“DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE?”
By: J. Farrell Fisher, June 2, 2017
“Indefensible”? The Random House College Dictionary of 1975 defines ‘indefensible’ as “not justifiable, inexcusable, incapable of being defended against attack, incapable of being defended against criticism or denial.”
How aware are you concerning the, yes, strong movement in the U.S.A. of many who resent Biblical Truth and especially are devout enemies of the King of kings and Lord of lords, of truly the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, enemies of the Church that Jesus loved and gave Himself for, enemies of the unveiling of Holy Word truths, yes, the Holy Bible, and enemies of true disciples who desire to extend His Kingdom and express His love to the needy world of alienated lives from Loving God?
Sadly, men and women, boys and girls, are too numerous who basically are completely unhinged from the existence of God, from His amazing love to reconcile the world to Himself, and unhinged from His desire to prove His unchanging love for the lost, alienated, and separated from God by the eternal work of Messiah, Emmanuel or “God With Us”, by Christ Jesus the Son of God who came to be Savior and Lord of repentant hearts and lives who want to be reconciled to God! Some say, “Why be concerned about reconciliation to a God who doesn’t exist – just a figment in the minds of brain-dead people!”
It’s interesting that as Jesus came into the world in His Day under divine appointment, there were even those who acknowledged Him but still held onto the old life. In John 2:23-25 we read about His exposure of those who did acknowledge Him but Jesus wouldn’t commit Himself to many because He knew what was really in their hearts! John 2:23-25 says: Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, many believed in His Name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” Jesus didn’t commit Himself to them?
I find it so amazing that in the last few days on nation-wide television Hillary Clinton spouted at least “24 different reasons for her election loss” without any consideration of Holy God on His Throne exposing and deposing her because of her “defense of the indefensible” – the nation didn’t want her because Holy God had had enough of her constant hypocrisy! [Consider that Hillary was schooled by Saul Olinsky in her ‘heart-dead education’ at her major university! Olinsky authored the book, “Rules For Radicals”, which indoctrinated her to Socialism and Communism!].
There is a world full of skeptic unbelievers who are convinced they are smarter than God Himself, overpowered by self-centered cynicism and self-centered spiritual illusions, ignoring the emptiness of a godless heart, blinded to the aching abyss of the absence of the divine life, needing greater and more deceptive, ‘innocent’ ignorance to try and overshadow their darkened, disillusioned spiritual thinking! The unbelieving world that builds its faulty foundations of godless living do so on ‘fleshly ideas and ideals’ not on revealed Biblical Truth!
“Defending the Indefensible” is the stubborn indifference of a mind-set, (nothing to do with the heart, because the heart was birthed void of the presence of God), and a man discerns in his mind, “Who needs a God or a Savior or the Lord?”, overcome and ruled by ‘natural independence’ and willful self-assertiveness, revealing many, many souls, who as Oswald Chambers once said, “Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.” [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.256]. Many men live in a state of “my own independence”. And fleshly men discern for themselves that what they settle into in their own minds is their ‘religious faith’! From their death-beds many still oppose Holy God, some in their last dying breath to family and friends: “There is no God!” So they get introduced to Him at His “Judgment Throne”!
In Matthew 16:24-28 the Lord Jesus delivered the most powerful word any ‘wrestler’ with ‘defending the indefensible’, OR surrendering to the Sovereign Lord of redeemed salvation through His shed blood alone when He said, “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 shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the SON OF MAN (JESUS CHRIST) will come in the glory of His Father, with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” [Tell me about YOUR reward according to your works if they are not the works of Jesus!].
Did Jesus say of the one who desires to follow Jesus, that he/she is to “deny himself, take up his/her cross, and follow Jesus”? Does that refer to dying to the defense of the indefensible? But, you are aware, the majority of fallen humanity holds on to the ‘shell of fleshly individuality’, opposed to the truth of a redeemed life purchased by the blood of the Lamb of God! “No funeral for me and my fleshly independence, even if my ‘individuality’ shames what your God intended for me” – unaware their choice of individuality for themselves alone produces and debases one’s self-ordained sin nature for flesh’s goriness, not for God’s glory!
In 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 Paul wrote: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” He had written earlier in 1 Corinthians 1:18-19, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, BUT TO US who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I (God) will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” And I have no doubts about Paul’s biblical wisdom about ‘natural men of religious pretense’!
One wonders if Paul was thoroughly schooled in Old Testament prophecy! In Isaiah 29:13-16 the prophet Isaiah was clearly schooled in prophetic wisdom! He wrote, God speaking through the prophet, “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden. Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me’? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” A marvelous work? God’s eternal judgment upon unbelieving, self-sufficient men, women, boys and girls!
But in Isaiah 29:18-19 the Lord speaks of a greater, blessed day for true repentant hearts! He said: “In that day (the coming day of the Promised Messiah?) the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” Praise God for the humble, the repentant, the true child of faith that leans not to his own understanding but in all his/her ways they give Jesus His rightful place as Lord, Savior, and Ruling Master of their lives!
I cannot even begin to imagine what a horrible experience it must be and is to physically die yet have to live through all eternity under the domination of the devil and his demons and under the never-moving cloud of spiritual darkness and devilish, demonic activity in the place called Hell where the devil reigns, and his ‘family’ of captives living in bitterness, resentment, horrible pain, and without the Hope they so easily denied and debunked, cursing God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit they so easily rejected because they chose to live yielded to themselves and not to the Loving Savior and Lord!
To give you a present day update of the sad condition of, yes, multitudes, just a few days ago someone spoke out for their city, state, nation, and the world to hear: “Why would one invoke the Name of Jesus in a public prayer?” Because Christ Jesus IS Emmanuel or “God with us”! In Matthew 6: 9-13 Jesus said: 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. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Kingdom rule, Kingdom power, Kingdom glory – but there has always been the choice of God’s sovereignty and man’s ‘fleshly imposition of self-will’ rather than submission to God’s sovereignty! In 2 Peter 2:9-11 Peter wrote: “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.”
Have you surmised, even through ‘modern television shows today’, how debased and godless many people live, especially the ‘Hollywood crowd’, ignoring divine revelation through Holy Scripture? Yet, at the same time, the holy revelation of God’s precious Word still stands! In Revelation 21:3-8 John saw “All things made new!” He said: And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’
And He said to me, “IT IS DONE! 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 shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. BUT the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, 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.” [And did you know: THE SECOND DEATH NEVER DIES!! That’s the eternal torment godless men bring on themselves!].
Are you aware of ‘the fall’ of great cities worldwide? And Revelation 14:8 speaks of “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Later, in Revelation 18:1-8, is a ‘nation-awakening’ passage of Holy Scripture! I pray America welcomes it as a truly holy “wake-up call”! [Be assured, Babylon, in Revelation 18, is a word-picture for Jerusalem, the ‘Holy City’, and its “death announcement” that occurred in 70AD!]. [And be assured: “drinking the wine of the wrath of her fornication” is not a Chardonnay glass but the fiery force of divine wrath over one’s spiritual fornication!]
Revelation 18:1-8 says, After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her.
In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no more widow, and will not see sorrow.’ THEREFORE her plagues will come in one day – death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.”
No man under Heaven’s compassionate eye is hidden from Holy God but is read like an open book with every page of his/her life fully exposed, but as Oswald Chambers wrote in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.206), “The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin; but that the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race by one man, and that another Man took on Him the sin of the human race and put it away (Hebrews 9:26) – an infinitely profounder revelation. The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrong-doing, but the disposition of self-realization – I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced men with all the forces of evil in them, and men who were clean living and moral and upright, He did not pay any attention to the moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other; He looked at something we do not see, viz., the disposition.”
The beloved John shared this truth in John 3:18-21 when he wrote: “He who believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) in Him (Christ Jesus) is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And THIS IS THE CONDEMNATION, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil 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.” [Do you just think that this may be why Paul said, “I die daily” that Christ’s Resurrected Life may be manifested in his mortal flesh, like all true disciples?].
Isn’t this why Galatians 5:1 becomes so valuable to the true believer? Paul said, “Stand fast therefore IN THE LIBERTY BY WHICH CHRIST HAS MADE US FREE, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” You’ve heard it: “I tried”, when God isn’t interested in your “trying” but in trusting in Christ’s finished work; God isn’t interested in you trying to defend the indefensible, but in “resting” through repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s overcoming life! Isn’t this why also in Galatians 6:7-8 Paul told us, “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.”
Defending the indefensible or death to the old self that Resurrection Life may be manifested in your mortal body? Nanny J. Crosby and W.H.Doane shared in the writing of an old hymn entitled “Safe In The Arms of Jesus”. It says:
“Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast, There by His love overshadowed, Sweetly my soul shall rest. Hark! It’s the voice of angels Borne in a song to me, Over the fields of glory, Over the jasper sea…
Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe from corroding care, Safe from the world’s temptations, Sin cannot harm me there. Free from the blight of sorrow, Free from my doubts and fears; Only a few more trials, only a few more tears!
Jesus, my heart’s dear refuge, Jesus has died for me; Firm on the Rock of Ages, Ever my trust shall be. Here let me wait with patience, Wait til’ the night is o’er; Wait till I see the morning Break on the golden shore.
Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast, There by His love o’er shaded, Sweetly my soul shall rest.” AMEN?