opening veil reveals the way To heaven’s joys and endless day…
O Jesus, Lord, how can it be That You should give Your life for me, To bear the cross and agony In that dread hour on Calvary!
O Calvary! Dark Calvary! Where Jesus shed His blood for me; O Calvary! Blest Calvary! It was there my Savior died for me!”
Do you grasp it when to you mercy has been meaningless? If you were the only person to have ever lived – past, present, future – what Jesus did 2000 years ago At Calvary, He did it just for you!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the never-ending care of God for each of us!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the measure of God’s forgiving, never-ending love!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the reality of God’s remedy of a godless life!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the explanation of God’s possession of the land of our souls and spirits!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is not man trying harder but hearing Christ say: “It is finished” as He died on Calvary’s cross!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the voice of God saying to a praying man: “Your prayer has been heard” [Luke 1:13].
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the stepping stone into the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the open door into Holy Presence!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is God’s remedy for a man paralyzed by his past!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the healing grace of spiritual amnesia, fleshly blindness, and a darkened heart!
Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the divine healing of a hurtful, harmful, hideous past!
In closing this teaching, please come to Luke 18:9-14, And He []Jesus] spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“ GOD AND GOVERNMENT?”
Fast approaching my 89th birthday as of June 12, 2016, I’m disturbed to see a nation and people founded, yes, by God Himself as “one nation under God” but fast becoming, especially among leadership nation-wide as a nation by the people, of the people, and for the people – and, as in life, so in governments, the absence of God releases men to their own control, their own godless philosophies, their own reckless abandonment of “self, ‘my way or the highway,’ and certainly ‘less God because I want to govern myself, my family, my city as I damn well please’”, which reveals a people and nation on the fast road to fleshly decline!
To them, spiritual government is not ‘the American way’! Really? And, of course, they want the Holy Word of God out of government, out of schools and universities, out of homes and families and their own minds, and less and less and less of local and state over-sight – “Who or what government needs the advice or counsel of what some call Holy God, our Creator, Lord, Savior, and Master, because we can govern ourselves as we please, which to us means: keep the Bible out of our public domain and ways of godless living; He has no place telling us what we individually or as families, schools, businesses, or governments ought to be doing!”
It was King David, ruling over Israel by the grace of God, who, in Psalm 67:1-4, wrote: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth.”
But do you hear a ‘modern-society’ saying more and more: “God is not necessary in our governments, politically, morally, spiritually, individually or corporately – leave God out of our governments and out of our schools, out of our lives!” Oh, and they mean it – “To us, God has no place in our affairs because ‘good government’ (?) is allowing us to do as we please!”, which means: “less Faith, less guidance, less watch-care, less protection, less blessing of God, less Sovereign-Rule, less divine love, less of His omnipotence and more of our impotence – with many of the warped opinion that, ‘yes, we’re smarter then God Himself’!”
I know that the people of our formerly ‘great nation’ have set aside any “fear of God”. But Psalm 25:12-15 tells us, King David speaking, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”
A “net of Godless rule” is a strong, powerful net that wraps itself around people so powerfully that they end up with spiritual curses, spiritual bankruptcy, spiritual ignorance, and a spiritual destiny they really should not desire. Numbers 22:31-34 is a wake-up call for some people, but, sadly, many national, state, and local leaders have plotted their course, omitting God, His Word and His will.
In Numbers 22:31-35 we read, Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because ‘your way’ is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also killed you by now, and let her live.” And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”
Do you sense today in America, in Texas, in the Bedford, Texas, area a political climate that is, by some, “perverse before Me”, Holy God, the Founder of government to be Sovereignly ruled by Him – not proud, fleshly, independent of and separate from His Holy Word, wiser than God men and women?
How clear are you about Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:2-4 that so relates to God’s people as His instruments impacting ‘godless governments’ and lives in every community? Peter wrote:
“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Isn’t it a shameful position that some take, “Keep God and His Word and Truth out of OUR governments – we’ll take care of ourselves in our own way!”
But then, there are those with Peter’s wisdom and understanding! 2 Peter 1:10-11, “Therefore, brethren, [true sons and daughters of the Eternal Faith!], be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
You hear it in all political elections: “No God in our government – we do it our way, man’s way, the way of godlessness, and the way of fleshly compromises, alienating God and Truth from us!” Destructive heresies will seek to gain control, keep control, and hold onto man’s control and ways without heeding the Holy Word! “Alienate Truth and promote ‘our way’, which is the absence of God in our governments!”
Didn’t Peter go on to say in 2 Peter 2:19, “While they promise them ‘liberty’ [from being governed by God or His Truth!], they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage;” Verse 22, But it has happened [does happen, will happen!] to them according to a true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
Are you aware of how many “professing believers”, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, find themselves easily entangled again in them and overcome, [that their] latter end is worse for them than the beginning?
In 2 Peter 2:21 the servant of God tells us: “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
Now? Prayerful intercession that Holy God, once again, will teach men, political leaders, “the way in which God chooses” – not their supposed “grass-roots” electorate! Accounting Day does come before Holy God at the Judgment Seat for, yes, their ‘political decisions’ (?)! So, newly elected politicians: Will YOU be led by Holy God and His Eternal Word?
CHAPTER TWELVE
“WORLD PHILOSOPHERS OR WILLFUL PROMOTION BY GOD”
There’s an interesting couple of verses for you to examine carefully as you look at Psalm 75:6-7 where the psalmist says: “For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge; He puts down one, and sets up another.”
In Psalm 147:6 it speaks of God’s Word AND His providence: “The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground.” All world philosophers are not “wicked,” but the majority are “too smart in themselves” to ever see God as necessary in their lives!
Didn’t Paul tell us 2000 years ago, in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”?
Acts 17:16-21 is about philosophical “new things” in opposition to the Eternal Truths of God. Follow it: Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit provoked him when he saw that the city was given over to idols…
Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there…
Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection…
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”
For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
And if you follow it carefully, you’ll discern that ‘world philosophies’ are devotion to “wise things” that really have nothing to do with the heart – it’s all mental and divorced from the spiritual nature of fallen men!
Participants in world culture of which we all are a part does not mean we deny Him but affirm, surrender, and yield to our Lord and Savior who IS the King of kings and Lord of lords! It doesn’t mean we’re “not at home” unless we sell our souls as the majority of the world, but we recognize our “worldly home” is in need of God’s grace, mercy, and love.
World philosophers or willful promotion by God Himself! Read carefully Oswald Chambers in his writing, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.175-176], “Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount of God. If you don’t obey the light, it will turn into darkness. ‘If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is the darkness!’ The second you waive the question of sanctification [ it means: ‘set apart to the glory of God only’!] or any other thing upon which God gives you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse…The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you “say” you are sanctified, “show it.”… Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent”! What’s that? What pleases me and doesn’t line up with the Spirit of God who sacrificed His all!
World ‘philosophers’ are so adept at convincing people that belief, trust, repentance and faith in Holy God is so unnecessary for the ‘smart folks’ – yet the educated crowd can center their lives in the darkest darkness and call it ‘light’!
It doesn’t take long to discover the worldly, self-righteous individual, or the ‘professor’ of self-satisfaction – and if you stay around them very long you sense a spirit of discontent with all they know and an uncertainty of mind as unbelief always brings on fractures in what they really think.
So often when the Holy Word and the convicting Holy Spirit is shared with a world philosopher, you’ll see and sense degrees of dismay in many because they’re on the threshold of discovering their lost condition and separation from God!
In life as a believer, transformed by the mercy and grace and love of God, aren’t you shocked at times when you see the worldly crowd comfortably seated at a worldly table, easily laughing at any worldly, dirty joke, when in the innermost heart is a person at war with Holy God, embittered by their own set of circumstances, AND WILL NOT LOOK UP TO THE CARING THRONE OF GOD AT THE GOD OF CALVARY’S CROSS?!?
Psalm 4:2 says, “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn My glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?” You realize there are “sons of men” and there are “sons of God”! You understand that there are those whose hearts are cemented in ‘earthly, fleshly values’ that are worthless in comparison to the heavenly treasures that increase in worth and blessing and true enrichment more and more!
In 2 Corinthians 4:1-4 Paul lifts the worldly veil that blinds or hinders true spiritual understanding of the gospel of Christ. He wrote: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart…
But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God…
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
And that will break your heart if it hasn’t already because there are those whom you know whose hearts are ‘veiled’ to truth and whose minds are ‘blinded’ by the god of this age – they at least feel comfortable in their spiritual state of lostness because they are not alone; tragically, they’re blinded to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, not knowing they reflect the darkness of the devil himself!
“World philosophers”? It was Paul in Colossians 3:2 who said, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” And because you received the death of Christ and your crucifixion with Him, and you died with the result that your life is now hidden with Christ IN GOD, verse 5, “therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
An ‘idol worshipper’? That’s the worldly ‘dude’ who has saved his life for himself because he loves the world and all that it offers, not God! I know that you are not totally ‘brain-dead’ because you look at our world today and you witness ‘civilization catastrophes’ that grow more corrupt and, yes, ‘sinful’ world-wide!
“World philosophers” certainly major on ‘riches’ any way you can get it! But they are void of understanding about what ‘great gain’ is all about. In I Timothy 6:6-10 Paul advised his spiritual son, saying: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out…
And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition…
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” When did that change?
I believe when the author of Proverbs 14:24 spoke of “the crown of the wise”, he certainly was not speaking of “the crown of life” or “the crown of glory” because wisdom apart from God’s wisdom and revelations is a false righteousness that does not lead to repentance and true faith. It says: “The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly.”
In Proverbs 1:28-33 the ‘wise-man’, inspired by God Himself, gives us ALL a word of warning: “Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord…
They would [have] none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof… Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices… For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them…
But whoso hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”
“World Philosophers or Willful Promotion By God?” Oh, I tell you, God’s Word is so rich and man’s worldly philosophies are so bankrupt! Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Led by the world or led by God Himself?
What did Paul say in II Corinthians 4:3-5? “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age [the devil] has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”
Willful promotion by God? Bound in the flesh to the world philosophies, ideals, earthly gains, human pride in self-effort, but freed in Christ to divine life, eternal principles, heavenly blessings, holy privilege in sharing God’s faithful provisions, joy in the Lord forever not fleshly happiness, and a crown of glory and rejoicing that does not fade away, with an eternal family under the Fatherhood of God and His Sovereignty!
Willful promotion by God? We’re no longer “slaves of Satan” bound in satanic chains – in Christ we’re “sons and daughters of God” in the Heavenly Family! We’re no longer ‘flavorless’ but we’re the salt of the earth! We’re no longer ‘darkness’ – we’re light in the Lord! We’re no longer empty in the inner man, but filled with the Holy Presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!
We’re no longer of the unrighteous descendants but men and women who through repentance and faith in Christ have been declared righteous in the very righteousness of God imparted and implanted in our washed vessel of trust in Him! We’re not the “happy hour” crowd – we’re the eternally blessed members of the Royal Family of God! Our identity is no longer slaves of Satan, but now the very children of Holy God! We’re not ‘impersonaters’ of our Lord and Savior, but possessors of His Resurrection Life, “vessels of the Victor”!
We’re not distant stars blinking in the darkened nights of men’s souls but “lights” on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Robert Browning, in “Paracelsus”, wrote: “If I stoop, Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, It is but for a time; I press God’s lamp close to my breast; its splendor soon or late Will pierce the gloom; I shall emerge one day.” And even when destiny brings us temporarily to a “dark tremendous sea of cloud,” WE WILL EMERGE BRIGHTER THAN EVER BEFORE!
We’re sons and daughters of God’s eternal faith, and though doubt, at times, will try to rob us of light’s glow and meaning, and even when I find myself in my darkest moment as a follower, I choose to rest in Him!
I found it so interesting that the agnostic or atheist, Robert Ingersoll, at his brother’s funeral, spoke and said: “From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word. But in the night of Death, Hope sees a star, [but for him it was not the Bright and Morning Star whose name is Jesus!] and listening Love can hear the rustle of a wing.” Oh, that somehow he learned of the Love of God but I doubt he ever did!
If God gave you “existence”, did He do so apart from eternal purpose? Of course not! His one beckoning call is, “Be reconciled to God,” and in that ministry of reconciliation, the blood of Jesus takes center-stage, first place, the only door through which we can walk into the presence of God! It’s why in Matthew 5:8 Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.”
It was Thomas a’ Kempis who said: “Simplicity reaches out after God; purity discovers and enjoys Him.”
I so appreciate Noah Webster’s description of ‘providence’ in his 1828 Dictionary. He said: “Providence – in theology the care and superintendence which God exercises over His creatures. He that acknowledges a creation and denies a ‘providence,’ involves himself in a palpable contradiction; for the same power which caused a thing to exist is necessary to continue its existence…By divine providence is often understood God Himself.”
The God who made you, is He unable to save, sustain, and complete you to His good pleasure? In Romans 3:24-26 God’s Holy Word tells us: “being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through the resurrection that is in Christ Jesus…
Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Thank God for Chambers’ insight! Listen to what he wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest”: [p.247], “The Gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.” BUT THAT’S IT! IT’S ALL OF HIM and not us in the matter of our redemption, our re-birth, and our reconciliation!
He said a few sentences later, “He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves, we have to enter His Kingdom through the door of destitution.” WOW!
Oh, I’m telling you: Jesus is to every repentant believer the complete and whole treasury of God!
Remember – we’re looking at “World Philosophy OR Willful Promotion By God”!! And when “world philosophy” begins to surface strongly and willful promotion by God takes a backseat, you begin to sense a sad decaying of true faith, an allegiance to the flesh [your old sin nature – so anything goes!], even church attendance by many who have no intention of denying self and taking up His Cross [and our own], and suddenly the Word of God is set aside, truth is left outdoors, and doubt about the veracity of God’s Holy Word takes over the pulpit and the classroom!
Philosophy may give a few insights, but Christ Jesus births “new men”! It was the German theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, who said: “Not until man has become so utterly unhappy, or has grasped the woefulness of life so deeply that he is moved to say, and mean it: ‘ LIFE HAS NO VALUE FOR ME’ – NOT TILL THEN IS HE ABLE TO MAKE A BID FOR CHRISTIANITY.”
AND ALMIGHTY, HOLY, WISE, LOVING, CARING GOD STEPS UP TO REVEAL HIS UNCHANGING LOVE AND MATCHLESS MERCY TO WOUNDED HUMANITY BY OUR SELF-INFLICTED SIN NATURES!
John 3:14-18 illumines Heaven on earth! “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal 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.”
Paul built out of the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection eternal truth!! Look at Romans 5:6-11!! “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die…
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life…
And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
There’s an old hymn entitled “Grace Greater Than Our Sin.” It says: “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt…Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled…
Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.
Dark is the stain that we cannot hide. What can we do to wash it away? Look! There is flowing a crimson tide, Brighter than snow you may be today…
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe! You that are longing to see His face, Will you this moment His grace receive?
Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within, Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.”
World philosophers or Willful Promotion By God? It’s your choice!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“SUICIDE A SIGN OF HOPELESSNESS IN CHRIST –
A SIGN OF HELPLESSNESS IN ONE’S SELF”
I’m not sure that even many ‘evangelical Christians’ will agree with my deep conviction about “suicide”, but I must share my despair over “suicide”, and especially when some “professors of faith” see it as a door to heaven! They say, “One doesn’t lose his/her salvation,” revealing that they don’t believe true salvation is believing in Jesus without any concerns about one’s obedience to Him or not, refuting His Word: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I say!”
I say to you without any hesitation that “ suicide”, professing believer or not, is a chilling reality of unbelief and disobedience, a ‘cheap imitation of surrender and obedience,’ a dark shadow of death not life in the Spirit, and is nothing more than a spiritual famine, an inadequate supply of biblical faith, and a famine of true surrender and yieldedness to the King of kings and the Lord of lords! It is a devastating picture of the absence of Holy Presence and eternal purpose!
Suicide is a strange word and language to true people of faith, an enemy of Resurrection life, Resurrection power, and Resurrection hope. Suicide is a godless decree of Satan and a sad remnant of either unbelief or a decaying faith! It was Frank T. Marzials, in his writing: “Death as the Fool”, who said: “God help the fools who count on death [or suicide] for gain.”
What does Romans 8:6-11 tell us? Paul had just said, by God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin or because of its ruthless treatment of His created, that He condemned sin in the flesh, {but you believe you can ‘sin in the Spirit”? Give me a break!}.
Verses 6-11, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind IS enmity against God; for it (asserting its ‘self-will’) is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh (even as a professing believer!) cannot please God.
But you (In Christ) are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, IF INDEED THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. Now if ANYONE does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you {Big “IF”!}, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit {IN YOU} is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him [God Himself] who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Even the word ‘suicide’ in any man, believer or not, leaves me with the deep conviction that unbelievers or professing believers do not understand, have no conviction about the very sacred nature of physical life but more important the gift of Resurrection Life, and even contemplating ‘suicide’ reveals a ‘train of faith or faithlessness’ both off the “tracks of God” as chief engineer!
Yes, to BE suicidal is the act of rejecting the “Author of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ,” yielding not to Him but the act of imitation ‘priests’, muted, blinded, unyielding to His Spirit and Word! As Christ Jesus is the Deliverer from death, ‘your salvation experience’ is either the modeling of His life and hope, or your oppression, deception, and blindness by the devil.
But, Yes, to be “in Christ” is to possess the Divine Spirit, Life, and Hope within, ruling and reigning, not to extinguish one’s life but extend and express His eternal life in you and through you. There’s nothing formidable or instructive about ‘suicide’ other than ‘pumping up’ the devil and his demons! They celebrate a suicide! Suicidal death is nothing more than an extreme expression of obstinateness and indifference to the will and Word of God and His honor. Suicidal deaths diminish, for far too many people, the Truth of Christ and His victory over spiritual death and spiritual strangulation!
Suicidal death is not a “master-piece” print-out of Resurrection Life but a cheap imitation of His promises. Self-death by human, willful means is one’s rejection of “spiritual life” by Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. Suicide is not “done with sin” but an open and willful celebration of sin in fleshly cares, woes, and pains!
Suicide is the door to the land of darkness and the shadows of that darkness, the door to the hellish celebration of the dead, the demons, and ALL of Hell’s constituents, plus the absence of any “fruit of the Spirit” but only the “rotten fruit of a misspent life”, honoring ‘flesh’, unbelief, disobedience, rebellion to the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Suicidal death is an announcement of darkness and one’s ‘changed mind’ or desire for it, and a rejection of “Life, Liberty, and the eternal Spirit and His fruit: Galatians 5:22-24, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law, AND THOSE WHO ARE CHRIST’S HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES. IF WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, LET US ALSO WALK IN THE SPIRIT.”
Is suicide loving God or loving ‘dust’, loving the Savior or loving the sensual flesh and its never-ending disappointments, or loving the foolish setting aside Redemptive Faith? Suicide “sinks the soul, the spirit, the very life of true faith”! Suicide is being overcome by fleshly domination, being blinded to the God who saves, heals, and delivers; it is the exaltation and submission to the fleshly manifestations of fear, faithlessness, and the futility of ‘self-effort discipleship’ apart from His promises!
James 4:7-10 says, (This is from the brother of Jesus!), “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
Please, let me highlight, underscore, enlighten you more about “willful suicide”:
FIRST, IT IS SELF-ASSERTION RATHER THAN TRUE TRUST IN GOD’S CARE. In Jeremiah 29:11 the Lord God spoke: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Suicide is, yes, the act of willfully rejecting the Author of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ, and giving the devil himself more right to your life than the blood-redemption of Christ Jesus.
As Christ Jesus is the “Deliverer from death”, your salvation experience and continual event is taking the sentence of death to yourself daily that He might rule and reign in you, with you aware of the necessity of giving room daily to His model and eternal reality of divine life and eternal hope, not your oppression or deception by the devil that suicide is spiritually legal.
Suicidal death is honoring flesh, honoring a misspent life, honoring indifference, unbelief, and hopelessness! It’s the extreme manifestation of ‘self-will’, rejecting divine will, trusting my deception more than His Truth and His Trust, and more trust in my misspent mind than His peace, His design for me, and His future hope for me ‘In Him.’
SECOND, SUICIDE IS SELF-DETERMINATION RATHER THAN SOVEREIGN CARE BY HOLY GOD. Romans 6:23 is so clear! “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“The gift of eternal life”? But some disregard His gifts, His provisions, and His fruit, and substitute or give way to ‘best effort’ or a slavish indifference to His revealed truths!
It’s so interesting that in Hebrews 4:14 – 16 the author magnifies Jesus, the Son of God, and us ‘holding fast our confession’, then saying, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY TO THE THRONE OF GRACE, THAT WE MAY OBTAIN MERCY AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.” Obtaining mercy and finding grace is not God agreeing one’s suicide is “OK” with Him!
There was a time in the psalmist’s life when he found “trouble and sorrow.” Psalm 116:4-9 is a powerful testimony. It says: “Then I called upon the name of the Lord: “Oh Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul. For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you."
Further on, in Psalm 118:5-17, there is a song, the psalm, of exalting and praising God for His everlasting, All-sufficient, and never-ending mercy! It says: “I called on the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
THE LORD IS ON MY SIDE; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The LORD IS FOR ME among those who help me; therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
They surrounded me like bees; they were quenched like a fire of thorns; For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. You pushed me violently that I might fall, but the Lord helped me.
The Lord is my strength and song and He has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”
And true believers, born the second time through the blood of Jesus, are raised up, not to give in to the devil’s suggestions, but to expose him and his evil ways – suicide IS an evil way of the powers of darkness! “In Christ”, we have the Great High Priest from whom we obtain mercy and grace to help in the times of need and our greatest ‘stress moments’!
THIRD, SUICIDE IS YIELDING TO ‘THE THIEF’ (SATAN) RATHER THEN YIELDEDNESS TO GOD’S PROMISED OVERSIGHT. In John 10:9-10 Christ Jesus declared, “I am the door. If anyone enters (the Kingdom of God) by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief (Satan) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
And in strenuous times, dark clouds, heavy winds, testy storms, some who ‘professed’, like some ‘church-attenders’, yet, sadly, never ‘possessed’ the resurrected Christ, identified themselves, though loyal ‘Temple-attenders and observers’, as what Jesus described as “sons of the devil”! In John 8:43-47 Jesus said of, yes, the ‘religious elite’ of His day, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He (Satan) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for HE IS A LIAR and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
FOURTH,SUICIDE IS THE ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF DISAVOWING THE SACRIFICIAL DEATH OF CHRIST AND HIS LORDSHIP, DETERMINING, THOUGH PROFESSING, ONE IS REALLY HIS OWN AND CAN DO AS HE/SHE PLEASES. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul challenges every ‘professing believer’,
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and YOU (In Christ) are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
No “believer” has the right, the privilege, the choice, of choosing on his/her own what pleases or displeases God, what is “my decision” related to life or self-imposed’ death, or what road or path “I” am to walk on! “In Christ” is not a license to do as one pleases!
FIFTH, IT IS THE CLEAREST ACT OF BETRAYAL OF THE BODY OF CHRIST, OR ALL BELIEVERS, AND AN ACCEPTANCE OF THE WILL OF THE AUTHOR OF DEATH, REBELLION, AND DISOBEDIENCE.
Psalm 33:18-22 declares: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in you.”
The lack of the reverential awe of Almighty God, Christ’s Lordship, and the Holy Spirit’s authority and power, is the “open door” to what you believe satisfies you, not God, not the Spirit, not the Lord Jesus, and certainly, NOT HIS WORD: “You shall not kill.”
Colossians 1:19-23 is an awesome warning from the biblical word “if”. Do you know that word in your own spiritual journey? Paul said: “For it pleased the Father that in Him [In Christ!] all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight – (“GET READY”!), IF INDEED YOU CONTINUE IN THE FAITH, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister [or a Messenger].”
“IF” means “conditional” or “will you show Me your devotion by doing My will?” Paul had explained in Colossians 1:18 that Jesus is YOUR author in life decisions! “And He is the head of the body, the church, [all believers], who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, THAT IN ALL THINGS HE MAY HAVE THE PREEMINENCE.” [And you believe it’s permissible to do as you please as a disciple, even committing suicide?].
SIXTH, SUICIDE IS A SUBSTITUTION OF PERSONAL DEATH FOR CHRIST’S RESURRECTION LIFE, RESURRECTION POWER, AND RESURRECTION HOPE! What did Christ Jesus Himself declare in Matthew 11: 28-30? “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I WILL GIVE YOU REST. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and {by coming to Him rather than the devil, the flesh, or the world spirit!}, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
SEVENTH, SUICIDE IS A SUBSTITUTION OF FLESH RATHER THAN THE VICTORY OF CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK! There is a dramatic convicting passage of Scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 where again, Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses against them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
The old has passed away? The old things of flesh indulgence and self-will, or self-determination of life choices, even suicide, has passed away? Is ‘self’ the controlling spiritual influence or “the Christ in you the hope of glory”? And If Christ is the hope of glory in the “new man” in Him, where does the “new man” find, in Christ, an open door to suicide? If God says that by willingness and obedience to Him, He gives the precious privilege of “eating” the good of His land, then its ‘OK” to indulge in the ‘flesh’, even “feeling good” about ending it all by suicide?
“In Christ” one is not granted the fleshly right to do as he/she pleases? “In Christ” one doesn’t have to discern “divine will”? “In Christ” is a lie and one is allowed, though saved, to choose for himself whether to live or die by his own hand? Even though ‘professing Christ’ is a legitimate expression, having done so, have I then the right and rule to determine for myself whether I choose to live or whether I choose to die by my own hand, and it will please the Savior and Lord and honor Him if I betray His Lordship and shorten, end, or cancel His eternal purpose He determined to fulfill through me?
Suicidal death is not the door to eternal life; suicidal death is not a hymn of one’s devotion to His Savior and Lord, but an ‘off-key’, un-tuned horns, phony words of ‘OK’ by the choir director of darkness, evil, and the satisfactions of all indulgent demons! It is corruptible, it is a devilish substitute for the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, it is ‘the end of life’, not a divorce from its sorrowful bents and turnings and witness, and it is not ‘debt paid for my failures, my rebellion, my indulgences, my rejection, and my determination, and loving God ought to be pleased that I won’t shame Him anymore, because I end my failing life?
Suicide is the devil sealing his ownership by default of trust, obedience, or honor of the Savior and Lord! Suicide is a “mastered piece of hellish art” by the devil of darkness who claims ‘light’!
“Unashamed the devil stands and claps his hands over the suicidal man. ‘Goodness’ to him is you ending your pain, sorrow and suffering in your estimation of your failures, worthy only of ripping your painting of your life off the wall, and letting him celebrate your rejection of God’s help!’”
If the devil walks about seeking whom he may devour, do you believe his invitations are those by which you dishonor God, destroy yourself, giving him room to celebrate another battle won?
It was Shakespeare, in his “Hamlet”, who once wrote: “The spirit that I have seen may be the devil; and the devil has power to assume a pleasing shape,” and in his “hellish, pleasing shape”, promoting his darkness, ‘suicide’ becomes for ‘doubters’ the open door to rest, peace, and good feelings! Give me a break!
Why not “rebuke the devil and he will flee from you”! Expose him not explain him! Resist his demonic temptations rather than receive his deathly trouble! The “suicide-tempter” IS the “unmasked devil” with the intent of one’s horrific death, dishonoring the God who made him, to the devil’s pleasure! You don’t keep the devil in your house – you kick him out! “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer – I (Jesus) have overcome the world and the devil!” Amen?
And if the Lord Jesus has “chosen” us, that is not the “choice” of freedom in Christ to do with myself as I please but yielded to His sovereign will in all circumstances of one’s life, and, be assured, Holy God doesn’t give His “Amen” to any believer’s choice of killing himself/herself but challenges all believers to “LIVE” for His glory, His honor, His praise!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“NATIONAL DAY OF ‘REASONING’ OR NATIONAL AGELESS-RECEPTION OF GOD’S REVELATION, REACHING OUT TO HIM, AND RESTING IN HIS BLOOD REDEMPTION?”
Did you happen to catch the national TV exposure of Prince George of England’s picture of him (a three-year old!) feeding a dog from his ice-cream cone? A ‘brilliant’ (?) British citizen vowed: “I will not rest until Prince George of England is someday denied the throne for feeding a dog an ice cream cone!”
That’s like ‘intellectual’ university professors and ‘intellectual’ boards of directors declaring “belief in God here, validating Him, affirming Him, upholding Him, will not be allowed in this university or our corporate businesses”, while they continue to seal their own ultimate doom by unveiling their ‘intellectual’ stupidity – ‘ national kids’ or ‘dogs’ fed by the immature players of “godless governments”!
But, if there is a ‘man’, a ‘family’, or a ‘nation’ that “FEARS” the Lord, what is the ultimate result? In Psalm 25:12-21 we read, “Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He Himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show “them” His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, for (apart from You) I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have (are, will be, about to be) enlarged; bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. Keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I Wait For You, the ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD!”
“Nations” ‘taught’ in the way God chooses? Or “nations” dwelling in ‘spiritual poverty’? Are “nations” inheriting the earth or bankrupting themselves? Are “nations” recipients of the “blessings of the blood covenant in Christ” or blinded to those blessings? Are they “plucked out” of deathly situations or descending into them? Do their “troubles” enlarge or diminish, becoming “more desolate and afflicted”, or delivered by the very hand of God from them? Do nations today “wait upon the Lord”, yield to His sovereign leadership and protection and provisions, letting biblical integrity and uprightness preserve, sustain, and strengthen them? Is it “the Father’s world” or, temporarily, has it been confiscated by ungodly, unprincipled, selfish, self-indulgent ‘politicians’ and bankrupt citizens ‘trying’ their “best”, which does nothing but produces “godlessness” and introduces “divine judgment”?
Are you aware of how devoted many ‘nations’, ‘professors’, and ‘godless peoples and regions’ are, “devoted” to the ‘natural’ but incensed about the “supernatural”, opposed to the “seekers of divine Truth and His truths”, even “angry, resistant to, and diabolically opposed to national evangelism, mission, and allegiance to the God and Savior whose desire and intent is on ‘redeeming them’?”
Do you realize the choices, desires, programs, disciplines of spiritual nations in their willful intents of upholding, promoting, practicing, instituting, and honoring the God who birthed them, or fully aware of the “death-nail” deliberations, determinations, and decisions, that “God in politics” is unacceptable, un-national, and “not our ‘cup of tea’”! So they drink the “kool-aid” of “godlessness”!
Will it be the “movies” of the majority of Hollywood’s ‘brainless’, or the message of the revealed Word of God by His “privileged, appointed, anointed witnesses”? Will it be the “messages and basic principles of ‘ungodly professors’ and ‘proclaimers’ of ‘ungodly expositions’ of their “godless nations”, with the intent of constantly educating schools and universities and students in opposition to Eternal Truths, and especially opposed to “the Author and Finisher of True Faith”? Will it be in cities, states, nations, schools, universities, courts, the “expositions” of ‘godless men’ or the profound, prophetic, personalized “TRUTHS” of redeemed men, re-born servants of the Most High God, and available vessels of all the “Redeemer’s revelation- desires to save YOUR world”?
Will it be “living expressions, vibrant testimonies, miraculous occurrings and events and expectations, verbal declarations of transformation in the hearts and lives of men and women, inheriting the ‘good, acceptable, and perfect will of God’, and His mandate and His message and His “good news” to the warped, maligned, shamed images and opened-unveilings of sin’s captives and the devil’s disciples, with the clear, true, distinct proclamation of “new births”, “new names”, a “new covenant,” “new bottles” for the eternal ‘wine’ of holy presence, “new hearts”, a “new spirit”, a “new creation”, a “new name”, and recipients of a “new and living way” – and with all my heart and mind, I am fully convinced that Paul’s declaration in Romans 6:4 was God’s desire and intent, not only for individuals but nations: “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also (individually and nationally) should walk “in newness of life.”
Even in Romans 7:6 Paul informs us, both individually and, I believe, for the nations, “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we (as a nation or individually or corporately) should serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” “God, please, please, overrule the nations that do not want your compassionate governing and ruling and usher in the next “Great Spiritual Awakening” because of our heart’s desire and Your willful proclamation and willful intervention and divine pleasure!”
National days of reasoning, apart from God, are nations “void of divine counsel” and “victims of godless rulers” and, sadly, “veneers of superficial, fleshly appearances”, giving allegiances to their own ‘gods’, like Isaiah’s vision from God for His own ‘chosen nation’, Israel, (Isaiah 1:4), “Alas, sinful nation! A people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward.”
It’s really interesting as you’re reading through the Word of God to come to a passage like 2 Kings 17:24-29, then Verses 32-36, and see a “nation’s professors” yet remain ‘religious’ apart from “possession” of His Truths!
2 Kings 17:24-29 says: Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “the nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and indeed, they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land.”
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Send there one of the priests whom you brought from there; let him go and dwell there, and let them teach them the rituals of the God of the land.” Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
However every nation continued to make gods of its own, and put them in the shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they dwelt. {Oh, how delightful! They are really religious, but totally unredeemed!} The “pretense” continued! Look at Verses 32-36!
So they ‘feared the Lord’, and from every class they appointed FOR THEMSELVES ‘priests’ of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. They feared the Lord, “YET SERVED THEIR OWN GODS” – according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away.
TO THIS DAY they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying: “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them; but the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall sacrifice.”
[Dare I tell you? Hebrews 9:24-28 declares that the true redemption sacrifice is “Emmanuel” or “God in flesh”; THAT’s Christ Jesus!] Hear the Word! “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world;
But now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away SIN by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time apart from sin, for salvation.”
And dare I also say, because of one’s repentance toward God and faith in the Redeemer’s “finished work”, they become, you in Christ become, Temples of Holy Presence! “New Holy Temples”! You, me, the transformed, the redeemed, the blood-bought, yes, by “the blood of the Lamb of God” who is Christ alone!
But hear me! National allegiances to the world, the flesh or old sin nature, and, sadly, allegiances to the devil, the demons, or their dark, enslaving influences, are in many not simply ‘prominent’ but ‘preeminent’ over Holy God and His Holy Revelation and divine will, and in their lame assertions “men at their best efforts” deny Him, have no need of Him or His love, grace, and mercy, saying, “Why does your God think we can’t care for ourselves”?
Because in our own efforts there is no “blood redemption”, there is no “reconciliation”, there is no “seed” of “new birth”, and there is no fulfillment or blessing or miracle of divine transformation! This age of the 21st Century is fast becoming the “age of grey”, not black or white, but “do as you desire” without any consideration of or devotion to the God of our creation and His Word, His will, His ways – the “age of grey”! But “White”- that’s “washed in the blood of the Lamb” and divinely declared as “white as snow” – not the pigment of one’s skin but the purity of his/her heart! Glory! And black? Hearts fully surrendered and bond in sin and death, bondage and misspent opportunity to know Him, love Him, and serve Him, and ultimately eternal separation in Hell under the awful domination of the devil and his demons, and miserable existence eternally with the “shattered-by-God” because of their stubbornness, unbelief, disobedience, and distaste for the Savior and Redeemer, King of kings and Lord of lords! Enough of “the old man”, the “fallen creation of unbelief” and the “world of rejection of Loving, Caring, Merciful Holy God”!
WHAT ABOUT NATIONS MADE NEW? In Revelation 22 John said, after hearing Him who sat on the Throne in Revelation 21:5 declaring, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” “I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes (that’s overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil!) shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and ALL LIARS shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
[I believe I would contemplate about God Himself declaring “a second death” that never dies!] Have you never seen that Revelation 22:1-5 declares, not something “out there”, “maybe thousands of years away”, but that as “Jesus comes quickly” into “new born lives” and “redeemed nations”, with Verse 7 assuring us, saying, “Blessed is he [individual or nation!] who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book?” For the sake of nations, please listen, receive, claim, stand on, proclaim Verses 1-5 of Revelation 22!!!It says:
“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree WERE FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS.
And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” ARE YOU “IN CHRIST” IN THIS VERY MOMENT AND FOR THE REST OF YOUR EARTHLY DWELLING TRULY ALLOWING HIS LIGHT TO SHINE THROUGH YOU?
GOD AND THE NATIONS OF FAITH? 1. God “designs them”: red, yellow, black or white, they are precious in His sight!”
2. God “delights in obedience or, yes, delights in separating alienating, and destroying the rebellious”!
3.God “delivers them” out of all their troubles, wars, famines, or from ‘godless’, disobedient, faithless rulers!
4. God “disciplines them” like immaturity, childish ‘brats’ until they become mature national “sons or daughters” of the redemptive faith.
5. God “dictates”! It’s His Word or the world’s highways, His Truths or the world’s temptations, His will or the world’s or the nations’ allegiance to their “free-from-God-spirit”!
Dare I apply Romans 14:19 to “nations” as well as “individuals, families, communities, states, or churches”? Paul said: “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one (even “nations”?) may edify one another.” How do you relate, respond, or react, to the inspired word of Paul in Galatians 3:8-9 when he said, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you ALL THE NATIONS SHALL BE BLESSED’. So then those (individuals, families, states, and nations?) are blessed with believing Abraham,” which doesn’t insist all nations are submitted, surrendered to, or celebrate Holy God, but many nations KNOW the need of God as Savior, Lord, Redeemer, Ruler, Guide, Overseer, and Sovereign Administrator of their governmental affairs!
I want to close this teaching with a word from Barnabas and Paul about allegiances to “useless things”, (even “nations” doing so!): Acts 14:8-22, And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” And he leaped and walked.
Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose (pagan) temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and we preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them.
Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
Does that tell us that, yes, even “God-blessed” nations have, do, or will, face trouble, tribulations, and trials? Without a doubt! But, “In Him”, “WE SHALL OVERCOME!”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“PRAYER BANKRUPTCY OR PRAYER BLESSINGS?”
If you examined “bankruptcy” in any dictionary, you’d find explanations of ‘individuals’ choosing ‘independence’ even from God, ‘mistrust’ of others including God, or a description of ‘insolvency’, ‘personal rule void of redemptive faith’, and, yes, even in one’s denial of ‘the sad reality of’ “utter ruin” and “total failure”, because, apart from’ “saving grace, mercy, and the love of God through Calvary’s Cross”, one “selfishly chooses” godlessness, faithlessness, darkness, shame-less-ness, indifference to eternal purpose and the need of God Himself to fulfill it! [And that would be, not only ‘unbelievers’, but “professing ‘believers’ in God” who never or seldom pray!].
You’ll remember from the previous chapter and its closing that I made mention of Acts 14:21-23, “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, and EXHORTING THEM TO CONTINUE IN THE FAITH, and saying, We must through MANY TRIBULATIONS enter the kingdom of God”, but far too many modern-day ‘disciples’ believe (?) they can do so apart from faithful prayer? ‘Continue in the faith’ void of a prayer life?
Even Abraham Lincoln once said: “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go,” but ‘prayer’ only when one is desperate, ‘prayer’ only when he/she has ‘bankrupted’ the precious privilege of intimacy with God through prayer, or ‘prayer’ only when I’ve been ‘trusting my flesh-determination’ and not His desire to be my Spirit-power and Sovereign-direction through prayer to hear from and becoming clearer the man or woman He desires to ‘reveal through them’ His presence, purposes, and promises?
Prayerlessness is, as Hannah More wrote about in her writing, “Moses in the Bulrushes”, “O sad estate of human wretchedness; so weak is man, so ignorant and blind, that did not God Sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask, we should be ruined at our own request.” ‘Request’ apart from ‘revelation’? ‘Desire’ apart from surrender to divine will and purpose? ‘Asking’ when it is nothing more than abandonment of service, of trust, or of obedience to what Sovereign God has already revealed?
In fact, through Biblical revelation, didn’t Luke share the dynamic commission of Christ Jesus to His disciples then and now, (Luke 18:1), Then Jesus spoke a parable to them, THAT MEN ALWAYS OUGHT TO PRAY AND NOT LOSE HEART?
“Ought”? It’s the Greek word, “Dei” meaning “must” – it’s divine command not a professing believer’s ‘option’, not ‘sentimental requests’ or ‘fleshly desires’, but true faith, faithful obedience, not the ‘pleasurableness’ of fleshly desires, but faithful, total trust and desire and need of hearing from our Lord and Savior, and faithful yieldedness daily to, “Lord, what would YOU have me to do?”, not coming to Him as broken, repentant, servants to the divine will, purpose, and pleasure, but as a ‘den of a thief’ stealing ‘what I want’ that has nothing to do with His good, acceptable, and perfect will!
Are you aware of the large numbers of men and women and self-centered youths who major on exercise, physical disciplines, outward appearances, but know little, if any, of the faithful, yes, discipline of prayer, fellowship, and communion with the God who loves them more than they love themselves, never aware of what godless prayer lives lead to?
Modern-days are ‘open views’ into the existences of bad moms, godless dads, rebellious kids, phony politicians, faithless teachers and professors, governmental legislators that ‘opt out’, ignore, and even deny any responsibility toward the God who birthed them, desired their lives as vessels of His eternal will, or vessels “set apart” to ‘glorify Him on earth, in human, redeemed vessels, blood-bought, and daily available to Him through the Resurrection Presence of Christ within us as the hope of glory, the hope of Godly governments, and the hope of “glowing witnesses” as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ’! And they, knowing that intent, can manage, if by the best of their own abilities, with no daily asking, “Lord, what would YOU have ‘me’ to do?”
How many do you know who see themselves as “sanctified vessels”, satisfied in ‘prayerless walks’, even sensing a spiritual nobility about themselves though they seldom pray? In Ezekial 36:26-27, (NASU), the prophet heard the voice of God Almighty: “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” If so, how do you stack up with the Word of Scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that says, “pray without ceasing”? That’s ‘consistently’, which doesn’t mean “on your knees every hour of the day”, but the awareness of regularly, frequently, consistently, calling out to the Lord and hearing His response!
I was awe-struck in reading in Jim Hylton’s new book, “Being At Ease”, sub-titled “Thinking At Ease – Lessening Disease”. He shared a word about a close friend of his: [p.203], “A friend of mine grew up in a fairly dysfunctional home. The most positive thing about his home was there was an attempt to honor God. Yet the image his family had of God led to religion as a duty that made God seem harsh and demanding.
In my friend’s heart as a child were thoughts about God that were pure and perceptive. He knew God loved him and had more for him than he could imagine. From childhood, his mind was wired for high voltage. He was equipped to think with God and ask God to show him His ways and His secrets. I’ll not go into any further details of Jim’s friend’s life story, only to say from a six-year-old visionary, great things are coming to fruition as a “sold-out adult” to the sovereignty of God! And Brother Jim stressed “the power of endless life (in Christ) gives us a sense of continuity and the satisfaction of endless fulfillment.”
And if that is God’s intent for every true disciple, WHAT ARE “YOU” HEARING FROM GOD ABOUT WHAT HE DESIRES TO DO IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU? Or have you just concluded for yourself, “There’s really nothing in me or through me that can benefit God”, rather than, “What is it eternal God wants to accomplish through me as an available vessel?”
1 John 2:5-6 declares, “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. BY THIS WE KNOW THAT WE ARE IN HIM. He who says he abides in Him OUGHT HIMSELF also to walk just as Jesus walked.” Did the Lord Jesus Christ “walk” the pathway of prayer faithfully?
G. Ashton Oldham put it like this: (a quote from the “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, Edited & compiled by Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, New Jersey, p.345),
“Prayer is the chief agency and activity whereby men ALIGN THEMSELVES WITH GOD’S PURPOSE. Prayer does not consist in battering the walls of heaven for personal benefits or the success of our plans. Rather it is the committing of ourselves for the carrying out of His purposes. It is a telephone call to headquarters for orders. It is not bending God’s will to ours, but our will to God’s. In prayer, we tap vast reservoirs (or resources) of spiritual power whereby GOD can find fuller entrance into the hearts of men.”
PRAYER BANKRUPTCY? Prayerlessness is a desire within for “no shaking of God in ‘my temple’ of personal satisfaction”! Prayerlessness is the admission that “my time shouldn’t be wasted trying to see God, by my requests, sanctifying me, or making me complete, or assuring me through my prayers He’ll finish His work in me and make me whole, spirit, body, and soul? I’m OK as I am – pray to be preserved ‘blameless’? What spiritual childishness – mature ‘Christian (?) adults don’t need to pray!”
Prayerlessness is an attitude of ‘faith’ in one’s ‘common sense’, not the discovery of God’s will! Prayerlessness is because of fleshly pride in one’s self and one’s own abilities to prove himself/herself “worthy of God” by personal performance, not an answer in prayer to what He desires! One of the things Oswald Chambers stressed about a prayer-less life is “one losing sight of God (and His desires), and one becomes worship-less of Him, and we “become hard and dogmatic”. [“My Utmost For His Highest”, p.64].
Prayerless is confidence in one’s self to live the Christian life the “best” one knows how, short-circuiting the heart of God to hear our prayers and grant us His “best”, His all-sufficient supply of whatever HE KNOWS WE NEED! But some are ‘smarter’ than God, or so they think, and so they don’t pray!
Prayerless is avoiding petitioning God for an anointing ‘with power from on high’ because why ask, why seek, when you are already assured “I can live this Christ-life without God’s help,” so the ‘melody’ of the song of prayerlessness gets more ‘off-key’, more ‘out of touch’, and more ‘in the dark’ without ‘heavenly light’!
Prayerless? “If I ask in Jesus’ name what I need, that’s saying I don’t know what I already know, that’s saying that I’m not smart enough to figure it out, or that’s saying I can’t get His mission done in me apart from Him! He just doesn’t know me!”, so they stay prayerless in their spiritual self-conceit!
Prayer bankruptcy? If Job 42:10 tells us that “The Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends”, even blessing him twice as much as he had before, but, “I’ll just trust myself to see me over the humps of life – I can handle it! And I don’t need God’s double blessing, I’m content with what I PROVIDE!” Resignation to dependence upon ‘self’ short-circuits divine intent and heavenly pleasure released from the Throne of God1
Are you aware that prayerless lives indicate no true compassion or concern for others? Job “prayed for his friends”, but for you that’s a ‘spiritual freedom’ from, not necessary as an intercessor for others? I’m telling you, hanging on by the skin of your own teeth spiritually apart from the Savior seeing you through miraculously, without praying, is the height, high height, of ‘self-trust’ – not dependence upon His power and desire to make the difference in us.
Prayer bankruptcy? Jesus said in Matthew 7:11b, “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” But prayer bankruptcy is the personal notion, idea, thought, “I can handle my own predicament, my own problem, and through my own wisdom, determination, and fleshly wits, I can overcome whatever dilemma I find myself in!” God ANSWERS PRAYERS, but some foolishly live with no desire of being known as one, who through trust, obedience, prayers and faith, become monuments of His grace because they’d like to be known as a ‘gritted disciple proving, I’m able!” “God, help us!”
When you come to the Book of Colossians, Chapter 1, Verses 3-6, Paul the Apostle declared, “We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, PRAYING ALWAYS FOR YOU, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth…” continuing on in Verses 9-12, saying:
“For this reason [did you heart that? “For this reason…!”}, we also, since the day we heard it, DO NOT CEASE TO PRAY FOR YOU, AND TO ASK that YOU may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; [praying] that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and INCREASING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the saints in the light.” [But you see no need for a faithful prayer life around you?].
What on earth was Peter talking about when in 1 Peter 4:19 he said: “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” Committed to Christ is committed to His mission, His cause, His Cross, with the clear understanding that all-out devotion to fulfill the will of God, even through the Cross, IS an open door to our crosses, and we must be faithful ‘prayer-warriors’ about being faithful to the mission, which often IS suffering, but ‘prayer warriors’ pray, God answers, and sees them through to ‘celebration day’!
Do you think I may be shifting to “Prayer Blessings” and away from “Prayer Bankruptcy”? In Matthew 6:5-13 Jesus taught His disciples about “faithful prayer ministries” in every disciple: “when you pray”, “when you pray”, “when you pray,” “In this manner, therefore, PRAY:!!!” It’s not an option I hold, if needed, but the faithful ministry out of an obedient heart in honor of our Lord and Savior, and trust in Him to meet every need we have according to His riches in glory! It’ not “selfish ambitions, fleshly desires, or wandering thoughts” but “shutting the door to selfish things” with the passionate desires of honoring Him through YOUR available vessel, family, or needy friends, as you request meeting yours or their needs!
“Prayer Blessings” are not “wasted air” but truly “eternal aims”! “Prayer Blessings” are the true heart-felt and mind-alerted needs of one’s self and others for the hand and help of Him who is the Living Source of divine help, divine healing, and the divine supply of ‘eternal intent’! “Prayer Blessings” are not fleshly, selfish, irrational requests, but spiritual, unselfish, rational wants of what truly honors and glorifies “Father-God” and the “Loving-Messiah”!
Richard Chenevix Trench, in his writing on prayer, said: [Out of previously mentioned “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” p.348], “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of His highest willingness.” That’s ‘like’ a pianist seeking ONLY the ‘blessed’ keys of Heaven’s Hallelujahs, or ‘like’ an artist mentally envisioning on his canvas ‘divine’ will, purpose, and plan, or ‘like’ a governmental politician ‘longing for’ eternal, heavenly intent through the political arenas of his service! “Not ‘my will’, but Your Will, God, be done in me and through me!” Do you understand what Dallas F. Billington referred to in the old ‘Akron Baptist Journal’?: “Do you know what is wrong with the world today? There’s too much theologian and not enough kneeologian.”
“Prayer Blessings”? Nehemiah gives us a ‘prelude’ of a ‘walled city’ in advance of our Lord’s desire to protect your life, your wife, your kids, your calling, your ministry, your mission as a disciple of Christ through “faithful prayers”! Nehemiah 7:1-2 says, “Then it was, when the wall was built and I had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the leader of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many.”
And “new-born”, “newly-inhabited citadels of faith – your life”, is not a life of ‘prayer blessing’ for yourself, your family, your ‘faith-world’, even ‘world-wide-faith-communities’? GIVE ME A BREAK!!
“Prayer Blessings”? That’s the clear confidence, the blessed assurance, the unshakeable faith, that “ if I ask God for ‘bread’, He’ll not give me a stone”! I believe Revelation 3:14-22 is absolutely necessary here, at this point, as we consider our Lord’s ‘blessings’ through Godly prayer. It says:
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, I AM RICH, HAVE BECOME WEALTHY, AND HAVE NO NEED OF NOTHING – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked – I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”, (or ALL disciples!). Are YOU ‘rich’ in the “prayer blessings” of a “Spirit-led disciple” of Christ Jesus?
“Prayer Blessings”? Does 1 Thessalonians 5:17 saying, “Pray without ceasing”, means that true ‘prayer warriors’ never get off their knees? I don’t think so, even for a second, but that true believers live with a consistent, faithful trust, and desire to hear from their Lord and Savior as they “lean not, even to their own understanding”, but give way to His faithful, Sovereign leadership!
One day, recently, I was reading the book, “George Whitfield”, (Volume 1, by Arnold A. Dallimore, [Cornerstone Books, Westchester, Illinois, publ. in 1979], in which Dallimore , contrasting Wesley’s work at Bristol and Whitefield at London, when Whitefield apologized later, saying:
“Alas! Alas! In how many things have I judged and acted wrong. I have been too rash and hasty in giving characters, both of places and persons. Being fond of Scripture language, I have often used a style too apostolic;…I have been too bitter in my zeal [Question: “Flesh or Spirit”?]. Wild-fire has been mixed with it, and I find that I frequently wrote or spoke in my own spirit, when I thought I was writing and speaking by the assistance of the Spirit of God. I have likewise, too much made inward impressions my rule of acting, and have published too soon and too explicitly what had been better kept in longer or told after my death. By these things I have hurt the blessed cause I would defend…”!
Question! In YOUR ‘walk of faith’, has ‘your walk of faith in prayer’ been ‘fleshly zeal’, ‘rash and hasty’, a ‘wild-fire’ without the Spirit of Christ, or His eternal purposes being fulfilled, even as YOU PRAY IN HIM, WITH HIM, and FOR HIM?
True prayer IS a life in tune with the Spirit of Christ in tune with the divine will, purposes, and plans of Holy God, even the “sacrificed life” on the altar of intercession in behalf of others! Prayer is not ‘irrational prerogatives’ but eternal alignments by ‘servants’ with the purposes and plans and power of God alone!
It was a powerful ‘prayer song’ of James Montgomery entitled “Prayer Is the Soul’s Sincere Desire”, published by the Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn., by Robert Coleman, in his “The American Hymnal” in 1933. His song says:
“Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed; the motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, the upward glancing of an eye, When none but God is near.
Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice, Returning from his ways; while angels in their songs rejoice and cry, ‘Behold, he prays!’
Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, the Christian’s native air, his watchword at the gates of death; he enters heaven with prayer.
O Christ, by Whom we come to God, the Life, the Truth, the way, The path of prayer You surely trod: Lord, teach us how to pray!” Is that YOUR prayer?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“AWAKENINGS” NECESSITY?
“PIERCING THE DRAGON – PIERCINGS BY HIM OR PIERCING HIM?”
Revelation 12:7-17 is one powerful illustration showing both the original heavenly war between Holy God and “the dragon” AND the eventual war between “the dragon” and mankind! It says: “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. Do the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (angels or very described as “demons”?).
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony ( “they”? The blood-bought, atoned for, recipients of “new life in Christ”, anointed in the Spirit, declared by God Himself to be sons and daughters of true redemptive faith!), and they did not love their lives to the death.
Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.
Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male”CHILD”. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished, for a time and time and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Related to the passage you just read, is there a correlation to Isaiah 51:9 when the Lord spoke through him, “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart, and wounded the serpent?’, then followed in Isaiah 51:11 with, “So the ‘ransomed of the Lord’ ( the “blood-bought”, the “redeemed”, the “awakened”?) shall return (turn around, face the serpent, resist and conquer him), shall return, and come to Zion with singing, (“We have overcome” the dragon or the devil?), with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
At least 700-800 years later, maybe more, Paul wrote to the church at Colossae and us, Colossians 2:13-15 saying, “And YOU, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He (Christ Jesus!) has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” [Why not add in here James 1:12? “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” Don’t miss THAT!].
The foundation for this chapter, this message, is still being laid: Think with me about Ephesians 3:8-12 where Paul said: “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Christ Jesus; TO THE INTENT THAT NOW the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, IN WHOM we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.”
And when from the Cross, in the last moments before He died for our sins, did He say to the Father, “It is finished!” In that “finished work” by His own shed blood, was He pierced or did He “pierce the dragon”? Out of this scriptural ‘info’ let’s consider “PIERCING THE DRAGON – PIERCED BY OR PIERCING HIM?”
FIRST, NOTICE, PIERCING THE DRAGON BY CONFESSING THE ‘CURSE’ TO THE CONQUERING CHRIST! In Deuteronomy 28:1-2 initially, read carefully: “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God…”.
Then, notice Verse 15 which says: “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, THAT ALL THESE CURSES WILL COME UPON YOU AND OVERTAKE YOU..”
Oh, hold on!! Look at Deuteronomy 28:49-53! It unveils more fully the consequences of ‘the curse’! It says: “THE LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress.” Literal? SURE! IT HAPPENED! Metaphorical? What happened to Israel through the ‘curse’ comes in reality and further awareness on all men and nations who rebel against Holy God and His Word and will! A nation, a life, a family, a people, or, maybe, just a part? Ephesians 2:12 speaks of the ‘uncircumcised’ or unredeemed or unbelievers: “that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of [promise, HAVING NO HOPE AND WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD…”].
The ‘curse’ is lostness, the ‘curse’ is unbelief, the ‘curse’ is compromise, the ‘curse’ is the choice to ‘go my own way without God’! In Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas were intent to see that Israel as the nation heard the Truth of their “Promised Messiah”, but most refused “saving grace” through Christ and settled for devotion to their religious practices! Acts 13:38-41 tells us, Paul speaking to the Jewish assembly and elders,
“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man (Christ Jesus) is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES [trusts in, adheres to, relies upon], IS JUSTIFIED [meaning “received as if they’d never sinned” – Jesus took sin and the sin nature to the Cross and it was put to death through Him!], IS JUSTIFIED from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you: ‘Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.’ [That’s out of Habakkuk 1:5] which related to Israel’s coming judgment AND destruction! [Examine for yourself Matthew 24:35-44!].
Oh, but God help us AND the Jewish community of ‘unbelief’ and rejection of the “True Messiah”! Look at Acts 13:46! Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “it was necessary that the word of God SHOULD BE SPOKEN TO YOU FIRST (the Jewish community!); but since you reject it, AND JUDGE YOURSELVES UNWORTHY OF EVERLASTING LIFE, BEHOLD, we turn to the Gentile world!” Because Paul knew, at least, some of them would receive the witness of Christ’s “Blood Atonement” for men, if they repent and turn!
Consider, reflect upon, settle into Galatians 3:1-14, where there is powerful, enlightening, and redemptive words! It says: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, (O foolish Americans, O foolish ‘intellectual professors’ who are sure they know more than God, O foolish, unspiritual, rebellious, “my way or the highway” people, O foolish ‘church-haters’) before whose eyes JESUS CHRIST was clearly portrayed, (historically validated!!), among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain – if indeed it was in vain?
Therefore He (HOLY GOD!) who supplies the Spirit (the Holy Spirit of “conviction of sin”), are YOU now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain – if indeed it was in vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit (the Holy Spirit of divine conviction) and works miracles among you (whether you see them or not!), does He do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? –
Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” [Go to Genesis 22:1-18! Settle there for awhile, and see faith alone in the “Lamb’s sacrifice, and then come to correlate the Old Testament prophetic picture of the reality of “the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, slain for the sins of the world”, followed by John 20:19-29!! Take a break, and settle in to these marvelous, miracle-working, life-changing revelations!].Then, are you ready?
Please reflect upon 1 John 3:7-9!! “Little children, let no one DECEIVE YOU. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He (the Lord Jesus) is righteous. He who sins (and keeps on sinning) is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. FOR THIS PURPOSE THE SON OF GOD WAS MANIFESTED, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” Do you remember the angel speaking to Zacharias about his answer to prayer, that it was heard, and his wife, Elizabeth, was going to bear him a son, calling him John. And he was told, Luke 1:14-17, “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from His mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
We, in the 21st Century? We’re free from the call on John’s life as it was for him and him alone? What did the Lord Jesus on that mountain after His Resurrection? Matthew 28:18-20 declares is Jesus declaring to all disciples then and now, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. GO THEREFORE and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, TEACHING THEM to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” AMEN.
And to his spiritual son, Timothy, Paul wrote enriching, encouraging, and enlightening words in 2 Timothy 4, after he’d been arrested for preaching “The Truth”, Verses 16-18, saying to Timothy and us,
“In Christ” one is freed from the ‘curse’ of Satanic entitlement as Paul explained in Ephesians 2:1-10, “And you He [God] made ALIVE who were dead n trespasses and sins, IN WHICH YOU ONCE WALKED ACCORDING TO THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and WERE BY NATURE children of wrath, just as the others.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us ALIVE (spiritually alive!) with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and RAISED US UP TOGETHER, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, THAT IN THE AGES TO COME (even in the 21st Century!!) He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH, and that not of yourselves; IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS for good works, which God prepared beforehand that WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM,” to His glory, honor, and praise!!!
“In Christ”, free from the curse of Satanic entitlement, having “formerly walked according to the prince of the power of the air,” we now walk in the liberty by which Christ set us free! “In Christ”, free from the curse of Satanic disobedience, we now walk as true sons of obedience to the King of kings and Lord of lords! Glory!
SECOND, PIERCING THE DRAGON BY THE BINDING OF THE STRONG MAN! In Matthew 12:22-29 it begins with ‘Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He (the Lord Jesus) healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them,
“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.”
Dare I tell you? I believe I will! In Luke 9:1-2 we read, Then Jesus called His twelve disciples together and GAVE THEM POWER AND AUTHORITY OVER ALL DEMONS, and to cure diseases (Maybe even cure “dis-eases”?). Verse 2, He then sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (And you think, “That was then, but not now?”). It’s about eight days later, after the commissioning, Verses 37-43, – Now it happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met Him. Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out saying, “Teacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is only a child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out; it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him. So I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Then Verses 41-43 tells us, Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father. (How interesting that it was only days before, as we began Luke 9, that that very first verse of Luke 9 says, Then He called His twelve disciples together AND GAVE THEM POWER AND AUTHORITY OVER ALL DEMONS, and to cure disease!). But now they can’t?
Luke 10:1-2 begins: After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Oh, it’s getting eternally interesting. Look at Verses 8-9! “Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But please, look intently at Verses 16-20, and ‘buckle up’!
“He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And Jesus said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the AUTHORITY to trample on serpents and scorpions, AND over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
True authority to “pierce the dragon”? Revelation 12:11 says, And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
And, be assured, the “dragon” isn’t happy or pleased! He intensifies his opposition to the people of God, the followers of the Lamb, the church, and, Oh!, he sure wants to keep “disciples” in the dark about their “commissioning” of “binding the strong man”!
How could a “God-led” people like “Israel”, led by God for forty years through the wilderness, ever forget WHAT GOD DID, but they did – and sadly many new disciples have never received divine instruction for themselves in their pilgrimages through life’s ‘wilderness experiences’! Deuteronomy 8:2-3 explains: “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
Really? How does the New Testament interpret the previous Old Testament passage? Look with me at 2 Corinthians 2:10-11! “Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, LEST SATAN SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF US; FOR WE ARE NOT IGNORANT OF HIS DEVICES.”
A dear friend of mine, now deceased, Joyce Green, wife of Milton Green, now deceased, who was a “gifted”, prophetic teacher of the Word the last 10-15 years of his life, both in America and world-wide,( Joyce) taught one time on “The ‘fruit’ of flesh or the “fruits” of the Spirit and the Word”! Examine it, reflect upon it, and determine if your walk of faith is ‘fleshly or spiritual’!
‘Flesh fruit’? Hate or selfishness! Or Holy Spirit fruit? Calvary’s proven love! ‘Flesh fruit’? Sadness and disappointment! Or Holy Spirit joy and delight! ‘Flesh fruit’? Strife! Or Holy Spirit unfathomable peace! ‘Flesh’s’ impatience or irritabilities? Or the Spirit’s fruit of ‘patience’!
The ‘flesh fruit’ of despair or the Spirit’s fruit of ‘eternal hope’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘self-righteousness’ or the Spirit’s fruit of ‘imparted, implanted, Christ-righteousness’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘fear’ or the ‘Spirit’s fruit’ of ‘saving faith’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘scoffing’ or the ‘Spirit’s fruit’ of ‘biblical belief’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘pride’ or the ‘Spirit’s fruit’ of humility?
The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘malice’ or the ‘Spirit’s fruit’ of ‘kindness’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘arrogance’ or the ‘Spirit’s fruit’ of ‘meekness’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘suspicions’ or the ‘Spirit fruit’ of ‘trust’? ‘Uncontrolled outbursts of anger’ or the ‘Spirit-fruit’ of ‘gentleness’?
The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘rebellion’ or the ‘Spirit-fruit’ of ‘submission’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of a ‘life lusting for approval, lured into jealousy and strife’ or the ‘Spirit-fruit’ of ‘completed, fulfilled in Christ’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘cowardice, the fear of men’ or the ‘Spirit-fruit’ of ‘courage’?
The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘rejection’ or the ‘Spirit-fruit’ of ‘accepted in the Beloved’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘self-indulgence’ or the ‘Spirit-fruit’ of ‘temperance’? The ‘flesh fruit’ of ‘infidelity’ or the ‘Spirit-fruit’ of ‘faithfulness’? Let me narrow her list down, just a little bit:
‘Revenge’ or ‘forgiveness’, ‘injustice’ or ‘fairness’, ‘prejudices’ or ‘impartiality’, ‘slothfulness’ or ‘diligence’, ‘hypocrisy’ or ‘sincerity’, ‘lust’ or ‘contentment’, ‘retaliation’ or ‘mercy’, ‘immorality’ or ‘purity’, foolishness’ or ‘wisdom’, ‘worry’ or ‘rest’, ‘greed’ or ‘generosity’, ‘double-mindedness’ or ‘endurance’, ‘deceit’ or ‘Truth’, ‘ingratitude’ or ‘gratitude’, ‘death’ or ‘life’, ‘self-condemnation’ or “Christ-bestowed honor”?
I’m convinced Isaiah 35:8-10 is an affirmation of Joyce’s list! It says: “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Glory! Glory be TO GOD!
Now, in THIS day, THIS hour, “my time of testing”, even by “the powers of darkness”, can “we”, “Pierce the Dragon” By the Power of Prayer and Fasting? “You bet-cha”! In Matthew 17:14-21, follow carefully the words of Jesus and receive His provision for you!
And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epilectic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus REBUKED THE DEMON, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then…then…then…the disciples came to Jesus privately ( what ‘unbelieving disciple’ wants to be exposed publicly?) and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for ASSUREDLY, I say to you, IF YOU HAVE FAITH as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. HOWEVER, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Psalm 140:1-8 and Verses 12-13 gives “assurances” in “prayer” for deliverances, even from the “demons”! It says: “Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, Who plan evil things in their hearts; they continually gather together for war. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent; the poison of asps is under their lips. {But YOU can’t see “demons” in those kinds of ‘evil men’?}.
Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men, who have purposed to make my steps stumble.{ But YOU can’t see “demons” doing that?}. The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set traps for me.
I said to the Lord: “You are my God; hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle. {Are YOU ‘covered’ in the days of spiritual warfare with demons?}. Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further his wicked scheme, lest they be exalted.”
And then David wrote in Verses 12-13, “I KNOW that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor. SURELY the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; the upright shall dwell in Your presence.”
“PIERCE THE DRAGON” ALSO IS OUR CALLING THROUGH STRONG RESISTANCE TO SATAN’S ADVANCES! What did Peter tell us who are “the pilgrims of Faith,” “the elect,” “the sanctified, ‘set aside to God’s honor and glory’, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:1-2)? In 1 Peter 5:6-11 he personalized it, pointed us to our ‘warfare ministry’, and lifted us to the realm of faithful ministry under the God of all grace! Peter wrote:
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that HE may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, PERFECT, ESTABLISH, STRENGTHEN, AND SETTLE YOU. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever . Amen.” When “the dragon” comes, are YOU equipped for the “warfare” in Christ Jesus?
TO “PIERCE THE DRAGON” IS ALSO UPHOLDING THE LIGHT OF TRUTH BEFORE THE DECEIT OF THE WHOLE WORLD! Let’s let Revelation 12:7-11 give us a ‘hint’ about ‘spiritual warfare’ in the 21st Century with the devil and his powers of darkness, the demons: “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels FOUGHT WITH THE DRAGON; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, WHO DECEIVES THE WHOLE WORLD; he was cast to the earth, and his angels (or demons!) were cast out with him.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of the brethren who accused them before our God day and night, HAS BEEN CAST DOWN. And they OVERCAME him (the devil, Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their own testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and sea (those who have no awareness of the defeat of Satan!)! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” Why? How?
Because some are not of God, but are ‘deceived’ by devilish influences, even his very presence, continually blinding their minds, suffocating their wills, and being ‘hood-winked’ by those ‘demons of darkness’ that divine encounter, divine remedy, divine restoration, is not possible, needed, or really happening, just some ‘religious spasms’ that ‘mask’ people from who they really are: the devil’s children, and, “the spirit of the Antichrist” is a good thing, not ungodly ‘like freak Christians tell you’!
Don’t you know this is why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:7 that, “if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, LEST THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST, who is the image {exact likeness and identity!} of God, should shine on them.”
And then, we see the “blood-Redeemed” upholding the “Light of Truth” before the world and, yes, even the demon powers! 2 Corinthians 4:6 says, “FOR IT IS GOD WHO COMMANDED LIGHT TO SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS, who has shone in our hearts (hearts of “born-again, Spirit-filled lives), yes, SHONE IN OUR HEARTS TO GIVE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST.” The Knowledge? The Knowledge of the Glory of God? The Knowledge of the Glory of God In the Face of Jesus Christ, fully revealed in available ‘vessels’ ,like your repentant heart and life fully surrendered to honor Him “through you”?
TO “PIERCE THE DRAGON” IS ALSO THROUGH THE MIGHTY ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN HIS RIVER OF LOVE THAT SWEEPS AWAY TAUNTS, TEMPTATIONS, TESTINGS, TRIBULATIONS, AND TRIALS ‘the dragon, your enemy’ HAS, WILL, DOES BRING AGAINST YOU – BUT “IN CHRIST” WE RECEIVE THE SPIRIT’S RESIDENCE, RELEASE, AND RESURGENT POWERS AS OVERCOMERS, NOT ONLY OVER SIN AND THE OLD NATURE, BUT OVER THE DEVIL HIMSELF AND HIS DEMON FORCES!
Romans 5:3-5 tells us about ‘disciples’ “justified by faith”, about ‘disciples’ “who have peace with God through Christ Jesus our Lord, with “access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”, not the demonic troubles or tribulations, who witness trouble and devilish tribulations having been overcome, because our heavenly hope is in Christ, and poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and given to us, yes, even to be overcomers over the devil’s temptations, tribulations, or testings!
Romans 8:37-39 declares, defends, defines, demonstrates a “redeemed life” filled with the Spirit, and heirs of God’s promises! “Yet in all these things (even devilish trials!) we are more than conquerors THROUGH HIM who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
IF “the kingdom is the Lord’s”, and YOU have committed yourself to His kingdom-rule, are you ‘blind’ to His divine ability, holy nature, and governing authority, yes, even over Satan and his demons?!? Isn’t it interesting to you as a “seeker”, that in Matthew 12:28, Jesus told the ‘religious, unrepentant, unredeemed Pharisees, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come.” The question of this moment: “In the midst of demonic activity all around you, are you firmly, faithfully, fully ‘marked’ as a true citizen of the kingdom of God, and ready, willing, able, and faithfully ‘piercing the dragon’?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE PRICELESS PURPOSE – A DIVINE AWAKENING NECESSITY?
Nehemiah 6:1-3 is a powerful insight into the reality of ‘temptations’ to take one away from eternal purpose or to lay hold of it, not deterred from it, but fully committed to His “great work”. It says: “Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Gesham the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it (though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, ‘Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” [Any ‘insight’ in your reading there about ‘fleshly intents’ in place of “eternal purposes”?].
Now, relate that to 2 Timothy 1: 8-14!! “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings FOR THE GOSPEL according to the power of God, who SAVED US and CALLED US WITH A HOLY CALLING, not according to “our works”, but according TO HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE which was given to us in Christ Jesus BEFORE TIME BEGAN, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, WHO HAS ABOLISHED DEATH AND BROUGHT LIFE AND IMMORTSALITY TO LIGHT THROUGH THE GOSPEL, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. FOR THIS REASON I also suffered these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, FOR I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED [‘trusted in, relied upon, adhered to’!] AND AM PERSUADED that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” Glory be to Holy, Loving, Merciful, Trust-worthy God!
Henry Brandt, Christian psychologist, has written: (“The Power of the Call”, p.208), “Generally speaking, our nation has followed the leading of the social scientist, who has sought to produce a Godless, valueless, permissive society as the answer to our needs. We have tried it for a half century. Where has the trail left us? We are headed for the rocks, but we are not there yet.” HOW FAR ALONG ARE YOU, (as a nation, a life, a family, a state or city, or even a ‘church’ or denomination), AWAY FROM GOD AND HIS REVEALED WORD AND MISSION?
David, King David, cried out in Psalm 119:37, “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, AND REVIVE ME IN YOUR WAY.” Do you realize how easy it is to be caught up in worthless things and not know “The Priceless Purpose”? Purposeless lives are what Peter called “this untoward generation”, which simply means a life not headed toward anything – AIMLESS, MEANINGLESS, an attitude of “what’s the use”, “do as YOU please”, “try to fill that ‘broken cistern’ that can hold no water – HELPLESS, HOPELESS, HELL-BOUND”!!
George Moore was a novelist of the last century. In one of his novels he wrote about ‘Irish peasants’ in the time period of the great depression, how the government had put them to work building roads, (kinda’ like the CC camps in the South in the 1930’s and early 1940’s after our ‘depression’).
It was a time for singing because they were at work again. But all of a sudden they realized they were building roads that led nowhere. When that truth dawned upon them that their job had been provided simply to feed them, they grew listless and stopped singing. Moore wrote: “THE ROADS TO NOWHERE ARE DIFFICULT TO MAKE. FOR A MAN TO WORK WELL AND SING, THERE MUST BE AN END IN VIEW.”
Listen to Chuck Swindoll in “The Quest For Character”,(p.99): “VISION. It is essential for SURVIVAL. It is spawned by faith, sustained by hope, sparked by imagination and strengthened by enthusiasm. It is greater than sight, deeper than a dream, broader than an idea. Vision encompasses vast vistas outside the realm of the predictable, the safe, the expected. NO WONDER WE PERISH without it!”
But again, listen to David, Psalm 28:7, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; THEREFORE (Do YOU have a ‘therefore’ in your life?)..my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.”
“In Christ” WE’RE NOT LIP-SERVICE LIMPERS TRYING TO SURVIVE – WE’RE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE MOST-HIGH GOD, CALLED TO SERVE HIM AND HIM ALONE IN AND THROUGH THE FAITHFULNESS AND ASSURANCES OF HIS CALL UPON OUR LIVES!!
Everyone one of us, like Zaccheus, were up a tree, a tree of lifelessness, a tree of meaninglessness – and THEN, we heard the call: “Zacchaeus, come down,, today I must abide at your house,” AND THINGS CHANGE! “THE PRICELESS PURPOSE”! Purpose? God’s intension, God’s design, God’s blueprint, God’s eternal ‘counsel of His Will: Ephesians 1:11, “being predestined according to the PURPOSE of Him WHO WORKS ALL THINGS [in “your life of faith”] ACCORDING TO THE COUNSELF OF HIS WILL.”
Which thrusts us all who are “in the Faith” to “What is God up to in MY life?” In Psalm 139:16 King David wrote: “Your eyes God, saw my substance yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” I KNOW you’re familiar with the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:4, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ORDAINED YOU A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS.” Question! ARE YOU IN ON WHAT GOD ORDAINED FOR YOUR LIFE EVEN BEFORE YOU WERE FORMED AND BIRTHED?
FIRST, CONSIDER: PURPOSE IS PRICELESS BECAUSE OF THE CALL OF GOD TO A GREAT AND GODLY WORK! Nehemiah 6:3, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot ‘come down’…!” Can we, in our modern-world so casually forget John 20:21? “…As the Father has sent Me, I ALSO SEND YOU.”
You know Jesus began with twelves disciples. Then in Luke 10:1 the Word says, “After these things the Lord APPOINTED seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.” Isn’t it interesting to you that Matthew 28:19 is called “THE GREAT COMMISSION”?
In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 Paul reminds us and alerts us, saying, “NOW ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ Jesus, AND has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ RECONCILING the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, AND HAS COMMITTED TO US THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION: NOW THEN, WE, “In Christ”, ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST!” How AWESOME!!!
Do YOU understand the awesomeness of a great and godly work like BOAT BUILDING? What about the awesomeness of a great and godly work of BIRTHING A HOLY NATION? We’re not ‘clueless’ about “rescue the Perishing and Care For the Dying”? But the question of this God-given moment IS: Am I sold out to “The story to tell to the nations” that by the love and mercy of Loving God “the darkness shall turn into the dawning, and the dawning to Noonday Bright, and Christ’s great Kingdom shall come to earth (through YOU and Me), the Kingdom of love and light”?
Hide all of 1 Peter 2:9 in YOUR heart!! “But YOU are a CHOSEN GENERATION, a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a HOLY NATION, HIS OWN SPECIAL PEOPLE, that YOU may proclaim the praises of Him who called YOU out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
SECOND, PURPOSE IS PRICELESS BECAUSE OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF URGENCY! In Matthew 9:35-38, notice, Jesus was moved with compassion. He looked upon fallen humanity as “weary and scattered”, “like sheep having no shepherd”, seeing them as “the certain man (who) went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves – STRIPPED, WOUNDED, AND LEFT AS DEAD ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD.”
Do YOU believe Jesus really understood the ‘sense of urgency’? In Luke 17:19, after cleansing the ‘lepers’, Jesus said, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well,” followed by Verses 20-31!
Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; now will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God IS WITHIN YOU.”
Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say, to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. But first, He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man; They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. EVEN SO it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back.”
John Wesley once said: “I desire to have both heaven and hell ever in my eye, while I stand on this isthmus of life between two boundless oceans.”
Sounds to me like “The Priceless Purpose” of “The Significance of Urgency”! That’s URGENCY BECAUSE A DAY IS COMING WHEN GOD ARISES AND SAYS, “Gentlemen, it’ closing time,” or URGENCY BECAUSE THERE IS A JUDGMENT SEAT BEFORE WHICH EVERY MAN MUST STAND, or URGENCY BECAUSE THE UNHOLY DEAD WILL STAND TO ANSWER WITH A ‘PONTIUS PILATE”, “WHAT DID YOU DO WITH JESUS CALLED THE CHRIST?”, or URGENCY BECAUSE THERE”S A LITERAL HELL WHERE THE WORM DOES NOT DIE AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED, or URGENCY BECAUSE GOD HAS PROVIDENTIALLY PLACED ON THE LEDGER OF OUR LIVES THE SOULS HE HAS COMMITTED TO OUR CARE, or URGENCY BECAUSE WITHOUT CHRIST THERE IS NO ETERNAL HOPE OR RECONCILIATION BEYOND WITH GOD APART FROM THE INDWELLING OF CHRIST IN OUR HEARTS!
THIRD, PURPOSE IS PRICELESS BECAUSE OF THE AWARENESS OF AN ETERNAL RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST!!! Matthew 10:1 says, “And when He had called His twelve disciples TO HIM…”, that’s enough for this particular moment in the times of our lives – we don’t have to read any further, though we will!
Mark 3:13 says, “And He went up on the mountain and CALLED TO HIM THOSE HE HIMSELF WANTED. AND THEY CAME TO HIM,” and Matthew 10:1 then says, “…He gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of disease.” Look at Matthew 10:40! “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
Charles Hodge, 19th Century reformed theologian, in his “Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians,” (Grand Rapids, Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, p.133) wrote: “A Christian is one who recognizes Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, as God manifested in the flesh, loving us and dying for our redemption; and who is so effected by a sense of the love of this incarnate God as to be constrained to make the will of Christ the RULE OF HIS OBEDIENCE, AND THE GLORY OF CHRIST THE GREAT END FOR WHICH HE LIVES.”
Oh, but hear me!! 1 John 4:17, the last part, “…BECAUSE AS JESUS IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD.” What a priceless revelation or unveiling of the priceless purpose! Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote: “No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” Are YOU bewildered or blessed because who you are is not what “funny face” you wear but the FAITH-GIFT given to you that “Christ lives in me, and I live in the hope of His eternal glory, likeness, and provisions of ALL HE IS in His Resurrected, reigning presence!
FOURTH, PURPOSE IS PRICELESS BECAUSE OF THE IMMUNITY FROM THE CRUCH OF CRITICISM!! In Matthew 10:16-23, and Verses 34-36, we read about, “Do You Know Who You Are And What You’re About?”
“BEHOLD, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as dove. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father for his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. BUT he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes….Verses 34-36, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household’.” Do YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT?
If you do, and you should know, what difference does it make if others are critical of your ‘Life Task’? You sell out to Christ, and on one hand you’ll get rose bouquets but on the other you may get red bricks! What is ‘social approval’ or the lack thereof if YOU have God’s blessing? Rebuke from a soiled society is water off a duck’s back!
Look at Luke 6:22-23, 26! “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. REJOICE in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.”
FIFTH, PURPOSE IS PRICELESS BECAUSE OF THE BLESSING AND CONFIDENCE OF DEPENDENCE UPON HOLY GOD TO MEET OUR EVERY NEED!
Matthew 10:9-10, again Jesus speaking, “provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.”
In Psalm 4:8 David wrote, “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Never doubt the Word of God or the words of God that come to you through the promptings of the Holy Spirit!
2 Corinthians 9:8 says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
When I was born again, February 1974, after being a Baptist pastor for twelve years, I became so attentive to God’s Word and His spoken words to me. Sue and I were in Arizona, 2000 miles from our home, and I heard God clearly say, “I want you to resign this church as pastor on such and such a date. Upon your resignation I want you to give away all of your savings. You are to be penniless and trust Me.” I went home at lunch to tell Sue and she said, “Did you ask Him what to do with the money from savings and in our checking account?” I said, “No” and Sue said, “It might be good if you ask Him.”
I did, and He told me three places to give the money. We did all He said, and just a day or two later I came home for lunch. Scott had walked from his High School for lunch and I opened the mail. There was a letter from a family in Ocala, Florida. It said, as cash money fell out and also a check, “Don’t know what God is up to in your live, but He told us a significant change was taking place in your family and we should be a part. Here’s a check for $5000 to use as you see fit – that’s from my husband – the cash is from me,” the wife said.
The cash was more money than we gave away and the check helped us settle in our home in Tennessee as a base for evangelistic outreach!!
SIXTH, PURPOSE IS PRICELESS BECAUSE OF THE INCRREASING CELEBRATION OF THE AWARENESS OF PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD! Matthew 10:5-7, words to the twelve, Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
It’s so very, very interesting that 2 Corinthians 6:1 says, “We then, as workers together with God also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” What did we see there? “Workers together with God”! Oh, and then, Colossians 1:29 says, “To this end I also labor, striving ‘according to His working which works in me mightily.’”
In Henry Blackaby’s book, “The Power of the Call,” (p.116), he wrote: “The complexities of your background do not cut you off from God’s resources – nobody can do that.” [Are YOU grasping this yet for your walk?].
We don’t choose to be set aside in life as a disciple of Jesus. Disciples are chosen, called, set aside in the sovereignty of Holy God. We’re selected, elected, commissioned by God, in God’s timing, God’s place and placing, to serve God and God alone!
We’re not “man-pleasers”, but “God-blessers and the blessed”!! Romans 1:1-6 says, “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ…”
SEVENTH, PURPOSE IS PRICELESS BECAUSE PURPOSE KEEPS US OUT OF AND AWAY FROM THE PARALYSIS OF PESSIMISM! Remember, “I’m doing a great work and I ‘cannot come down’!” “I’ve been called of God, and I’ll not crumble, nor fumble, nor bumble, nor be a ‘believer’ that carelessly, blundering, blindly, stupidly lives in defiance to the Lord’s eternal will, purpose, or design!” “The world’s news is not my life barometer – it may be sad, uncertain, with gloom as a disease of its mind, heart, and spirit – BUT I’m MORE THAN CONQUEROR! I’M A CHILD OF THE KING! I HAVE VICTORY IN JESUS! I’M, IN HIM, AN OVERCOMER! I’M COMMISSIONED WITH A GREAT, HIGH CALLING, TO HONOR HIM!
J. Wallace Hamilton, in his writing, “Where Now Is Thy God”? (p.38). “Good men in all lands are asking it, how to keep faith in the imperishable values when they seem so wholly at the mercy of the perishable. Our age is characterized by a deep, subconscious pessimism and underlying mood of hopelessness. Gone from our hearts is the buoyant optimism of the frontier days which was so exhilarating a factor in the making of America. It is our fate to live in a time when a vast instability and insecurity and anxiety underlies all we think or do. Emotionally we are like people waiting for a catastrophe. A “what’s the use of anything” mood has settled on millions like a blight.” BUT NOT THE REDEEMED! NOT THE SENT! NOT THE CALLED! NOT THE APPOINTED AND ANOINTED! NOT NEHEMIAHS! What did Nehemiah say? “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down!” “I’m doing a great work, and even though all Hell opposes me, I’m fighting on, I’ll finish the work with, yes, the desire of hearing my Savior say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’”!
Do you think this might be why Paul said the following in Colossians 3:23? “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”
A paralysis of pessimism? How about an explosion of devotion? A paralysis of doubts and fears? How about a volcanic eruption of certainty, confidence, of consecration to be all God wants me to be and so much more than I ever dreamed I could be on my own?
I can’t wait to hear it – even the promise of it is sustaining: Matthew 25:34, Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
I pray that Jesus words might be yours: John 17:4, “I have GLORIFIED you on the earth. I have finished the work You have given Me to do.”
2 Peter 1:10 says, “…make your calling and election sure..!” We started with this chapter with a Henry Brandt quote – let me end with on from “The Power of the Call,” (p.163): “There is a spirit of faith available every day independent of circumstances, independent of people, and of people’s choices. On any given day, you have an option. You can submit your life to the Lord, but you do not have to. You can rejoice, but you do not have to. That leaves you with a daily choice. Which way will you choose?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“AWAKENINGS” NECESSITY?
“THE CALL OF TRUE DISCIPLESHIP – THE CALL TO DEATH!”
In Mark 8:34-38 we’re ALL confronted with Christ’s call to “take up the cross and follow Me,” When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him DENY HIMSELF, TAKE UP HIS CROSS, AND FOLLOW ME. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels”, and that’s not in some “fantasy” – future, cataclysmic event like a “Rapture”!?!
There’s a similar remarkable passage in Mark 14: 43-52 that tells us of the Lord’s betrayal and arrest. It says: And immediately, while He (Jesus) was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now His betrayer had given them a signal, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him and ;lead Him away safely.”
As soon as he had come, immediately he went up to Him and said to Him, “Rabbi, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. THEN they laid their hands on Him and took Him. And one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Have you come out as a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. BUT THE SCRIPTURE MUST BE FULFILLED. Then they all forsook Him and fled.
Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.
Remember, Jesus talked about “take up his cross” – it’s “lose his life…”! I remember Moses Paulose of Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, India, saying to me years and years ago, in one of the years of my ministry in India over twenty-five years, “Papa, the problem with the American church is that it really doesn’t believe the true message of the Gospel.” I said then, “What do you mean? The church is as strong in America as any place on the face of the earth.” Paulose responded, “They really don’t believe the call of the gospel is the call to come and die.”
I remembered the conflict in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life in Switzerland as he ran from Nazi Germany, and the Lord God confronted him. “What are you doing here, Bonhoeffer? Go back to Germany.” And he did. In his book, “The Cost of Discipleship,” he wrote: “WHEN CHRIST CALLS A MAN HE BIDS HIM COME AND DIE.”
I remembered the conflict of Paulose and his son, Israel, in a fishing village of southern India, where they were severely beaten! Israel responded afterwards to his father: “Daddy, isn’t it good? I’m going to be a martyr for Jesus.” And I also remembered a few years later experience in India, in my prayer time in preparation to teach that day 300 India pastors, PLANNING on teaching “Preparedness and Readiness”, and the Lord said, “The church of India will blossom but it will be by the blood of the martyrs.”
And months and months after that, I received a letter from Varghese Matthews of the Andaman Islands: “We’ve recently begun to receive threats on our lives as a family. May not see you on your next trip, but I’ll see you with the Lord in Heaven.”
Please remember and reflect: 2 Corinthians 7:3, “I do not speak to condemn you: for I have said before that you are in our hearts TO DIE TOGETHER AND TO LIVE TOGETHER.” That is one of the most dynamic, powerful, illuminating, liberating verses I’ve ever read! What does the world do? They live together so they can die together. But the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? WE DIE TOGETHER SO WE CAN LIVE TOGETHER! And this isn’t the ‘Jim Jones” poisoned ‘kool-aid’ program but the prophesy of the Lord Jesus Christ: AS YOU CHOOSE TO DIE TO YOURSELF, YOU’VE FOUND THE “WAY TO LIVE FOREVER!” Think that just might be what Paul meant when he said: “I die daily”?
It’s not a casual hymn for comfortable church members but the truth of the Gospel: “I must needs go home by the way of the Cross, There’s no other way but this; I shall ne’er get sight of the gates of light, If the way of the Cross I miss… I must needs go on in the blood-sprinkled way, the path that the Savior trod; If I ever climb to the heights sublime, where the soul is at home with God. Then I bid farewell to the way of the world, to walk in it nevermore; For my Lord says, “Come”, and I seek my home where He waits at the open door. The way of the Cross leads home, the way of the Cross leads home. It is sweet to know as I onward go, The way of the Cross leads home.”
And I know, on the one hand, from the lips of Jesus, that it is a CHOICE. Mark 8:34 says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
But the way of the Cross is more than a choice I make, it is a work Sovereign God providentially, circumstantially, and faithfully oversees: 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 says, “But we have this treasure in earthern vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. WE are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; WE are perplexed (at times!), but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live ARE ALWAYS delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is working in us, but life in you.” Does that sound like, “Your death-extremities for God’s opportunity?”
If you come with me to Matthew 16, you’ll find some more illuminating verses: Matthew 16:21-26 says, From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He MUST GO TO JERUSALEM, and SUFFER MANY THINGS from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and BE KILLED, and BE RAISED THE THIRD DAY.
Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Jesus, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
THEN Jesus said to the disciples [You and me?], “If ANYONE desires to come after Me, let him DENY HIMSELF, and TAKE UP HIS CROSS, and FOLLOW ME. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” HOW SOBERING IS THAT?
I had a friend, Alan Butt, who said once, “Peter could identify Jesus, but at this point, he couldn’t identify with Him.” And with all my heart, I say to you today as I do the world over, that many do identify Jesus correctly, but sadly they’ve never identified WITH HIM! What did Jesus say to His disciples and to us in John 12:24? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself ALONE; but IF IT DIES, it bears much fruit.”
The tragedy of much of the ‘church’ in America is that it has settled for ‘comfort’ when Christ Jesus called it “TO THE CROSS”! “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies…”?
Have you ever seen a ‘grape’ comfortable in a winepress? Have you ever seen kernels of corn comfortable under a millstone as it is crushed for bread? Have you ever seen an apple comfortable as a paring knife is thrust into it to prepare it for the ‘pie’?
And, I want you to know, I’ve never seen a ‘Christian’ comfortable as ‘he or she’ dies daily in order to see the fruits and fullness of the Divine Life of Christ released within them! John Wimber once said: “Jesus calls us out of this world to be perpetually uncomfortable!”
Do you remember what Jesus said to the church at Smyrna? Revelation 2:10, “…Be faithful until death, and I will give you a crown of life.” But the all-inclusive message of Christ is not only faithful until, but faithful unto death, daily! And if it’s a call in true discipleship to ‘death’, then what is it, for our practical, workable understanding?
FIRST, (So clearly!), IT IS DEATH TO ONE’S PERSONAL WILL: In Matthew 26:36-46 we read, Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, AND PRAYED, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; NEVERTHELESS, not as I will, but as You will.”
Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?? Watch and PRAY, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your Will BE DONE.”
And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. THEN He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”
There is eternal insight to the last passage you just read when in John 5:30 you see this passionate understanding of “Christ in the flesh”, or His ‘human body’ as He said: “I can do nothing in My own initiative… I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
And our appropriation of that truth in our lives? In 1 John 4:17-19 says: “Love (the love of God!) has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: BECAUSE as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in (Calvary’s) love. We love Him because He first loved us.” BECAUSE AS JESUS IS SO ARE WE!
No doubt this is why Paul wrote, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to write Romans 12:1-2! “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you PRESENT YOUR BODIES “a living sacrifice”, holy, acceptable to God, which IS your reasonable service (of worship!). And do not be conformed to this world, but be (being) transformed by the renewing of your mind, that YOU may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Oh, the true servant of Christ doesn’t even stop there with Paul’s powerful word, but extends it with Paul’s later word in Colossians 3:15-17! “AND let the peace of God RULE IN YOUR HEARTS, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you RICHLY IN ALL WISDOM, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. AND whatever you do in word or deed, DO ALL IN THE NAME of the Lord Jesus, GIVING THANKS (for the privilege of being a ‘vessel’ through which ) God the Father does His work, as He did through Christ” on the Cross!
SECOND, THIS WALK OF ‘DEATH” IS DEATH TO FLESHLY LIVING: In Romans 8:12-14 Paul explains this “death to fleshly living”! [Your “flesh” in biblical form IS “your old sin-nature”!]. “Therefore, brethren, (brothers AND sisters ‘in Christ’!), we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh (or your old sin-nature) you will die; but IF by the Spirit you put to death (daily) the deeds of the body, YOU WILL LIVE (victoriously in the “Overcoming Life of Christ”!). For as many as are LED by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”
[Where does it come free that a ‘Christian’ can’t do anything but sin until he/she gets to heaven?]. Oh, but hear me! “In Christ”, those who have been “born again”, drawn to Jesus by the Father’s love, grace, and mercy, these “new creations”, NOW “raised up” are what? Galatians 2:20! “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ LIVES IN ME; and the life which I now live in the flesh (the physical body) I LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…” Glory!
What did Paul say in Galatians 5:13? “For you, brethren (“in Christ”), have been called to LIBERTY; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh; but through love serve one another.” “Best efforts”? No! Galatians 5:16-21 instructs us: “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another; so that you do not do the things that you wish.
Now the works of the flesh are evident, WHICH ARE: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God,” with Verse 24 then telling us: “And THOSE WHO ARE CHRIST’S HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH (the old sin nature! And when Christ died YOU CHOICE to have your old sin nature crucified with Him!), Yes, with its passions and desires.”
Have you who profess “In Christ” allowed the old man of sin to dominate you unaware of the revelation and unveiling of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 to blind you to your future or will you allow 1 Corinthians 6:11 to be YOUR true redemptive testimony? Verses 9-10 tell us: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? DO NOT BE DECEIVED. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomities, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God!” But Verse 11? “AND SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God.”
Examine what the “beloved Peter” had to say in 1 Peter 4:1-2! “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh HAS CEASED FROM SIN, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, BUT for the WILL OF GOD.”
Are YOU “one with Christ”? Romans 6:14 declares: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Followed by Verses 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.” Then, carried to His ‘mountain of holiness’, we learn, Verses 22-23, “But now HAVING BEEN SET FREE FROM SIN, and HAVING BECOME SLAVES OF GOD, YOU, “IN CHRIST”, have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. FOR the wages of sin IS DEATH, but the GIFT OF GOD is ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.”
THIRD, THIS ‘WALK OF DEATH’ AND “LIFE IN CHRIST” IS DEATH TO A WORLD SPIRIT! In Galatians 6:14 the Holy Word instructs us: “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
What commission to we receive from the beloved John in his letter, 1 John 2:15-17? “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father IS NOT IN HIM. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the (boastful) pride of life (in the flesh) – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
Yes, we are still in the world, but, as disciples of Christ, we are not to be of it! If we are as Jesus is in this world, what is it He is? Hebrews 7:26 says, “For it was fitting that we should have such a High Priest, Holy, Innocent, Undefiled, Separated from sinners, and Exalted above the heavens…” What does that mean?
- It’s Death to the world spirit of compromise and convenience! Psalm 15:1-2 says, “O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your Holy Hill? He who walks in integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart.” I love what Spurgeon once wrote in his “Spurgeon’s Sermons, (Vol.11, p.24), “Certainly, the highest point to which the best unconverted man can go might well be looked upon as a level below which the converted man will never venture to descend.”
- It’s Death to the world spirit of perverted pleasures, immoral madness, and lawless living. In James 5:1 & 5 James spoke of the ones who ought to weep and howl for the miseries which are soon coming upon them…Who are they? Verse 5, “you who have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure.” I found it shocking and amusing and puzzling to hear Colin Powell say years ago when he was prominent in the ‘public eye’, “God doesn’t have a legislative agenda…”, and one has to ask, “What about the Ten Commandments and the whole of His “legislative Word”?
- It’s Death to the world spirit of unashamed alleges to a fallen, crucified sin-nature. The prophet Jeremiah illuminated God’s concern in Jeremiah 6:15, highlighting His awareness of a ‘sinful people’: “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them, they shall be cast down, says the Lord.”
“In Christ” we’re not shame-filled sinners – we’re sanctified saints; we’re not castaways – we’re the “chosen”; we’re not children of fallen, faithless men – we’re the children of Faithful God; we’re not earth-bound, groveling, wallowing men of a lower nature – we’re partakers of the divine nature and have been raised up to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places! We’re not the ‘slimy sinners of slippery streets carrying us to Hell’ – we’re the Savior’s sons and daughters set and sealed on the Highway of Holiness to the heavenly places!
You “In Christ” can serve those in the world, you can bless those in the world, but as children of God, we’re never to blend in “with them”, bend “with them” – we were ‘darkness’ as the world is, but NOW “in Christ” we ARE “Light in the Lord”!
- It’s Death to the world-spirit of devotion to the temporal, passing, fading, waning, earthly glory of this present world, as Jesus tells us in Luke 21:33-36! “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighted down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
FOURTH, THIS “WALK OF DEATH AND LIFE IN CHRIST” MUST BE ASSURED BY DEATH TO YOUR OWN IDENTITY! In John 3:23-30 we read, Now John (the Baptist) also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison.
Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified – behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!’
John answered and said, ‘A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but ‘I have been sent by Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. HE MUST INCREASE, but I MUST DECREASE.” Do you see it? Do you receive it?
Jesus MUST increase – I MUST decrease!
I don’t want to be known as James Farrell Fisher, but rather known as “follower of Christ”; not known as James Farrell Fisher, but known as “disciple of Christ”; not known in a ‘flesh identity’ but known as “Jesus’ good and faithful servant”; not known as Jim Fisher’s son, but known as “son of God”; not known as “a chip off the old block” but as “the apple of God’s eye”; not known as “ a trophy of devotion of man’s earthly best”, but known as “a trophy of dependence in God’s heavenly graces, mercies, and love”; not known as “one true to the best in men”, but “true to the best of God’s faithful provisions”; not known “as a man with a good reputation among kings and nations”, but “a man known and loved by the King of kings and Lord of lords”; not known as “a man with a passion for earthly success”, but “a man whose passion was, is, and forever will be LIKENESS TO GOD HIMSELF”!
Psalm 17:15 says, “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness: I will be satisfied with Your Likeness when I awake.” An old, old hymn from, I believe, the 1800’s, maybe earlier, I found in “The Editor’s Literary Estate, and Chatto & Windus, Ltd,” translated by Mary Elizabeth Byrne (1880-1931), says so much, entitled “Be Thou My Vision”. It’s importance here? This “Walk of Death And Life in Christ” MUST BE ASSURED BY DEATH TO OUR OWN IDENTITY! “In Christ”, He is our vision and reception of “eternal life”!
“Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Nought be all else to me, save that You art – You my best thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Your presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and You my true Word; I ever with You, and You with me, Lord; You my great Father, and I Your true son, You in me dwelling, and I with You one.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise, You my inheritance, now and always; You and You only, first in my heart, High King of heaven, my treasure You art.
High King of heaven, my victory won, May I reach heaven’s joys, O Bright Heaven’s Son! Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.”
I remember Paulose telling my co-teacher, Dwayne Weehunt, on one of our many, many trips together to India, “Farrell’s going to die for the faith in India. I’m trying to decide on his best burial place.” [Well, at 80 years of age, if God wants me back in India to preach and teach and die there, I’m ready! But hear me – it’s not where you die but for WHOM YOU FACE DEATH!
In Billy Graham’s book, “Approaching Hoofbeats…The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, p.26, he wrote: “I look back on my many years as an evangelist, and I wonder, have I made the Christian faith look too easy? Even before I heard the expression, I have constantly borne in mind what Bonhoeffer called ‘cheap grace’.
Of course it is “by grace you have been saved through faith…not by works so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Of course our salvation was a result of what Christ has done for us in His life and death and resurrection, not what we must do for ourselves. Of course we can trust Him to complete in us what He has begun…But ‘in my eagerness’ to give away God’s great gift, have I been honest about the price He paid in His war with evil? And have I adequately explained the price we must pay in our own war against evil at work in and around our lives?”
I close this chapter with our Lord’s words as great multitudes went to Him. In Luke 14:26-29, and Verse 33 we read: “If anyone desires to come to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him…Verse 33, So likewise, whoever of you who does not forsake all that he has he cannot be My disciple.”
Ira F. Stanphill wrote the old Hymn “Follow Me.” (Copyright, 1953 Singspiration Music/ASCAP. The Benson Company, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee). It says: “I traveled down a lonely road And no one seemed to care, The burden on my weary back Had bowed me to despair, I oft complained to Jesus How folks were treating me, And then I heard Him say so tenderly, “My feet were also weary, Upon the Calvary Road; The cross became so heavy, I fell beneath the load. Be faithful weary pilgrim, The morning I can see, Just lift your cross and follow close to Me.
“I work so hard for Jesus” I often boast and say, “I’ve sacrificed a lot of things To walk the narrow way. I gave up fame and fortune; I’m worth a lot to Thee,” And then I heard Him gently say to me, “I left the throne of glory And counted it but loss, My hands were nailed in anger Upon a cruel cross. But now we’ll make the journey With your hand safe in mine, So lift your cross and follow close to Me.
Oh, Jesus, if I die upon A foreign field some day, ‘Twould be no more than love demands No less could I repay. “No greater love has mortal man Than for a friend to die,” These are the words He gently spoke to me, “If just a cup of water I place within your hand Then just a cup of water is all that I demand, But if by death to living They can Your glory see, I’ll take my cross and follow close to Thee.” Amen?
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“CHAINED –A SUPERNATURAL AWARENESS AND BLESSING”
Come with me to Acts 26:24-29 where I, without hesitation, believe the sincerity of Paul when he said to Agrippa, after being accused by Festus who said of him, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!” But he said, “I am not made, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. For the king, before whom I speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced none of these things escapes his attention, since this things was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.” Agrippa then said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” OH, and then Paul said: “I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.”
Paul would have, in the flesh much rather been free of those ‘chains’ to travel and preach the gospel anywhere and everywhere, but the truth is those “chains” defined him.
On a particular occasion, the philosopher, Josiah Royce, was in his study at Harvard conversing with a young student when suddenly the student asked Dr. Royce, “What is your definition of a Christian?” And the philosopher responded, “I don’t know how to define a Christian…But wait,” he added, looking out the window, “there goes Phillips Brooks.”
And when YOU look at Paul, you say, “There goes Paul, ‘the prisoner of the Lord”! When you look to Acts 25, you find Festus, the governor, King Agrippa and his wife Bernice, and Verse 23 says they came “with great pomp, and had entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city, and at Festus’s command Paul was brought in.” Question?
WHO WAS REALLY FREE? The prominent men of the city or the precious disciple of the Christ? The commanders of earthly armies or the “Conqueror” in the Heavenly Kingdom? The governor or the one Godly-Governed?
Just because men walk paved streets doesn’t mean they’re free! Just as women are able to do as they please, it doesn’t mean they’ve been truly liberated! Just as ‘worldly teens’ throw off all restraints, it doesn’t mean they’re void of bondage!
The freest man in the king’s court was Paul, including the king who was “enslaved to his old sin nature”! And, what are ‘natural chains’ on a man’s heart when YOU ARE “free in the Spirit”? In John 8:32 Jesus proclaimed, “And you shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you free”!
And because of our “blood-bought redemption”, Romans 6:22 says, we, “HAVING BEEN SET FREE FROM SIN, AND HAVING BECOME SLAVES OF GOD.” WHAT A GLORIOUS BLESSING! From “slaves of sin, the old sin-nature, and the chains of Satan”, in Christ, through repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s “finished work” at the Cross, we become “servants of God”, “Servants of Christ”, led by the Spirit of God to be instruments in the lives of others around us who are “chained” by the devil!
Roman 8:2 declares, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made “us” free from the law of sin and death.” And “in Christ” we who have been redeemed by His blood have been commissioned by our Lord and Savior as His ‘front-line’, ‘freedom-fighters’ , even if it means ‘chains’ like Paul!
Charles T. Leber wrote: “The church is a revolutionary power, but the Christian revolution is not a revolt of violence; it is the inevitable and righteous revolution which demands that things be changed and man made free.”
Even Abraham Lincoln, in the hour of his Gettysburg Address said ‘prophetically’: “…THAT THIS NATION, Under God, shall have a ‘new birth of freedom,.” So, Jesus said in John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
In this Chapter, “Chained – A Supernatural Awareness and Blessing”, notice: FIRST, THE CHAINS OF DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES, EVEN AS WE SERVE FAITHFULLY, TO BRING US FULLY INTO HIM: In Deuteronomy 6:23 Moses said: “Then God brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.” WHAT A “BLESSING”! WE’RE NO LONGER “THERE”. We’re not in “Egypt” any longer, we’re not ‘slaves’ laboring with “mud and straw” building Satan’s kingdom, we’re no longer those subject to an alien, enemy-of-God power! But momentarily we’re not in “the Land” yet either – initially, it’s those ‘wilderness wanderings’ , headed toward the “land of Promise”, understanding our early days of “pilgrimage” MAY FACE That, and it wasn’t and isn’t “a piece of cake.”
That’s why we read in Deuteronomy 8:16, “God fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might test you, “TO DO YOU GOOD IN THE END –“. God said to Israel through Jeremiah (48:10), “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” Job 23:10 says, “But God KNOWS the WAY that I take; when He HAS TESTED ME, I SHALL COME FORTH AS GOLD.”
Too many are so ‘short-sighted’ in the things of the Spirit. Too often we don’t see beyond our noses! In Psalm 66:8-12 David sang: “Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard…Who keeps our soul among the living, and does not allow our feet to be moved…For You, O God, have proved us; You have refined us as silver is refined…You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs…You have caused men to rule over our heads; we went through fire and through water: BUT YOU BROUGHT US OUT TO RICH FULFILLMENT.”
I remember Mark Handy, on one of our mission-trips together, preaching: “We’re ‘money’ in God’s pocket and He can spend us as He pleases.” Why? Because God knows His desire for us in the finished product of His redemptive faith! And, yes, there will be, at times, “chains” of difficult circumstances, even as we serve faithfully, to bring us fully into Him!
SECOND, THERE ARE THE “CHAINS” OF OPPORTUNISTIC WITNESS: Here’s the Question: “Would God, who knows the End from the Beginning, allow chains, difficult circumstances, would He allow the bread of adversity and the waters of affliction in you, over you, around you, through you to give opportunity to you to bear witness to “saving grace”? And, the Answer? YES!
Paul was not only the “spiritual prisoner of the Lord”; He was also, at times, a “Literal prisoner of the Lord” (Ephesians 3:1, 4:1!). But listen to what Paul said to the church at Philippi in Philippians 1:12-13! “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things WHICH HAPPENED TO ME have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ…”!
Do you remember ‘the Philippian jailor’ in jailor in Acts 16 in ‘fear’ over a ‘great earthquake’ saying to Paul and Silas,? “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said “ Believe in (trust in, rely upon, adhere to) the Lord Jesus Christ, you and your household,” with Verse 32 telling us “they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” “Opportunistic witnessing – the whole household received and rejoiced in the Truth!”
THIRD, THERE ARE ALSO “CHAINS” OF EXPERENTIAL ENCOURAGEMENT. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 Paul witnessed to the church of God in Corinth, with all the saints in all Achaia: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, IT IS FOR YOUR CONSOLATION AND SALVATION, which is effective for enduring the same conflicts which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.”
In Philippians 1:14 he wrote: “and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident BY MY CHAINS, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”
William Barclay, in his commentary on Corinthians, (p.191), told of a Mr. Barrie whose mother lost her dearest son, and the living son said: “That is where my mother got her soft eyes and why other mothers ran to her when they had lost a child,” because, as it was said of Jesus, Hebrews 2:18, “For in that He Himself suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” ARE YOU CHAINED AS A SON OF ENCOURAGEMENT? DO YOU MAKE YOURSELF, ONCE CHAINED, TO BE THE MODERN-DAY MESSENGER OF ENCOURAGENT TO OTHERS BECAUSE YOU CLEARLY UNDERSTAND THEIR PAIN?
FOURTH, WHAT ABOUT SHARING “THE CHAINS OF CONVICTION” RELATING TO OUR “SUFFICIENCY”? Get ready! 2 Corinthians 12:7-11 Paul enlightens us all! He said: “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore MOST GLADLY I will rather boast in my infirmities, THAT THE POWER OF CHRIST MAY REST UPON ME. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Go back to 2 Corinthians 9:8 noticing what Paul wrote earlier: “AND GOD…(is that the explanation of your walk of discipleship or Poor Me – Strong Me – Weak Me – Independent Me – Able Me? OR.. “And God…”?!?!? “God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always HAVING ALL SUFFICIENCY IN ALL THINGS, may have an abundance FOR EVERY GOOD WORK.”
The question of the moment? “Are YOU chained to the conviction of God’s sufficient?” Philippians 4:19! “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
FIFTH, AND PLEASE BE AWARE OF “THE CHAINS OF RELEASE, BY GOD, TO AN EFFECTIVE TESTIMONY! What do you do with a John Mark who ‘fled’ when Jesus was being arrested, leaving the linen cloth behind, running away naked? And YET the totality of his experiences prepared him to be God’s “witness to testify and eventually write the Gospel of Mark?
How do you respond to a Peter who denied the Lord unless you see through even the pain of failure TO God’s release of a man to be an instrument in His hands to pen two precious epistles? What’s the significance of the Pauline epistles if you fail to see the blue flame of a disciple’s experiences warming believers hearts to a victorious, overcoming faith?
How do you fit a servant of God in exile on the isle of Patmos if you don’t see God’s preparations for all His future disciples that end the end are able to say, “WE WIN!”?
Whatever you find yourself going through, God is readying your release to an effective testimony for the sake of others! Helen Roseveare was a medical doctor in the heart of the African Congo. In 1965 she wrote a book entitled “Doctor Among Congo Rebels”.
In the book she described the horrific experiences that she and other missionaries there had to endure. She told of arrest, of unending questions, of imprisonments, of shameful indignities, of physical sufferings – even rape and murder.
What this precious disciple witnessed and experienced could have been her death physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, but because of her devotion to the Word and to the Spirit of Christ, she not only survived but conquered. Her book came out of her daily diary and her experiences. And on multitudinous pages she wrote prayers of thanksgiving, praise to God, testimonies of endurance – ‘RELEASED BY GOD FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS!’ Are you persuaded?
What did Paul say effectively to us? Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
SIXTH, WHY NOT NOW JUST CHOOSE TO ERUPT IN THE “CHAINS OF PROVIDENCE” BY GOD CHOOSING YOU TO BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS FOR THE LORD’S HONOR AND GLORY AND PRAISE! In Acts 9:15-16 we read, But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine, TO BEAR MY NAME, before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel…For I will show him how many things he must suffer FOR MY NAME’S SAKE.”
Do you remember Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers? But listen to this ‘man of faith’ when he was reconciled to his brothers: Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me: but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, TO SAVE MANY PEOPLE ALIVE.”
Take the time as you read Philemon’s testimony squeezed in between Titus and Hebrews from the apostle! Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you – being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ – I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.
I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.
For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave – a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay – not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in the Lord.” Do YOU see the “Chains of Providence” in that and the resulting blessings?
Oh, and how about Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:8-10? “REMEMBER that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead, according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, EVEN TO THE POINT OF CHAINS; but the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also MAY OBTAIN the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” And those “chains of providence” are to be seen by us as “chains of privilege” in honoring our Lord and Savior!
SEVENTH, THE “CHAINS OF PRIVILEGE AND PROVIDENCE” ARE ALSO TO BE SEEN AS THE “CHAINS OF PRIVILEGE” IN LEARNING THE POWER OF PRAYER! Look with me at Acts 12:5-17! Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise, quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands.
Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.” So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked on the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.
But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, “It is his angel.” Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. And he said, “Go, tell these things to James and the brethren.” And he departed and went to another place.
Oh, but then look at the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, and what he learned about “the power of prayer”! In Jeremiah 32:1-3 and Verses 17-19 we read: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house. For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it…; Then,
Verses 17-19 says, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them – the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.” NOW
Jeremiah 33:1-3, and Verse 14! Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, “Thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it (the Lord is His name): ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Verse 14, “Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah…”
Dr. Leonard Griffith, in his book on “Ephesians: A Positive Affirmation”, (p.170), wrote of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “He himself was a man of regular disciplined prayer. His daily devotions in the Nazi prison camp gave him such stability and calmness that his fellow prisoners and even the wardens sought every excuse to find comfort in exchanging a few words with him. Bonhoeffer’s prayer life made him strong in the presence of his enemies, even his last enemy, DEATH. Our last picture of him is the picture of a man praying on the morning of his own execution. It comes from the prison doctor who wrote many years later: “Through the half-open door of a room in one of the huts I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, still in his prison clothes, kneeling in fervent devotion and prayer to the Lord his God. The devotion and evident conviction of being heard that I saw in the prayer of this intensely captivating man moved me to the depths.”
EIGHTH, LET’S CONSIDER THE “CHAINS OF CONFINEMENT” WITH THE “PRISON OF PRAISE”! In Acts 16:22-26 we read, Then the multitude rose up against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep hem securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.
[Please pause and reflect upon Isaiah 43:21! This is where the prophet Isaiah heard: “This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.”)
Now, hear me! Do you realize how many psalms of praise were birthed in the furnace of affliction? Do you realize how many songs of worship and adoration have overflowed out of the “flood stages” of the saints’ sufferings? Are you aware of the hymns of blessing about the name of our God that came out of the brokenness of one’s painful experiences?
And what psalmist or song writer would say, “It was useless, unfair” when their experiences brought them to the prison of praise? Psalm 118:15 says: “The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. What’s the ‘testimony’ of your tent?”
NINTH, EXAMINE THE “CHAINS OF EVER-OPENING WIDE AND EFFECTUAL DOORS” In Acts 19:21 we read, When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”! Another vital Word about those “chains of ever-opening wide and effectual doors”? Come to Romans 1:8-12! It says:
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established (or “made to stand”!) – that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”
In 1 Corinthians 16:9 Paul wrote about “a great and effective door has opened to me..”. Oh, and then in Revelation 3:7-8 we read, “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.’ “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”
What is God up to in and through YOUR life? How Holy God so wanted to use and bless Israel as an instrument in His hands, but they would not allow it according to His purpose and plan. Holy God even challenged them through Isaiah when He challenged them, Isaiah 54:2-3, “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwelling; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.” Israel didn’t! Will you?
TENTH, LET’S EXAMINE BRIEFLY “THE CHAINS OF A PERFECTING PROCESS”! IN Hebrews 12:3-11 we’re enlightened about God’s passionate disciplines for our eternal delight! “For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discourage in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
“The Chains of a Perfecting Process”? The chastening of the Lord? Rebuked by Him? Loved by Him ‘while He whips’ your ‘butt’? The Reminder of ‘forgotten exhortations’? ‘Rebuked by Him?’ ‘Chastened and scourged’ by Him? Readily in subjection to the Father of spirits in order to live the victoriously life? And as a result, receiving gladly and warmly ‘the peaceable fruit of righteousness’, because, yes, we’ve been trained by it?
LASTLY, LET’S REFLECT UPON “THE CHAINS OF THE UNVEILING OF THE BEAUTY OF CHRIST WITHIN”! Romans 8:29, “For whom He (GOD THE FATHER) foreknew, He also predestined to be CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He (JESUS) might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
It was Robert J. McCracken who once said: “We on this continent (of America) should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs, but to secure liberty for their souls.”
Are YOU ‘secure in Christ’ and the liberty He promises? And there is NO TRUE LIBERTY until WE’RE WILLFULLY CHAINED AND STAMPED BY THE LIVING IMAGE OF CHRIST’S ABIDING PRESENNCE!
In the old “American Hymnal” published by THE BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, 1933, there is a hymn by C. Wordsworth and arr. By L. Mason, entitled “O Day of Rest and Gladness.” It says:
“O day of rest and gladness, O day of joy and light, O balm of care and sadness, Most beautiful, most bright; On you, the high and lowly, bending before the throne, Sin, Holy, Holy, Holy, To the great Three in One.
On You. At the creation, the light first had its birth; On You, for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth. On You, our Lord victorious The Spirit sent from Heaven; And thus on you most glorious A triple light was given.
Today on weary nations The heavenly manna falls; To holy convocations The silver trumpet calls, Where gospel light is glowing With pure and radiant beams, And living water flowing With soul-refreshing streams.
New graces ever gaining From this our day of rest, We reach the rest remaining To spirits of the blest. To Holy Ghost be praises, To Father and to Son; The Church her voice upraises To You, blest Three in One.” AMEN?
CHAPTER TWENTY
“AWARENESS AND APPROPRIATION
OF DIVINE CONTENTMENT”
Daniel Webster’s “1828 Dictionary” defines “contentment” as: “a resting or satisfaction of mind without disquiet…satisfaction which holds the mind in peace…”.
Henry Ward Beecher was a prominent Congregationalist minister, professor, even strong political activist, and was called by some in the 1850’s to 1880’s (?) as one of the stoutest orators among the clerics in his day. The “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations” [Edited & Compiled by Frank S. Mead and published by Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood New Jersey] shared one of his statements: “There is a sense in which a man looking at the present in the light of the future, and taking his whole being into account, may be contented with his lot: that is Christian contentment. – But if a man has come to that point where he is so content that he says, “I do not want to know any more, or do any more, or be any more,” he is in a state in which he ought to be changed into a mummy!”
Proverbs 12:28 is very clear: “In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.” That’s the “crossroads” thing; it’s the ‘free will of man’ choices of life or death, blessing or cursing, hot or cold, up or down, in or out, Spirit or flesh, righteousness or disobedience, contentment or discontentment, LIFE “IN CHRIST” or “pretense in self-will”?
If there is “The Life in Christ of DIVINE CONTENTMENT”, there must also be a life of selfish, devilish discontentment. If there is a Life of peace that passes all understanding, there must be a lack of peace that seems to stile the life’s clock. If there is the Life of divine rest, there must be a life of disturbing restlessness. If there is a celebratory way of Life, there must be a survival mode of life of trying to fill the emptiness.
If there is an explosion of Life at its fullest – exciting, fulfilling, satisfying, there must be an implosion of a life filled with boredom, dissatisfaction, even dismay, if one got ‘gut-level’ honest!
If there is a Life governed by the joy of the goal and the guarantee of its fulfillment, there must be a life so aimless, filled with sadness, and no hope of anything different, but you work at it, but it’s meaningless!
If there is a Life on the cutting edge of meaning and purpose, teeming with abundant blessing, then there must be a life so aimless, filled with sadness and disillusionment, and no hope of anything different!
If there is a Life of bountiful beauty, blue skies shining even through the darkest clouds, there must be a life of zero or little expectancy, dark clouds hovering over every avenue of one’s being.
If there is a life of ‘maximized manhood’ under the Master’s control, there must be a life of minimized, mixed, manipulated manhood under the Devil’s miserable control filled with false promises and ending with empty results.
If there is a life of openness to the broad places of abundant provisions, body, soul, and spirit, there must be a life shut in to dead-end streets, void of any ‘eternal’ victory, not overcoming but overcome, not rising high but falling further into a deep hole of hopelessness.
I there is a life where everything is “on target” because it IS God-centered, there must be a life where everything misses the mark because it is centered in SELF and not in the SAVIOR!
If there is a life based and blessed on the boldness of God’s unchanging, unceasing, unconditional love, there must be a life cursed by a famine of love, filled with rejection, disappointment, and emptiness.
If there is a life of God-chasing, filled with an unending passion to know Him, permeating with an insatiable hunger to live in His presence, resulting in the flow of Divine Life and that more abundantly, there must be a life of self-serving emphasis centered on me, my, and mine with the end result of a starvation diet producing only death, distraction, and discontent.
If there is a Life on “High Level”, the Upper Room blessing of Oneness with all Christ is, and the Glorious Light of His radiant presence showing “the Way”, there must be life on a low level, the lower dungeon-living of all I am without Him – prison-bars (most of my own making), cesspools of stinking, rotting, dead flesh, or ‘snakes’ and ‘dragons’ of demon powers feeding off my sin and iniquity, AND the darkness of the soul that curses and hates “the Light”.
If there is a life of DIVINE CONTENTMENT THAT SPIRITUALLY PROSPERS ME AND FILLS ME WITH ETERNAL PLEASURE, there must be a life of fleshly discontentment that bankrupts one’s soul and fills him with eternal displeasure – NOTHING EVER SATISFIES!
BUT THAT’S NOT US “IN CHRIST”! It’s not LIFE with a little ‘l’ but LIFE with the big ‘L”! God spoke to Jeremiah, (6:16), “Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find REST for your souls, but they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
But here’s the Psalmist (16:11), “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
In Psalm 27:4 we hear from a “CONTENTED MAN”: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.” And there’s a reason:
Psalm 63:1-4 enlightens us: “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.” “I SURRENDER!”
In John 10:10 Jesus is speaking: “The thief does not some except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I have come that they may have Life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
I want you to come with me to Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-23, and 3:10-12, 14-19. It says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He MADE US ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED.”
Verses 15-23 declares: Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come, (Plus)
Ephesians 3:10-12, 14-19, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.
Verses 14-19, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Receive words from Jonathan Edwards (Jonathan Edwards, “The Christian Pilgrim,” THE WORKS OF JONTHAN EDWARDS, Vol.2 (Banner of Truth Trust, 1974, p.244):
“The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the Ocean.” Let me remind you of ‘why’ our lives should be constantly filled with “Divine Contentment”, Aware of it and Appropriating it!
FIRST, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE OF THE BLESSING OF “RESTING” IN THE FINISHED WORK OF ANOTHER, EVEN CHRIST THROUGH THE “BETTER” COVENANT OF GRACE.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who TRUSTS in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord…For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
The “blessed man” is one who does what? “Trusts in the Lord.” From that Holy Hill called Mount Calvary there came the cry of the “Conqueror” in conquest, even as He died, “IT IS FINISHED!!” The transaction was complete. The “blood covenant” fully implemented!
Follow Hebrews 7:22-27, 9:11-15, 24-28! “by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. Also there were priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
9:11-15, But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
9:24-28,For Christ has not entered the holy place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
We “REST” because (1 Corinthians 6:20), we’ve been bought with a price! That price according to 1 Peter 1:19 is “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 3:19 then says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”
Oh, and then in 1 Peter 2:24 we learn, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.” To Timothy (1 Peter 2:5) Paul said, “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”
To the church at Ephesus (Ephesians 1:7) Paul declared: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the FORGIVENESS OF SINS, according to the riches of grace.” In Verse 143 he added, “In Him you also TRUSTED, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, HAVING BELIEVED (trusted in, relied upon, adhered to), you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise…”.
Edward Mote and William B. Bradbury wrote the hymn, “My Hope is Built”, (The American Hymnal, by Robert H. Coleman, Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn.1933).
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”
SECOND, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE OF THE BLESSING OF EXCHANGED IDENTITIES! When Paul addressed his letter to the Philippians, he did it like this (1:1), “TO ALL THE SAINTS IN CHRIST JESUS…”! Even to the Corinthians he wrote: (1 Corinthians 1:2), “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those WHO ARE SANCTIFIED IN CJHRIST JESUS, CALLED TO BE SAINTS…”
“In Him”, we’re no longer ‘sinners’, not even ‘saved sinners’, but by His grace we’re declared ‘saints’! We’re not the unjust any longer, we’ve been justified! We’re not the ‘disqualified’ because of our sin or sin nature, but according to Colossians 1:12 we “give thanks to the Father who has QUALIFIED us to be partakers of the inheritance of saints in the light.” We’re no longer sons of men, but according to Ephesians 1:5 God “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” That’s sons and daughters of God!
“In Him,” we’re no longer children of wrath, but according to Ephesians 2:3, what we were we are no longer; now we’re children of His workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), children of grace and mercy.”
The ‘old creation’ is dead; Now we’re “in Christ” the “new creations”! We Were of the First Adam – NOW we’re of the family of faith, the “Second Adam.” We were “tares” NOW? By transformation, we’re “Wheat”. We were ‘sons of the devil’, but Now we’re “sons of God”!
Paschal (Quoted in Foster, Devotional Classics, p.253)), has God saying this: “It is I who have made you and I alone can teach you what you are. But you are no longer in the state I made you. I created you holy, innocent, perfect, I filled you with light and understanding, I showed you My glory and My wondrous works. Your eye then beheld the majesty of God. You were not then in the darkness that now blinds your sight, nor subject to death and the miseries that afflict you. But you could not bear such great glory without falling into presumption. You wanted to make yourself your own center and do without My help. You withdrew from my rule, setting yourself up as My equal in your desire to find your happiness in yourself and I abandoned you to yourself.”
WHAT A DILEMMA! But God gave us deliverance! WHAT A SHALLOWNESS! But God gave us His salvation! WHAT A HELL-HOLE! But God gave us His help! Without Christ, there’s always a battle of insecurity and insignificance – a war to fill the vacuum of our souls with something – but “in Christ” we are blessed with a heavenly security of eternal significance.
We’re not the “guilty” – we’re declared innocent by the blood of the Lamb. We’re not the “hopeless” – we’re the “called-out ones”. We’re not the “meaningless” – we’ve been birthed into and equipped as soldiers in the army of Christ to advance the Holy Kingdom of God. We’re not “spiritual jail-birds” – we’re our Savior’s Jesus freaks and fools for His sake!
C.S. Lewis wrote: ‘Christ says, ‘Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut a branch here and there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. I will give you Myself; My own will shall become yours.” Then out of Larry Crabb’s book, “The Safest Place on Earth.” (Word Publishing, Nashville, Tenn., 1999, p.108)], he wrote:
“He (God) poured out His righteous anger on Jesus, who never sinned, so He could pour out His boundless love on people like us who couldn’t do anything but sin…It’s a position, a standing before Him in the courtroom that lets us walk away from the criminal’s docket fully acquitted, with no record of crime and no probationary period to see how we do…And then the judge steps out from behind the bench, puts on street clothes, and invites us to His place for coffee. We now spend time with Someone who is actually and completely pure – and we belong. We fit.”
Can YOU rest in that? Are you content with the “new identity: IN CHRIST”?
THIRD, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE WE’RE AWARE OF GOD’S UNENDING ACTIVITY IN OUR LIVES. Let’s go all the way back to that solemn picture of deliverance in the Old Testament and see its parallel with us! Deuteronomy 4:37-37 says, “And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; AND HE BROUGHT YOU OUT OF EGYPT (the World) WITH HIS PRESENCE, WITH HIS MIGHTY POWER…driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, TO BRING YOU IN, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.”
GOD “In Christ” BROUGHT US OUT! TO DO WHAT? To leave us alone in a wilderness of incompleteness, short of our destiny and destination? No! God brought us out TO BRING US INJ TO THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST! Deuteronomy 8:3 says,
“So God humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone: but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
Psalm 17:7 tells us that He “saves us by His right hand…” Psalm 31:15 tells us that “my times are in God’s hand…”. Psalm 32:4 says, His “heavy hand (is) upon me…”
Psalm 37:24 says, He “upholds him with His right hand.”
In Strong’s Concordance, six full pages in very small print, mostly tells us of the Hand of God in our lives! Church, disciples, followers, He does not leave us to ourselves! HE’S ABLY ACCEPTED FULL AND SOVEREIGN RESPONSIBILITY FOR US OF THE REDEMPTIVE FAITH IN CJHRIST JESUS!
I Peter 4:11 says, “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. AMEN.”
And, if you’re willing to receive Peter’s previous word, then stand in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” In Chapter Two of Philippians, Verse 13, Paul also said, “for it is God who works IN YOU both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” That’s ‘clay’ in the hands of the “Master-Potter”! In fact, I Thessalonians 5:24 declares, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will bring it to pass.”
FOURTH, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE OF THE BLESSING OF ABUNDANT GRTACE AND THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT BIRTHED WITHIN ME THE REIGNING, OVERCOMING LIFE! Romans 5:17 says, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, MUCH MORE those who receive abundance of grace and of the GIFT of Righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” With Verse 19 added, “…and by one Man’s obedience (whose obedience? One Man, even Christ alone!) MANY (does that include YOU?) will be made righteous.”
Now consider: Made righteous by what YOU do or by WHO and WHAT Christ Jesus did in your place? What did Paul say in Philippians 3:9? “…and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ (and I might add, ‘faith in Christ alone!), but the righteousness which is from God by faith.” HOW RIGHTEOUS ARE YOU? On a scale of 1 to 10, how righteous are you since you are “in Christ”?
F.J. Huegel, in “Forever Triumphant” (Zondervan, 1955,pps.17-18) wrote: “It cannot be too earnestly stressed that all Christians come into the same glorious inheritance. They have receive Christ, and all things are theirs for they are Christ’s. In Him they are complete. With Him they have been raised up, and with Him they have been made to sit together in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:5,6). In Him they died unto sin and were made alive unto God (Romans 6:11). Christ has been made unto them, of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1Corinthians 1:30). These things cannot, in a sense, be made more truly theirs than they already are. When God gives us Christ, His holy Son, to be our life, and this unspeakable gift is for all who will receive it by faith acknowledging themselves lost sinners in need of the gift; He does not do so by reservations. The whole gift is ours, not simply a part. We do not receive justification without sanctification. We are not brought into Christ piecemeal. Paul, in a sense, had no more of Christ than the poor drunkard, who only yesterday in some mission hall heard the Gospel, repented, believed, trusted, received Christ as his Savior and was born again.” So true! Born again to what? TO ALL THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST!!
1 John 4:17 says: “…as He is, so are we in this world!” 2 Corinthians 5:21 is just as strong saying, “For He (God) made Him (Christ the Son) to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
FIFTH, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE OF THE BLESSING OF ETERNAL SIGNIFICANCE THAT I’M IN ON WHAT GOD IS UP TO IN THE HIGH AND HOLY CALLING OF WORLD REDEMPTION IN CHRIST!
In 2 Timothy 1:6-11 Paul is encouraging spiritual son Timothy to be fully aware of what the Father is up to in the Son through you and me as well as Timothy! “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, To which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.”
The prophet Jeremiah heard God speak! Jeremiah 9: 23-24 says, Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord. [And Holy God chose YOU to share in the high and holy calling of world redemption in and through Christ, and you’re willing to be one of His ambassadors? “You shall BE My witnesses”!!
Look at 2 Corinthians 5:18-20! “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
Larry Crabb again, (“The Safest Place on Earth”, Word Publishing, 1999,p.109) wrote: “A tabernacle in the wilderness once blazed with His glory. Now our souls radiate His presence in a dark world.”
John Piper, in “God’s Passion For His Glory” (Crossway Books, 1998, p.39), has written, “Our evangelistic task is not to persuade people that the gospel was made for their felt needs, but that they were made for the soul-satisfying glory of God in the Gospel.” Later, (p.109), Piper wrote: “The only public life of an evangelical that counts as virtuous is one that savors and celebrates the supremacy of God as the ground and goal of its public acts.”
SIXTH, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE OF THE BLESSING OF EXPECTANCY OF WHAT GOD INTENDS THROUGH IT ALL, UNTO HIS ULTIMATE END. Let’s cut to the chase! Romans 8:28 says, “And we know (do we?) that ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Then Jeremiah 24:5-7 is an exhilarating, uplifting passage! It says: “Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel: ‘Like these figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.” [At least the “remnant” returned but not all of Israel!].
1 Kings 8:56 says, “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses.”
Oh, and then the prophet Isaiah heard God because He knew there was going to be further work by God Almighty until, at least, the “remnant” of Israel relied upon what God said: Isaiah 48:10-11, “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction…For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned?”
I know at times “we” feed on that “bread of adversity and that water of affliction” – FOR A PURPOSE! CONSIDER JESUS! In John 12:27-28 we read, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But FOR THIS PURPOSE I came to this hour… ‘Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again.”
Glory in the TROUBLE! Glory in the CROSS! Glory in the RESURRECTION! And do YOU sense it in your own pilgrimage? In Ephesians 1:11-12 Paul said, “in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will…that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”
Oh, and then in Philippians 1:12-14 he wrote: “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel…so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ…AND most of the brethren in the Lord having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”
It was September 10, 1999, when I boarded the Indian Airlines flight from Delhi to Amritsar. I was seated in 2D, right at the front. Across from me, with assistance, was seated Scott Chesny, a 29 year-old young man, paralyzed from the waist down by a rare stroke in his spinal cord at the age of 154. His wife was with him also. He was on a world tour doing several things: research, evaluation, and promotion of travel for the disabled, expanding awareness etc..I reached across the ailse and introduced myself. He noticed the book I was presently reading and asked if he could scan it quickly.
He told me they were presently going to see the Dalai Lama. And from within the Spirit of God moved and I began to pray for Scott Chesny. He was so open. I knew he was on a journey of discovery. I said to him, “Scott, 10 months ago I suffered from a horrible fall off my home-roof, destroying my left shoulder. I have an all-plastic shoulder now and it’s been so very painful. These 10 months I’ve sought to hear from God, “What is it in this You, God, have to say to me?” Then I said, “Scott, 14 years ago when you suffered your stroke, God was there. In His eternal love for you, He was calling you then and He’s calling you now. God has plans for your life far beyond anything you’ve ever dreamed. The Worthy Lamb waits for you to call Him out.”
Then Scott said, “Without faith, I would not have been able to make it. But the essence of His life within has seen me through thus far.” And I said, “Get ready, God has an ultimate goal for your life. Through it all, He wants to be honored through you.”
SEVENTH, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE ONENESS WITH CHRIST, LIVING IN THE FULLNESS OF HIS ABIDING PRESENCE, RELEASES ONLY THAT WHICH HE IS! In John 17:26 Jesus is speaking to the Father about us! “And I have declared to them Your name, and I will declare it, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Do we have a clue about this in Philippians 1:11? “being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
CONTENTMENT!! Because we’ve recognized that utter indispensability of Christ Himself within us, and we know He alone satisfies! We’ve found our highest prize! John Piper again, (p.173), wrote: “GOD PRIZES HOLINESS IN THE CREATURE, AND HOLINESS IS PRIZING GOD!”
This is why Paul cried out, (Philippians 3:8), “I indeed count ALL THINGS loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, and BE FOUND IN HIM…”
Dr. Crabb made another interesting statement, (p.135), “Our strategies to preserve and enhance the SELF reflect the godless energy of people who are determined, at all cost, to find themselves, without yielding center stage to Christ.” That’s not my desire! I do yield “center stage” to Jesus! I’m determined at all cost to find myself fully in Him and Him fully in me!
EIGHTH, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE OF THE PRECIOUS PRIVILEGE OF “WALKING IN THE SPIRIT”, NOT STIFLING AND SUFFOCATING AND REMAINING OR DYING IN THE FLESH!
Ephesians 1:13 says, “…sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” In John 16:7 Jesus said, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away (necessary, expedient): for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I WILL send Him to you.”
Hear me! Jesus knew we couldn’t honor or glorify Him on our own. God the Father knew it. No provision or Person necessary for our Victory in Jesus was left out of God’s eternal scheme of things. It’s why Paul wrote to the Galatian church, (Galatians 3:3), “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
I think I hear the Spirit say: “Relax, children of faith. Take a deep breath and trust Me to honor Christ through you!” Is this why Paul said in Galatians 5:25, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”? How about the daily prayer of: “Breathe on me…Breathe on me…Holy Spirit, breathe on me, take thou my heart, cleanse every part, Holy Spirit, BREATHE ON ME,” throughout my earthly journey and for eternity!
NINTH, WE’RE FILLED WITH DIVINE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE, AS THE REDEEMED PEOPLE OF GOD, WE REJOICE IN HIM ABOVE EVERYTHING-WE’VE FOUND OUR PURPOSE!! Isaiah 43:21 says, “This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.”
What does Psalm 47:1-2 tell us? “Oh, clap your hands, ALL YOU PEOPLES! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.” But just NOT YOU?
John Piper, in his book I mentioned earlier, (pps.36-37),wrote: “SIN IS SACRILEGE AND SUICIDE – This is confirmed in Romans 1:23 where people ‘exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image.’ That is the deepest problem with sin: it is a suicidal exchange of infinite value and beauty for some fleeting, inferior substitute. This is the great insult…In the words of Jeremiah, God calls it appalling. “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate, declares the Lord. For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 3:12-13). What is the essence of evil? It is forsaking a living fountain for broken cisterns. God gets derision and we get death. They are one; in choosing sugarcoated misery we mock the lifegiving God. It was meant to be another way: God’s glory exalted in our everlasting joy.”
Later, (p.79), Piper wrote: “…God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in,” followed by (p.108), “In other words, to delight in the good of all the universe, but not to delight in God, is like being glad that a candle is lit, but being indifferent to the rising sun.”
I believe the calling is not to be indifferent to but rejoicing in our eternal purpose of resting in and rejoicing in Him! Do you think it just might be why Paul wrote Philippians 3:12? “I PRESS ON, that I may lay hold of THAT FOR WHICH CHRIST JESUS HAS ALSO LAID HOLD OF ME”?
In Matthew 16:21 Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” Again, John Piper, being an avid student of the life and teachings of Jonathan Edwards, in his Book, “God’s Passion For His Glory,” (p.47), wrote: “What I owe Jonathan Edwards for guiding me in these things is incalculable. I love his words, ‘The happiest of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted.” But I also love to say it my way: “GOD IS MOST GLORIFIED IN US WHEN WE ARE MOST SATISFIED IN HIM!”
Satisfied? Contented in ‘flesh’? Or entered in to the Fullness? Blessed? Birthed, deformed, re-born, re-made, complete in Christ, lacking nothing?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“FLESHLY DESIRES AND FLESHLY INTERPRETATIONS OR THE FULL COUNSEL OF GOD?”
“Fleshly desires and fleshly interpretations”? I don’t know how any ‘sane’ person can read Ephesians 2:1-3 and not be fully away of what Christ Jesus saves ‘fallen humanity’ from unless they’re totally brain and heart-dead! Paul said, “And you He made alive WHO WERE DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS, in which you once walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, just as the others.”
And, of course, the ‘fallen away from God’ crowd have no awareness or understanding of walking “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” It’s really interesting as one reads the Word of God that you discover so much about devilish deception that Satan himself heaps on unbelievers! In 2 Timothy 2:24-26 Paul said: “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that THEY MAY COME TO THEIR SENSES AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” How clear is that?
But it’s not only the ‘fallen’ who need awareness of the devil’s deception, but even true believers! In Revelation 12:17 we read, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
This, no doubt, is why Paul was so Spirit-inspired to write Ephesians 6:10-18 where he encouraged proper spiritual dress in the ‘warfare’ of men and women of redemptive faith being attired in the ‘whole armor of God’: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints –“
But coming to one’s senses to escape the snare of the devil is of utmost importance, as well as being fully aware of the ‘deception’ one has to face about his/her own sin nature that has separated ALL sinners from Holy God! In James 1:14-15 the brother of Jesus exposed the sad state of all men who are away from God. He said: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
There’s a “coming to one’s senses” in escaping the snare of Satan, but also coming to one’s senses about his/her willful choice of ignoring God, with no desire of glorifying Him or even thanking Him for the breath of life, but fully turned to futility in their thoughts, foolish in their hearts, being darkened even in their minds, exchanging the truth of God for the “lie”, (which means one can sin and not die!), willing in the “flesh” nature to not even retain God in their ‘knowledge’, and as Paul wrote in Romans 1:28-32,
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a DEBASED MIND, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”
A “Christ-less life” is a life firmly committed to “fleshly desires” and “fleshly interpretations”, protecting those desires, even explaining them away as if there was no accountability before Holy God! And the majority, living under the ‘flag’ of ‘flesh-freedom’, have no understanding of what Paul said in Romans 5:6, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” “Flesh-freedom” is ‘without strength’, or spiritually helpless, or as Romans 6:23 declares: “For the wages of sin is death…”, spiritual death, separation from God, blinded to His intent, bankrupt of any heavenly blessing, and dominated by the powers of darkness!
Are you aware of “stones of stumbling” and “rocks of offense” that Peter told us about? He said that their “stumbling” lifestyle was because of “disobedience to the Word”! A “rock of offense” is the life of independence from Holy God, fully persuaded that fleshly lusts are normal and natural with no costly consequences!
Do you understand how easy it is to be conformed to a world philosophy of acceptance and conformity to worldly lusts, fleshly desires, and devilish ambitions which war against one’s soul? Are you aware of “the garment defiled by the flesh”? How destructive are “fleshly desires” and their FALSE “fleshly interpretations”? “It’s OK – we’re only human. God understands!” NO! He knows their deathliness and destruction and darkening of one in the blackness of hellish living under demonic domination! Jesus came to “set the captives free”! But most are content in their fleshly ‘chains’!
Have YOU been alerted to the ‘snares’, to the ‘traps’ of foolish and harmful lusts, to the very spiritual draining and, yes, drowning of foolish men and women in soul destruction, separation from God, and personal perdition that will eternally give them lives pierced through with unending sorrows and forever rooting of bad seeds with sick, sour, bitter ‘fruits’ served by the devil and his ‘flesh-force’ of demons every day, forever and ever in Hell?
“Fleshly desires and fleshly interpretations”? And some wage the war, at least, acceptable for themselves, without any consideration of “why did God create me, and what am I for”?, without one thought of divine, eternal intent. But Romans 1:18-19 declares: “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.”
Examine Romans 1:20-22! “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. Professing to be wise, they became fools…”!
Do you sense, see, surmise how easy it is for large numbers of people to substitute the treasures of divine truth for the “trash” of fleshly indulgences and the “untruths” of fleshly interpretations? The psalmist was so on target when in Psalm 119:9 he asked: “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word, O God,” with his plea in Verse 10, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You!” It’s so true: “Sin will keep you from the Word of God OR the Word of God will keep you from sin!”
It was Oswald Chambers in his treasure of Truth, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest”, who wrote: [p.243-244], “Beware of “the cares of this world” because they are the things that produce a wrong temper of soul. It is extraordinary what an enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention from God. Refuse to be swamped with the cares of this life.”
If “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work,” then does Hosea deliver us in the 21st Century convicting judgments of national or personal warnings? In Hosea 4:6-7, the prophet challenged Israel and us when he heard God say to him and through him, “My people (God’s 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, (the revelation, the unveiling of His Holy Word and will), I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame”!!!
But not Paul, not sold-out, surrendered, “spiritual” sons and daughters of redemptive faith and hope in Christ alone! In Galatians 6:14-15 Paul alerts us to examine ourselves: “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For IN CHRIST JESUS neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” HAVE YOU ACCEPTED THE REALITY OF YOUR CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO OR STILL IN BONDAGE TO YOUR OLD SELF AND OLD SIN NATURE?
Are you even aware that there can be, and often is, a ‘counterfeit of outward allegiance’ apart from the desire to be one with God through Christ alone? It’s so interesting that, as you read Paul and his relationship to some followers, you find some who ‘walked away’ from the faith! In 2 Timothy 4:10 he wrote to his spiritual son in the faith, “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world…”!
If you are a true disciple of Christ, you ought to be blessed, uplifted, and protected by your Savior’s prayer in John 17:9-19! “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, AND I AM GLORIFIED IN THEM.” [That’s a worthy statement that ought to grip you strongly in your journey of faith!].
Jesus went on to say, Verses 11-19, “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified [set apart, surrendered to, relying upon] by the truth.”
“Fleshly desires and fleshly interpretations OR the full counsel of God”? In 2 Peter 2:4-10 we read, “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) – then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and ESPECIALLY those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.”
To WHAT or to WHO are you committed? Will YOU hold on to your right of self-determination, sinning and falling short of the glory of God, OR be one who truly understands, “being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, WHOM GOD SET FORTH as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, BECAUSE in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just AND THE JUSTIFIER OF THE ONE WHO HAS FAITH IN JESUS.” [Romans 3:24-26!].
“Fleshly desires and fleshly interpretations OR the full counsel of God”? Fleshly desires promote fleshly pride that is spiritually powerless and cannot open the door to genuine blessing but only spiritual destitution and separation from the God who loves them, lost them, but even purchased salvation through the blood-shed of Jesus on Calvary’s Cross! There is no other way, but the way of the Cross, crucified with Christ, but then raised by the power of God TO the gift of the divine nature in and through Christ alone by His grace and mercy!
Romans 5:20b-21 declares: “But where sin abounded, grace abounded MUCH MORE, so that as sin reigned in death, EVEN SO GRACE might reign through righteousness TO ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.” There IS “the miracle of new birth” in and through Christ alone! In John 3:5-8 Jesus declared: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the Word!) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is Born of the Spirit.” Is that the “Full Counsel of God”, and if it is, and it is, have YOU received it AND been “born again” or just “joined a church”?
Rich in personal self-esteem is paralysis against receiving “the full counsel of God” – who wants what God offers when one is so “rich” in himself!?! There is a world around you, sometimes even in some churches (?), where one “does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, but is proud, KNOWING NOTHING (spiritually), but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose godliness is (simply, for them) a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. (That’s 1 Timothy 6:3-5!).
Fanny J. Crosby and Robert Lowry gave us the old hymn, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me,” published in the American Hymnal of 1933 by Robert H. Coleman. It says:
“All the way my Savior leads me; What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my Guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell, For I know whate’er befall me, Jesus does all things well.
All the way my Savior leads me, Cheers each winding path I tread, Gives me grace for every trial, Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter, And my soul athirst may be, Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see.
All the way my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised In my Father’s house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.”
“Fleshly desires and fleshly interpretations or the full counsel of God”? Do you live by the resplendency of God’s glory in all its fullness? In John 1:14 John bore witness to the “full counsel of God” In Christ when he wrote: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, FULL OF GRACE AND FULL OF TRUTH.” Are you walking in His fullness with grace for grace?
In Ephesians 1:15-22 we see the “true fruit” of a life walking in “the full counsel of God”: Paul said: “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”
And, now, in the 21st Century, in YOUR life, is He fully expressing Himself in His full counsel? Has He “made YOU alive in Him” to reveal Himself through YOU?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“AMIABLE REBELS OR ANOINTED RULERS?”
“Amiable”? The Random House Collegiate Dictionary defines ‘amiable’ as “having or showing a friendly, willing disposition” – and when it comes to a “rebel”, it defines one as “a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition; rebellious, defiant” – SO…amiable rebels may be ‘friendly to’ but not willing to submit to one’s authority, and especially to God Himself!
Amiable may be one who is ‘friendly’ to his ‘belief’ in Christ without being one fully surrendered to His Lordship of one’s life because they possess a ‘fetish’ of ‘unquestioning reverence or respect’ but not full surrender to Christ’s Lordship! I was reading Oswald Chambers recently when he said: “It is easier to be a fanatic than a faithful soul, because there is something amazingly humbling, particularly to our religious conceit, in being loyal to God.” [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.237].
The powerful Word of God is so illustrative of both ‘amiable rebels’ and ‘anointed rulers’ as, for instance, Matthew 11:1, where “Jesus finished commanding His disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities,” practically illuminating the difference between ‘amiable rebels’ and ‘anointed rulers’! True disciples of Christ are not ‘pretenders’ with vocal allegiances and no practical demonstration, but anointed lives in mission service to the King of kings and Lord of lords!
Early in this chapter I want you conscious of, alerted to, aware of conviction, conversion, and consecration. In Revelation 17 we are informed about those who are “of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” Amiable rebels or anointed rulers?
In 1 John 2:15-20 there are highly descriptive words unveiling both the amiable rebels and the anointed rulers of any age, any country, any nation, even any church! The beloved John writes to both little children of the faith, to fathers of the faith, and to young men and women in the faith. He said: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But YOU have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and you know all things.” DO YOU?
“Amiable rebels or anointed rulers”? I want you to come with me to 1 Samuel 12:13-15, and Verses 20-25! It relates to Saul’s coronation! “Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God. However (just how big do YOU think that ‘however’ is?), if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers.”
Verses 20-25 then instructs us: Then Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. BUT IF you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
How very interesting is the life of Saul – ANOINTED BY GOD yet LIVING THE LIFE OF A REBEL! On one hand he confers with Samuel – on the other hand he consults a ‘medium’. On one hand he agrees with God’s prophet – on the other hand he does the very opposite. On one hand he appears sincere – on the other hand he revealed his true character. On one hand the molding seems sure – on the other hand he’s elastic, nothing sure or cemented in his heart or mind. On one hand he seems to be of a loving disposition – on the other hand there’s anger and bitterness and hostility!
Spurgeon said: (Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol.3, p.248), Saul “was too much of a fool to be desperately bad, though too wicked to be at any time good…”! A very sad evaluation of an amiable rebel though anointed as a ruler of the people! Let’s look at “anointed rulers” who are truly “amiable rebels”!!
FIRST, AMIABLE RULERS ARE IDENTIFIED WHEN THEY DETERMINE THAT ALTERED CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER OBEDIENCE! Let’s look at 1 Samuel 13:4-14! Now all Israel heard it said that Saul attacked a garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel had also become an abomination to the Philistines. And the people were called together to Saul at Gilgal.
Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth Aven.
When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.
And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”
And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
Are you really acquainted with Romans 1:5-6? Paul said, “Through Him (Christ Jesus) we have received grace and apostleship FOR obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.”
And it is such a powerful and convicting statement Peter made in 1 Peter 4:17-19! “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”
SECOND, AMIABLE REBELS ARE UNVEILED AS THEY DETERMINE THAT PARTIAL OBEDIENCE IS THE SAME AS PURE OBEDIENCE! Wrestle with 1 Samuel 15:1-23 if you’re up to it! It’s so unveiling and convicting when one assumes partial obedience is acceptable!
Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley.
Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get down from among the Amalakites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from the Amalekites.
And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night.
So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said, “Speak on.”
So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”
And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? BEHOLD, TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE, AND TO HEED THAN THE FAT OF RAMS. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”
Do you just happen to remember what the Lord Jesus said in Luke 6:46? “But WHY do you call Me, Lord, Lord, AND DO NOT DO THE THINGS WHICH I SAY?” And that, my friends, is a legitimate, convicting, LIFE-CHANGING QUESTION THAT MUST BE ANSWERED!
If you call Jesus Lord, why do you do some of the things He asks, but the rest you will not touch, try, trust, or attempt? Listen to Psalm 78:35-37!! “Then they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer…NEVERTHELESS they flattered Him with their mouth, and they lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast with Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant.” [Are you aware of faithfulness to our Lord’s blood covenant?].
Psalm 81:8-16 reveals both ‘fleshly stupidity’ in professors of faith AND the ‘passionate heart of God’ in seeing those He loves fulfilling His Word, not pretending! It says: “Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me!
There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god. I AM THE LORD your GOD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me.
So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels. Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries.
The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.” Are YOU ‘sinking’ or are YOU “satisfied” as you truly “rest” in Christ alone?
THIRD, AMIABLE REBELS ARE UNVEILED AS YOU SEE THEM DETERMINING THAT BLAMING OTHERS ABSOLVES THEM OF RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY BEFORE HOLY GOD! Again, 1 Samuel 15:21, Saul excuses himself and blames his own people! “But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
Where does “blaming behavior” come from rather than personal accountability before Holy God? Let’s go all the way back to Genesis 3:11-12! And God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”…Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, SHE GAVE ME OF THE TREE, AND I ATE.” “Blaming behavior”?
In Exodus 32:21-24 we are confronted with another attitude of reckless, stupid, senseless, “blaming others” excuses: And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.” Really?
FOURTH, AMIABLE REBELS EXPOSE THEIR TRUE COLORS WHEN THEY DETERMINE, FOR THEMSELVES, DELAYED JUDGMENT IS NO JUDGMENT! And this is clearly unveiled from 1 Samuel 15:23 – 1 Samuel 31!! (Take the time to read, receive, and rest in Holy revealed Truth!).
Ecclesiastes 8:11-13 says, “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear God.”
I’m convinced David understood one’s “coming judgment” before Holy God and His Throne when, in Psalm 36:6 he said, “Your righteousness, God, is like the great mountains…YOUR JUDGMENTS ARE A GREAT DEEP…” {or FATHOMLESS}! And every man will stand before Him to give an account or try to explain their faith or lack of it!
The “deep judgments” of God ought to be a call to Deep repentance, deep reunion, deep communion, deep determination to honor and please our Lord and Savior, yes, daily taking the sentence of death unto ourselves that His resurrection life may be manifested in our mortal flesh!
Let me close this chapter with words from King David in Psalm 119:65-68, 71-72, and verse 75:
“You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe (trust in, rely upon, adhere to) Your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes.
Verses 71-72 says, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of silver and gold.” And then,
Verse 75, “I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.”
I don’t know why, for some, that it takes ‘affliction’ to open the door of redemptive faith – but whatever, come to Him in repentance toward God and faith alone in the finished work of Christ at the Cross! Do you remember the words of Isaac Watts from his “At the Cross”?
“At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day!” Amen?
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? THE MOMENT OF TRUTH?”
In John 12: 20-28 is an awesome unveiling of the heart, the spirit, the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ! It says: Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who as from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ But FOR THIS PURPOSE I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
There are varying moments of truth in all of life – crisis moments – but nothing to compare to the ultimate moment of truth which I’ll unveil in a moment. I’ve personally never been in a world war as a soldier or in the midst of heated battles. I had uncles, when I was very young, who used to tell me extraordinary war-time stories, one as a soldier and the other as flight engineer on a bomber. And certainly in the life of a soldier his moment of truth comes – all basic training may have been passed with flying colors, but the moment of truth is still to come on the battlefield.
I’ve been on the athletic fields of endeavor, football, basketball, and baseball. I’ve seen athletes with exceptional abilities, but the moment of truth came, and something was missing for some. When one is “under the gun” and the real game is on, and it’s tough – you find out about ‘pretense’ or “the real thing”!
What about a businessman and his moment of truth? You see a man, and everything seems to be going just fine, but a break here and a break there, all bad, and something happens. His moment of truth came and exposed his inner most being!
How about that moment of truth for that Christian young lady, confronted with the stubbornness of her passionate ‘friend’ who says, “If you love me, you’ll give yourself to me intimately, married or not.” She’s confronted with the question, “What is true love?” She’s confronted with barriers God built for her own protection. Will she break down those barriers or will she save herself to be given in purity in marriage to the man God has chosen for her?
Another moment of truth: Pressures are brought to bear, youth faced with their peer group and the power of acceptance, of popularity, “of becoming”: “Come on, have a drink! Don’t be a chicken. Prove you’re no isolated, immuned, holy-roller, inoculated, innocent freak. Get with it! Take that pill, drink that beer, shoot that vein! Be a part of the ‘now’ generation!”
The moment of truth comes! It’s a playboy’s world. “Eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow you may die.” “You’re free – do your own thing.” Forget God, forget eternal truths and principles, don’t let the love of a cross, faithfulness, obedience, a Christ-like life be your bag.” Moment of truth comes.
The young man and young lady face the future. Marriage is a vitally important part of that future. Who will I date? Who will I allow myself to fall in love with? To whom will I give myself to? What kind of home do I want? What kind of partner will I have? Am I concerned about Christian foundations in building my future home? Am I concerned about marriage as a divine institution, ordained of God, a theocracy, a three-way partnership between myself, my partner, and my God? The moment of truth comes!
It comes to the young lady already married to an unbeliever, or that YOUNG MAN ALREADY IN BONDS OF MATRIMONY with one who does not share, or know, or love your Savior. What will he/she do? Will he/she seek to lift him up through prayer, will he/she faithfully set an example, will he/she allow the Spirit of Christ to so permeate that relationship that he/she discovers experientially that “love never fails”. Or will he/she, rather than lift, lower himself/herself to the partner’s level rather than to Christ’s? Will he/she accept the challenge of a constant Christian witness before unbelieving partners? Will he/she, having done all, to stand firm in the Lord?
The moment of truth comes: the rough winds of life blow. God is silent. “Suffering is no longer an abstract philosophical problem for a Sunday evening’s discussion, but a tornado battering the shattered comforts of home and leaving one wrecked.” Health is momentarily gone. The resources and bank accounts are depleted. Personal strength and stamina seem drained to the last drop. ‘Should I just curse God and die? Should I allow the swellings of my ‘Jordan River” of life to just sweep me away from devotion, love, faith, or hope?’
The moment of truth comes. The unseen and seen powers of the darkness of this present world seem bent on paralyzing me, pulverizing all that is pure, holy, decent, and godly in my life. I’ve committed my life to the Lord Jesus, but the Ahabs and Jezebels of this world are against me. The world around you wants you and me to face a spiritual collapse. Some have sounded a retreat from active participation with Christ on the field of battle. With Elijah there may be times in your spiritual walk when you want to find a juniper bush, saying, “No one cares for me! Life is not worth living – the Christian faith is a farce – I wish I were dead!”
Maybe, like Peter, you’ve denied your Lord and Savior, not three times but often, and your moment of truth comes, “Will I live in the ordinary and go back to “fishing” with Peter, or will I live in the extra-ordinary and walk with Kinh Jesus? Will I live in the natural or the super-natural? Will I live by ‘flesh’ or live by redemptive faith?
Will I walk with Jeremiah disappointed, disillusioned, dismayed by all that surrounds me? Will I resign my commission as prophet, servant, ambassador? Will I tell God, “You’ve deceived me, Lord.” And some do say, ‘I was deceived; this walk of faith is too hard, the promises aren’t real, and the rewards so minimal. Who needs to be faithful, loyal, obedient, not me?’
All these moments of truth will bear in upon us. But let me bring you to the ultimate moment of truth for your life, and it’s this: “What then will you do with Jesus which is called the Christ?” That IS the ultimate moment of truth for every single individual on the face of the earth, past, present, or future.
The Greeks came and said: “Sirs, we would see Jesus.” And in that divine confrontation, in that heavenly communication, in the living witness and example of Jesus Christ , there are scriptural admonitions one should take when confronted in their “moment of truth’!
FIRST, WHEN THE MOMENT OF TRUTH COMES THERE IS A WILL TO BE FOLLOWED. In John 12:27 we see Jesus praying to the Father: “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour? But for THIS PURPOSE I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
The verses we’ve read in John 12 tell us how Jesus felt as a human being overshadowed now by suffering and death. “What shall I say? ‘Father, deliver Me out of this hour?’” But no! For this reason He came to that foreordained hour!
The actual death of Jesus had not yet come, but the “hour” or the “time” was close at hand. There was an hour – the Bible says “The hour”, a certain hour, a determined hour, a set hour, when the Son of God was to be glorified. I call it the “moment of truth” for in that hour Jesus Christ proved Himself to be God in great power, not only in the cruel crucifixion, but His historic Resurrection, and actual ascension into the clouds of glory! The moment of Truth came and in that moment there was a will to be followed!
Matthew 1:21 says, “And she (Mary) will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” The will of God was to be fulfilled, and Jesus’ sacrificial death took place because Jesus, though saddened by the pain and suffering, said, “Father, not My will but Your will be done!” In John 3:17 we read, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” A will to be followed! In Matthew 20:28 the Holy Word declares, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” An eternal will to be followed!
Doesn’t the Word of God clearly declare: “And they crucified Him…”, “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world,”? God’s heart-felt, mind-full giving of His Son!
Yes, there is a will to be followed in the crisis moments of life! Whether soldier, athlete, businessman, daters, marriage, home, family, the Christian life and walk – in the life of every man there is the will to be followed, the will of God! Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” BUT… there is THE WAY which is right in the eyes of God, and its end is the Way of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope! His name is Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, “God with us”!
There is a will to be followed in one’s attitudes toward life. There are conflicts in life with a will to be followed. There are decisions in life with a will to be followed. There is an aim, a goal, and a direction of life, and E. Stanley Jones nailed it when he once said: “A new measuring stick has been brought into being: it is not who you are but Whose.”
Off the seacoast of New England years ago a vessel sailed toward port through the teeth of a terrible North Atlantic storm. The ship began to break up, it lost its steering mechanism, and the ship smashed against the reefs. The captain and his men were thrown into the water and fortunately were able to climb onto a rock jutting out of the water from the reef. They spent the night on the rock in a raging storm. The next morning the tempest had subsided and the men were found, carried ashore, and then questioned. The Captain was asked, “When you were out on that rock all night weren’t you afraid? Didn’t you tremble?” The Captain answered, “Son, when I was out on that rock for the night, believe me, I trembled and I shook. But the rock that was under me, it never shook!”
As we go through the storms of life, as we face moments of truth, there is a Rock on which to stand…It never shakes! It’s the rock of the will of God!
SECOND, WHEN THE MOMENT OF TRUTH COMES THERE IS A PRICE TO BE PAID! Examine John 8:24! “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for IF you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
In John 10:18 the Lord Jesus declared: “No one takes My life from me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I received from My Father.” Our Lord and Savior, in John 15:13, declared: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
And there was eternal purpose behind that awesome truth of God’s love when Paul shared in Galatians 1:3-4, “Grace to you and peace from God the Father AND our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that HE might deliver us from this present evil age, ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF OUR GOD AND FATHER, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Yes, according to Holy Scripture, according to the pre-determined will of God, when the moment of truth came, there was a price to be paid! C.T.Studd once wrote: “If Jesus Christ be God, and He died for me, then no sacrifice is too great for me to make for Him.”
Yes, there IS a price to be paid! But too many ‘religious folk’ and too many ‘worldly folk’ live with an ‘easy, take-it-or-leave-it’ attitude, which is useless, nominal, ‘fair-weather’ relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, with far too many making ‘Christianity’ a ‘spectator sport’ for Sunday viewing only! But ‘the True Faith’ is not a spectator sport, but a life in the very arena of life as an active participant in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not even of the ‘substitute’ variety, but an ‘on-the-field’ active ‘player’!
So, what should I do when ‘the moment of truth’ comes, and I’ve discovered the will of God for my life? I want to challenge you, right now, to stand, not only beneath the cross of Christ or in the shadow of the Cross, but you come to the understanding that, though it may be foolishness to the world, we see the Cross as the emblem of God’s love for us, seeing His sacrifice for us, that it also IS the eternal sacrifice we make for others because of the One who sacrificed Himself for us, and therefore:
When the attitudes toward life and the Christian walk are to be determined, conflicts to be conquered, crisis met in victory, when decisions are to be made daily, and the aim of “my life” is being resolved, I will pay the price, I will glory in nothing else whatsoever in all of life, save the cross and glory of Christ in me and through me, and as Christ was crucified for me, so I willfully choose daily to take the sentence of death unto myself that the Resurrection of Christ might be manifested through my mortal flesh!
THIRD, WHEN THE MOMENT OF TRUTH COMES AND THE WILL OF GOD IS DISCOVERED AND THE PRICE TO BE PAID IS UNDERSTOOD, THEN THERE IS THE COMMITMENT TO MAKE! Look at John 12:25-26! “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”
Do you remember that just before Jesus spoke the above words after the Jews surrounded Him, they said in Verse 24, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” But I’m convinced, I have a strong suspicion, that their desire to “see Jesus” went deeper and further than John allowed us to see. One must fully surrender to Him! Matthew Henry once said, “Many a man hugs himself to death and loses his life,” but the one who hugs Jesus only gains the gift of eternal life in and through Him alone!
Jesus came not as the entertainer of life but the Energizer of Life. He came not as a show of life but the Savior of life. He came not to be the circumference around one’s life but the center of one’s life. Jesus came not as a failure in life because of the Cross but as the Fulfiller of all failures every one of us have experienced! John 1:4 declares: “In Him is life and the life is the light of men.”
Are YOU in darkness? Is there darkness because of your past, present, even future bent in the darkness of godlessness? Is there darkness about where you’ve been, what you’ve done, where you’re going, and what you day by day choose for yourself only without any consideration of God’s calling for your life? Is there darkness that you’re so aware of because of the vacuum, the emptiness, the meaninglessness of your present ‘existence’? Is there darkness about the paths you choose to walk on? Darkness about the course and character of the life you’ve chosen?
In John 1:10-13 we read, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in (trust in, rely upon, adhere to) His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but (BORN) of God.”
That tells me about Recognition, Reception, Repentance, Rest in His finished work, and the Release of His Indwelling Presence through a re-born life!
FOURTH, WHEN THE MOMENT OF TRUTH COMES, THERE IS AN HONOR TO BE RECEIVED! Verse 26b of John 12 tells me, “If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”
Examine John 12:42-43 and weep! “Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; FOR THEY LOVED THE PRAISE OF MEN MORE THAN THE PRAISE OF GOD.” Has that changed in this modern day?
But there is “another side of the coin”! In Matthew 25:23 Jesus said, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord.”
Dave Breese, in his book, “This Is Your Destiny,” (p.97), wrote: “One day the pursuit of God will bring a quick step upward from this time and tempo world into the golden light of Heaven’s fadeless day. One last footfall in the darkness and earth will be no more. The shadow will become the substance and anticipation turned to glad fulfillment. Surely then from within the aura of His dazzling presence you will say: “This is reality.”
“Only one life twill soon be past, Only what’s done for (and In) Christ will last.” My testimony? “I once was an outcast stranger on earth, a sinner by choice and an alien by birth. But I’ve been adopted, my names written down, an heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown. I’m a child of the King, a child of the King. With Jesus my Savior, I’m a child of the King!”
1 Corinthians 1:9 tells us, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.”
We ALL have our “crisis moments of truth”, and every man faces the ultimate moment of Truth: “What then…?” Do YOU understand? There is a WILL to be followed, there is a PRICE to be [paid, there is a COMMITMENT to make, and, yes, there is an honor to be received!
Robert Harkness, years ago, 1921 in fact, had published his hymn, “Bearing His Cross For Me.” [Published in the old “American Hymnal,” Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee]. It says:
“I see my Savior with thorn-crowned head, Bearing His cross for me; Thorn-pierced His brow, as by soldiers led, Bearing His cross for me.
I see Him pass through the city gate, Bearing His cross for me; On midst the taunts and the people’s hate, Bearing His cross for me.
I see Him burdened with this world’s sin, Bearing His cross for me; Willing to suffer, all hearts to win, Bearing His cross for me.
Bearing His cross for me, Bearing His cross for me, Wonderful Savior, what anguish He bore, Bearing His cross for me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? THE SHOCK OF THE DESTINY OF DECEPTION AND DELUSION!”
It is vital, before I get into the main body of this teaching, to lay the ground-work with three definitions of the three major words in the titles of this teaching from Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.
First, DECEPTION! “The acts of deceiving or misleading…all deception is a misapplication of the established signs used to communicate thoughts…the power to mislead, or impress false opinions.”
Second, DELUSION! “The acts of deluding; deception; a misleading of the mind…false representation; illusion; error of mistake proceeding from false views…a beguiling.”
Third, DESTINY! “…ultimate fate…invincible necessity; fate; a necessity or fixed order of things established by a divine decree, or by an indissoluble connection of causes and effects.”
Beyond a shadow of a doubt there is ultimate fate and invincible necessity because of God’s fixed order of things He established by divine decree: “In Christ men are saved – without Christ men are lost!”
And there is an “Indissoluble connection of causes and effects.” Primary is man’s fallen nature “in the image of Adam,” no longer in the image of God apart from “new birth”, “second birth,” “born of the Spirit.”
Primary is the tendency to the supremacy of man’s wisdom and man’s knowledge that possesses no fear of God, fear of God being “the everlasting gospel”! Primary is a man’s invention of “fig-leaf religion”; it’s the “tower of Babel” confusion that still reigns in the hearts of most men because they want to “make a name for ourselves.” Primary is the work and works of the one the Bible calls “Devil” or “satan.” Revelation 12:9 says of him, “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” [Ever wondered what the devil and his demons are up to on the earth, in the governments and schools, in homes, even in churches and the major religions of the world?].
It was the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, who wrote: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
Henry George Bohn, in his “Handbook of Proverbs”, has written: “The Devil entangles youth with beauty, the miser with gold, the ambitious with power, the learned with false doctrine.” But if, and it is, the Word of God is true, and, “the god of this age has blinded the minds” of the learned with false doctrine, what are the blinded saying? “There’s more than one door into heaven; God is a God of love and would never consign anyone to Hell”, even though Matthew 10:28 says, Jesus Himself declaring: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him [God] who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.” What do the deceived say? “All Jews go to heaven just like Christians; you can refute the Bible and still go to heaven; you can deny the words of Jesus and still go to heaven; Oprah believes there are many ways to God, and so do I; Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, those of the Shinto ‘faith’ and Confusius will find their way to God’s throne; This ‘spiritual stuff’ all revolves around one’s own opinion and his devotion to It – and God will honor that; there’s not really a deceiving Devil, though there are spirits of evil – but God overcomes that with grace and just ignores our ignorance.” HOW PHONY DOES IT GET IN OUR MODERN WORLD?
Cotton Mather, in his “Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World,” has written: “That there is a Devil is a thing doubted by none but such as are under the influences of the Devil. For any to deny the being of a Devil must be from an ignorance or profaneness worse than diabolical.”
I heard over the years of pastoring churches, “I don’t care what the Bible says – that’s not what I believe.” My former teammate and classmate Baylor University and Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, my friend, my former fellow pastor, Dr. Bill Anderson, said to me once, “People have the God-given right to their opinions and beliefs. But they do not have the right to call themselves “Christians” if they refute the words of Jesus and the revelation of God’s Holy Word!”
Adam and Eve exerted their “rights” and their “opinions” with unbelief, and experienced “the Fall,” hiding themselves from the presence of the Lord God. [Are men and women today still hiding from God?].
The children of Israel exerted their “rights” and colored their “opinions” with unbelief, and with Aaron substituted a “golden calf” for the holy presence of God. Israel demanded of Samuel “a king to judge us like all nations,” and God said, “It’s okay, Samuel – they haven’t rejected you, but Me!” And sadly, later, “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul!” [1 Samuel 16:14].
In John 6:51 Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” In Verse 53 He followed up, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
In John 6:57 Jesus added, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.” And what happened then – what happens now? John 6:66, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.”
And the same thing is happening in our very time! Many do not know it, But, THEY ALSO CHOOSE NOT TO WALK WITH CHRIST ALONE! They align themselves with futile, fractured, fuzzy minds as to “Truth”; they walk with the crowd of “multiple religions,” and not the One Way; they’ll talk of tolerance and acceptance with those who brutalized the Christ; they’ll defend unbelievers and mock, slash, criticize the “Jesus Only” disciples; they’ll uphold false religions and denounce as “poor child – he, she just doesn’t know any better – so limited in his, her intellectual, mental skills and capacities – but WE KNOW!”
It was Horatio Bonar who once wrote: “In all unbelief there are these two things: a good opinion of one’s self, and a bad opinion of God.” And those who deny the Word of God, the will of God, and the Way of God, speak out of their mouths revealing their hearts, that they hold a poor opinion of God and elevate their faithlessness to THE PLACE OF PROMINENCE IN THEIR MINDS AND HEIR HEARTS.
In John 8:37 Jesus said: “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.” In fact, when Jesus sought to “win friends and influence people”, because He is so kind-hearted, in John 8:41, He said: “You do the deeds of your father,” to which the Pharisees said, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.” And Jesus responded in Verse 42, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came [out} from God.” In Verse 43 He then nailed why there is so much deception and delusion! “Why do you not understand My speech? BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO LISTEN TO MY WORD…Verse 44, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, AND DOES NOT STAND IN THE TRUTH, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
Then, may fear and trembling arise in your minds and hearts when you truly hear Jesus in Verse 47! “He who is of God hears God’s words. Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
It was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in “The Cry of the Human,” who wrote: “There is no God,” the foolish saith, But none, “There is no sorrow”:
And nature oft the cry of faith In Bitter need will borrow. Eyes, which the preacher could not school, By wayside graves are raised; And lips say, “God be pitiful,” Who never said, “God be praised.”
Jesus had just said for us that there are “Pharisees” who are of the Devil! I want you to follow carefully Romans 9:1-8! “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Spirit, That I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, Who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; Of whom the fathers and from whom, according to flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”
But it is not that the word of God has taken no affect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, Nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but “in Isaac your seed shall be called.” That is, those who are the children of flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”
Oh, but then look at Romans 10:1-4! “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear then witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Are you sensing it yet? My righteousness or God’s righteousness – imputed, imparted, implanted by Him through faith in Christ alone! My way or God’s Way? My opinions or God’s revelation? My limited light or His Glorious Light? My ideas or His Truth? My attempts or “accepted in the Beloved?” Trying my best or born again of the Incorruptible Seed? My knowledge, my education, my worldly wisdom or “Thus says the Lord”? Secularism or saving faith? The philosophy of the best of humanism or the precious Prince of Peace who blesses me with God’s best? Measured by my attempts to be religious, whatever religion, or regenerated by the love, grace, and mercy of God at Calvary?
It was Jude, in Jude 3-4, who wrote: “Beloved, while I was diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to CONTEND EARNESTLY FOR THE FAITH which was once delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It’s not Jesus plus – it’s Jesus Only! It’s not many ways – it’s One Way! It’s not religion – it’s relationship by way of the second, spiritual birth! It’s not grit – it’s grace! It’s not merit – it’s mercy! It’s not apostasy – it’s ATONEMENT! It’s not “wild flowers” with a semblance of beauty – it’s fruit trees blessed by the fruit of the Spirit bearing the nature, character, and likeness of Christ! It’s not ‘spots’ or ‘hidden reefs’ in your love feasts at church – it’s ‘saints’ set apart to the Glory of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, Promised Messiah, and Lord Alone! It’s not wolves in sheep’s clothing – it’s won sons and daughters who bear His image and totally committed to the Lord Alone! It’s not wandering stars blown about by every religious wind – it’s divinely birthed, wonder-blessed sons and daughters walking by the leadership of God’s Holy Spirit! It’s not religion on the basis of my own lusts, ideas, and thoughts – it’s relationship, CONVICTED, CONVINCED, CONVERTED, and CONSECRATED TO CHRIST ALONE!
It’s not self-willed, soulish, sensual persons guided by their ‘feeling’ – it’s “kept in the love of God, looking (only) for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
It was James again, bother of Jesus, who wrote in James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble.” And certainly there is only one God – but there are multitudinous gods of men’s own invention, because he has not, will not submit to the One True Living God – fallen man wants ‘religion’ on his terms – not God’s!
It was John Dryden who said, “With how much ease believe we what we wish!” Well, relationship with God has never been and will never be on what we ‘wish’ but what He wills! And the will of God is your SALVATION, your SANCTIFICATION, and your SECURITY – and not because YOU are ‘religious’ but because you are “REDEEMED” by the blood of the Lamb!
It is “the Lamb of God” that takes away the sin of the world! It is “the Lamb of God” that reconciles us to Holy God! It is “the Lamb of God” that births and shepherds the sheep of redemptive faith! It is “the Lamb of God” ALONE that washes one white as snow! It is “the Lamb of God”, in fact, the blood of he Lamb of God, that causes God to “pass over” – nothing less, nothing more!
Dear, dear friends, do you not know, do you not understand, have you failed to comprehend the ultimate Truth that Christ “did not come into this world unappointed?” [Spurgeon}. I’m talking about “the Lamb of God” who shed His own blood, precious blood, “foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,” God-appointed, God-directed, God-given, for you, for me, for every man, woman, and child everywhere in the world!
That’s why there’s a mission call on every disciple and every true church. That’s why there are evangelists, missionaries, martyrs, churches with a world vision, touching our world with grace. [And, “God, help those churches and pastors and peoples, who never reach out, never proclaim, never evangelize, but sit around Sunday after Sunday rejoicing in what they’ve never truly experienced, because if they had, yes, the world, locally, nationally, and world-wide becomes their “mission-field”!
To say there’s another way is to slap the Lamb of God in the face, telling Him, “I know better than You!” To say there’s another way is to spit on the graves of the martyrs who died for the faith. To say there’s another way is to super-impose one’s fleshly, limited knowledge over the very heart of God “who proved His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” To say there’s another way is to scandalize the Gospel, the “good News”, the only hope sinful, separated souls have to be reconciled to God! To say there’s another way is to ridicule, insult, degrade, denounce “the ambassadors of Christ” and their loving Lord and Savior!
In speaking of “The New Jerusalem”, in Revelation 21:23, the beloved John said: “The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of the Lord illumined it. THE LAMB IS ITS LIGHT.” From Genesis through Revelation, THE LAMB IS ITS LIGHT!
Chosen of God, through Christ Jesus – THE LAMB IS MY LIGHT! Loved of God, through Christ Jesus – THE LAMB IS OUR LIGHT! Cleansed of God, through His blood – THE LAMB IS THECHURCH’S LIGHT! Robed of God, through Jesus’ imputed righteousness – THE LAMB IS THE SERVANTS’ LIGHT! Kept of God for God, through Christ Jesus – THE LAMB IS MY ETERNAL LIGHT!’ Glorified in God, through Christ Jesus – THE LAMB IS MY GRACIOUS LIGHT!
There are several things I need to point out as I bring this truth to a temporary closing. We started on “The Shock of the Destiny of Deception and Delusion.” It all comes about because of several factors:
Number One, YOU ARE DESTINED TO EMPTINESS AND FUTILITY WHEN YOU GIVE PLACE TO THE DEVIL AS EVE DID! In James 4:7-10 hear the word of the Lord: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
But there is no lifting up when one refuses to bow, refuses truth about one’s spiritual condition, and refuses to resist Satan, but rather gives place to deception and delusion. And it is deception and delusion to say, “With Jesus there are many ways to God,” when Jesus Himself still says, “I AM the way, the truth, and the light. No man comes to the Father but through Me.”
YOU better wake up to the Devil’s deception and delusion!
Number Two, YOU ARE DESTINED TO DECEPTION AND DELUSION WHEN YOU RESENT, REFUSE, DENY THE WORDS OF JESUS. In John 6:63 Jesus spoke: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. THE WORDS THAT I SPEAK TO YOU ARE SPIRIT, AND THEY ARE LIFE.”
It was Josh MacDowell who said: “Jesus is either liar, lunatic, or Lord God.” How do YOU see Him? [If I were you, I would spend at least a year reading and re-reading the four gospels – that’s Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John!].
It was Jean Jacques Rousseau who wrote: “I must confess to you that the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me; the holiness of the Evangelists speaks to my heart and has striking characters of truth, and is, moreover, so perfectly inimitable, that if it had been the invention of men, the inventors would be greater than the greatest heroes.”
It was John Wesley, speaking to a friend while sailing to Georgia in 1735 who said: “Sir, if the Bible be not true, I am as very a fool and madman as you can conceive; but if it be of God I am sober-minded.” I AM SOBER-MINDED, and I willfully choose to be a fool for Christ’s sake because of His Word!
It really matters whether you believe it or not – “All Scripture is GOD-BREATHED!” Please read all of Acts 13 soon, but notice especially, after Jesus was preached as God’s remedy for man’s sin, notice what Paul said: Verses 40-52, “Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you: ‘Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, a work which will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.’ So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has COMMANDED us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from the region. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
Do you grasp how serious it is to cast doubt on the words of Jesus and the Holy Scriptures? If you do, you stand in mortal danger of losing your soul to the Devil because Jesus has said: (John 12:46-50), “I have come as a light to the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words, and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, I speak.”
Did you notice Rousseau’s “so perfectly inimitable?” That word ‘inimitable’ means “incapable of being imitated; surpassing imitation.” [The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, 1975, p.685].
Number Three, YOU ARE DESTINED TO DECEPTION AND DELUSION WHEN YOU COMPROMISE “TRUTH” AND ADAPT YOUR LIFE CHOICES TO THE FLESHLY AND NOT TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. Come to Romans 8:1-6, because Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit of Truth, affirms and aligns his life and beliefs to what Jesus has told us!
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached in London at Spurgeon’s Tabernacle for many, many years. Each Sunday morning there were 10,000 people in each service. Read carefully as I close out this teaching with Spurgeon’s introduction about “Neglecters and Nominal Followers of Religion,” [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Volume 9, pps. 186-188].
“The sight of this vast arena, and of this crowded assembly, reminds me of other spectacles which, in days happily long past, were seen in the amphitheatres of the old Roman Empire. Around, tier upon tier, were the assembled multitudes, with their cruel eyes and iron hearts; and in the centre stood a solitary, friendless man, waiting till the doors of the lion’s den should be uplifted, that he might yield himself up for a witness for Christ and a sacrifice to the popular fury. There would have been no difficulty then to have divided the precious from the vile in that audience. The most thoughtless wayfarer who should enter into the amphitheatre, would know at once who was he disciple of Christ and who were the enemies of the Crucified One. There stood the bravely-calm disciple, about to die, but all around, in those mighty tiers of the Colosseum, or of the amphitheatre of some provincial town, as the case might be, there sat matrons and nobles, princes and peasants, plebians and patricians, senators and soldiers, all gazing downward with the same fierce, unpitying look; all boisterous for their heathen gods, and all vociferous in the joy with which they gazed upon the agonies of the disciple of the hated Galilean, butchered to make a Roman holiday. Another sight is before us today, with far more happy associations; but alas ! It is a far more difficult task this da to separate the chaff from the wheat, the precious from the vile, than in the day when the apostle fought with beasts at Ephesus. Here, in this arena, I hope there are hundreds, if not thousands, who would be prepared to die for our Lord Jesus; and in yonder crowded seats, we may count by hundreds those who bear the name and accept the gospel of the Man of Nazareth; and yet, I fear me, that both in these lifting hills on either side, and upon this vast floor, there are many enemies of the Son of God, who are forgetful of His righteous claims – who have cast from them those cords of love which should bind them to His throne, and have never submitted to the mighty love which showed itself in His cross and in His wounds. I cannot attempt the separation. You must grow together until the harvest. To divide you were a task which at this hour angels could not perform, but which one day they will easily accomplish, when at their Master’s bidding, the harvest being come, they shall gather together first the tares in bundles to burn them, and afterwards the wheat into Jehovah’s barn. I shall not attempt the division, but I shall ask each man to attempt it for himself in his own case. I say to you, young men and maidens, old men and fathers, this day examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Let no man take it for granted that he is a Christian because he has helped to swell the numbers of a Christian assembly. Let no man judge his fellow, but let each man judge himself. To each one of you I say, with deepest earnestness, let a division be made by your conscience, and let your understanding separate between him that feareth God and him that feareth Him not. Though no man clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side, shall go through the midst of you to set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations of this city, let conscience take the inkhorn and honestly make the mark, or leave the favored sign unmade, and let each man question himself this morning, “Am I on the Lord’s side? Am I for Christ, or for His enemies? Do I gather with Him, or do I scatter abroad?” “Divide, divide!” they say in the House of Commons; let us say the same in this great congregation this day. Political divisions are but trifles compared with the all-important distinction which I would have you consider. Divide as you will be divided to the right and to the left in the great day when Christ shall judge the world in righteousness. Divide as you will be divided when the bliss of heaven, or the woes of hell, shall be your everlasting portion.”
I close this chapter with the words of Jesus Himself, when in Matthew 10:34-39, He said: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”
The destiny of deception and delusion OR the destiny of the divine-ones born again by the Holy Spirit through Ultimate, Eternal Truth whose name is “Jesus Only”? In John 15:9-13 Jesus said: “As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. IF you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your hoy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? ENDURING THROUGH OUR FAILURES, FIRES, AND FIGHTS!”
In Matthew 24 the disciples had asked Jesus about “the sign of His coming and the end of the age.” [The age of Judaism and Jerusalem!]. Jesus responded in this way: “The end of the age?” Verse 4, a time of great deception; Verse 7, a time of great conflict; Verses 8-9, a time of great suffering; Verse 12, a time of great open sin; and Verse 14, a time of great opportunity. And in the midst of this description of the end of the age (Israel’s demise!), NOTICE, Jesus said in Verse 13, “BUT HE WHO ENDURES TO THE END SHALL BE SAVED!” That’s “Enduring through our failures, our fires, and our fights!”
How many have started a walk with Jesus and end up disappointed, disillusioned, discouraged, detoured, and are “falling away” because they didn’t know or understand about “failing” in a ‘flesh walk of faith’ or about “getting up”, stumbling short of the goal they set for themselves, but not grasping or understanding, persevering, pressing in, resting in “Spirit-control”, not ‘trying my best’! Where does that come from? Not the Word, not the Spirit, and not from the true ‘disciple-makers, trainers, and equippers! At the same time, far too many don’t know or understand about “counting the cost,” or failing to see the cross in the walk before the Manifestation of Resurrection Power! Have you seen them? High pinnacles – fast falls; slippery slopes – muddy ditches with seemingly high walls they can’t crawl out of; stained banners of allegiance – rotting devotion and passion which is the end result of flesh efforts rather than Spirit-dependency!
Even though we are IMMORTAL IN CHRIST, as human followers , some have tendencies to fallibility, to failure, and to futility – and sadly, some accept that and settle in to being their petty little selves! Then some settle for RELIGIOUS SPASMS every now and then, but fail to press in to the High Calling!
Chuck Swindoll, in his book, “Come Before Winter,” has a chapter entitled “The Fine Art of Blowing it.” Do you know about which he speaks? Have you ever found yourself enveloped with a heavy fog of failure? John Maxwell’s book, “Failing Forward,” is so rich in REALITY. One of the dynamic truths Maxwell writes is, (Preface), “Your attitude, more than your aptitude, will determine your altitude!” With all my heart I believe God would have us all know and understand that failure in our walks as pastors or disciples IS NOT A STUMBLING BLOCK BUT A STEPPING STONE!
It was James Long who said: “One reason God created time was so that THERE WOULD BE A PLACE TO BURY THE FAILURES OF THE PAST!” “He who ENDURES to the end shall be saved!”
One of the saddest verses in all the Bible is Psalm 78:9, “The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, TURNED BACK IN THE DAY OF BATTLE.” Some of you as you read this today feel so hopeless, fearful, and doubt-filled. Some of you are determined to walk away from your calling, your ministry because you’ve conceived within yourself a sense of failure – and you’re brought to a crossroads: Escape or cope? Weakened or strengthened? Clueless or constructively enlightened? Human effort failing and falling or divine enabling strengthening you? Pushed down or pressing in? Wilting or working out your salvation in fear and trembling? Taken over by a defeatist attitude or triumphant through God’s promises and helps? A mind duped by its failures or a mind deepened in God’s truths recognizing by grace I have “the mind of Christ”? Debilitated by your mistakes or disciplined by God’s mercy? Adapting to your natural tendencies to failure or appropriating His supernatural provisions for Holy Success?
There IS such a Life-Principle of “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ!!” (Philippians 1:6).
Ken Hubbard wisely wrote: “There is no failure except no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.” But that’s FLESH!! In Christ we’ve become spiritual beings inhabited with His Resurrection Life and Purpose! Paul had to remind Timothy, and I remind you, (2 Timothy 1:9), that God “has saved US and CALLED US with a HOLY PURPOSE, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, BEFORE TIME BEGAN.”
It was Pericles who wrote: “The brave are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet GO OUT TO MEET IT.” I love the old hymn that somehow needs to be resurrected: “Rise up, O men of God, have done with lesser things…”
Victor Frankel said it: “Everything can be taken from a man except the last of human freedoms – TO CHOOSE ONE’S ATTITUDES IN ANY GIVEN SET OF CIRCUMCTAMCES.” “He who perseveres or ENDURES to the end shall be saved!”
It was Louis Pasteur who once wrote: “Chance favors the PREPARED MIND!” But I believe it’s not only a prepared mind but a prepared heart that is so sensitive to the heart of God Himself!
Let’s look at PERSEVERANCE TO THE END BECAUSE OF THE PRECIOUS PRECEPT OF THE UNFAILING, UNCHANGING, UNCEASING LOVE OF GOD! Three statements out of 1 Corinthians 13 that ought to grip your heart right now as you consider God’s love for YOU!
Verse 4, “Love suffers long and is king…” Verse 7, “Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…” Verse 8, “Love NEVER FAILS!” When you think about the walk of Simon Peter, have you considered that Peter denied Jesus three times after his strong assertion that he never would? AND HERE COMES JESUS…!! What does He bring to Peter? A big stick? A harsh look? A mean stare? A sign saying, “Displeased, disappointed, doubtful of Peter?” No, Jesus came, not only with the look of love, but an affirmation of confidence, an acceptance of his person, and an aim for his life: “Feed My sheep!” You do know what Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
How could we interpret God’s love as conditional, as changing, as ceasing, with eternally THE CROSS OF CHRIST EVER BEFORE US? What does God say? “I love you only when you always get it right? I love you only when you never deny Me? I love you when and only you’re totally perfect? I love you only when you rank high as the best of human achievers and preachers? I love you only when you score all ‘A’s’ on the life exams? I love you only if you don’t look back? I love you only when you don’t stumble? I love you only when you don’t wear a mask or pretend? I love you only when you’re so pious, so spiritual looking, even wearing the right color of clothes?
Listen to John 15:9 and claim it: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you, Abide In My Love!” When you’ve fallen, Jesus’ love is there to pick you up! When you’ve failed, Jesus’ love is saying, “You’re My success!” When you’re afraid of what tomorrow holds, “My perfect love casts out and overcomes your fear because I HOLD YOUR TOMORROW!”
Notice also, PERSEVERANCE TO THE END BECAUSE OF THE POWERFUL AWARENESS THAT PERSECUTION IS “THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE” FOR EVERY DISCIPLE! Are you ready? 2 Timothy 3:10-12 says, “But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, PERSEVERANCE…persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra – what persecutions I ENDURED. And out of them all the Lord delivered me…Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus WILL SUFFER PERSECUTION.” Has that changed because we’re supposed to be such an advanced culture?
To the church at Thessalonica, Paul made an even bolder statement: 1 Thessalonians 3:2-3, telling why he sent Timothy to them – “and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning the faith…that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that WE ARE APPOINTED FOR THIS.” HOW SHOCKING! God’s Word is telling us, “We have and appointment with persecutions and affliction!”
Max Cleland is a former U.S senator from Georgia who had his legs and an arm blown off by a grenade in the Vietnam war and he boldly talks about “turning your scars into stars.” And yet, do you realize how many, at the first sign of trouble through persecution, easily walk away rather than pressing in to Christ? Or rather than walk away, they just get “down-in-the-mouth”, sad, embittered about what their ‘faith’ has brought them to.
Charles Allen, the former great Methodist minister wrote: “Valleys are for moving through, not wallowing in.” So true!! I’m always amazed when I re-read Paul talking to his Corinthian friends about his “light afflictions.” That’s 2 Corinthians 4:17. Then in 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, he tells them: “…in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often…From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one…Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep…in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren…in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirstings, in fastings often, in cold nakedness…”
It was Aldous Huxley who wrote: “Experience is not what happens to you. Experience is what you do with what happens to you.” What did Jesus say in John 15:20? “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” And do you remember the rise of persecution against the early church in Acts 8:1? “…At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad…” WHAT HAPPENED FOLLOWING THIS? “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also!” “Great persecution?” So we ought to be sad, Right? “Great persecution?” So we ought to run and hide, Right? “Great persecution?” So let’s deny our calling and go back to fishing, Right? Listen to Jesus!!
Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake…Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” In Luke 6, Jesus said, “…Leap for joy!!”
NEXT CONSIDER, PERSEVERANCE TO THE END BECAUSE OF OUR AWARENESS OF THE PRIZE OF THE UPWARD CALL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS!! Philippians 3:13-14 says, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead…I press toward the mark for the PRIZE of the UPWARD CALL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.” And I don’t even know wha all of that means!
But…I read in 1 Corinthians 2:9, But as it is written, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” In Hebrews 12:2 I get an inkling of it, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith WHO FOR THE JOY that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand throne of God.” Did you hear it, sense it, become aware of it? 1) Finisher of our faith 2) Joy set before Him 3) Seated at the right hand throne of God!!
Listen to 2 Peter 3:11-13, "Th“refore, since all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness…looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?…NEVERTHELESS WE, according to His promise, LOOK FOR NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH IN WHICH RIGHTEOUSNESS DWELLS.” Paul said twice to the Romans, there’s “MUCH MORE” coming!!
LOOK AT PERSEVERANCE TO THE END BECAUSE OF THE POWERFUL PERSUASION OF OUR CONFIDENCE IN GOD!! Listen to 2 Timothy 1:12, “…for I know WHOM I have believed and am persuaded that HE IS ABLE TO KEEP WHAT I HAVE COMMITTED TO HIM UNTIL THAT DAY.” Confidence IN the GOD WHO IS ABLE!! Where is your confidence? Jude 24-25 says clearly: “Now TO HIM WHO IS ABLE to keep you from stumbling, AND to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy…TO GOD OUR SAVIOR, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and FOREVER. AMEN.”
The great old hymn will never die!! “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”
John Jasper may not be a name you recognize, but his story and faith was so powerful. Years and years ago he was pastor of the great black church in Richmond, Virginia, called Sixth Mt. Zion Baptist Church. He was a tremendous preacher. Political figures from Washington,DC, whites included, would make their way to Richmond to hear him preach. There came a time they need to put a state highway right through Richmond which meant they’d have to demolish Jasper’s church. But local and national figures caused an uproar and they had to curve the road round Jasper’s church. He came late in life one Sunday morning to the pulpit and stretched his thinning skin on his hand and said: “Very soon I’m going home to be with God,” and his people in their characteristic way began to speak out, “No, Brother John, No. You can’t go home o b with God. You must stay here and be our pastor.” And Jasper responded, “Now hush, my children, Hush. I tell you what is going to happen. One morning soon the death angel will come and call my name, John Jasper, it’s time to go. Follow me. And I will follow, and he’ll lead me up to the Pearly White gates where I’ll meet that catachezing angel, and he’ll say, “Who are you?” And I’ll say, I’m John Jasper. And he’ll say, “John Jasper, you ain’t no good. You don’t have any right coming in here.” And I’ll say, You’re right, Mr. Angel, I’m no good, and I don’t have any right coming in here, but I’m not depending upon my righteousness, I’m depending upon the righteousness of Jesus who loved me and gave Himself for me. Then he’ll say, “Come on in, John Jasper, that’s the way we like to hear men talk.” Powerful persuasion of our CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE!
I’m certain you never knew, but I faced some heavy battles in my journey over a period of time after twenty-five years of traveling all over the world teaching and preaching, mostly in India, but areas all over Asia, with pastors’ conferences, open-air crusades, and church trainings. Some said, “He’s too old. He’s no longer important. The ministry will go on without him.” My dear friend, former classmate and teammate at Baylor University in Waco, where we played football together for the Baylor Bears, Dr. Bill Anderson, shared with me and with Sue, Psalm 138:7-8, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me… THE LORD WILL PERFECT that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.” And God will not forsake us!
OH, AND PLEASE NOTICE, PERSEVERANCE TO THE END BECAUSE WE MAKE OUR CALLING AND ELECTION CERTAIN! 2 Peter 1”10-11 declares, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for is you do these things YOU WILL NEVER STUMBLE…for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Do you remember God taking those tablets of stone and writing on them and giving them to Moses, “The Ten Commandments”? And one of them says, Exodus 20:7, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE!
Have you been born again? Does Christ live within you? Are you the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus? Are you alive in Christ? Have you been raised up and seated with Him in heavenly places? Do you have a new song in your heart and a new name to which you respond? Do you know with great assurance, “I am the Chosen of God”? Do you know, “Saved and called with a holy calling?”
LASTLY, PERSERVERANCE TO THE END BECAUSE WE ARE PERSISTENT!! Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again.” Did you hear it? We don’t accept our failures – we’ll not be half-hearted but whole-hearted, even if we stumble. We may fall on our face, but (with our Lord’s help!), watch us as we get up! Warren Weirsbe nailed it: “A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned.”
Calvin Coolidge, one of the U.S.’s former presidents wrote: “Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of PERSISTENCE. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are OMNIPOTENT.”
Remember Luke 9:51? “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Jesus to be received up, THAT HE STEDFASTLY SET HIS FACE to go to Jerusalem.” Have you steadfastly, resolutely, determinedly set your face to persevere and endure to the end? In 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul said, “For I have determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” WHAT HAVE YOU DETERMINED? Have you resolutely set yourself to live by way of the Cross so the Resurrection Life of Christ will be manifested through you? IS IT SETTLED? Steadfastly I AM PERSEVERING AND ENDURING AND PRESSING IN TO HIM!
Epictetus wrote it: “Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. REMAIN STEADFAST…and one day you will build something that endures: something WORTHY OF YOUR POTENTIAL.”
It was G.K.Chesterton who said: “I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them UNLESS they act.” Well, I am going to ACT! I am going to settle it! IT’S RESOLVED! And I challenge you, Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore brethren by the multitudinous mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world but BE BEING TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” It’s by an unknown author but speaks so loudly: “When things go wrong as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill…When the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile but you have to sigh (maybe cry),…When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest if you must, but don’t you quit…Success is failure turned inside out, The silver tint of the clouds of doubt…And you can never tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems afar…So, stick to the fight when you’re hurt and hit – It’s when things go wrong that you must not quit.” AND I WILL NOT QUIT! One of my dear spiritual sons called me and said, “Really, shouldn’t you slow down?” And I said, “You’ll know I’ve slowed down when they’ve closed the casket top!!”
Is there a ‘why’ in that? Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” God’s purpose for you or me, ended, over, finished? No!
Through it all, I’M BUILDING MY ALTAR AND PRESENTING MYSELF TO GOD ANEW EACH DAY! I believe it was about 75 years of age when it really began to happen for Abraham at a record pace!! I’m now 80 years of age – and just beginning anew in the things God has planned for me and through me! Sir Charles Villiers Stanford wrote: “Human excellence apart from God, is like the fabled flower, which, according to the Rabbis, Eve plucked when passing out of paradise. Severed from its native root, it is only the touching memorial of a lost Eden – sad while charming and beautiful, BUT DEAD.”
“He who perseveres to the end shall be saved!!” Our lives, not memorials of a lost Eden, but testimonies of the Redeemed, are testimonies of those who persevere and endure. God, HELP US!!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? THE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION!”
In Philippians 1:6 Paul stated, “being confident of THIS VERY THING, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
To be in the flow of the ‘river of faith’, there has to be commitment …commitment to Christ Jesus and His finished work AT THE CROSS! In that flow of the ‘river of faith’, I know and understand that I am being carried along like a raft on the Snake River! The current carries me, I don’t have to carry myself! True faith is complete abandonment of any hope in myself to “redeem me”, or save me, or complete me by my best efforts!
In that flow of the “river of redemptive faith”, I believed, trusted in, relied upon the eternal truth that Christ Jesus was able to do what He said He could and would do: Hebrews 7:25, “…able to save (forever – completely) those who draw near to God through Christ…” Jude 24, “…able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy…” 2 Timothy 1:12, “…able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day…” 2 Corinthians 9:8 “…able to make all grace abound to you…” Roman 16:25, “…able to establish you (or “make you to stand!”)” Romans 4:21, “…able to perform…(what He had promised!).”
But do you realize that some riding that river raft of faith are fearful, even tormented, because they have not fully rested themselves in confidence and assurance on the bosom of Jesus in full and complete trust? Can you hear it?
“We’re not going to make it. The torrents of crashing waters (temptations?) against the rocks are intensifying. There’s a big ‘falls’ in the river down there. Look at all the boulders of opposition against us. Or, it’s too shallow, the raft won’t flow on dry ground. I’ve fallen out, no life jacket, I’m sinking.”
I’m going to tell you plainly, THAT’S A TERRIBLE WAY TO TRAVEL THE ‘RIVER OF FAITH’, your journey with Jesus, your pilgrimage with the Prince of Peace.
Reading one of those great English preachers of 150 years ago, (Spurgeon) on a message of ‘faith’, he had an interesting comment (Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol.7,p.80), “Get then, Christian brethren and friends, get assurance; be not content with hope, get confidence; rest not in faith, labor after the full assurance of faith; and never be content, my hearer, till you can know your election, you are sure of your redemption, and you are certain of your preservation until that day.”
Now, what did Paul say to the Church at Philippi? “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect (or complete) it until the day of Christ Jesus.” “Complete?” the Greek word is “epiteleo”, a combination word: epi – on, or upon, & teleo – to bring to an end, complete, fulfill, finish! Notice, it is God on or upon us bringing to an end, fulfilling, finishing, completing what He started in us!!!
The word, CONFIDENCE, is from a primary verb, “to persuade, assure, put trust in…” Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines it as “a trusting, or reliance; an assurance of mind or firm belief in the integrity, stability, or veracity of another…”
Psalm 118:8 (KJV) says: “It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man.” Proverbs 3:26 says, “For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.”
A two-fold explanation! “The Lord” – your confidence in the Lord! Plus the confidence of completion! In Ezekial 28:25-26 we read: Thus says the Lord God: “When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am hallowed in them in the sight of the Gentiles, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob. And they will dwell safely there, build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will dwell securely, when I execute judgments on all those around them who despise them. Then they shall now that I am the Lord their God.”
“THE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION!” FIRST, WE CAN HAVE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION BECAUSE OF THE CHARACTER OF OUR GOD AND SAVIOR AND LORD! 2 Timothy 1:12 says, “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed, FOR I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED (trusted in, relied upon), and am PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE TO KEEP WHAT I HAVE COMMITTED TO HIM UNTIL THAT DAY.”
Paul didn’t say, “I know WHAT I have believed…” He said: “I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED!” Confidence comes from that precious intimacy with God Himself! Confidence comes from one’s personal knowledge of Holy God and His faithful Word! Confidence comes, not simply from mere acquaintance of Him, but an abiding love for Him.
I can say, “The Lord, He is God,” but until I can say, “The Lord is MY GOD”, there is no confidence! I can say, “The Lord is a Shepherd,” but it means nothing in the ‘ministered-to-life’ until I say, “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD”! I can say, “The Lord is Savior of all the world,” but it builds no confidence and assurance until in my heart I know Him as “MY” Savior and Lord of MY life!
Paul KNEW God! He knew His omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence! 1 Timothy 1:17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God alone who is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” In 1 Timothy 6:15-16 he said, “…He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords…who alone has immortality, dwelling in unappraoachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.”
Confidence comes as we know Christ Jesus the Lord! Do you remember Jesus asking His disciples, “Who do men say that I the Son of Man am?” And then to His disciples and us, “But WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?” What did Peter respond with? “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!!” Co-eternal, co-equal with Father-God! He was assured with John, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God!”
Redeemer! Savior! Lord and Master! Ephesians 1:7 declares, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” WE SERVE THE RISEN LORD! WE YIELD TO OUR PRESENT INTERCESSOR! WE BOW DAILY BEFORE THE UNCHANGING LORD WHI IS the same yesterday, today, and forever!” He‘s the Lord of Love! Romans 8:35-39 says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we’ re accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ YET IN ALL THESE THINGS we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul assured the Thessalonians when in 1 Thessalonians 5:24 he wrote: “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” Don’t you find it so amazing, encouraging, and uplifting to read Paul in 2 Timothy 4:14-18? “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words. At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. BUT THE LORD stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. AND THE LORD WILL DELIVER ME from every evil work and PRESERVE ME for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”
SECOND, “THE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION?” WE CAN HAVE THE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION BECAUSE OF THE CONSISTENCY OF HOLY SCRIPTURES! Never forget what Paul said to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:16-17! “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Receive 2 Corinthians 1:19-20 where Paul declared, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us – by me, Silvanus and Timothy – was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes… For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”
Even Davis had great confidence in God for his completion, (Psalm 17:15), “As for me, I WILL SEE your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” Catch the spirit of it! More than HOPE, it’s Confidence and Assurance! How?
Because the Lord was his Shepherd!! So, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Peter spoke of (1 Peter 1:23), “the living and abiding word of God.” AND IT IS! But the living and abiding of the Word of God must be LIVING AND ABIDING FOR US!! WE STAND ON IT!!
THIRD, WE CAN HAVE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION BECAUSE OF HE CONSISTENT AND CONSTRAINING WOTK OF GOD WITHIN US: Again, Philippians 1:6, “…HE WHO HAS BEGUN A GOOD WORK IN YOU…” Look at Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who is at work in you both to WILL AND TO WORK (IN YOU!) FOR HIS GOOD PLEASURE.”
Go back and ret in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22!! “Now HE WHO ESTABLISHES US WITH YOU IN CHRIST (established? “makes to stand”) and has anointed us (empowered) is God…who also has SEALED US (stamped as His) and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, (a guarantee!).” Listen carefully:
God doesn’t “establish” us that we might fall or fail! God doesn’t anoint us to be leaking wells that run dry! God doesn’t seal us that we might say we are on our own! God doesn’t give us the Spirit to claim us as a devotee of the unholy spirit! No!
2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God who ALWAYS leads us in triumph in Christ.” We are clay in the hands of the Potter, and the steps of a righteous man are ordered by Him!!
FOURTH, WE CAN HAVE CONFIDENCE IN COMPLETION BECAUSE OF THE COMFORTING TRUTH THAT WE CAN BE LIKE CHRIST WITH HIS CONSTANT AND CONSTRAINING INFLUENCE WHO MAKES IT A REALITY FOR US!! 2 Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: (Like a two-sided coin!), “The Lord knows those are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
Paul said to the church at Galatia (1:15-16), “But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace…TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME…!!” In Galatians 4:19 he added: “My little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” Thank God for prayerful, caring friends of the faith, yes, pastors, who intercede in our behalf before Holy God, urging the completion, the constant and constraining influence, in making it a reality in and through us!
Have you been laid hold of by Christ Jesus? Follow Paul in Philippians 3:12-4:1! “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I PRESS TOWARD THE GOAL FOR THE PRIZE OF THE UPWARD CALL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.
Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this in mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Brethren join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their mind on earthly things.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself. Chapter 4:1, Therefore, mu beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, SO STANF FAST IN THE LORD, beloved.”
FIFTH, WE CAN HAVE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION BECAUSE OF CHRIST-LIKENESS IN OUR OWN PRAYERS. In Philippians 1:9-10, receive Paul’s prayer for YOU: “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus, to the glory and praise of God.”
How clear did the Apostle lay it out for us in Ephesians 1:15-20? “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…”
Aren’t you thankful for men of prayer like Paul who became inspiration for all true seekers to be ‘prayer intercession like him? He made it even clearer when in Ephesians 3:14-21 he said to the Ephesians and us: “FOR THIS REASON I BOW MY KNEES TO THE FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, TO HIM BE GLORY IN THE CHURCH BY CHRIST JESUS TO ALL GENERATIONS, forever and ever. Amen.”
SIXTH, WE CAN HAVE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION BECAUSE OF THE CROWNING TESTIMONY OF ONE’S DESIRE AND PASSION TO GLORIFY CHRIST! Philippians 1:19-21 says, “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
King David made a strong, exuberant declaration of trust and full surrender when in Psalm 27:4-8 he wrote: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: THAT I MAY DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock (the Solid Rock?). And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Are you experiencing that reality in your walk with Him?
In Verses 13-14 of Psalm 27, David also said, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
And old hymn that has been one of my faith-walk’s most important hymn is entitled, “Be Thou My Vision.” Some say it’s as old as the seventh or eighth century. It says: “Be Thou, my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Nought be all else to me, save that You art – You my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping, Your presence my light.”
LASTLY, WE CAN HAVE CONFIDENCE OF COMPLETION BECAUSE OF THE CONQUERING VICTORY OF CHRIST’S CROSS AND HIS GLORIOUS RESURRECTION !
When from the Cross He said: “It is finished,” be assured, it IS finished! “Jesus Paid it all, All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow!
I love Oswald Chambers’ statement when he said: “The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Jesus Christ.” And didn’t Paul state, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings”?
True discipleship is confidence in what Christ has already accomplished for you, not what you “try” to do for Him in the best of human effort! Do you think this is why Paul talked about “taking the sentence of death unto himself daily that the resurrection life of Christ might be manifested through Him?”
Do you understand that redemptive truth “in Christ” is not His invitation for you to “try your best”, but to rest in the blood of His Cross at Calvary to transform you, not just enlighten you to a few biblical truths? Trying is not trusting! The Lord Jesus crucified, not only your sin with Him as He yielded to the will of God at the Cross, but your worst and your best, so that upon His Resurrection you’d receive not only forgiveness of your sins but His Holy Presence!
In Hebrews 2:9-10 we read: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY? THE KINGLY REIGN OF CHRIST!”
In 1 John 4:17-19 we have an amazing, life-changing, uplifting revelation: “Love (agape love) has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because AS HE IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.”
Do YOU have a “new song” that you sing, like the twenty-four elders who fell down before the Lamb of God in Revelation 5:9-14? And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God BY YOUR BLOOD out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, AND HAVE MADE US KINGS AND PRIESTS TO OUR GOD; AND WE SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH.” Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!’ Then the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever.’”
I find it so interesting, at times disheartening and discouraging, because too many ‘believers’ in Christ Jesus have no true foundational knowledge of their ‘identity’ “In Christ”! If “in Christ” ‘we are more than conquerors’, then why are some believers stymied in their journey of redemptive faith? In Romans 8:37-39 Paul wrote: “Yet in all these things (tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, or peril) WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death not life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul clearly understood for his people in his day, and, yes, for the people of our day today who’ve put their faith in Christ Jesus. He said, Romans 8:25, “For He (Christ Jesus) MUST REIGN till He has put all enemies under His feet,” that was then, and it is now in your life and walk of faith: WE MUST BE DAILY YIELDED TO HIS LORDSHIP in all of OUR circumstances! “HE MUST REIGN”!!
Psalm 110:1-3a, David said, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’ The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power…”
It’s really interesting as you’re going through the Word to come across a passage like Judges 8:22-23! Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.” But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord (Himself) shall rule over you.”
And Micah 4:1-7 really gets interesting when you know 70AD was coming for the end of Israel, which is also true of any ‘fleshly reign or rule’! And you and I have a choice of Who reigns over us, in us, and through us! It says: “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days ( Last days of Worldly existence or last days of Israel?) that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.
Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. For all people walk each in the name of his god, But we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.
“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will assemble the lame, I will gather the outcast and those whom I have afflicted; I will make the lame a remnant, and the outcast a strong nation; So the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on, even forever.”
And who is that? Those who walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever! Does John 1:1-4 describe both the “true light” AND those who do not comprehend it? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. ALL THINGS were made THROUGH HIM, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
The next few verses tell us John was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him might believe. Verses 8-9 clearly says that John “was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of the Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.”
And then in John 1:10-14 John tells us, “He (Christ Jesus) was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. BUT as many as received Him, TO THEM He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in [trust in, rely upon, adhere to], in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but [BORN!] of God.”
In 1 Timothy 4:8-10 we read: “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, BECAUSE WE TRUST IN THE LIVING GOD, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe [trust in, rely upon, adhere to!].”
I would think the legitimate question at this point would be: WHO or what rules over you? In Colossians 2:8-10 Paul warns us all! “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For IN HIM dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Several truths we must rest in:
FIRST, THERE IS THE REIGN OVER TEMPTATION WHEN I KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE REALITY OF TEMPTATION! In Luke 4:1 we read, “The Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.” Christ Jesus – filled with the Holy Spirit! Christ Jesus – led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Christ Jesus – tempted by the devil for forty days! Several lessons we must learn and rest in:
- The reality of temptation is no evidence of sin! In Hebrews 4:15-16 we read, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. LET US THEREFORE come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Later, in Hebrews 10:19-23, the author wrote: “Therefore, brethren, (brothers and sisters in the Faith!), 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 ( 2 Corinthians 6:16b declares, “For YOU are the temple of the living 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.”
- The reality of temptation is no sign of God’s Lack of Love for us because He allows temptation! Did we read in Luke 4:1 that Jesus “was led by the Spirit (the Holy Spirit!) into the wilderness, BEING TEMPTED FORTY DAYS BY THE DEVIL.” Jesus WAS tempted, loved of the Father! In fact, at Jesus’ baptism, in Matthew 3:17, we read: “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And the very next event in the life of Christ? Matthew 4:1 again says, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
- The reality of temptation is no implication of doubt about one being “a child of the King”! Again, the Son of God was tempted – the Eternal Son of God was tested – the “First-Fruit” tasted the fire of temptation to evil! It tells us that the Primacy of Sonship in Scripture FACED THE PERILOUS HOUR OF TESTING TRIUMPHANTLY – and so can you! Spurgeon, in “Spurgeon’s Sermons”, (Vol.18, p.339), wrote: “Temptation is a mark of sonship rather than any reflection thereupon.” So true!
- The reality of temptation is not an opened door for participation in the evil invitation or an opened door to penalty because of it! Temptation Never has to lead to sinful involvement! It’s said of Christ Jesus, “The same yesterday, today, and forever,” therefore one pure in Christ before temptation can be, must be pure in Him after temptation! How? 1 John 5:18b says, “…He that is born of God KEEPS HIMSELF and the evil one (the devil) does not touch him.” “Keeps”? That’s “to guard, to watch over, to be alert to, to keep one’s self, by prayer? Matthew 6:13, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil – For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. SO BE IT or Amen!”
- The reality of temptation is not a door of opportunity for murmuring and complaining, but the message that we’re not above or below our Master, Lord, and Savior! Luke 6:40 is Jesus telling us, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.” And Jesus? Even if it’s Peter, not fully trained as yet, that Jesus confronted in Mark 8:33, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not (yet) mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
- The reality of temptation is not the way of suffering before the release of His reign! Hebrews 2:18 equips us by saying, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” Yes, He stands at YOUR door, ready to be available to you in any moment of the devil’s onslaught! The writer of Hebrews said also in Hebrews 12:3, “For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners (and Satan!) against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.” His invitation in your trial of faith by the devil? “Lean on Me,” Jesus says, over and over and over again and again! And is that “your performance” or His position, “your grit” or His grace and mercy, “your determination” or faithful dependence upon the King of kings and Lord of lords? Romans 5:17 says, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
SECOND, THERE IS THE REIGN OVER TEMPTATION WHEN I KNOW THE TENDERNESS OF MY SYMPATHEITIC SAVIOR! In Hebrews 2:17-18 we read, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, HE IS ABLE TO AID THOSE WHO ARE TEMPTED.”
- I become aware of the Avenue of His suffering in temptation: The Avenue of EMOTION is involved! Did we just read, “in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted…?” In Spurgeon’s Sermons, (Vol.18, p.329), Spurgeon preached, “Many persons are tempted, but do not suffer in being tempted. When ungodly men are tempted, the bait is to their taste, and they swallow it greedily. Temptation is a pleasure to them; indeed they sometimes tempt the devil to tempt them. They are drawn aside of their own lusts and enticed; so that temptation, instead of being suffering to them becomes a horrible source of pleasure. But good men (godly men) suffer when they are tempted, and the better they are the more they suffer.” And if that’s true of good and godly men, then how must have it have been emotionally for the PURE AND PERFECT, SINLESS SON OF GOD? Spurgeon went on, “Our Lord and Master had such a delicate sensitiveness of soul with regard to holiness, that the sight of sin must have torn Him as a naked man would be torn by thorns, and thistles, and briers.”
The Avenue of PLACE is involved: Christ Jesus left His Eternal Home and came to the sin-infested earth! He was “rich, yet for our sakes He became poor.” He left the place where He could never be tempted to come to the place where temptation is a way of life – and He suffered! (Matthew 26:36-46).
The Avenue of Weariness is involved: We read in John 4:5-6, So Jesus came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour (or noon). Oh, and then we read in Hebrews 5:7-9, “who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Are YOU learning obedience by what YOU SUFFER when temptation comes your way?
The Avenue of Aloneness is involved: Do you remember Jesus crying out as He faced the Cross? “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ God hadn’t forsaken Him, but He had withdrawn temporarily, and for Jesus, it was if God had forsaken Him and it felt as if He’d been deserted! That’s like Job! “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him! That I might come even to His throne!” In Psalm 42:1-5 we read about those passionate FOR GOD in the midst of their distresses thinking they are alone!
THE AVENUE OF EMPATHY IS INVOLVED! In 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 we find the “Hallelujah Chorus” of comforted sufferers! It says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.” How true is that to the true disciple’s walk of faith even today?
- I become aware of The Aid of our Sympathetic Savior. Hebrews 2:18 is so clear! “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to AID THOSE WHO ARE TEMPTED.” I’m sure this is why we read 1 Thessalonians 3:5 when Paul said, “For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that THE TEMPTER MIGHT HAVE TEMPTED YOU, and our labor should be in vain.” It’s also interesting that we read in Luke 4:13, “And when the devil had finished every temptation (against Jesus), he departed from Him until a more opportune time.”
We are, yes, fully aware of the aid of our sympathetic Savior because HE OVERCAME TEMPTATION! Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.” In Galatians 2:20-21 Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…”! We are fully aware of our sympathetic Savior because He made toothless the tempter! In Colossians 2:13-15 we read: “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
Oh, but Martin Luther nailed it strong for us when he wrote the great old hymn, “A Mighty Fortress”! It says: “A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Out helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing; For still our ancient foe Seeks to work us woe; His craft and power are great, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the right Man on our side, The Man of God’s own choosing. Do you ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth is His name, from age to age the same, And He must win the battle.
And tho’ this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God has willed His Truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim – We tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, For lo! His doom is sure: One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers – No thanks to them – abideth; The Spirit and the gifts are ours Through Him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill; God’s Truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.” AMEN?
THIRD, THERE IS THE REIGN OVER TEMPTATION WHEN I KNOW THE TESTIMONY OF COMMON BELIEVERS WHO’VE OVERCOME WHAT I FACE! 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us: ‘No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man (to fellow believers, to true disciples!).”
In Philippians 2:10-16 we have, yes, true, powerful testimonies! “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.”
Did Paul say, “I press toward the prize or mark of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”? If so, then why would the true disciple turn downward rather than pressing in to the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ? The “present reign” of Christ is interpreted through faithful believers who reign in and through Him actively, purposefully, benevolently, judicially, and victoriously!
Hebrews 12:1-2 we joyfully read, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, LOOKING UNTO JESUS, the author and FINISHER of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
FOURTH, THERE IS THE REIGN OVER TEMPTATION WHEN I KNOW THE TRIUMPHANT NATURE OF MY FAITHFUL GOD! 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE TEMPTED BEYOND WHAT YOU ARE ABLE, but with the temptation will also MAKE THE WAY OF ESCAPE, that you may be able to bear it.” What an awesome, encouraging word!
There’s a promise in Psalm 89:36-37 that says, “His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; It shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky.”
Isn’t it amazing? Psalm 119:86 says: “All Your commandments are faithful…”, and He never falls short of upholding, sustaining, even rescuing each of His sons or daughters who yield to Him!
Proverbs 13:17b says, “…a faithful ambassador brings health”, and is not the author of fleshly sicknesses in one’s spiritual journey! Isaiah 55:3 speaks “faithful mercies”1
Look at 1 Corinthians 1:9 where Paul declared, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” And BECAUSE THE LORD IS FAITHFUL, 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.”
Doesn’t Revelation 19:11 speak about “heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.”
Do you understand that Almighty God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!” It’s not in “the sweet by and by” but in the ‘here and now’ that the triumphant nature of our faithful God finds full release!
G.A. Young, in the 1930’s, wrote a hymn entitled “God Leads Us Along.” [Renewal by Lillenas Publishing Co., Owner}. It says:
“In shady green pastures, so rich and so sweet, God leads His dear children along; Where the water’s cold flow bathes the weary one’s feet, God leads His dear children along.
Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright, God leads His dear children along; Sometimes in the valley in the darkest of night, God leads His dear children along.
Tho’ sorrows befall us, and Satan oppose, God leads His dear children along; Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes, God leads His dear children along.
Away from the mire, and away from the clay, God leads His dear children along; A – -way up in glory, eternity’s day, God leads His dear children along.
Some thro’ the waters, some thro’ the flood, Some thro’ the fire, but all thro’ the Blood; Some thro’ great sorrow, but God gives a song, In the night season and all the day long.” Amen?
CONCLUSION
What an amazing two months this ‘trip’ has been in being greatly awakened and encouraged and inspired! Psalm 25:14 says, “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” And the covenant of “Awakenings” is an eternal necessity!
I pray the book has inspired You, encouraged You, enlightened You, as to our Lord’s gracious and merciful faithfulness!
As I drew this book to a close, I was led again to the Lord’s prayer! “Our Father in heaven Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come (NOW!), Your will be done (NOW! Through Sue and I, our kids, grandkids, great grands, with more coming soon, our friends, former churches I pastored, and mission-fields world-wide where I planted the seeds of Your Holy Word!)….For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Yes, His Kingdom rule and reign through King Jesus continues to expand as He continually “awakens” us to His awesome presence, power, and purpose! How, under God’s blessed Heaven, can earthly men be so unbelieving of ALL our loving Lord has done through Christ faithfully for century after century, country after country, and, yes, family after family?
I challenge you, right now, in continuing your “faith journey”, to go to Psalm 27 and read it carefully. I entitled it in my Bible as “The Song of Sovereign Trust!” You’ll be blessed there in an amazing way! Seek Him, love Him, serve Him, share Him, as you continue to learn about “Awakenings’ Necessity”!