FATAL FORGETFULNESS
Psalm 88:12, “Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?”
INTRODUCTION
This summer has been such an interesting, exciting, perplexing journey! I have no doubts at all that our Lord wanted me writing “Fatal Forgetfulness”! He put it on my heart and began to birth it day by day. I have to say to you that I was being challenged by our Lord to face up to challenges, crossroads, doubts, fears, possibilities, new horizons, even new sorrows, heartaches, deep, deep valleys and high, high mountains that had to be crossed.
For well over ten years I’ve had some physical problems that have really been a challenge but September 17, 2010 to October 21, 2010, I had to have four left shoulder replacements in five weeks because the new “reverse joint” just would not stay in place. It took a major toll body, soul, and spirit. Then February, 2011, my wife Sue had to have both knees replaced. March 3, 2011, I had to have right shoulder surgery because of a rotator-cuff tear. And as I entered this summer of 2012, I knew I had more physical problems with two bad knees and two bad hips.
And I began to ask, “Lord, have I forgotten You? Have I slipped physically because I have slipped spiritually?” Gracious God was so clear, so kind, so gentle: “No, son; it’s our opportunity together to challenge our friends, nationally and internationally, that I haven’t forgotten them and I don’t want them forgetting Me. I want you to write about “Fatal Forgetfulness”! Let’s walk through it together, My son, as I help you, heal you, and happily bestow upon you new wisdom and understanding. Write the book.”
It’s almost September 1, 2012 – and “Fatal Forgetfulness” has been completed! And one thing I know: “This man, Farrell Fisher, will not forget Him!” AMEN?
I will have both knees replaced September 24, 2012. After a healing period I will then have surgery on both hips, December 3, 2012. Keep Farrell Fisher in your prayers! At this point I have no direction for a new book, but I do know that through tough times He births amazing revelations and insights. Let’s pray together about the next book our Lord would have me write! Beyond that? How about a major heart attack in April, 2013, when they gave me an hour to live, but, praise God, my heart surgeon was in the hospital on a Saturday night at 8pm, and I was in surgery within 22 minutes! Successful to say the least – he told my wife, Sue, later that I ought to live to a hundred at least!
It’s for certain I do not possess an ounce of fatal forgetfulness about my God of divine healing grace and mercy. But, sadly, we must, for the sake of others, look to the matter of “Fatal Forgetfulness”!
I pray you find glorious reminders of “pressing in” to Christ alone in your walk of faith, or the lack of it. Know for sure, God knocks on your heart’s door regularly. Beyond that, He’s the Healer of your forgetfulness – just look at His Holy Word! It was written specifically for you and for me!
Our Lord loves you with an everlasting love, and has no desire to be separated from you eternally because you allow fatal forgetfulness to grow in its deathly power! “Lean not to your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge, bow before, repent, and rest in His finished work at the Cross of Calvary in your behalf!”
OUTLINE
CHAPTER ONE: WHY NATIONS FORGET GOD
CHAPTER TWO: WHEN MERCY IS MEANINGLESS – FATAL FORGETFULNESS
CHAPTER THREE: WHEN GRACE IS GODLESS – FUTILE FORGETFULNESS
CHAPTER: FORGOTTEN? GOD WITH US?
CHAPTER FIVE: FORGOTTEN? BODY LIFE – BODY MINISTRY?
CHAPTER SIX: FORGOTTEN? THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES?
CHAPTER SEVEN:FORGOTTEN? A PASTOR’S PRIZE AND PRIVILEGE OF PREACHING?
CHAPTER EIGHT: FORGOTTEN? FIG-LEAF RELIGION IS NOT A FAITH RELATIONSHIP?
CHAPTER NINE: FORGOTTEN? WE ALL HAVE AN ENEMY?
CHAPTER TEN: FORGOTTEN? CHILDREN OF FAITH ARE DISCIPLINED BY THE LORD?
CHAPTER ELEVEN: FORGOTTEN? MARRIAGE: A CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND BLESSING?
CHAPTER TWELVE: FORGOTTEN? CHILDREN A BLESSING – NOT A BURDEN?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: FORGOTTEN? GOD’S BLESSING OF VISIONS, VOICES, AND DREAMS?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: FORGOTTEN? HOLY FIRE OR SMOKY FEELINGS?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: FORGOTTEN? JOY COMES IN THE MORNING?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN? FORGOTTEN? PROFIT THAT BECOMES LOSS?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: FORGOTTEN? THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE OF PERSONAL WATCH-CARE?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: FORGOTTEN? THE SPIRITUAL ALERTNESS OF “TODAY”?
CHAPTER NINETEEN: FORGOTTEN? THE HOLY SPIRIT TO LIVE IN ME?
CHAPTER TWENTY: EVANGELISM: HEARTBEAT OF CHRISTIANS & CHURCHES?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: FORGOTTEN? ‘DEAF TO,’ ‘COLD TO’ THE WARMTH OF HIS WORD AND VOICE? [LISTENING TO THE REDEMPTIVE VOICES]
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: FORGOTTEN? THE CONSEQUENCES OF ‘SINKING SANDS’ OR THE BLESSING OF THE SOLID ROCK?
CHAPTER ONE
WHY NATIONS FORGET GOD
There is a stark, shocking verse in Psalm 9:17. It says: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” …In Psalm 50:22 God says: “Now consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” “Forgetting God?”
Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says of forgetfulness: “The quality of losing the remembrance or recollection of a thing; or rather, the quality of being apt to let anything slip from the mind…loss of remembrance or recollection; a ceasing to remember; oblivion…neglect, negligence; careless omission; inattention; as forgetfulness of duty.”
Do you remember Daniel confronting Belshazzar in Daniel 5:22-23? [NAS], “Yet you Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzer, have not humbled your heart even though you knew this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.”
Did Daniel say of some, “There are those who have not, do not, will not GLORIFY GOD”? What did he say? “But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.” But a Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ.” Is your walk of faith a testimony of ‘triumph in Christ’ or an unveiling of negligence toward Him, ‘careless omission, inattention; as forgetfulness of duty?’
Romans 1:18-32 are earth-shattering, heart-breaking verses about people and nations who forget God! [Please read before continuing!]
In Hosea 13:4-9 there are sad, prophetic words that ought to grip, convict, and convert every human soul: “Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; For there is no Savior besides Me. I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. When they had pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me. So I will be to them like a lion; like a leopard by the road I will lurk; I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them. O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from me.”
How easy for some to forget Proverbs 14:34!! “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” Righteousness is ‘salt’ that preserves while ‘sin’ is poison that destroys. Righteousness is God’s divine preservative for nations while sin is self-inflicted destruction. Psalm 2:11-12 tells us: “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.”Do you understand “perishing in the way”? Let’s see if we can discern some of the ways “Why Nations Forget God”!
FIRST, NATIONS FORGET GOD BY OMITTING RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD. In Psalms 37:23 we read: “The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord.” God is to be in control of every man’s life, yes, his every step. The New American Standard translates it: “The steps of a man are established by the Lord; and He [God] delights in his way.”
I was reading in Marketplace Ministries magazine a statement by Jay Badry. He wrote: “Many people hold fast to the idea that ‘God can do anything,’ but I shrink from that for there is one thing God is incapable of doing: violating His own perfections and attributes. What this means to me is that in a constantly changing world, sinking ever deeper into the mire of depravity, the perfect God is both timeless and changeless. As a kite must be tethered to a fixed point for stability, so my soul, indeed all that I am must be tethered to Him at all times.” That’s a person, a people, and a nation!
If a nation, a life, a family, a business, a ministry, is not ‘tethered’ to God, there is no line, strong line, holding it up soaring in the air where God wants it to soar, but releasing itself from God’s control, it crashes!!
Do you understand that when a government omits responsibility to God it shuts the door on a nation ‘blessed by God’? If you’ve studied American History at all you know that Thomas Jefferson was one of our founding fathers. He is reported to have said: “The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that those liberties are the gift of God?”
WHEN GOVERNMENT IGNORES, DENIES, SEEKS TO REFUTE THE DIGNITY OF DIVINE INITIATIVE IN ESTABLISHING, YES, A ‘HOLY NATION,’ IT VIOLATES EVERYTHING God intended for the human society He created. When government assumes the Jehovah-Jireh spirit, it has stolen and betrayed the ministry only God can fulfill.
It was D.A. Carson in his book “For The Love Of God” who wrote: “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
A nation is not liberated if it omits, yes, legislatively that God has no place in our nation – “We’re Free”!! No, that nation that denies God’s right to rule is bound by the chains of darkness and the devil himself!
Is America today being ‘governed’ by “LIBERALS”? Are far too many churches being ‘governed’ by “LIBERALS”? Are far too many academic institutions today being ‘governed’ by “LIBERALS”?
Liberals foul the mind and fool the conscience. Liberals promote their ‘truth’ and crucify “The Truth.”
Liberals bow at the throne of its own deceptive governments and denounce the government of God. Liberals preach tolerance, interpreted by its own actions as intolerant, especially of God and men and women of saving faith.
Liberals spout freedom while subjecting its students to their bondage, spouting individual determination of one’s own destiny void of the true, lasting, eternal foundation of faith in the God who made them, lost them, and then bought them with the price of the shed blood of the Lamb of God.
Liberals bow before the idol of education leaving its devotees anchored to emptiness, impotence, and shallowness, while it celebrates its poverty and bankruptcy and avoids the true riches of grace.
Liberals and their liberalism, having become one of the largest religious systems in the world, builds its ‘foundations of faith’ on the doctrines of death, seen in the philosophy, ’you can make it without God,’ ‘Christians are kooks, the truly uneducated of our society,’ or, ‘the Bible is the fool’s book.’
Liberals major on mental imaginations of men who see themselves as men of superior intellects, when in reality they are the spiritual midgets and dwarfs void of REALITY. Liberalism masks itself in the assertions of “superior knowledge and intellect,” validated by their degrees, failing to see their unmasking because of their denial that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
Liberalism promotes a Godless society, not understanding “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God!’” Liberalism is the cloud of “political correctness” that darkens the sky of constitutional and scriptural freedoms, constitutional intent and scriptural ideals, a nation built on the foundation of faith and submission and obedience and worship and devotion to the one True and Living God as revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Liberalism is the noose around the neck of nations and peoples, strangling the very life of divine intent out of institutions, families, and individuals, captured by the deceptions of foolish men intent on enslaving the wills and minds of those under their diabolical influences.
Liberalism is the release of scriptural restraints upon a society unleashing the release of rebellion, ungodliness, “my way,” my thoughts, ‘god’ unto myself, releasing the supposed higher thoughts of men in total opposition to the holy truths of God.
Do you grasp what I’m speaking about? It’s that shallow grasp for a mystical, meaningless nothing; a deception of diabolical, evil, devilish proportions – no God, no truth, no sin, no wrong, no shame, a reckless abandonment of decency and honor for a moment of soul, sensual, sinful, satanic satisfaction that never satisfies.
For many, their better is better than God’s best, satisfied with the philosophy and religion of personal achievement; for many, educational achievement rules and reigns as supremacy over God’s best, intellectually superior to even the knowledge and wisdom of God Himself.
What did I say ‘FIRST’? “NATIONS FORGET GOD BY OMITTING RESPONSIBILTY TO GOD!” That’s not freedom ‘in Christ’ but freedom from responsibility in doing what God says. Didn’t Jesus say, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ – but you do not do what I say.”
Oh, I pray you don’t miss what’s going on across our nation today! They say, “We’re free!!”, and by that there are those who mean “Freedom of release of responsibility in relationships that includes not only God but free from the spiritual care of others! False freedom is the freedom to do your own thing without any consideration of the consequences to the covenant Body of Christ, yes, your local assembly!”
False freedom is the freedom to go your own way and do your own thing without one serious thought of leaving voids and vacuums in others! False freedom is the freedom to exercise self-initiative without any submission to Holy Spirit-direction and leadership!
False freedom is the freedom to believe the Gospel without the insight to walk it out where God places you! False freedom is the freedom to see your wisdom as valid that invalidates the wisdom of God for you.
False freedom is the freedom to believe one can preach the Gospel without the nature of Christ leading and to believe one can do that without imparting one’s own life as well. False freedom is to say you’re a friend without the “greater love” of laying down your life for your “friends”.
False freedom is to receive but not to give, the freedom to take and not to share, the freedom to be blessed and ignore the Blessers.
False freedom is to move in an apparent spirituality in order to steal and take from others who accept you blindly because of their loyalty to the Spirit of Christ in them.
False freedom is to abdicate the calling of ministry “helps” with no feeling of guilt or regrets. False freedom is to ignore ‘brotherhood’ because of a greater allegiance to “me-hood”!
False freedom is to reduce others to ‘less-ness’, unimportant to you because of one’s prideful ‘more-ness.’ False freedom is the phony freedom of virtuousness that is a vacuum as one victimizes the greater victors, yes, victimizing the true disciples of Christ with no regrets!
SECOND, NATIONS FORGET GOD AS THEY IGNORE, DENY, SUPPRESS THE MANDATES OF GOD! Deuteronomy 8 is one of God’s most powerful words for any nation anywhere. Please follow me in your own Bible with a marking pen in hand!!
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 says: “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, 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 man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
I’m convinced without a doubt that God wants to put His own fingerprint, His own palm-print, His own signature on our lives! Look at verses 11-14!! “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest – when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage…”
What is a ‘lifted-up heart’? That’s pride, that’s self-sufficiency, that’s pumped up flesh! Look at verses 17-19! Then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.”
In Matthew 4:4 we read of Jesus saying the same thing we read in Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”….Do you remember what the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy? 2 Timothy 3:14-17, “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 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.”
I pray that you have not failed to grasp the authority, the power, the true freedom that comes for nations through the Word of God. Psalm 119 is so powerful, so liberating, so redemptive in its truth!! Are you ready? Come to Psalm 119!!
Psalm 119:9, 11…Verse 9, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.” Verse 11, Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”
Psalm 119: 24-25, “Your testimonies also are my delight, and my counselors. My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word.”
Psalm 119:37, “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.” Verse 18, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”
Psalm 119: 49, “Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope.” Verse 54, “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.”
Psalm 119: 67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” Verse 72, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.”
Psalm 119: 89, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” Verse 92, “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.”
Psalm 119: 101, “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word.” Verses 103-104, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”
Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Verse 111, “Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.”
Psalm 119:130, “The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Verse 133, “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.”
Psalm 119:140, “Your word is very pure; therefore Your servant loves it.” Verse 160, “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.”
Psalm 119:162, “I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure.” Verse 165, “Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.”
Do you remember Jeremiah’s testimony in Jeremiah 15:16? He said, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
This is why Peter wrote in I Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow [up into your salvation.]”
What did Jesus tell us in Matthew 7:24-29? Listen carefully!! “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”
Have you ignored, denied, suppressed the Living Word of God?
THIRD, NATIONS FORGET GOD BY THE SUPPRESSION OF THE CELEBRATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD. Come to John 4:7-26!
All around you there is FAMILY DISINTEGRATION but no celebration and worship of the one true and living God. All around you there is pulpit and church quietness but no celebration and worship of the one true and living God. All around you there is national moral decay but no celebration and worship of the one true and living God. All around you there is ‘false religion domination’ but no celebration and worship of the one true and living God!
Nations forget God by the suppression of the celebration and worship of God.
FOURTH AND LAST, NATIONS FORGET GOD BY FORGETTING INTENTIONALLY AND SEEKING TO OBLITERATE THE GREATEST SACRIFICE OF GOD HIMSELF – THE VERY SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD, JESUS, TO COVER A NATION’S SIN!! Obliterate? Listen to Noah Webster’s definition in his 1828 Dictionary: “To efface, to erase or blot out…to wear out, to destroy by time or means…to reduce to a very low or imperceptible state…to obliterate the monuments of antiquity…”
Well, what about obliterating the truth of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world? That’s Revelation 13:8!! “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.” Before nations existed God knew what fallen nations would do and He decided before the world came into existence that the Son would be the Savior as the Lamb of God slain on the Cross!
Come to Revelation 19:5-10, “Then a voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write” ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!!” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
In your history studies did you ever come across the French Statesman Alexis Compte de Tocqueville? In early American history Tocqueville said: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rivers, lands, and prairies, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”
GOD, HELP US! GOD, SAVE OUR NATION! GOD, LIGHT THE FLAME AGAIN OF CELEBRATION AND WORSHIP OF THE ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD! GOD, HELP US AGAIN BE A NATION OF DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS!”
H. Ernest Nichol wrote this old, old hymn that ought to be resurrected: “We’ve a story to tell to the nations, That shall turn their hearts to the right, A story of truth and mercy, A story of peace and light…
For the darkness shall turn to the dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright; And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, The kingdom of love and light.
We’ve a song to be sung to the nations, That shall lift their hearts to the Lord, A song that shall conquer evil and shatter the spear and sword.
We’ve a message to give to the nations, That the Lord who reigns up above, Has sent His Son to save us, And show us that God is live.
We’ve a Savior to show to the nations, Who the path of sorrow has trod, That all of the world’s great peoples, Might come to the truth of God.
For the darkness shall turn to the dawning, And the dawning to noonday bright; And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, The kingdom of love and light.”
CHAPTER TWO
WHEN MERCY IS MEANINGLESS – 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 THREE
WHEN GRACE BECOMES GODLESS – FUTILE FORGETFULNESS
In your church life, in your own devotional life, in small group studies, have you ever found yourself shocked by those who interpret ‘grit’ as saving grace, or you hear those who grind on grace because their emphasis and allegiance is on self-motivation and they’d just as soon spit on biblical grace? At 77 years of age now, I am shocked by the subtle erosion of divine grace with more emphasis on human effort and human ability to be ‘god-like’.
I sense a cumulative effect of spiritual thievery among those who major on ‘the power of positive thinking’ concerning human initiative, genius genes, fleshly ability and energy that God could use if He’d only concede their superior ranks among lesser men and women, like those ‘grace-gifted disciples’.
John Eldredge in his book “Waking The Dead,” [p.13], made a very powerful statement. He said, “The world in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle unto the death.”
That’s why there are those who look upon “Amazing Grace” as ‘alarming grace’ – for them, that’s too much emphasis on God and not enough on human potential! And what we see, hear, sense, and even taste at times is the souring essence on grace and the soaring of the glory of that human potential apart from God Himself.
Wasn’t it C.S. Lewis in his “The Weight of Glory” who talked about “the evil enchantment of worldliness”? And there’s a reason for that: Intellectual attainments in one’s mind of ‘their’ understanding of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness often become nothing more than crippling, cancerous, corrupt ideas void of God and saving grace.
Effort, apart from scriptural grace, becomes the creation of despair – not deliverance and divine healing. Oh, I know there are those who effect changes in their outward behavior and even mental stability but that is not the spiritual circumcision of the heart by the grace of God through the shed blood of the Lamb of God!
Reaching up, reaching high, is not the same thing as being raised from the dead by God’s power and His redeeming grace! Sinful natures are not to be cloaked or covered but by grace are to be crucified with Christ.
You’ve heard it, yes, in some churches where men are devoted to what they’ve paid for and built. “I’m a man so devoted to the bricks and mortar, the lights and stained glass, of our beautiful church building,” failing to understand by God’s grace, their bodies are His holy temple by His grace, mercy, and love.
In Zechariah 9:16-17 we read: “The Lord their God will save them in that day, as the flock of His people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over His land – for how great is its goodness and how great its beauty!’
But what we see across a lot of the ‘church-world’ today are ‘band-aids’ rather than heart transplants by the Great Surgeon of grace. In Jeremiah 6:14 we read: “They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.”
Many grace-less souls today are nothing more than puppets of the powers of darkness, mouthpieces of a satanically controlled army of God’s enemy – even the devil himself. It’s why Eldredge said: [“Waking The Dead”,p.161], “they are not glaring opponents [of grace]; they are “IMPOSTERS”. But God does not stand idly by, unconcerned about ‘graceless individuals.’ He gives us a promise through Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 49:24-26! Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the righteous be delivered? But thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty army shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children. I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. All flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Putting it simply, understandably, importantly – those who manufacture spiritual ‘grease’ rather than stand on God’s grace are anarchists who devise a substitution for the Blood Atonement! Cornelius Platinga Jr. in his book “Beyond Doubt,” made a strong statement: [p.199], “Grace is not God’s applause for the comfortable. Grace is God’s long reach for sinners who are far away.” But the “grace-less” are defined by John in I John 1:8 when he said: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” That’s how law-breakers become anarchists and atheists bordering on criminality!
Paul assuredly knew “saving grace” when to Timothy he wrote: [I Timothy 1:15], “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” That’s not ‘godless grace’ but the God of all grace doing a work in a ‘lost man’s heart’! This is why George MacDonald said: “And then my soul, awaking with the morn Shall be a waking joy, eternally new-born.”
The ‘faith-less’ who are ‘grace-less’ are men and women of famished minds and famished hearts who’ve never fed on scriptural grace. In Ephesians 2:7-8 Paul wrote: “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.”
But some do not do well nor pay attention but build their home and heart-camps in darkness! In 2 Peter 1:16-19 Peter shared a vital word, no doubt having been accused of following ‘baseless fables’. He wrote: “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts..”
You’ve heard the saying, “None are so blind as those who will not see.” In Luke 18:35-43 is the story of Jesus coming near Jericho where a blind man was seated by the road begging. He heard the multitude and asked what the noise was all about. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd tried to silence him but he cried out more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” Listen to Jesus’ response! Verse 42, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” Then verse 43 says: And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.”
Are you aware that living apart from grace is like a blind-man comfortable in his blindness? Living apart from grace is a godless existence that was not God’s intention in Creation. When Jesus says, “Come to Me and I will give you rest,” those words fall on deaf ears to spiritual truth because there is no spiritual thirst and hunger for life beyond one’s self!
Grace is denied in many lives, even cultures, religions, and governments, because, as C.S. Lewis wrote: “mere decency passes for heroic virtue and utter corruption for pardonable imperfection.”
Grace is denied in many lives because grace in the heart of God calls for sacrifice, laying down one’s life in behalf of others, even dying so that others might live – the grace of God in God Himself was so great He gladly yet sorrowfully gave His Son as the sacrifice on the Cross – and to follow ‘grace’ means: “Deny yourself; take up your cross, and follow Jesus!”
Grace is denied because if God forgives my debt, then I must enter a living relationship with Him of forgiving others who violate me!
Grace is denied because the biblical mandate of I Timothy 4:7 is “exercise yourself toward godliness,” – and if I’m surrounded, indoctrinated, influenced, poisoned by a godless world, how would I ever fit in with grace and mercy and love?
Grace is denied because as Jesus was confronted with the question [Matthew 22:36], “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” And Jesus answered, verse 37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
That’s surrender which many are not willing to do! That’s giving which many refuse to do! That’s obedience which many totally reject! That’s Godly-longing and Godly-pursuit of that which gives Him glory alone which the masses see no importance for! That’s taking fallen man’s hits, accusations, even libels, as honors unto Jesus which grace-less men refuse because of that pride and self-importance!
Grace becomes godless for some because the call to be “steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of Jesus Christ” is more than they are willing to be or do! Do you remember when Jesus was at Bethany and the woman came with that jar of costly ointment and poured it on Jesus’ head? The people around her and Jesus scolded her, but Jesus said, “Let her alone…she has performed a good service for me…she has done what she could…!” [Mark 14:3-8]. Graceless lives are unwilling to be shaped in the nature and character of Christ or even this caring saint who loved Jesus!
Grace is denied when one realizes God’s call to “proclaim the praises of Him who calls you out of darkness into His marvelous light,” [I Peter 2:9], and the silent settle for Christ-less living “if I have to be vocal about Jesus!”
Grace is denied by some when they misunderstand and fail to realize God’s call to be “saints” – [Romans 1:7] – You’ve heard it: “I’m no saint” – but if you are ‘in Christ’, you are “set apart” [that’s a saint!!], set apart to the honor, glory, praise, and blessing of the Christ in you, God’s hope of glory for you!
Cornelius Platinga Jr. so ably and powerfully describes “the saints” like this: [“Beyond Doubt,” p.270], “The body of Christ, the temple of God, the bride of Christ, the people of God – these wonderful phrases tells that the church is all about belonging. Even the word “church” reflects this fact. The English word “church” (like the German ‘KIRCHE’) is derived from a Greek word that means “belonging to the Lord.” The church belongs to the Lord of the church…What follows from this? A great deal. The institutional church is not our club rigged up to suit ourselves and to meet our religious needs. The church is rather a living instrument of Jesus Christ, equipped to do His work in the world. It is set up to serve not only ourselves but also those outside our gathering. We do not form ourselves into a church by our voluntary cooperation. We are rather “called” as a people to praise God, to serve His children, and to give ourselves for others in the same way as Christ sacrificed Himself for us. In other words, the Christian church is an agent, witness, and model of the gospel itself…A church turned in on itself is like people who shut themselves in a closet and try to live by breathing their own carbon dioxide.”
Acts 2:42,44 tells us: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. All who believed were together…” But “grace” is denied because some don’t need, will not, and refuse to have a relationship with God’s people.
Grace is denied because there are those who assume church attendance, even membership is OK, but you’ve spoiled their “show” if you reveal Christ’s calling of men to be His disciples.
Grace is denied and becomes godless when some realize God’s plan for their lives to be the very base of operation for the Kingdom of God, experiencing His Life, expressing His love, proving His power, as we extend that Kingdom around us – and the grace-less say: “Not through me!”
It’s why grace is godless for some because of an unwillingness to “take My yoke upon you” – fearful of being yoked with Christ in the yoke of His calling! They don’t understand or comprehend that to be yoked with Christ is life on Heaven’s plain, not life under a dictator but life through a Liberator!
Grace is denied because false images have been formed that say “Christians are poverty-stricken, the intellectualy bankrupt society, the moral misfits, hostile individuals who want us imprisoned to their cold, cruel, callous life-styles” – when the truth is Christians are united as one in Christ ‘in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” according to Colossians 2:3.
Grace is godless when one is convinced “if I can’t earn my own way, I want no part of Kingdom living.” It’s godless when one is willing to profess allegiance but without the call to obedience even though Jesus said: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord! Lord!’ but you do not do what I say.”
Grace is denied when some want allegiance to His prominence but not allegiance to His preeminence. Grace is denied and is godless when some gather around ‘fleshly allegiance’ to a prominent pastor but deny gathering around those living in and through the power of His resurrected Life and Holy Spirit presence!
Grace is denied when social conformity to a certain Christian group is accepted but spiritual second-birth, singular submission to Christ’s Lordship is called for – spiritual transformation, spiritual formation, those are unacceptable terms!!
Grace becomes godless when some hear that following Jesus means radical devotion to His Word, His Spirit, His Vision, His intent, His mandates – oh, they’ll accept religious activity and especially what they will define as allowable and acceptable on their terms, but Jesus said in John 14:15-17, “:If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
Grace becomes godless to some because when Paul says in Galatians 5:24, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” they say, “My passions and desires are who I am,” and they surrender themselves to their chains, their bondages, to the prison-cell of self because that’s WHO they love! But Jesus gives ‘grace-folks’ a promise: John 12:26, “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.”
Grace becomes godless because grace calls for unconditional surrender to Christ’s Lordship – and if He is to be Lord of all or not Lord at all, for them they choose ‘boss’ of their own defiled minds and hearts. Look with me at Isaiah 1:2-9!! “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider.’ 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. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
But there is a more encouraging word! Come to Psalm 16:8-9! “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope.” Which of these last two sections of scripture do you choose for you and your family?
I want you to hear words spoken by Thomas Watson in “All Things For Good,” spoken about the year of 1663! [Reprint, Banner of Truth Trust, 1986, p.74]. Thomas Watson said: “The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God. ‘When I awake, I am still with You.” [Psalm 139:18]. The thoughts are as travelers in the mind. David’s thoughts kept heaven-road. “I am still with You.” God is the treasure, and where the treasure is, there is the heart. By this we may test our love to God. What are our thoughts most upon? Can we say we are ravished with delight when we think on God? Have our thoughts got wings? Are they fled aloft? Do we contemplate Christ and glory?…A sinner crowds God out of his thoughts. He never thinks of God, unless with horror, as the prisoner thinks of the judge.”
Grace is not a ‘fairy-tale’ but faith-truth! Grace is not even a mystery but a miracle of everlasting love! Grace is not fortune-telling but assurance of Christ-likeness!
It was H. Richard Niebuhr who said: “The great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there.”
I know and believe that you realize how easy it is even for some Christians all over the world to put a dark veil over the grace of God at times, but it’s time we unveil His expressive grace, His embracing grace, His extravagant grace, His extending grace, His empowering grace, His enlightening grace, and His ‘earth-quake-ness’ of grace! Hear the Word!!:
Ephesians 2:8-9, “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.”
Romans 3:24, “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have received access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
2 Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have abundance for every good work.”
2 Corinthians 12:9, “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.”
Galatians 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…”
Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace..”
Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”
Titus 3:7, “that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
I Peter 1:13-15, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation [or the unveiling of Christ in His fullness!!]; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…”
II Peter 3:17-18 “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”
I love what the great Methodist preacher said about grace, Dr. Charles L. Allen: “In the Bible there are three distinctive meanings of grace: it means the mercy and active love of God; it means the winsome attractiveness of God; it means the strength of God to overcome.”
Charles Wesley in “Refuge” wrote: “Plenteous grace with You is found, Grace to cover all my sin; Let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within.”
Grace for the godless is just as rich and full and free as grace for the God-filled who walk in the fullness of Christ!
CHAPTER FOUR
FORGOTTEN? GOD WITH US?
Isn’t it amazing to you that as you read Genesis 3 and find in verse 8 that Adam and Eve “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God”, newly created by Holy God but they want to hide from Him? But the sad truth is that there are many across the world of fallen mankind who never think about hiding from God because they don’t sense God is near or even if there is a God – and for sure, for some, there are those who have no desire for God to be with them. “God With Us?” “That’s a fairy tale, foolish talk, feeble-minded belief!”
Jeremiah, the prophet, heard God speak and recorded it! In Jeremiah 23:23-24 God said: “Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord, “and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?” says the Lord; “do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.” And God speaks of His omnipresence!
In Genesis 11, as fallen mankind began to “make a name for ourselves,” they began to construct a “tower whose top is in the heavens.” They were intent on the reign, rule, regulation of their own lives with the high tower of “self-rule” that became known as the Tower of Babel – the word “babel” means ‘confusion,’ which is always true of those who don’t believe in God, don’t believe God is near, and certainly will not assert, stand on, or proclaim that “God is with us!”
Oh, there are those like Jonah who know God is real, know God has a purpose for each life, but Jonah ran from God’s direction as men today run from divine destiny! Jonah 1:3 is clear – “But Jonah arose to flee Tarshish from the presence of the Lord!” He was running from God’s call on his life as many still do today. [We’ll look at Jonah together a little later!].
We’re going to look at King David more fully later, just as we will Jonah, but I want you to know early on in this chapter even David, at a certain point in his life, wasn’t sure HE wanted God around! In Psalm 139:7-12 we read a part of David’s journey of faith on momentary faithlessness! He said: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to you.”
In the four gospels are we aware of the Crucifixion of Christ? Does it embarrass you that even Jesus, on the Cross, cried out: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” That’s Matthew 27:46! But that ought to give you comfort that even Jesus, in a fragment of a moment, wondered about “God With Me?”
There are dark clouds in all human circumstances at times and the “Son-Light” may be hidden for a time, but God Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!”
Some who question “God With Us” have witnessed family, friends, faith-folk, in even, yes, horrendous circumstances, horrible pain, heavy, heavy burdens, and they can’t see His light, they don’t know His promises, and witnessing the hard times in those they know, love, and care about, their tears, their sorrow, their anger, their doubts, their fears, block the holy hand of God with healing grace reaching around those He loves more than they love themselves!
Others who doubt “God With Us” are handicapped when they view the Christian faith as ‘pie in the sky by and by,’ ‘a rosy world with no thorns,’ ‘marriages with no heartaches,’ ‘children with no calamities, deformities, or failures,’ ‘people with no pain, no suffering, no sorrows,’ ‘people with peace, people with the absence of disease, people with no sudden disagreements, disappointments, distresses – perfect people in a perfect world!’ I don’t think so!
You’ve heard it: “God with us?” Where was He when the Holocaust happened with six million Jews killed? Where was God when the towers were destroyed in New York and thousands killed? God with us? War after war after war after war! God with us? Broken marriages, broken hearts, broken children! God with us? The fires burn and burn and burn – they destroy home after home! God with us? Millions and millions imprisoned worldwide. God with us? Sickness, disease, death!
If you’ve read my books, you know I love the writings of John Piper! On-line on my computer I came across one of his messages entitled “The Supremacy of Christ in an Age of Terror – Desiring God.” Piper wrote: “So even in our own experience – in our own souls – believers or unbelievers, there is a kind of witness that the world of evil and pain and misery and death is not a meaningless place. It is not a place without a good and purposeful God. Some people – not all –have found in the greatest evil – the time of greatest sorrow – the greatest need for God and the greatest evidence of God…It happens like this. A great evil happens – say the holocaust with 6,000,000 murders. Or the Stalinist Soviet gulag with many more than that sent to their deaths. In the midst of these horrors, the human soul, that had been blithely pursuing its worldly pleasures with scarcely a thought about God and with no serious belief in any absolutes like evil and good, or right or wrong – happily living in a dream-world of relativism – suddenly is confronted an evil so horrible and so great as to make the soul scream out with ultimate moral indignation: No! This is wrong! This is evil! And for the first time in their life they hear themselves speaking with absolute conviction. They have a conviction of absolute reality. They know now beyond the shadow of a doubt that such a thing as evil exists. They admit that all their life up till then was a game. And now they are confronted with the stark question: If there is such a thing as evil – if there is a moral reality that is above and different from the mere physical processes of evolutionary energy plus matter – then where does it come from, and what is it based on?….”
And what does Romans 5:8 tell us? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
You’ve heard people say, “If God is truly real, why doesn’t He reveal Himself?” “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” What did your friend say, what did your parent say, what did your professor say? “If God is with us, why doesn’t He speak to us?” “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
How many have you met on your path of life who’ve convinced themselves we’re here by chance – not by God’s choice of Sovereign will?” How many have sought to influence you into believing our world came from nothing or no one and has no divine purpose or plan? What did Paul write in Romans 1:20? “For since the creation of the world His [God’s] 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.” But…are there excuses why some have convinced themselves “God is NOT with us”?
FIRST, THERE ARE THOSE WHO HAVE CONVINCED THEMSELVES “GOD IS NOT WITH US” BECAUSE, LIKE JONAH, GOD’S PLAN IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT “I” DESIRE! Come to Jonah 1:1-3, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
Notice: Jonah “arose to flee…from the presence of the Lord;” Notice: “Jonah went down..” It’s always a downward spiral when one ‘flees’ from the Lord! Notice: Jonah made a willful choice opposite of the will of God!
What was going on with Jonah? He was running from God’s call on his life! In Proverbs 1:20 the inspired Word of God says: “Wisdom calls aloud in the streets [right on your journey!!]…Verse 23, Surely I will pour out My spirit on you; I will make My words known to you. Verse 24, Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded.”
No regard for God’s Word is ‘running’ so you can fall on your own words, choices, decisions, plans, and fleshly purposes! There’s no regard for the reality of one’s need of God because he’d rather fall because of self-will, self-pleasure, self-plans apart from our Eternal Maker and Blesser and Redeemer.
It’s kind of like one of my grandsons, Zack; as he first began to walk and talk, Sue or I would call for him to come, and Zach would say, “I don’t want to!”, and then he’d run! That’s a picture of a little two-year old which many grown men and women, when hearing God call, like Jonah, they say: “I don’t want to!”, and run from God Himself!!
In Jeremiah 16:10-13 we read a sad prophetic word from the mouth of God! “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster [Shipwreck?] against us? Or what is our iniquity?” Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshipped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.”
Do you remember Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic”? “He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat, He is sifting out the hearts of men before His Judgment Seat.”
I don’t believe that men want to be weighed in the balances and found wanting but most have no clear understanding of God’s eternal purposes and they get caught up in “my way.” It was John Greenleaf Whittier, in “The Pressed Gentian,” who wrote: “Man judges from a partial view. None ever yet his brother knew; The Eternal Eye that sees the whole May better read the darkened soul, And found, to outward sense denied, The flower upon its inmost side!” Only God gives “eternal blossoms” – man births only ‘enhanced fleshliness’!
SECOND, SOME SEE “GOD NOT WITH US” BECAUSE, EVEN MOMENTARILY, THERE ARE SOME WHO WANT LESS THAN GOD DESIRES FOR THEM; THEY WANT ‘LOOSENESS FEELINGS’ BECAUSE GOD BINDS THEM, OR THEY’RE TEMPTED BY LEWDNESS – SO GOD MUST BE FAR AWAY.
Think about David for a period time in his life! There was a time in David’s pilgrimage that he ‘show-cased’ the fallen nature of us all without God’s saving grace! In Psalm 12:1-4 David wrote: Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things, Who have said, ‘With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; Who is Lord over us?’
In Romans 1:18-19 Paul nailed it so strongly! “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.”
Come to Psalm 139:5-12, 15-16….What did God do? Verses 5-12, “You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me; it is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me.’ Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.” Verses 15-16, “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” Hear me, men’s fleshliness doesn’t stop God’s eternal ambition for any of us, even the atheists and agnostics and the ‘pretenders’! Verses 17-18 tells us: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.” [I challenge you!! Look at the sands of all seashores across our world – and know: God’s thoughts ABOUT YOU are more than that number!]
Though Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord, though David ran from the presence of the Lord, though Adam and Eve sought to hide from God, “GOD WITH US” IS ETERNAL TRUTH THAT NEVER FADES AWAY!! And if Jonah needed a storm, God was willing to bring it on! Though David failed miserably in the flesh, God sent His Holy Spirit’s convicting power and Psalm 51 was birthed! And even though Adam and Eve trusted “fig leaves,” God’s “forever love” never failed them!
In Isaiah 46:9-13 there is such a powerful word of hope for those who think God is deterred by their choices! His Word says: “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’ Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it. Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness; I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.” [You do know there is an eternity’s difference between physical Israel and spiritual Israel – right?]
THIRD, SOME SEE “GOD NOT WITH US” BECAUSE NATURAL MINDEDNESS CAN BE A BLINDER RATHER THAN A CALL FOR EYES TO SEE WHAT GOD HIMSELF WOULD HAVE ONE SEE; NATURALNESS, WITHOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT, IS BREEDING SPIRITUAL DEAFNESS TO THE VOICE OF GOD, AS WELL AS SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS TO THE SOVEREIGN WORKS OF GOD.
In I Corinthians 2:4-16 we read, 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. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 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.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 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. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”
Are you aware that “persuasive words of human wisdom” do nothing in opening understanding in one’s mind and heart? Paul said redemptive words only come alive in a man’s mind and heart by the ‘demonstration of the Spirit and of the very power of God,’ because redemptive faith comes, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God!
But minds apart from the Holy Spirit are not in tune to the voice of God or His Word! This is why in 2 Corinthians 7:1 Paul talked about “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” I would then surmise: no faith – no fear!
I love how Oswald Chambers dealt with this in his book “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.55-56], “Having therefore these promises.” I claim the fulfillment of God’s promises, and rightly, but that is only the human side; the Divine side is that through the promises I recognize God’s claim on me. For instance, am I realizing that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, or have I a habit of body that plainly will not bear the light of God on it? By sanctification the Son of God is formed in me, then I have to transform my natural life into a spiritual life by obedience to Him. God educates us down to the scruple. When he begins to check, do not confer with flesh and blood, cleanse yourself at once. Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk….I have to cleanse myself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit until both are in accord with the nature of God. Is the mind of my spirit in perfect agreement with the life of the Son of God in me, or am I insubordinate in intellect? Am I forming the mind of Christ, who never spoke from His right to Himself, but maintained an inner watchfulness whereby He continually submitted His spirit to His Father? I have the responsibility of keeping my spirit in agreement with His Spirit, and by degrees Jesus lifts me up to where He lived – in perfect consecration to His Father’s will, paying no attention to any other thing. Am I [are you?] perfecting this type of holiness in the fear of God? Is God getting His way with me, and are other people beginning to see God in my life more and more?”
FOURTH, SOME SEE “GOD NOT WITH US” BECAUSE NATURAL MEN PLACE NO VALUE ON KNOWING CHRIST WHO IS CALLED “EMMANUEL”, “GOD WITH US”!!
And you do understand that even “religious” men can be caught up with their belief, “God Isn’t With Us Either!” In John 8:13-20 we read about those who came against Emmanuel! It says: “The Pharisees therefore said to Him, “You bear witness of Yourself. Your witness is not true.” Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.” Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have also known My Father also.” These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.”
And, no doubt, you remember that Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews who “came to Jesus by night.” Why the night? Was the reality of the Pharisaical view of Christ being torn down in him? Was the reality of “God with us” moving heavily on this man? Did he not want his world around him to know he wanted to know Truth? One’s ego CAN be the death-nail in one’s coffin of life as it is – or one, like Nicodemus, CAN risk the upward reach for truth beyond what he has learned or known.
There IS a world around you that has forgotten, forsaken, even fought against the knowledge of God. Examine your own schools, universities, networks, businesses, local or national governments that have departed from the awareness of God. And the one thing I pray that you learn in this very moment if you haven’t already is: Ezekial 33:11, “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?”
I pray that by God’s Spirit you and yours have your eyes opened, ears opened, minds and hearts opened to the great truth of Emmanuel, “God With Us,” because in 2 Timothy 2:8-9 Paul told us: “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.”
In Acts 4 you’ll remember Peter and John let go by the ruling authorities in Jerusalem. Follow carefully verses 23-33: And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: “Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.” For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.
How did that come to fruition? We read in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were yet sinners, while fallen men chose blindness to God and absence from God, He demonstrated His love! While His created world was filled with rebellious, disbelieving, sinful, godless men, He came and demonstrated His love for us. While His created world floundered in the broken ages of spiritually-blinded futility, He demonstrated His love! While alienated people, alienated from God, alienated from His divine plan and purpose, living sadly, living savagely, living ultimately unto themselves alone, GOD PROVED HIS LOVE FOR US!
Have you missed Jeremiah 32:40? “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.” What a promise! That everlasting covenant is the blood covenant between God the Father and God the Son as Jesus shed His blood on Calvary’s Cross for you and me! And there’s no turning to God apart from Emmanuel! In I Peter 3:18 we read: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He [Christ Jesus the Lord] might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”
The Cross of Christ is not only God’s proof of His love for us – it is the pulling power of His grace, mercy, and love, translating us out of our seas of forgetfulness into His heavenly grace and grip of lovingkindness! Jeremiah 31:3-4 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. Again, I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoiced.”
What amazing, anointed, life-altering verses in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15!! “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.”
You may not be familiar with the name, Charles Hodge. He was a 19th Century Reformed theologian. He 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 affected 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.” [Charles Hodge, “Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians,” Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdman’s Publ. Co., p.133]
Oh, you need to hear it over and over and over: “Christ died for the ungodly…We are now justified by His blood.” [Romans 5:6,9].
I close this chapter of forgetfulness concerning those who hadn’t as yet discerned Christ but now have, with words Paul spoke in Colossians 3:1-2!! “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth.”
CHAPTER FIVE
FORGOTTEN? BODY LIFE – BODY MINISTRY?
In Dallas Willard’s “The Great Omission” a statement was made from “World Christian/U” magazine, [January 1989], a magazine printed for university and college students. The statement? [p.172 of Willard’s book], “Frequently in the evangelical church, we’ve been taught that to be a disciple only requires us to read a portion of scripture daily and to pray. But those two activities easily become meaningless.”
And I believe after more than 70 years of church life I’ve witnessed such a vast chasm between New Testament ‘church life’ and what far too many professing Christians settle for – “read the Bible, then pray” – when God’s Word paints a far different picture!
I’ll just go ahead and shock you just a little before we get fully into “Forgotten? Body Life – Body Ministry”! In Titus 2:14 Paul wrote Titus: “[Christ] who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us…and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”
I’m not really sure how confident and assured most church folk are when they hear, having been redeemed, having been purified by the shed blood of the Lamb, that now they are “His own special people, zealous for good works.” I wondered if a lot of church folk are layered in a ‘religious familiarity’ rather than birthed into relational faith!
Sometimes I feel like Mary when she came to Jesus’ tomb and He wasn’t there. She said: [John 20:2], “They have taken away the Lord, my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid Him.” Has Jesus been “taken away” and been substituted for everything but what He died for?
In John 12:32 Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” I believe without a doubt Jesus was talking about His crucifixion and that as He was lifted up to die for all, it would draw men to Himself. But often rather than a spiritual magnet drawing men to Himself, the church, rather than exemplifying the crucified and resurrected Christ “forgets” who they are in Him and what they are to be about!
Church life was never to resemble children’s games, but at times you have to wonder: Where is Kingdom of Christ demonstration? Has the church of today, purchased by the Blood of the Lamb, been challenged to take the sentence of death unto itself, been “dispersed” or settled in to a quiet, separated unto itself, comfortable community, without the intent of Christ through them touching our world with grace, mercy, and love? In the early church ‘the Acts of the apostles’ became willing marching orders dispersed into a dying world that so needed the words of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and holy intent to reconcile that dying world into Resurrection Life, Resurrection Hope, and Resurrection Power!
Two verses out of I Peter 2 that I pray will prick your heart and turn you into our Lord’s earthly representative: 1) I Peter 2:9, “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…” 2) I Peter 2:21, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps…”
It was Cornelius Platinga Jr. in “Beyond Doubt,” [p.185], who made a very powerful and thought-provoking statement about the modern Church in these ‘last days’: “So often we are nature’s victims and culture’s captives,” when in reality, in Christ, we are new creation victors and Christ’s liberated servants!
In his book “A Godward Life” John Piper has a chapter entitled: “Matthew’s Amazing Warnings Not To Be A False Disciple,” [pps. 255-257]. Piper said, quoting Matthew 5:20, “I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” saying, “The righteousness called for here is not the imputed righteousness of Christ, as utterly crucial as that is at the bottom of the Christian life.” Then, commenting on Matthew 7:21-23, Piper wrote: “Prophesying, casting out demons, and doing mighty works in the name of Jesus do not prove that Jesus has known us. The evidence of being savingly known by Jesus is to be an evildoer no longer, that is, to have righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. Religious zeal and even miracle working do not prove a new heart of love.”
FORGOTTEN? FIRST, LET’S LOOK AT THE FORGETFULNESS OF BODY LIFE. It’s so interesting, so convicting, as you read Jesus’ words and seriously consider them! In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus said: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Then in Matthew 10:39 Our Lord and Savior draws the line in the sand. He said: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” I’m not so sure a lot of church folk really know about the Body Life that comes because of ‘self-denial’! In Matthew 16:24 Jesus told His disciples: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him DENY HIMSELF, and TAKE UP HIS CROSS, and FOLLOW ME.”
In the early days of Peter’s ‘follow-ship’ with Jesus, the Lord had a question, John 13:38, for him: Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.” The last part of Romans 4:17 speaks of “…God, who gives life to the dead (spiritual death) and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” You know that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Apart from our Lord death reigns in us all, sin abounding, but grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This is why Paul told the church at Galatia, Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ [not only Paul but every sin-infested human being, past, present, or future!]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; [Why? TO EXTEND HIS LIFE, EXPRESS HIS LOVE, AND TO PROVE HIS POWER!!]; 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.”
And this “Life In Christ” is not simply an earth-experience! In I Corinthians 15:19 Paul wrote: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitied.” Life in Christ? It is eternal life!! Hear me! Far too many ‘church folk’ are centered on their ‘flesh walk’ with no serious consideration of our ‘forever walk’! In Galatians 6:7-8 Paul wrote: “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.”
The beloved John was so passionate about God’s people fully knowing and understanding in and appropriating the very fullness of our life in Christ. In I John 5:11-13 the beloved John shared with us: “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.:
This is why Jude challenges us in Jude 20-21! “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” No doubt, this is why George Herbert wrote: “And here in dust and dirt, O here the lilies of His love appear.” I believe it’s our calling in “Body Life” to truly be a part of spiritual revolution that brings resurrection hope into the very churches of our modern day. I believe this is why H. Richard Niebuhr has written: “The great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there.”
Life in Christ for true disciples is not trying to achieve what always seems so beyond “us” – but acceptance of divine gifts through God’s faithful promises and His amazing grace! In Acts 2:41-47 we see “Body Life”! “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
Did you notice “continued steadfastly”? Did you notice “godly, holy fear” that guided their daily life? Did you notice “all who believed were together”? Did you notice they shared what God Himself had blessed them with? Did you notice the “daily walk”? Did you notice they had reason to continually “praise God,” they had “favor with all the people,” and they were daily being blessed with the birth of new disciples?
In “This Little Church Went To Market” by Gary E. Gilley, he has written a powerful convicting word: [pps.38-39], “One would hope that things would be different [today] among evangelical Christians, but such does not seem to be the case. It appears that the church is in lockstep with the world. The problem is this – Christians have been seduced and trained by the same forces that have enticed society as a whole. Too many Christians, just like their unsaved counterparts, are impressed by appearances rather than structure; are seeking thrills and excitement rather than substance; are more apt to respond to emotional manipulation than to rational discourse. How does a church compete in this rather crowded marketplace? If entertainment has become the primary value of the American way of life (as some are suggesting) then how can the church vie unless they become a bastion of entertainment? But if it gives way to this powerful temptation has not the church been transformed into something other than the church? [Quoting Neil Postman, author of “Amusing Ourselves To Death,”] Gilley wrote: Postman, who does not pretend to be a Christian, nevertheless recognizes, ‘Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether…There is no doubt, in other words, that religion can be made entertaining. The question is, by doing so, do we destroy it?” Gilley then said: This is a question all serious Christians should contemplate. The problem is that the main business of entertainment is to please the crowd, but the main purpose of authentic Christianity is to please the Lord.”
I’m so sorry if “Body Life” is offensive to you and you desire the church to be that entertainment center of your life – but when I read I Corinthians 1:18-23 I see our Lord’s wisdom about “Body Life”, and I know that’s where I want to see churches today centering themselves. What did Paul write? “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 will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness…”
I have a deep, deep thought that our modern religious world, yes, even Christian world, would like to muzzle the very voice of our Lord and Savior and neglect every word He and His Holy Word has to say about “Body Life.” You may have read about Leo Tolstoy who said: “I lived only during those times I believed in God.” Can the church today say, “We live only through the time Christ IS our “LIFE”, and He lives through us”?
If ever there is the death of hope in the church that Jesus alone is our “LIFE”, then we will become those who witness anew spiritual death all around us, leaving a church world in despair and so very empty!
You know what John said, but do you still believe it for the modern-day church? John 1:1-4, “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.” I pray you let the previous verses and the following verses seal in your minds and hearts the churches’ abundant LIFE IN CHRIST!
John 3:14-15 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in [trusts, adheres to, relies upon] Him, should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 5:38-40, “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom God sent, Him you do not believe. You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me [Jesus]. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
John 6:51, 53, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of 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…Verse 53, Then Jesus said to them, “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.”
John 10:10, 27-28, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. Verses 27-28, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
John 11:25-26, Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 17:3, Jesus speaking, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You [God Himself], the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
Romans 5:10, “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.”
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, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me…”
Colossians 3:3-4, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
2 Timothy 1:8-12, “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. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, 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.”
I John 5:11-13, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
Revelation 21:27, “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination, or a lie, but only those who are written the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
Do you remember the words Shakespeare wrote in “Macbeth”? “Life…is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” But, a modern-day version? “Church life…is a tale told by the untaught, full of noise and fight, signifying denial of all Jesus offers.”
If “Body Life” is forgotten, you can be sure “Body Ministry” takes a back-seat in church planning! Oh, hear me! I’m not down on all churches, denominations, pastors, or leaders – in my over 50 years of “church life and relationships with pastors” I’ve been blessed to know some of our Lord’s gifted, graced pastors, and been blessed by Spirit-led, Spirit-anointed, Christ-honoring churches that so reflected fruitful ministries.
But, sadly, many churches are ‘vision-less’ as to “Body Ministry”! Dallas Willard, in his book “Renovation of the Heart,” [p.203], made a statement that I would like to change only one word. Willard said, “Where LIFE MEANING is lacking, performance is at a premium.” My sentence? “Where LIFE MINISTRY is lacking, performance is at a premium.”
One thing is sure though – the least gifted Body of Christ is stronger, more significant, and more beneficial than the “best” a fallen society has to offer! In his book, “Body Life: The Church Comes Alive,” [Regal, Glendale, Ca., 1972, p.13], Ray Stedman wrote: “God’s first concern is not what the church does, it is what the church IS. Being must always precede doing, for what we do will be according to what we are. To understand the moral character of God’s people is a primary essential in understanding the nature of the church. As Christians we are to be a moral example to the world, reflecting the character of Jesus Christ.” HOW HUGE IS THAT IN CHURCH MINISTRY! Is there a “Forgetfulness” Of BODY MINISTRY?
FIRST, BODY MINISTRY IS WITNESSING, SHARING, PROCLAIMING, UPHOLDING, DECLARING, AND, YES, PORTRAYING BY ONE’S DAILY WALK CHRIST JESUS, SAVIOR AND LORD!
In Acts 1:8 God’s inspired Word says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” You barely get into Acts 2 before Peter challenged Israel as the church OUGHT to be challenging every community! Those who heard Peter were challenged and convicted! Acts 2:37 says: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” And Peter followed Jesus’ ministry by saying, Acts 2:38, Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Look at what happened in Acts 2:41! Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” It doesn’t matter to me what you call it, but when a church loses its evangelistic impact on the world around it, it is signing its own death certificate! I find it so interesting, wondering if a church, because of its witnessing ministry is ready for a jail sentence! It happened in Acts as God’s people were determined to touch its world with grace.
SECOND, BODY MINISTRY IS THE DIVINE WORK OF EQUIPPING THE SAINTS TO DO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY. Please come to Ephesians 4:11-16! “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, FOR THE EQUIPPING OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WORK OF MINISTRY, FOR THE EDIFYING OF THE BODY OF CHRIST, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
Without hesitation, I am firmly convinced that modern Christianity has totally reversed roles, ministries, and callings, with an attitude, mind-set, delusional thinking: “That’s what we pay a pastor for!!” And many pastors succumb to the role of DOING what they were called to do in equipping the saints to DO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY!! As you read these verses in Ephesians 4, did you notice, were you gripped by Ephesians 4:13? “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;”
Listen, feed on, incorporate what Oswald Chambers said in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.141], “The church ceases to be a spiritual society when it is on the look-out for the development of its own organization. The rehabilitation of the human race on Jesus Christ’s plan means the realization of Jesus Christ in corporate life as well as individual life. Jesus Christ sent apostles and teachers for this purpose – that the corporate PERSONALITY might be realized. We are not here to develop a spiritual life on our own, or to enjoy spiritual retirement; we are here so to realize Jesus Christ that the Body of Christ may be built up.”
As a disciple, as a church member, as a follower of Christ, are you sharing in the mission of growing people into the fullness of Christ? Chambers said earlier, “The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Christ Jesus.” In Hebrews 10:24-25 the writer tells us: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Redemptive faith births community ‘followship’ and fellowship. God’s redemption, His redemptive work, is His blessed ministry of making the Body of Christ complete by the inclusion of every ‘body-part’ – nothing is to be missing, ignored, overlooked, denied – but inclusive to the honor of Christ!
Come to I Corinthians 12:11-31!! But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slave or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you;” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.” [Then comes chapter 13!!!]
THIRD, BODY MINISTRY IS INVASIVE AT THE POINT OF HUMAN NEED AND INTROSPECTIVE OF ONE’S SELF TO THE HONOR AND GLORY OF CHRIST. Look at James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
I’ve been in Brazil to work for the honor of Christ alone and been shaken to the core to learn of child prostitution. I’ve been in the major cities across India to witness orphans and widows with cardboard over their heads on busy streets for shelter with millions of people passing them by! America is fast becoming ‘horror’ cities where children are abused and widows totally neglected!
True religion! How do YOU define it? How is “true religion” played out through your journey as a church community? Is your ‘church’ breaking out, moving out, planning ‘out’ or outside its four walls to touch its community with grace?
FOURTH, BODY MINISTRY IS THE BIBLICAL PATTERN OF “MAKING DISCIPLES”! I don’t know how churches so easily omit Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19-20! “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.”
In my early days of pastoring in the Florida area, I always loved to hear Dr. Jess Moody preach at our pastors’ conferences, evangelism conferences, or local events in the area where I was pastoring. One of the things Dr. Moody always talked about was the problem, omission, failure of “undiscipled disciples”!
In Dallas Willard’s “The Great Omission,” he wrote: [p.9], “Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, nondiscipleship costs you exactly that abundance of life Jesus said He came to bring [John 10:10]. The Cross-shaped yoke of Christ is after all an instrument of liberation and power to those who live in it with Him and learn the meekness and lowliness of heart that brings rest to the soul.”
Do you really have a handle on discipleship? In Acts 10:38 we read what should be true of every equipped, trained church member! It says: “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.” Paul was so strong, as he should have been, as he addressed the Corinthians, 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
FIFTH, BODY MINISTRY IS ‘KINGDOM OF GOD’ LIVING. Do you remember what John the Baptist said as he began his public ministry? Matthew 3:1-3 tells us: “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight.’”
The young disciples had asked Jesus to teach them to pray, and in Matthew 6:9-10, Jesus said they were to pray in this manner: ‘Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and the end of verse 13 says, ‘For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Then in Matthew 6:33 Jesus said: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
We’re seeing the kingdom of God on earth that is a kingdom to be entered! But then in Matthew 7:21 Jesus said: “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.’” Willful surrender, willful submission to the will of Father God, willful sub-ordinance [or subject to control], willful sufficiency knowing God’s ample supply to meet any need we might have according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus! In ‘kingdom of God’ living, in 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul wrote: “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.”
And how did the anointed Paul describe kingdom-ministry? Look at Romans 14:17!! “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Jesus Himself made such a profound, eye-opening, sobering, even shocking statement when in John 14:12 He defined kingdom ministry for all, yes, ALL of His disciples. He said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do because I go to My Father.” JESUS ANNOUNCED THAT HIS DISCIPLES, HIS SERVANTS, HIS ‘BODY OF CHRIST’ MINISTRY, would be DOING THE WORKS OF JESUS!
I would dare say that most ‘church disciples’ are shocked when they hear about ‘kingdom ministry’ or ‘doing the works of Jesus.’ Our personal inadequacy should open the door to Holy Spirit anointing and adequacy in every disciple! It was T.Z. Koo who said: “The kingdom of God does not exist because of your effort or mine. It exists because God reigns. Our part is to enter this kingdom and bring our life under His sovereign will.” Since my college days, over 55 years ago, I’ve been a fan of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He said: “If we let passion take the place of judgment, and self-will reign instead of Scriptural authority, we shall fight the Lord’s battles with the devil’s weapons, and if we cut our own fingers we must not be surprised.”
But that’s not our calling as we usher in Kingdom authority through “Body Ministry”! Listen to Peter in 2 Peter 1:3-4! “…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.”
And Matthew 16:19 is our rock of assurance and hope in honoring Christ through our church’s “Body Ministry”: “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” “Body Ministry” IS “KINGDOM OF GOD ALLEGIANCE” that is seen, interpreted, explained, witnessed, proven, by the ‘Servant’ spirit. Listen to Jesus in Matthew 20:25-28!! But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
“Body Ministry” is “KINGDOM OF GOD ALLEGIANCE” that is seen as the sacrificial spirit of lives, yes, laid down in touching others with His love, grace, and mercy! In Hebrews 13:12-16 we read: “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
You’ll remember Paul saying in Galatians 2:20, “…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…,” and that love and giving spirit of Christ should permeate the walk of every true disciple of Christ! In John 7:38 Jesus tells us: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
Oswald Chambers put it like this: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.181], “Our Lord’s teaching is always “anti”– self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a man; His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is self-expenditure.”
I close this chapter with a statement by Dallas Willard in his book, “The Spirit of the Disciplines.” He wrote: “The world can no longer be left to mere diplomats, politicians and business leaders. They have done the best they could, no doubt. But this is an age for spiritual heroes – a time for men and women to be heroic in their faith and in spiritual character and power.” AMEN?
CHAPTER SIX
FORGOTTEN? THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES?
In Psalm 88:12 a highly significant question is asked by the psalmist as he “cries out to God day and night”: “Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” And it would be no surprise to me if some of us found ourselves at a place in life that we wondered if God had forgotten us, but we know that’s not true – the greater problem is when men forget Him, and especially forget “the Name above all names”!
The prophet Jeremiah heard the broken heart of God. In Jeremiah 2:32 he heard God say: “Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.” In Jeremiah 3:21-22a the prophet wrote: “A voice was heard on the desolate heights, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel, for they have perverted their way; THEY HAVE FORGOTTEN THE LORD THEIR GOD…’Return, you backsliding children, and I [God] will heal your backslidings.”
Through biblical prophets God will speak to bring warnings of disaster to those who find themselves “falling away” or forgetting the Name above all names. Jeremiah 18:12-18, And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.” Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Ask now among the Gentiles, Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, which comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters? Because My people have FORGOTTEN ME, they have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, from the ancient paths, to walk in pathways and not on a highway, to make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity.’ Then they said, ‘Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”
In Deuteronomy 32 we find “The Song of Moses” as he sang out a convicting word about the dilemma of a people “encircled” by the Lord Himself but they found it easy to forsake God! Look at verses 9-12 followed by verses 15-20!! Beginning at verse 9, “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.” Now verses 15-20!! “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you. And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation.”
I know without hesitation that there are times, seasons, even circumstances of the soul when one feels, “Where is my Lord? Has He forsaken me, left me, forgotten all about me?” Have you ever been there? In Isaiah 49:14-16 the prophet Isaiah wrote: But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.”
There is a promise God gave us all in Proverbs 3:1-2. It says: “My son, do not forget My law, but let your heart keep My commandments; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.” Then, please look carefully at Proverbs 3:5-6 and let the Holy Spirit guide you into “the way.” “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
And that “way”? In John 14:6 Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus is the “way” that leads to Life, the “way” that opens LIFE to the fullness of God Himself, the “way” that leads to the fullness of blessing, the “way” that is the eternal foundation of Holy Living! But then our Lord has a word of warning: 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!” “Forgotten? Forgotten the Name above all names? Forgotten the Master, forgotten the Message, forgotten the ministry of His Name, forgotten the might and power of the Name above all names?”
To the church at Philippi Paul wrote a powerful word about Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:9-11! “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” That’s God Almighty’s ministry of exaltation of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! And, thank God, there are those who never forget – Revelation 2:12-13 tells us of that body of believers in Pergamos who held fast to His Name and DID NOT DENY THE FAITH!
Why does Pergamos hold fast to Jesus’ Name but others deny Him? Do you remember the first few verses of Jesus teaching His disciples “The Model Prayer” in Matthew 6:9-10? “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.” “Hallowed be Your name?” Strong’s Concordance says the word ‘Hallowed’ comes from a Greek word HAGIAZO meaning ‘made holy’, ‘sacred’, ‘pure’, ‘blameless’, and I believe that’s holding the name of our Lord in the highest esteem, the holiest elevation, and heart-felt and held elevation above all ‘names’!!
I find it so interesting that John, in Revelation 2:12, saw the Lord Jesus with “the sharp two-edged sword” in His hand! It is serious business to know our Lord as ‘commander-in-chief’ who has been, who is, and forever will be defending Truth. Yes, our Lord judges, our Lord defends, our Lord follows up, sweeps up, and with the sharp sword will cut away what needs to be cut away. He says He sees into every church, every life, every family, with constant oversight, just as He saw Pergamos. Jesus ‘saw’ that they “dwell…where Satan’s throne is,” and Pergamos stood faithfully to honor His Name! But sadly many do not! Why is it that far too many people choose to ignore, deny, forsake, accuse, and abuse the “Name above all names”?
FIRST, I BELIEVE FORGETFULNESS OF THE NAME ABOVE ALL names IS BECAUSE OF OUT-AND-OUT DENIAL OF HIS PRECIOUS NAME. In Matthew 12:30 Jesus said: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
You’ll remember Moses and Aaron going before Pharoah of Egypt saying to him: [Exodus 5:1-2], “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.”
What goes on in the hearts and minds of people like Pharoah? If the very knowledge of God and the very awareness of Christ Himself was birthed in them by God Himself, what has gone on in them? In Paul’s letter to the Romans [Romans 1:18-25], the inspired Word reveals the deadly ‘self-introspection’ that crowds out the saving grace of God through the shed blood of the Lamb of God: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
In Matthew 10:38 Jesus clearly said: “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” But rather than denial of Jesus as ‘the Name above all names,’ John said in I John 4:15, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” ‘Confesses’ is a present tense, continuous action word! Confesses and keeps on confessing, confesses and keeps on confessing, confesses and keeps on confessing, but God help the man that denies and keeps on denying!
It was Spurgeon who said: “A life in which we have shunned the cross of Christ will lead to a state in which we shall miss the crown of glory.”
SECOND, I BELIEVE FORGETFULNESS OF THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES IS BECAUSE OF ‘PEER PRESSURE’. The man born blind met Jesus and Jesus “anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,” and his eyes were opened! The Jews didn’t believe and they called the parents of the man who had his eyes opened and said to them: [John 9:19], “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” But then look at John 9:20-21! His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” And then verse 22? His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed that He [Jesus] was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.
Earlier in John, John 7:10-13, we see that same ‘peer pressure’ that adversely affects redemptive faith! “but when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, ‘Where is He?’ And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, ‘He is good’; others said, ‘No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.’ However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.”
‘Peer pressure’ can be, sadly, parentally impacted; peer pressure can come from religious rulers who will protect their religious agenda void of the redemptive atonement of Christ’s shed blood! In John 12:42-43 we see a heart-breaking story: “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.”
Jesus Himself warned us of the peer pressure that would come from some parents, some faithless religious leaders, even peer pressure from some godless governmental ‘leaders’, peer pressure from close friends, employers, university professors: In John 16:1-4 we read of the warning of our Lord and Savior because He knew as the faithless hated Him, they would also hate His followers or those on the edge ready to make a step toward ‘saving faith’: “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you.”
David’s son, Absalom, was not in ‘lock-step’ with his father. In fact the time came when Absalom became treasonist toward his father.” 2 Samuel 15:6 says, “So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” There are also times when ‘peer pressure’ is active even in the area of ‘bribery’! Exodus 23:8 says, “And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.”
THIRD, I BELIEVE FORGETFULNESS OF THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES IS BECAUSE OF THE POISON OF PROCRASTINATION. It’s so amazing to me that the Apostle Paul, arrested for his faith, appeared before Felix and his wife Drusilla ‘concerning the faith in Christ.’ [Acts 24:24]. But then look at Felix’s response to Paul in verse 25! “Now as he [Paul] reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, ‘Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.’” But there is no evidence Felix ever found ‘a convenient time’ – he procrastinated.
In Acts 25-26 Paul was brought before King Agrippa. He shared his testimony of conversion after Christ Jesus the Lord had appeared to Paul in that “light from heaven, brighter than the sun.” And Paul told the King he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
In Acts 26: 22-23 Paul challenges Agrippa: “Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing to both small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come – that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Gentiles and to the Jewish people.” Then in verses 27-28 we see the ‘bottom line’ and end result! “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.” Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” How many have you known who procrastinated and never yielded to our Lord’s saving grace?
FOURTH, I BELIEVE FORGETFULNESS OF THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES HAPPENS WHEN SOME ARE ‘BRAIN-WASHED’ AND HEART-HARDENED BY FALSE ‘PROPHETS’, FALSE TEACHING, AND A FUTILE, FLESHLY FAITH OF THEIR OWN.
Paul was so clear and convicting when he wrote to the church at Colossae, [Colossians 2:8], “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.” You’ve heard from the godless, from the highly educated faithless professors and teachers who’ve decided they are smarter than God Himself, from those who believe ‘if’ there is a God He’s not interested in them, from evil men who wax worse and worse with a futile approach to life without meaning or purpose, from blackened hearts who’ve chosen the way of sin, the way of earthly, fleshly pleasures void of an ‘interfering God’ who doesn’t want them happy as they try to satisfy their depraved natures!
The ‘cheated’ don’t even know, understand, or comprehend the emptiness of deceit that has flooded their minds so fully, that for them, there is no spiritual hope, not knowing God’s faithful Word tells them that God is able to save the UTTERMOST, or the one the furtherest throw away from Him!
2 John 7 says: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh [Emmanuel]. This is a deceiver and an anti-Christ.” Frightening, sad verses come also from John in I John 2:18-19, “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.”
What did John say in I John 4:1-3? “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”
In I Timothy 6:20-21 receive the passion of Paul for his spiritual son, Timothy! “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, AVOIDING THE PROFANE AND IDLE BABBLINGS AND CONTRADICTIONS OF WHAT IS FALSELY CALLED KNOWLEDGE – by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.” He told Titus in Titus 1:14, “not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men WHO TURN FROM THE TRUTH.”
If Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Emmanuel – the name God GAVE HIM – if He is Lord and Savior and the True Master of all of life, if Jesus is [and He is!!] the “faithful and true witness,” then how does one turn away, refuse to hear Him, and call Him ‘LIAR’? Please understand – it is an evil act, an evil mind, and evil intent to reject Jesus and live as ‘lord and savior and god’ of your own life! We all are His creation with eternal purpose and eternal designs that were given to honor, bless, exalt, please, magnify, and glorify the Living God who is the resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords but only through the New Birth, Second Birth that is ours because of the gift of redemptive faith through repentance toward God and the finished work of Christ at Calvary!
FIFTH, I BELIEVE FORGETFULNESS OF THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES BECOMES A LIFE CHOICE WHEN THE PLEASURES OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS CAPTURE ONE’S HEART, MIND, AND SOUL. You’ll remember the parable of the sower that Jesus told us about in Luke 8:7 where some ‘seed’ fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it, explaining in verse 14: “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are CHOKED WITH CARES, RICHES, AND PLEASURES OF LIFE, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
One who refused that disastrous way of life was Moses. In Hebrews 11:23-26 we see, yes, a young boy who when confronted with the pathway of sin rather than the pathway of holiness chose to please God rather than satisfy his flesh or fallen sin nature! The Word says: “By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”
Again, Paul was faithfully instructing his spiritual son, Titus, when in Titus 3:3-7 he wrote: “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
LIFE CHOICES? Heir of Christ or son of Satan? Citizen of Jesus’ Kingdom of Light or slave to Satan’s kingdom of darkness? Pleasing our Lord and Savior or indulging our fallen sin natures? In 2 Timothy 3:4 Paul spoke of those who are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” And the one thing we all must be confronted with is the reality of only temporary satisfaction in earthly pleasures with eternally bad results!
What are “the wages of sin”? I believe the Holy Word is so very clear: THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH!! In 2 Peter 2:12-17 the Holy Spirit of God anointed Peter to “shock” some into spiritual reality and see birthed repentant hearts!! “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.”
There was a man who discovered God’s Holy Word, and out of that encounter a prophet was birthed, Jeremiah! In Jeremiah 15:16 he wrote: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” And notice what God Himself revealed to Jeremiah, sending him out to call God’s people to repentance, return, and restoration!!In Jeremiah 16:10-13 we read: “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshipped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, WHERE I WILL NOT SHOW YOU FAVOR.”
THAT IS THE FUTURE OF EVERY LIFE THAT WILLFULLY, SINFULLY, REBELS AGAINST GOD’S GRACE AND MERCY!! “NO FAVOR FROM GOD”!!
SIXTH, I BELIEVE FORGETFULNESS OF THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES RESULTS IN A WILLFUL, DELIBERATE DETERMINATION TO HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT HOLY NAME – THEY WILLINGLY AND GLADLY FORSAKE HIS NAME. In Hebrews 3:8 the author of Hebrews quotes from an Old Testament passage about: “Do not harden your hearts AS IN THE REBELLION, in the day of trial in the wilderness.” Then in verses 9-10 the Holy Spirit spoke: “Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I [God] was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.”
Because they have not known God’s ways, they are blinded and even ignorant of the end result of a Christ-less life! Just listen to James 5:19-20 where the brother of Jesus is urging true believers to turn back the spiritually blinded, the wanderers, the faithless, who do not know or understand the end result of denial of the Name above all names. James wrote: “Brethren [of the true, saving faith], if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way WILL SAVE A SOUL FROM DEATH AND COVER A MULTITUDE OF SINS.”
The danger in willingly and gladly forsaking the Name above all names? Once again Paul wrote the Romans, [Romans 1:21-25], “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, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God FOR THE LIE [“You can sin and not die!”], and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
In Romans 1:24, 26, 28, three times the inspired Word of God says, “God also gave them up,” “God gave them up,” “God gave them over.” Do you, do those you encounter, do those near you who deny our Lord’s saving grace, really know “the righteous judgment of God”?
Unbelief is sin! Faithlessness is sin! Denial of faith is sin! Willful rejection of Jesus is sin! In Romans 6:16 God’s Word says: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.” WHAT HAVE YOU CHOSEN?
As Paul told the Galatians, [Galatians 1:6-7], “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert [distort] the gospel of Christ.” Would it surprise you that even some of the early followers of Christ Jesus walked away from Him? John 6:66 says: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
This is why in Luke 9:62 Jesus said: “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom.” You’ve heard it: “No Jesus for me,” “No ‘churchianity’ for me,” “No spiritual tiddelly-winks for me,” “no ‘religious, holy-roller ‘ life for me,” “No relationship for me with all those church hypocrites,” “No cross, no washing feet for me, no servant activity for me,” and on-and-on and-on it goes with rebellious determination: “No faith-walk for me”! And they deny our Lord and Savior! “Blot His name from my memory!”
I can only pray that as you read this book YOU are convicted, convinced, and cemented as one with Christ willingly and gladly!! Oh, but, praise God, there ARE THOSE like Pergamos in Revelation 2:13, “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you HOLD FAST TO MY NAME, and did not deny My faith…”
Acts 3 is such a powerful passage, and certainly the preaching by Peter! The lame man had been healed, the people were leaping and praising God, and the men of Israel who put Christ on the Cross were not happy at all! Follow these verses, Acts 3:11-21!! 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 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. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 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, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”
Not all deny, disbelieve, denounce the Name above all names! In John 1:11-12 we read: “He came to His own [domain], and His own [people] 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 [trust, adhere to, rely upon] in His name.”
Peter and John had been arrested and appeared before the Sanhedrin – [Acts 4:5-12]. In verse 7 they asked of these disciples: “By what power or by WHAT NAME have you done this?” Peter didn’t hesitate, wasn’t afraid, and had no doubts! In verses 10-12 we read, “let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that BY THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole. ‘This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
This is why Paul encouraged the church at Colossae, and us: [Colossians 3:17], “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all IN THE NAME of the LORD JESUS, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” We’ve seen earlier in this book that His name is Immanuel or Emmanuel, or “God With Us”!! [Isaiah 7:14]. And Isaiah 9:6 says, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
In Isaiah 12:4, because of the redemptive power of His Wonderful Name, a hymn of praise is birthed in Isaiah’s heart. Verse 4 says, And in that day you will say: “Praise the Lord, call upon His name; declare His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His name is EXALTED.” What is your ‘desire’? In Isaiah 26:8 the prophet said: “Yes, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You; THE DESIRE OF OUR SOUL IS FOR YOUR NAME and FOR THE REMEMBRANCE OF YOU.” Let us who’ve not denied the faith intercede for those around us who need Jesus to be “the desire of our soul” and remember Him, not falling into fatal forgetfulness!
You’ll remember Holy God leading Moses and Israel “with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them to make for Himself an everlasting name.” Though you may fall into forgetfulness, in your eternal separation from the Name above all names, I believe you’ll witness a ‘flash-back’ to Almighty God dividing the waters! This is why Jeremiah said, in Jeremiah 3:17, “At that time Jerusalem shall be The Throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.”
God’s true people “glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord.” Why is that? Because His Name is the Name of God Almighty; His Name is Jealous; in Jeremiah 10:6 the prophet said: “Inasmuch as there is none like You, O Lord [You are great, and Your name is great in might”]; His Name is MESSIAH! [Look at John 4:25-26!], The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” [who is called Christ]. When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” JESUS IS “SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!!” Do you really know about His Name?
JESUS IS: Our Atoning Savior, Our Advocate before the judicial bar of heaven, Our Abundant provider, Our Access to Father God, Our All in All, Our “I AM THAT I AM,” Our Apostle and High Priest, Our Author of Eternal Salvation, Our Author and Finisher of our Faith,”
JESUS IS: Our Balm of Gilead, Our Beautiful Savior, Joy of the Whole Earth, Our Begotten Son of God, Our Bishop of our Souls, Our Blesser, Our Bondage-Breaker, Our Bread of Life, Our Breadth and Length of God’s Love, Our Breaker of the Bands that Bound Us, Our Breastplate of Righteousness, Our Bridegroom, Our Brightness of God’s Glory, Our Substitutionary Broken Body and Shed Blood, Our Builder, Our Buried Yet Resurrected Lord and Savior, Our Buyer Who Bought Us Off the Auction Block of Sin and Death and Separation from God.”
JESUS IS: Our Calling Into One Hope, Our Cloud of Heavenly Glory That Rests In Us, Upon Us, and Around Us, Our Comfort for Troubled Hearts, Our Coming King of kings, Our Commander-in-Chief, Our Confidence Toward and In Our Lord Himself, Our Everlasting Consolation, Our Covenant Sacrifice and Provider, Our Creator and Co-Author of Our Salvation, Our Cross and Crown Victorious Warrior.
JESUS IS: Our Daystar, Our Defender, Our Delight, Our Deliverer, Our Departed But Soon Coming Lord and Savior, Our Desire In The Flooded Heart of Holy Presence, Our Declaration of a Ready Mind, Our Royal Diadem in the Oneness of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Our Director of Every Step, Our Discoverer of Deep things even in Darkness, Our Doer of the Will of God, Yes, Even the Cross, Our Door Into Holy Presence, Our Dove of Peace Constantly Present, Our Dresser of the Vineyard of Our Lives, Our Dwelling Place in All Generations.
JESUS IS: Our Eagle’s Eye of Holy Watch-care, Our Earnest Expectation and Hope, Our Everlasting Gospel To Preach, Our Escape From Earthly Meaninglessness And Our Entrance Into Eternal Joy.
JESUS IS: Our Favor Before God, Our Fellowship and Follow-ship of Holy Presence, Our Forgiveness of Sin Through His Shed Blood, Our Protective Fortress, Defender, and Deliverer, Our Foundation That Stands Sure, Our Fountain of Living Water.
JESUS IS: Our Gentleness and Goodness In The Very Fruit Of The Spirit, Our Girder With Enduring Strength, Our Oil of Gladness, Our Giver of Power and Great Glory, Our Guardian of Life and Faith, Our Guide on the Highway of Holiness.
JESUS IS: Our Habitation of God in the Spirit, Our Haven of Rest, Our Head of the Church, Our Healer and Helper, Our Hearkener, Our Heart, Our Heaven on Earth, Our Heritage To Be Honored, Our Hope of Glory, Our Hope That Doesn’t Fade Away, Our Hope That Is Living Hope, Our Husbandman Who Waits For Precious Fruit, Our Hyssop That Purges.
JESUS IS: Our Image of the Invisible God, Our Immortality Brought to Light Through the Gospel, Our Imputer of Righteousness Apart From Works, Our Increaser of Godly Likeness, Our Inheritance Incorruptible and Undefiled And That Does Not Fade Away, Reserved In Heaven For You.
JESUS IS: Our Jealous God, Our Joint-Heir, Our Joyous Journey of Faith, Our Judge of All, Our Justification.
JESUS IS: Our Keeper, Our Keeper of the Keys To The Kingdom of Heaven, Our Kindler of Heaven’s Earthly Spiritual Fires, Our King of kings, Our Kinsman-Redeemer.
JESUS IS: Our Lamb of God, Our Lord of lords, Our Lamp of God, Our Ancient Landmark of Heaven’s Boundary, Our Language of Godly Love, Our Leader To Eternal Liberty, Our Lifter of Our Heads, Our Light In The Darkest of Nights, Our Limitless Provider, Our Longsuffering Savior and Lord, Our True Lover of Our Souls.
JESUS IS: Our Majesty Enthroned in Heaven, Our Man among men, Our Manifested Name among Men, Our Marked and Bruised.
JESUS IS: Our Nail-Scarred Hands of Suffering Sacrifice, Our Name Above All Names, Our Narrow Way, Our Nazarene, Our Necessary Atoner, Our ‘Nevertheless’ of Life In Christ, Our Now and Always Present Lord.
JESUS IS: Our Obedient Son of God Even Unto Death, Our Obtainer of Our Eternal Inheritance, Our Offering of Himself For Us, Our Oil of Gladness, Our Omnipotent Lord Who Reigns.
JESUS IS: Our Passover, Our Prince of Peace, Our Peace-Maker, Our Perfect Love, Our Pillar of Strength and Stability, Our Plentiful Provider of Every Need, Our Possessor of Heaven and Earth, Our Poured-Out Drink Offering, Our Present Power of God, Our Praying Savior and Lord, Our Preacher of Repentance, Our Powerful Presence Presiding Over Life In Him, Our Preserver of All Things Eternal, Our Prophet, Priest, and King, Our Proclaimer of Liberty and Freedom, Our Promise-Keeper.
JESUS IS: OUR QUICKENER FROM SPIRITUAL DEATH TO SPIRITUAL LIFE.
JESUS IS: Our Ransom For All, Our Reconciler, Our Redeemer, Our Refresher, Our Reigning King of kings and Lord of lords, Our Reason of Rejoicing and Celebration, Our Crown of Rejoicing, Our Repairer of Breaches, Our Rest, Our Restorer of Life and Brokenness, Our Resurrection, Our Rewarder and Reward, Our Riches in Glory, Our Righteousness.
JESUS IS: Our Sabbath of Rest, Our Sacrifice of Praise to God, Our Safety and Peace, Our Salvation, Our Security, Our Sovereign Ruler and Helpmate, Our Same Savior – Yesterday, Today, and Forever, Our Sanctification, Our Satisfier, Our Sword of the Lord Defending the Faithful, Our Faithful and Humble Servant, Our Shepherd, Chief Shepherd of His Sheep, Our Sign and Wonder of Eternal Grace, Mercy, and Love, Our Solid Rock and Sure Foundation, Our Son of God, Our Souls’ Safeness and Soundness, Our Spoiler of Principalities and Powers, Our Storm-Stopper, Our Stream of Living Water, Our Strengthener and Our Song, Our Strong Defender, Our Surety of a Better Covenant.
JESUS IS: Our True Tabernacle, Our Teacher, Our Tender Mercy, Our Therefore, Wherefore, Here-For, Our Tidings of Great Joy, Our Tiller of Our Hearts, Our Touch of Healing Grace, Our Towel-Bearer Who Humbly Washes Our Feet, Our Transformer, Our Eternal Truth, Our Eternal Treasure, Our Tree of Life, Our Triumphant Hymn of Praise.
JESUS IS: Our Able-Savior To The Uttermost.
JESUS IS: Our Verily, Verily Teacher, Our Vine of Truth, Life, and Fruit, Our Vision of the Heavenly.
JESUS IS: Our Warrior For Truth and Faith, Our Watchman On The Wall of Our Hearts and Homes, Our Water-Well Springing up in Life, Our Way, Our Whenever, Wherever, Whatever, Whoever, Our True Wine, Eternal Wisdom, and Faithful Witness, Our Wonder of Wonders, Our Wonderful Work of God, Our Word of Eternal Life.
JESUS IS: Our Yoke of Yieldedness to the Father’s Will.
JESUS IS: Our Zealous Lord Intent on Fulfilling God’s Purpose.
YES!!?? Jesus’ Name IS the Name above every name! “Hallowed be Your Name!” We’ll hold it fast by the renewing of our minds. We’ll adhere to His Name and let unbelievers be the liars. We’ll proclaim His Name until the day we die. We’ll be “fools for Christ’s sake.” We’ll defend the priceless preciousness of His Name. We’ll faithfully bow before His throne. We’ll sing of the preeminence of His Name. We’ll orchestrate the masses to continually surrender to Alpha and Omega. We’ll uplift the unchanging Truth: JESUS, “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” We’ll let our world know that “there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
The old hymn says it strongly: “Jesus, the name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; It’s music in the sinner’s ears, It’s life, and health, and peace.” AMEN?
CHAPTER SEVEN
FORGOTTEN?
A PASTOR’S PRIZE AND PRIVILEGE OF PREACHING?
I know the context of Isaiah 17 and “The burden against Damascus,” but as I read verse 10-11, I could not help but ask, “Lord, is this a prophetic word for pastors and preachers who’ve slid into negligence concerning their preaching ministries?” Isaiah 17:10-11 says: “Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold [or refuge], therefore you will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings; In the day you will make your plant to grow, and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish; but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.”
If you continue on in Isaiah, there is a word in Isaiah 46:2 that describes a lot of modern-day preachers: “They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but have themselves gone into captivity.” I believe that to be one of the saddest verses I’ve read of late! And our modern-day preaching problem? It’s, rather than remembering the high calling and ultimate privilege of preaching, some really do forget while others have no history of faithfulness in preaching! And it’s for sure, if a preacher has no history of biblical preaching, he has no meaning to his role as pastor-preacher!
Deuteronomy 8:10-20 needs to be read as if these verses were written to negligent pastors who’ve forgotten the weighty responsibility of ministering to their people faithfully in the Word of God: “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest – when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses [church buildings] and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks [church membership] multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied [tithes and offerings], and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions [demons?] and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end- Then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ [I, I, I, Me, Me, Me]. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth [ to prosper in preaching for His glory alone!!], that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you [preacher] by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, [other gods? Preachers preaching a false gospel and a false word?], I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.”
God never gives up on preachers standing behind the sacred desk! Through Jeremiah 3:15 God gave His people a promise: “And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” But then in Jeremiah 5:1-2 the prophet heard a word from God: “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem [Mumbai, Chennai]; see now and know; and seek in open places IF YOU CAN FIND A MAN, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth to preach God’s truth!], and I will pardon her. Though they say, As the Lord lives,’ surely they swear falsely.” And Jeremiah responded in verse 3: “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.”
I sincerely am afraid that Jeremiah, Old Testament prophet, is spurned and scorned by many preachers today who have forgotten “the prize and privilege of preaching.” I believe Jeremiah wetted the pages of his scroll as he wrote 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.” Jeremiah 9 the prophet said, verse 3, “…[There are those who] are not valiant for the truth on the earth…”
Does God indict preachers in modern days who are not valiant for the truth? If ALL SCRIPTURE is God-breathed, including the book of Jeremiah, read carefully Jeremiah 18:11-12, God spoke: “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah [leaders, teachers, preachers!!] and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem [the holy city, the gathered assembly], saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one [of you straying preachers!] from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.’ And they said, ‘That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates [stubbornness, imagination] of his evil heart.’”
But in the midst of this modern-day madness among many ‘messengers’, there is a word of hope, of grace, and of a blessed future! Jeremiah 20:9 says: Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name,” but His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.”
Sadly, there are many commissioned by God to preach His Word who do not believe that He is interested in guiding, governing, and giving Holy Spirit anointing and leadership in how that pastor is to “feed” His people and faithfully proclaim that Word to the “lost”! The truth is there are those who’ve turned deaf ears toward what God wants to say through them in His Word! It’s also true that many are simply indifferent to the preaching of God’s Word and they paraphrase their preacher-friend’s insights but it’s not that birthed in them by God Himself!
I really want you to approach this chapter with Spirit-dependency, Word consciousness, and a love for preaching and preachers! How is a preacher’s prize and privilege of preaching lost over time and the freshness and faithfulness in preaching forgotten and set aside?
FIRST, FORGETFULNESS IS A CRIPPLING SPIRITUAL DISEASE CAUSED BY A LACK OF SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE. And for the preacher-pastor this is deadly! Listen to what Paul wrote in I Corinthians 9:27! “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” Do you believe the ‘castaway’ spirit produces passionate, Spirit-anointed, life-changing preaching? I don’t think so!
Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5, talked about “this treasure” of Truth and truth that we possess in ‘earthen vessels’, and if our lives are going to be fulfilling rather than forgetful ministries in preaching, then, we need to understand [Verse 10] “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body,” Yes, as we share the Word with those our Lord has put in our trust!
If spiritual discipline daily is not a part of a preacher’s walk, then be assured ‘forgetfulness’ of the prize and privilege flies out of the window of his mind and heart! Well, then, some might ask: “As Paul said, ‘I keep under my body,’ practically, what does that mean?” Again, in 2 Corinthians 5:11 Paul said, “For we who live [we who preach] are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” Yes, preachers are, or should be, daily delivered to death for Jesus’ sake that in their preaching His Voice is heard, His Word is declared, and His conviction finds a fertile heart!
It will never be His Word through us until it’s His Word in us! Preachers prepared to preach His Word faithfully and with fire? Andrew Murray, in “The Believer’s Absolute Surrender,” [Dare I say “The Preacher’s Absolute Surrender”?] [Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis, Minn.: 1985, p.45]. “Please note that this is what man [preacher] was created for – to be a vessel into which God could pour His wisdom, goodness, beauty, and power. That is the heritage of the believer [the preacher]. It is God that makes the seraphim and cherubim flames of fire. The unrestricted glory of God passes through them. They are vessels prepared by God, come from God, that they might let God’s glory shine through them.”
SECOND, FORGETFULNESS OF THE PRIZE AND PRIVILEGE OF PREACHING OCCURS WHEN THE PREACHER IS NOT SPIRIT-FED AND SPIRIT-LED. In I Corinthians 2:3-5 Paul said: “I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 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.”
See if your pulpit preacher can be recognizable in the Spirit-realm of Revelation 4:5 “And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”
The prophet Isaiah really had a word so vital for every preacher to hear: Isaiah 32:13-15 says, “On the land of My people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city; Because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks – UNTIL THE SPIRIT IS POURED UPON US FROM ON HIGH, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.”
Here’s how Oswald Chambers put it in his book “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.251-252], “Never rely on the clearness of your exposition, but as you give your exposition see that YOU are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God’s redemptive power, and He will create His own life in souls.”
Preacher, preachers, you must be so aware that you are the vessel – Jesus and the Holy Spirit are to be the content and overflow of your life, your sermon preparation, and your preaching, always expecting heavenly results! Didn’t Paul say elsewhere, “as though God did beseech you by us?” [2 Corinthians 5:20]. What did Jesus say in John 12:32? “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
As Paul continued training and equipping the church in I Corinthians 2, you must not overlook I Corinthians 2:9-13! 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.” But God has REVEALED THEM TO US THROUGH HIS SPIRIT [HIS HOLY SPIRIT!] For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
Do you not understand that a twelve year old boy, anointed, in-filled with the Holy Spirit, can speak more redemptive wisdom than the preacher with his PhD and no Holy Spirit? ‘Wise’ words apart from the Holy Spirit are just like the spring water you may physically drink, but in those waters there is no existence or experience of “the rivers of living water!!” Didn’t David say in Psalm 87:7, “All my fresh springs are in You”?
THIRD, FORGETFULNESS OF THE PRIZE AND PRIVILEGE IN PREACHING ERUPTS STEADILY BECAUSE OF A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF OUR BATTLE FRONTS. In Isaiah 61:1-3 the prophet received from the Holy Spirit our preaching ministry agenda! “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified.”
Oh, contemplate the heart of God, the mission of God, the intent of God through the coming, the ministry, the death of the world’s only Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth! And consider also that to give allegiance and devotion to Christ Jesus as a preacher is to invite the opposition of Satan himself to come against you full-bore!! It was A.W. Tozer who said: “So, it becomes the devil’s business to keep the Christian’s [the pastors’] spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works [aggressively] that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes. He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead.” How frightening is that? It ought to scare the living hell away from you and from your intent to preach anointed in the Spirit the unsearchable riches of Christ!
Decide right now! NO TOE-HOLD BY SATAN! Decide right now! NO DAY IN WHICH I HAVE LEFT UNDONE DEATH TO SELF THAT THE SPIRIT MIGHT REIGN THROUGH ME IN MY CALLING TO PREACH! I will fulfill the ministry of the anointed Word in Isaiah 61!!
But if I or you or some preacher you know exhibits characteristics, signs, markings, trends, that are opposite Isaiah 61, what do you conclude? John Eldredge in his book “Waking The Dead” wrote: [p.161], “Religion and its defenders have always been the most insidious enemy of the true faith because they are not glaring opponents; they are IMPOSTERS.” You are aware that there are those ‘messengers’ with no redemptive ministry who are nothing more than puppets of the powers of darkness!
Preacher, are you truly converted [born again, born the second time?], have you truly been cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb body, soul, and spirit? Have you consecrated your preaching ministry on His altar of sacrifice? Have you chosen come hell or high waters to preach His Word passionately? Have you yielded to His constant cleansing as needed by His Blood? Do you live in a state of confession of all He is and desires to be through you?
FOURTH, FORGETFULNESS OF THE PRIZE AND PRIVILEGE OF PREACHING OFTEN COMES ABOUT BY A SPIRIT OF ARROGANCE AND CONDEMNATION THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. Job’s friends surely felt they were ‘superior’ in knowledge and understanding, and so, they came against Job unmercifully!
Read carefully Job 6:24-30. “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove? Do you intend to rebuke my words, and the speeches of a desperate one, which are as wind? Yes, you overwhelm the fatherless, and you undermine your friend. Now therefore, be pleased to look at me; for I would never lie to your face. Yield now, let there be no injustice! Yes, concede, my righteousness still stands! Is there injustice on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern the unsavory?”
Have you ever been in on a preacher with ‘windy words’ foreign to the fruit of the Spirit? Have you ever been around that one so in love with himself, so proud of his manhood, so into himself he had no words of comfort for the troubled, so into himself no passion for the lost, so into himself no comprehension of ‘fleshly failures,’ horrible mistakes, ‘yes’, even some bordering on superstitions with no grace, mercy, or love! Sadly, for some preachers there is no fruit of the Spirit and, therefore, no love for the sinners as they are.
Far too many preachers are ‘self-confident’ rather than Holy Spirit dependent! Listen to Spurgeon, [Memorial Library, Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol. 19, pps. 215-216], “Certain persons are very proud because they are self-made men. I will do them credit to admit that they heartily worship their maker. Self made them, and they worship self. We have among us individuals who are self-sufficient, and almost all-sufficient; they sneer at those who do not succeed, for “they” can succeed anywhere at anything. The world to them is a football which they can kick where they like. If they do not rise to the very highest eminence it is simply out of pity to the rest of us, who ought to have a chance. A vat of sufficiency ferments within their ribs!…Self-confidence is the death of confidence in God; reliance upon talent, tact, experience, and things of that kind, kills faith. Oh that we may know what faith means, and so look out of ourselves and quit the evil confidence which looks within!”
You’ll remember Acts 5:19-20! “The angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, ‘Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” Question! “Led by the fruit of the Spirit, do you stand strong and speak to the people all the words of this life?
FIFTH, FORGETFULNESS OF THE PRIZE AND PRIVILEGE OF PREACHING IS OFTEN HINDERED BECAUSE OF ZEALOUSNESS FOR EVERYTHING BUT PREACHING. In the Book of I Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 12, Paul wrote: “Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.”
Preachers, what are you zealous for concerning your oversight of your churches? In Titus 2:14 Paul encouraged Titus and us, “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” Truly, how is your development of New Testament disciples? Think about your ‘equipping ministry’ of the people under your trust and watch-care. In your preaching ministry to the church, what about your zealousness, not your sluggishness, but a true imitation and reproduction, and building up of men, women, boys, and girls, who “through faith and patience, [learn] to inherit the promises?”
Beauchene said it: “You are never a great man when you have more mind than heart.” It could be said: “You are never a great preacher when you mentally approach your people but void of Calvary love!!” Does the Word explain that attitude or approach? Jeremiah 6:14 says: “They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying “Peace, peace!” when there is no peace.” Another translation says: “They dress the wounds of My people as though it were not serious.”Zealousness! Fervency!
To the church at Galatia, Paul put it like this: Galatians 5:24, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Is that your spiritual frame of reference as a preacher? Oswald Chambers, in “My Utmost For His Highest” [p.256], spoke about this verse: “Very few of us debate with the sordid and evil and wrong, but we do debate with the good. It is the good that hates the best, and the higher up you get in the scale of the natural virtues, the more intense is the opposition to Jesus Christ. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh” – it is going to cost the natural in you everything, not something. Jesus said, “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny HIMSELF,” i.e., his right to himself, and a man has to realize WHO JESUS CHRIST IS before he will do it. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.” Does that fit you, Preacher, in your pulpit ministry?
SIXTH, FORGETFULNESS OF THE PRIZE AND PRIVILEGE OF PREACHING IS OFTEN HAMPERED BY THE LOSS OF A TRAVAILING SPIRIT. I’m sure you know the verse in Isaiah 66:8! “For as soon as Zion was in labor, travailing, she gave birth to her children.”
I cannot help but wonder if this is not the problem of most all the preachers of faith wherever they preach in whatever nation they preach! Is there such a characteristic of ‘agony of spirit’ about the Word God that would have you preach out of concern for your hearers? Eruptions of revival fires? Not apart from the labor and travailing spirit of God’s intercessors! Major waves of spiritual growth in your people, Preacher? Not apart from the travailing spirit! Giant spiritual quakes tearing down strongholds in the lives of those around you, Preacher? Not apart from the agony of spirit!
Agony of spirit? Travailing in spirit? Brokenness over the future of those without Christ? Sorrow that pervades your every wakened moment because of the spiritual lost-ness of your citizenry? A weighted mind and heart because of Satan’s delusions capturing family, friends, and foes?
Inactivity in touching our world with grace, indifference to our world’s ultimate destiny apart from Christ, insensitivity to even the spiritual dilemma of our own children and grandchildren and their friends and classmates, blindness and deafness to their separation from God, cold heartedness to the condition and future of Men without Christ? Where have we come to as preachers, churches, or disciples of Christ? Oh, we’re good at the band-aid approach when what is needed are heart transplants!!
What did God say through Jeremiah concerning, yes, His preachers of Today? Jeremiah 2:12-13!! “Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,” says the Lord. “For My people [preachers] have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
If God “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds,” what are preachers doing today with their travailing spirits or lack of them? Do you even know, comprehend, understand the weight of pain God Himself has carried concerning the lostness of fallen humanity, the pain He has had to carry concerning those who are separated from Him, and what did God do? His Son, our Savior, came and willingly travailed and suffered AT THE CROSS for their salvation! Jesus came and “gave His life [on the Cross] as a ransom for many.” [Matthew 20:28].
I pray that you as a preacher of the Gospel are not captured by a ‘care-less’ attitude in your preaching ministry! I pray that you as a preacher of the Gospel are one who has laid down your life as Jesus did His! I pray that you, if you have to stand alone, WILL stand alone, preach His Word passionately and lay your life down for the salvation of your people! I pray, with Paul, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” [Ephesians 1:18].
CHAPTER EIGHT
FORGOTTEN? FIG-LEAF RELIGION IS NOT A FAITH RELATIONSHIP?
Deceivableness is a major outbreak of spiritual sickness, blindness, unrighteousness, releasing all manners of man-made religious activity that carries men and women further away from God and they don’t even know they are hiding from true redemption. When you think about deception and its origin among men, only one look is explainable, and that is at the source of deception which is the devil himself!
How easy to lose track of the road of redemption, reconciliation, regeneration, or re-birth! And, of course, because our enemy is a step ahead plotting our demise concerning true redemption! I know that you haven’t forgotten what Jesus said in John 10:10! “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, and have it to the full.” Satan isn’t interested in your blessing – he wants you captured in your ‘curse’!
Our Lord and Savior faced the onslaught of Satanic opposition just as we all do. There even came a time when Satan backed away from our Lord for a more opportune time. He left Jesus “for a season.” Satan’s one desire is to frustrate, deny, cover over both Christ’s and your divine purpose, intention, and holy will. Yes, even substitutions of the real truth will do for your sinister opponent!
Can you translate Adam and Eve out of the garden and put yourself there for a moment? They were God’s creation! They WERE man and wife! They were both naked there, and not ashamed! In Genesis 3 the serpent who is Satan came to Eve first to say, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” Eve responded that what the serpent said contradicted what God told them, but his intent is to cast doubt in all our lives concerning the TRUTH of the Word of God!
Eve said, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of THE TREE which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.” And the devil’s response? “You surely shall not die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When Eve saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of that fruit and ate. She then gave some to her husband and he ate. Then what happened?
Please examine carefully Genesis 3:7-9! Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed FIG LEAVES together and MADE THEMSELVES COVERINGS. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
Think about what God just said to Adam! Do you really believe God didn’t know where Adam was or was God probing Adam to alert himself concerning his present spiritual condition? Was God’s question drawing two pictures?: 1) Genesis 2:25, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” 2) Then, hiding from God’s presence, because now they were ashamed!! Satan, sin, sad choices left them in a spiritual dilemma, and they determined they had to take matters into their own hands!
You do realize that this picture drawn by Adam and Eve in the earliest days of their “Fall” away from God is given by the grace of God to alert us all about the danger of believing our “fig-leaves” are a true faith relationship! “Fig-Leaf Religions” are men’s inventions to take redemption into their own hands, their own way, determining for themselves how to be acceptable before Holy God! I’m sorry if it irritates you, but, Christianity, biblical Christianity, is not a ‘religion’ but a relationship! I look at Romans 5:8 and wonder, how deceived were Adam and Eve and the founders of world religions when the heart of God has always been out for a relationship – not religions founded by men? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
And then in Romans 5:9-11 we see ‘Relationship’ because of reconciliation! “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.” Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, who has torn away our “fig leaves” and given us, by His grace, mercy, and love, a Living, Breathing Relationship!
Do you remember Jesus weeping over Jerusalem? Luke 19:41-44 tells us about this “religious city”! Now as He [Jesus] drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, BECAUSE YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION.”
‘Hidden from your eyes?’ Has ‘Fig-Leaf Religion’ or religions, become the stumbling block to true redemptive faith? For the Jewish city of Jerusalem it was “the pride of Pharisaism” that shut the door to many hearts concerning saving faith – and that spirit still exists all over the world! Millions flock to their “religious cities”, holy places, sacred sights – and go away from, not toward, Holy God!
In reading Oswald Chambers’ “My Utmost..”, I came across words of a verse of a hymn: “Since my eyes have looked on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit’s vision, Gazing on the Crucified.” I might ask: “How are you dressed? Fig-Leaves or Redemptive Faith?
Later, Chambers wrote: [p.69], “We can never fathom the agony in Gethsemane, but at least we need not misunderstand it. It is the agony of God and Man in one, face to face with sin. We know nothing about Gethsemane in personal experience. Gethsemane and Calvary stand for something unique [I could say, eternal!]; they are the gateway into Life for us.” Understand? Fig-leaves are statements about spiritual death, false religions, empty results – redemptive Faith is the shed blood of Christ Jesus on the Cross in our stead birthing Life, Faith, Hope, Relationship, Fulfillment – not emptiness and self-awareness of: “I’m empty, lost, separated from God; I better do something about my spiritual condition!”
“Fig-Leaf Religion” is the scheme of self-help, self-importance, self-abilities, self-enhancement, totally ignoring “saving grace”! It was Daniel Yankelovich, in his book, “New Rules: Searching for Self-fulfillment in a World Turned Upside Down,” [New York: Random House, 1981, p.237], who wrote: “the human self can be wholly autonomous, solitary, contained and ‘self-created.” Let me paraphrase it: “the religious self can be wholly autonomous [and is!], solitary [separated from God], contained [selfishly harbored and protected for what I believe to be religious faith], and ‘self-created’, [a religious work of art by my own hand!]”
“Fig-Leaf Religion” is the absence of God from spiritual life and the insertion of man’s own abilities to correct, enhance, and shine out his amazing spiritual skills to recover on his own!
“Fig-Leaf Religion” is man-centered – not God-centered, believing man is able, on his own, to do exceedingly abundantly above all he sets his mind to!
“Fig-Leaf Religion” is man loving himself so much that he doesn’t have to look beyond his own nose to help himself – he’s a true ‘self-lover’ so opposite of what Jesus said in John 12:25! “He who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.”
“Fig-Leaf Religion” is man serving himself with himself only in view, but Jesus Himself said in John 12:26 “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me,” when self-serving religion is devotion to one’s self, not devotion to the claims of Christ!
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? That’s all-out total absorption in one’s self-awareness, fleshly abilities, yes, even worth and value wrapped up in the cheap tissues of religious activities when Jesus says to us through what Paul learned: Philippians 3:7-8, “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.”
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? Haven’t you heard it? “If Christ died for the ungodly, then what relevance is that to me? I’m Okay, you’re okay, we’re all okay!” Across our modern world how rampant do you believe ‘self-importance’ has become, even to the point of ignoring God Himself to establish one’s own ‘religious identity’ apart from repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ?
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? Rules, regulations, rituals, reaching for What Cannot Be Obtained, opposite of ‘rest,’ ‘rejuvenation,’ regeneration, restoration of God’s eternal intent, standing on the record of our Lord’s ‘finished work,’ not our best efforts!
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? Bondage to the devil and the powers of darkness! Satan loves ‘religious’ people because he knows they are in his camp whether they know it or not! But true faith, true relationship with Holy God? Hebrews 2:14-15 says: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself [Jesus] likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Are you aware that ‘religious’ activity equals bondage and no freedom?
“Fig-Leaf Religion?” An earthly, fleshly, selfish attempt to ‘save’ one’s self by ‘doing better’ but never coming to the end of one’s self in the crucifixion with Christ at the Cross! “Crucified with Christ? That doesn’t compute with me! I can take care of myself – I’m a religious person!” Oh, really? It was Abraham Kuyper who once said: “There is not an inch of any sphere of life over which Jesus Christ does not say, ‘Mine.’” Are you His or are you ‘yours’?
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? “Slaves of sin, chained to slave masters, convinced ‘I am what I am, I am where I am, I do what I do’, because this appears to be a normal way of life for most folks,” when in reality Jesus came to totally set us free, then gladly and willingly chained to Christ, I “serve” out of a new heart of joy and gladness and divine fulfillment that honors my Lord and Savior!
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? “Earning! That’s what religious activity is all about! Self-discernment about what is right and good! That’s what a religious person is up to! Rightly taking care of number one, me, is truly beneficial activity [when on the Cross Jesus took our best and worst and put it all to death!].”
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? “Don’t concern yourself about my spiritual condition. It’s A-OK! I joined First Church last Sunday!” Really? Our ‘Christian’ world now defines the ‘Second Birth’ as joining the church, adding my name to the church rolls, showing up occasionally to verify I’m on board?”
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? ‘You really, Pastor, shouldn’t be down on people because they sin, but now that deacon of yours, Joe Blow, you may think he’s a holy, righteous, godly man, but I see him as an abomination to the Lord.” Oh, really? Proverbs 17:5 says: [RSV translation!] “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord,” but, remember, “Fig-Leaf Religion” is so valuable to some while the ‘Faith-Walk’ is abhorrent to them!
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? It is that drive that what matters is one’s devotion to make a better world around us without any consideration or motivation of the ‘eternal’ or our residency in heaven one day! The Christian faith is centered on the here and now as well as beyond the grave! “Fig-Leaf” people, sadly, are motivated by what goes on in their ‘flesh,’ in the ‘here and now,’ but bristle when a true believer suggests as great a devotion to eternity as their present reality! Could that fleshly, fig-leaf mind-set be “saving one’s life, but losing his soul”?
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? “Accumulation, accumulation, accumulation! A man’s life does consist in what he accumulates! It shows he’s favored by God “– when in reality Jesus said in Luke 12:15, “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions!” What did Paul write to the church at Rome and us in Romans 8:5-6? “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 [fleshly] minded is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? “I cannot believe that your pastor and church elders really believe that they need to deal with or discipline Brother So & So. That is so unlike Jesus or God on His throne!” Yet Hebrews 12:5-11 says: “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise 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 with 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.”
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? “Those Christians, those fanatical preachers, those misinformed Bible teachers, are so off base when they talk about ‘fearing God’! Why, I believe I’m His best friend – and there is no fear in me!” Yet the Bible I read tells me that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” [Psalm 111:10]. I read in Psalm 34:7 that “The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him, and delivers them.” Was Jesus so unwise, untaught, off base about ‘fearing God’? I read in Matthew 10:28, Jesus speaking, teaching, enlightening, His disciples: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? Can’t you hear it? “Those Christians! They really believe that, because of this Jesus’ shed blood, that God calls on them to live pure, holy, clean, unstained lives. Well, I believe that I can’t do anything but sin until I get to heaven someday or find myself waking up in some paradise of purity and holiness – I know I’ll never be fully pure!” Yet, we’ve already seen in Titus 2:14 that God’s, YES, Holy Word says: “[Christ] gave Himself for us to redeem us…and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” I’m not sure that the one who says he can’t do anything but sin has ever read passionately God’s Holy Word! In Romans 6:1-14 we read one of the most liberating passages of God’s Holy Word that exposes the “Fig-Leaf Religion” concept you just read about! It says: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? “ Suffering? Trouble? Tribulation? Heartache? Tears? That may be what you sense is in your path as a religious man/woman, but religious faith that really means something in the life here and now is a life void of all pain and heartache – that’s what I sense!” But does that line up with the Lord of our salvation? In John 16:33 Jesus said: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. IN THE WORLD YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
I’m not sure that you know of Samuel Rutherford, but you should learn all you can by this brilliant minister and teacher of humanities at the University of Edinburgh in the 1600’s. He received a theology degree also and later pastored a church at Anworth in the year of 1627. From church history you may have read about the Episcopalians rising up to rule over the Scottish church. Rutherford was a nonconformist and, as a result of that, was imprisoned. He learned such strong, eternal, life-changing truths while in jail!! E.M. Bounds quoted him in “Heaven: A Place, a City, a Home,” [Grand Rapids: Baker House, 1975, p.13]. Don’t miss this!! Hear it!!:
“If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose. And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! For if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps, and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.” God’s ways ARE NOT the ways of “Fig-Leaf Religion”!!
How did Habakkuk respond about this, in agreement with Rutherford? Habakkuk 3:17-18 says: “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls – Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” WOW!!**!!
“Fig-Leaf Religion”? “This concept that God knows us all personally, intimately, and practically has a special plan for every life is so unnecessary, so unfounded! He’s a Big God with an overview of all – knowing us personally is so unfounded!” Really? In Romans 1:5-6 Paul wrote: “Through Him [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…”
In his book, “The Power of the Call,” [p.35], Henry Blackaby wrote: “God Himself CHOSE US, CALLED US IN HIS TIME, and separated us out FOR HIMSELF. As clearly as God separated from all other days and sanctified the seventh day [set it apart for Himself, Genesis 3:3] and commanded it to be “the Sabbath of the Lord your God” [Exodus 20:10], so God set you apart from all others – for Himself!!” Glory! Hallelujah! God be praised! God be Blessed and Exalted! He’s not the author of “Fig-Leaf Religion” but the author of “FAITH BLESSED RELATIONSHIPS”!! AMEN?
As I close this chapter, I would fail you miserably if I did not point out to you that in the wanderings of Adam and Eve in the “Fig-Leaves”, God showed up!! “Where are you, Adam?” God knew – but it was time for Adam to come to his spiritual senses and rest himself and his bride at the throne of God where grace, mercy, and love resides!
CHAPTER NINE
FORGOTTEN? WE ALL HAVE AN ENEMY?
I don’t know if you are familiar with Leif Enger – I wasn’t – but I saw a statement he wrote that spurred me on into this chapter. He said: “We and the world, my children, will always be at war. Retreat is impossible. Arm yourselves.” Certainly, mankind has had an enemy called the ‘devil,’ Satan, the serpent, since the day of Creation of man and woman in the Garden when he came to Eve calling God ‘a liar.’ And ‘the serpent’ hasn’t changed but fallen humanity has, yes, and bought into his ‘lie’ and still suffers from the consequences of a cruel spiritual war!
Have you ever heard this from blinded, deluded, captured by Satan individuals? “Evil isn’t real – it’s the result of mental illness!” “The demonic or demons aren’t real – it’s mental illness!” “The devil or Satan isn’t real – he’s a disjointed, convoluted figure of ‘Christian’ delusional thinking!” “The powers of darkness? That’s nothing more than ‘self-imposed,’ personal choices of ‘less-than-my-best’!” “Sin? That’s only personal failures that make us stronger over the long haul – nothing deadly about that!”
But let me hit this theme head-on: John 10:10, Jesus Himself said, “The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Savior and Lord] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full [maximum intensity God wants us all to have].” But there is a thief, a robber, a deceiver, a killer of God-ordained hopes and dreams in too many lives – mostly because they’ve never done battle, warfare, spiritual attacks against their enemy!
It’s really a bit of intellectual brain-deadness to say that demon-activity is reserved for ‘primitive people’ or ‘the educationally deprived’! Or, yes, to say ‘there is no devil’ or ‘Satan’ or that the armies of Hell are not real or surrounding us for attacks on us and our families! It doesn’t matter to me if you’re in the darkest area of Africa spiritually or the most modern, up-to-date city in the U.S.A – the old serpent is comfortable in any surroundings!
I will not forget being in a major mountain city up from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Mark and Colleen Handy were with me along with Billy Graham Paulose, son of Moses Paulose of Rameswaram, India. After the day’s seminar had finished, we’d had dinner, and were ready for bed; as we got our hotel room keys, the lady-manager, who was from England, said to me: “I know you are Christians and you minister spiritually to the needy. One of my hotel house-cleaners has a spiritual need. Could you help her?” I said, “When she comes to work in the morning make sure her husband is with her, and send them to my room.” The team met there early to pray before we started the day’s seminar. The worker came with her husband – she barely had gotten into the room before she “fell out”! We all knew it was demonic – that her enemy, the devil, wanted to disable or kill this woman. I began to pray, to take authority over the controlling demons of this troubled woman, and I gave the demons a command in the Name of Jesus to come out this lady! Immediately, though this lady knew no English, never spoken English, out of her mouth a strong male voice spoke in English saying, “We don’t have to come out and we’re not coming out!” The battle intensified, but those demons came out of the woman, she was healed, came to Christ, and left the hotel room rejoicing in Jesus.” Later, Billy Graham Paulose said to me, “Papa, that’s the first demon I’ve ever heard speak English here in India!!” For some, India may seem ‘primitive’, but I’ve witnessed demons coming out of highly educated Americans also.
It absolutely amazes me that here in America there are those who sadly believe that Jesus was only adapting Himself to the limited thought patterns of His day, and He went along to get along. GOD FORBID! There was no accommodation on Jesus’ part – only commitment to dethrone the ‘god’ of this fallen world – Satan! In I John 5:19 John wrote, “The whole world lies under the power of the evil one.” But the one thing you will learn right here is that the shed blood of our Lord and Savior has erased the sting or bite of the serpent who wants you dead – we’re, in Christ, recipients of resurrection life and hope – and our Lord has defanged our enemy!
There is a powerful word of instruction in Isaiah 52:1-2 for Jerusalem then and the people of Jesus NOW! It says: “Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust, arise; sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!” Notice: “Put on your strength [that’s Jesus!]; put on your beautiful garments [His robe of righteousness!]; Shake yourself from the dust [defeated demons because of Jesus’ shed blood!]; Loose yourself [Taking the authority Jesus has given you!]!!” In Christ, you ARE “more than conqueror!!”
From the Garden of Eden to the heartland of America, from the Garden of Eden to busy streets all over Europe, from the Garden of Eden to the over-populated streets of Asian cities, from the Garden of Eden to the dark corners of Africa, those armies of Hell itself are armed to capture, enslave, bind, suffocate, mar, maim, cripple, put to sleep, steal, blind, and, yes, claim you for the citizenry of darkness! Look at Revelation 12:7-9!! “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 were cast out with him.”
I pray that you please hear me, give heed to God’s Word, and also look across our known world to the devastation your Enemy leaves behind in his movements in lives, families, cities, and nations! Revelation 12:12b says: “For the devil has come down TO YOU, having great wrath [fury, anger], because he knows that he has a short time.” I so love and appreciate what John Eldredge had to say in his book “Waking The Dead,” [Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 2003, p.152], “To live in ignorance of spiritual warfare is the most naïve and dangerous thing a person can do.”
Eldredge then quoted William Gurnall: “The devil has more temptations than an actor has costumes for the stage. And one of his all-time favorite disguises is that of a lying spirit, to abuse your tender heart with the worst news he can deliver – that you do not really love Jesus Christ and that you are only pretending, you are only deceiving yourself.”
Disguises? It’s so amazing to me that Paul was used of our Lord and Savior in challenging us to be discerning on our spiritual journeys. He said in 2 Corinthians 11:14, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light,” requiring every earthly citizen to walk in spiritual discernment! There is a War going on for every human soul and especially believers as Satan wants us disarmed. This is why Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” That’s Satan’s kingdom of darkness – He hates the Light and those who dwell in the Light!
In I Peter 5:8-10 are encouraging words, at least for the one who knows he’s in a war for his soul! It says: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour [swallow up]; whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.” Peter said his intent is to :devour” you; but he’ll seek to deceive you, disillusion you, defeat you, disarm you, decay you, depress you, denounce your faith, detour you away from your only hope!
Adrian Rogers, before his death, wrote a book on “Kingdom Authority,” and in it he wrote: “Satan is a consummate liar, and he is spiritually wicked, brilliantly stupid, and hideously beautiful. He wants to pull the veil of darkness over his activities. For a while he may persuade sophisticates that he does not exist at all. They think of him as a mythological character or in the comic sense as a little guy in a red suit with a pitchfork trying to catch somebody bending over.” [B&H Publ Group, Nashville, Tn. 2002, p.6]. Do you understand? Do you sense it in what you see happening all around you with some family members, maybe your own parents, close friends, classmates, government leaders, business leaders, the movie industry, the nation? And you, they, society in general, are unaware that Satan thrives on darkness, destruction, disease, dying, death! What did we see about ‘the thief’ in John 10:10? “The thief comes not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”
Satan was cast out of heaven because he chose to be his own boss! Have you? He would not be ruled over, led by, or even blessed by God! Cast out of heaven? Because he loved the indecent, the impure, the dirty, unclean, immoral! Your enemy thrives on spiritual sickness and sadness! He’s blessed by those who allow personal torment and paralyzing acts to guide their daily lives for a ‘bigger kick’ than they received yesterday from their own debauchery instigated by Satan! Oh, how he thrives on the breaking up of meaningful relationships, yes, especially where ‘church splits’ divide, separate, usually disillusioning some! Marriages and families are primary “fronts” of attacks! [I had lunch with our church’s Youth Minister recently, and sadly he told me, I believe, that eleven or twelve of the young boys in his youth group had no fathers around them!] Satan is filled with hatred of Christ and Christ’s children of faith! He despises it all!
And the one thing I want you to grasp, Frederick Buechner said it so well: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Concerning our Lord and Savior, concerning eternal purpose, concerning lives of blessing – so many are deprived, denied, yes, even enslaved in dark cells of demonic activity, because Satan is not interested in those around you, blinded by him, that there is another Way – where you are, with whom you relate, God has placed you there to let them know ‘freedom in Christ’, yes, from demonic activity!!
It was C.S Lewis who once said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” And you see not only Christ’s finished work at the Cross – you see the prison cells of life where many ARE enslaved by the demon powers! But the sad thing is that many Christians ignore the ministry of caring that Jesus daily exemplified including “deliverance” of many from the clutches of Satan’s hold! Certainly George Bernard Shaw was not a believing disciple of Christ but he sadly nailed the church-at-large when he said: “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity.” But too many ‘believers’ are so fragile when it comes to outreach opportunities among the spiritually enslaved to the powers of darkness because their situation and circumstance is beyond the disciple’s ability to help – but the problem is not one’s inability but his availability to all Jesus IS!! And He’s the Deliverer!!
I found it so very, very interesting and convicting in reading what John Stott had to say in his book, “Human Rights and Human Wrongs [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1999, pps.83-84]. He wrote: “Our Christian habit is to bewail the world’s deteriorating standards with an air of rather self-righteous dismay. We criticize its violence, dishonesty, immorality, disregard for human life, and materialistic greed. “The world is going down the drain,” we say with a shrug. But whose fault is it? Who is to blame? Let me put it like this. If the house is dark when nightfall comes, there is no sense in blaming the house; that is what happens when the sun goes down. The question to ask is, “Where is the light?” Similarly, if the meat goes bad and becomes inedible, there is no sense in blaming the meat; that is what happens when bacteria are left alone to breed. The question to ask is “Where is the salt?” Just so, if society deteriorates and its standards decline until it becomes dark night or stinking fish, there is no sense in blaming society; that is what happens when fallen men and women are left to themselves, and human selfishness is unchecked. The question to ask is, “Where is the Church? Why are the salt and light of Jesus Christ not permeating and changing our society?” It is sheer hypocrisy on our part to raise our eyebrows, shrug our shoulders, or wring our hands. The Lord Jesus told us to be the world’s salt and light. If therefore darkness and rottenness abound, it is largely our fault and we must accept the blame.” And sadly I don’t see too many ‘church-folk’ invading a demonized society with Jesus’ promise of liberty and freedom!!
And I have no hesitation in reminding you of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words: “Action springs not from thought, but a readiness for responsibility.”
Plus, C.S. Lewis really shared insightful words when he 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.” And you’re unsure whether Christ and His Word has enlightened you as to the ministry of deliverance concerning the Satanic, demonic world you encounter just about every day? God’s Holy Word has shown us, revealed to us, opened the door to us, in understanding the “Distressing Disguises” the Devil himself tries to dress us with, but Jesus exposed and won the victory over “them” through His shed blood at Calvary’s Cross!
Luke 9:42 tells us: “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.” WHAT A WORD OF HOPE!
In Revelation 12:11 never forget this Word as you step out and step on the battlefield against Christ’s and His enemy, Satan: “And they overcame him [the Devil and Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
“DISTRESSING DISGUISES?” Satan casts doubt on the Word of God, but we do know “All Scripture is God-breathed…!!!” Satan is a stickler for legalism apart from grace, mercy, and love. Satan confesses to ‘Lies’ – not to the Truth! Satan twists the Truth [ask Eve!] and misuses Scripture to what he believes is his advantage! Satan fights, wars, for what he “thinks” is his; Satan induces bitter souls to end sadness before they find “joy”, giving his approval to any and all who will take their own lives! Satan is the master of anxiety, worry, fear, discouragement, and sin! Satan majors on shifts of spiritual eye-contact – always away from God, from His Word, from Jesus, majoring on your ‘short-sightedness’ about our Lord’s eternal purpose for that person! Satan majors on thorns, briers, unplowed fields of the human heart and mind, unseeded fields void of the seeds of His Holy Word! But there is:
“DIVINE GRACE”!! I John 5:18 says: “We know that whosoever is born of God [Second Birth, John 3] sins not; but he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one touches him not.” And that happens because as Paul said in Ephesians 4:26-27, Be angry and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither give place to the devil.” And didn’t James say that if we submit ourselves to God, RESIST the devil, that he will flee from us? James 4:7. Divine Grace CONQUERS !!
I want to close this chapter With Adrian Rogers’ conclusion to his book on “Kingdom Authority”!! He wrote:
*Rather than “Lord, be with us,” pray, “Father, we welcome Your presence.”
*Rather than “Lord, give us victory,” pray, “Lord, you are our victory. I thank you to cause us always to triumph.”
*Rather than “Lord, defeat Satan,” pray, “Lord, I thank you that Satan has been defeated by your shed blood.”
* Rather than “Lord, give me strength,” pray, “Lord, you are my strength, shield, and deliverer.”
*Rather than “Lord, help me to be a better servant,” pray, “Lord, I consciously yield myself to you. I report to duty.”
I encourage you, in spiritual warfare against Satan and his armed forces, RESIST him in the name of Jesus, resist him through Jesus’ shed blood, resist him, yes, because you love your life in Christ even to the point of death if necessary for the honor of your Savior and Lord alone!! To the devil, Satan himself, if he comes to you, speak the words of Jesus, the victory of Jesus at the Cross and empty tomb, and stand on His promises that in Him YOU are more than conqueror!
CHAPTER TEN
FORGOTTEN?CHILDREN OF FAITH ARE DISCIPLINED BY THE LORD?
I know for those who are intimately acquainted with New Testament discipleship that they are not unfamiliar with New Testament ‘discipline’ as they journey on in the pathway of faith and faithfulness, but ‘youngsters’ in the faith sometimes are those, yes, like little children learning the discipline of caring parents. Our ‘walk with God’ IS an intimate relationship like Parent to a growing child, and that does include spiritual disciplining just as much as true parental disciplining! Aren’t you aware of ‘friends’ in the faith whose walks fail to exemplify ‘trained disciple’ but picture tragically untrained pilgrimages, untrained hopes and dreams of usefulness to the glory of Christ, even possibly resenting even any mention that true faith is founded on true faithfulness birthed out of steady, scriptural disciplines?
To the young or immature disciple of the Lord Jesus, spiritual discipline seems to make no sense to them because they’ve fallen for the idea that “common sense” is their guide! They are smart enough to decipher for themselves what is good or bad, what is holy or unholy, what is right or wrong – but in John 16:12-14 Jesus said: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”
Now, please notice, wrestle with, decipher what God is saying to YOU through Hebrews 12:5-13! “And have you FORGOTTEN the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise 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 with 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. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.’”
Notice, ‘dislocation’. Have you ever known the pain ‘dislocation’ brings? In the Spirit-realm that’s to be without discipline! What about lameness? What about feeble knees? What about illegitimacy? What about weakness? No discipline means careless, fruitless, short-sighted living, apart from that God desires you to have! Our Lord and Savior is not interested in seeing anyone with hands hanging down, feeble knees, or crooked paths! He wants you strong in Him walking straight paths to His glory, honor, and praise! Undisciplined living spiritually for any man opens the door to drastic erosion like the physical erosion seen in Florida or California shorelines! It can be explosive ‘sinkings’ in the spirit-realm leaving some to ask, “Is there any hope?” For some there is no hope for them because they bought in to a “false gospel” producing deception, disillusionment, unrealized spiritual dreams, because that “false gospel” related to self-effort, self-assertiveness, self-fulfillment, and self-glory, and no biblical directive of “the way of salvation.” Sheep are willing to be led – sadly donkeys usually have to be driven!
The donkeys of undisciplined lifestyles are described in Psalm 147:10 where the psalmist wrote: “He [God] does not delight in the strength of the horse; He [God] takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.” That’s the one standing “on his own” in no need of saving grace or mercy! Then verse 11 says, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy.” The undisciplined ‘donkey-style’ of life misses our Lord’s mercy and grace, but sheep have the Shepherd they’re willing to be led by! And God gives those a promise: Isaiah 45:2-3, “I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” Amen?
Have you FORGOTTEN His exhortation? Have you forgotten children of faith ARE disciplined by the Lord? How does that happen? Why does it happen?
I BELIEVE THE FORGETFULNESS OUR LORD SPOKE ABOUT IS BECAUSE OF AN ALLEGIANCE TO SELF, THE FLESH, THE ‘OLD MAN’ IN FALLEN ADAM BECAUSE OF A REFUSAL TO DENY SELF. In Matthew 16:24 Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
A lot of people across the world ‘follow Christ,’ but refuse the cross, and certainly have no plans at all in denying self! Our Lord and Savior said in Matthew 10:32-33, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”
Do you remember the passage where Jesus described those on “His right hand,” and also “those on His left hand”? It’s Matthew 25: 31-34, 41-46! May the Holy Spirit of God open all eyes who read this passage! Verses 31-36, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 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…Verses 41-46, Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
The “Forgotten Exhortation” of Hebrews 12 starts with verse one which is your challenge right now! “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.”
Oswald Chambers wrote in his “My Utmost For His Highest,”, [pps.257-258], “The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-assertiveness. It is the continual assertion of individuality that hinders our spiritual life more than anything else. If you say – “I cannot believe,” it is because individuality is in the road; individuality never can believe. Personality cannot help believing. Watch yourself when the Spirit of God is at work. He pushes you to the margins of your individuality, and you have either to shall – “I shall not,” or to surrender, to break the husk of individuality and let the personal life emerge. The Holy Spirit narrows it down every time to one thing [Matthew 5:23-24], “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” The thing in you that will not be reconciled to your brother is individuality. God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself He cannot. “Let him deny himself” – deny his independent right to himself, then the real life has a chance to grow.”
I BELIEVE THE FORGETFULNESS OUR LORD SPOKE ABOUT IS ALSO BECAUSE MOST WALK AWAY FROM GOD – NOT TOWARD HIM. In Genesis 5:24 there is a very simple yet declarative verse. It says: “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.”
If you have any doubt or doubts about a man’s faith or not, just examine his walk! Examining a man, consider the mundane experience of every-day living, not simply when the “religious spotlight” is shining on him! If you look at Hebrews 11:5 you see another word about Enoch. It says: “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him ; for before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
It is so interesting and thrilling and challenging to me as I read John 1:36 which says: “And looking at Jesus as He walked, John said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” As Jesus was known by His walk as well as His word, so, true disciples reveal their devotion to their own watch-care over their walks. But too many ‘fallen men’ spiritually refuse to walk toward or with God. Independence is the rule of their every step, yet think of Peter in Matthew 14:29, who “walked on the water to go to Jesus!”
Jude had been talking about “ungodly sinners” who speak against Jesus, and then said in Jude 16, “These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts…” John said it like this in I John 2:11, “But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” And do you understand – for some they could care less that they’ve chosen darkness and missed the True Light!
I call the Psalms “The Story of Authenticity!” And it begins with Psalm 1: “Blessed is the 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. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. 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 [the walk] of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
I BELIEVE ALSO THE FORGETFULNESS OUR LORD SPOKE ABOUT IS THE WRESTLING AND WARFARE GOING ON IN ONE’S MIND THAT THEY SELFISHLY ALLOW TO WIN OUT OVER THE TRUTH OF GOD. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul made mention of those who are, yes, even presently having to: “cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…” Isn’t it sad to you that even ‘religion’ in men’s minds become stumbling blocks to the True Faith?
There is no hesitation in saying to you that redemptive faith majors on the heart, but often the ‘mind’ of fallen men put up strong roadblocks to keep one penetrating their hearts. Morally men oppose the Gospel and forget the Gospel, but mentally the ‘brain-washing’ process is just as dangerous excusing the filthiness of mind, flesh, and spirit as “the price I pay to be free to please and satisfy myself”!
How did Paul put it to the Corinthians? I Corinthians 2:14, “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.”
Didn’t God say through one of His prophets, “My thoughts are not your thoughts”? And, sadly, you do know that one of the great ‘sins’ of fallen humanity is insubordination toward God and His Word!?!?
In Philippians 2:5-8 by His Word God challenges all through Paul: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
Our example of a yielded mind? “Yes, God, even to the point of dying,” and, as result many say, “That’s not my mind-set!”
FORGETFULNESS? FATAL FORGETFULNESS? “IF GOD EXPECTS ME TO DEAL WITH WHAT IS IN MY LIFE THAT OFFENDS HIM OR HINDERS MY SPIRITUAL GROWTH, FORGET IT, I’M NOT INTERESTED!” Are you familiar with Matthew 5:30? Jesus said: “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
What in the world was our Lord saying? He was saying that nothing, not even your right hand, was important enough in your life if it caused you to miss or forfeit “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” That was not an edict for all smart spiritual people to go cut off their right hand! But that right hand is not more valuable to you than relationship to Christ! Except that it is true for many because they place no value on knowing Christ – they are saviors of all they deem important for themselves!
Do you remember Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead? You’ll find the story in John 11 as Jesus had ministered to Martha about resurrection life. Jesus spoke, “Lazarus, come forth!” And verse 44 says, “And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” How many have crossed your path disinterested in your testimony because they are comfortable in their ‘grave-clothes’ and have no desire to hear about the One who sets captives free! Comfort in grave-clothes? No interest in removing deathly consequences?
Paul passionately wrote to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 7:1-3, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one. I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.” Perfecting holiness? Forget it! Seeing myself cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit? Perfecting holiness in the fear of God in me? Forget it! Open my heart to others like Paul? Forget it! Choosing death daily that I might experience resurrection life in its fullness? Forget it!”
FORGETFULNESS? “COMMIT TO DISCIPLINE SO FRUIT WILL COME THROUGH ME HONORING CHRIST?” “The free gift of God in Christ has personal responsibility tied to it to be a fruit-producer that honors Him? I don’t think so. Hard ground in me has to be plowed, the soil of my life enriched, good seed planted, watering with the water of His Word, waiting for a crop? I believe I’ll pass!”
Peter had been talking about one being a partaker of the divine nature – and in 2 Peter 1:5-11 he said: “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has FORGOTTEN that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, 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.”
Please check the eighth verse again! “For if these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Oswald Chambers was so on target! In “My Utmost…” he said: [p.96], “When we begin to form a habit we are conscious of it. There are times when we are conscious of becoming virtuous and patient and godly, but it is only a stage; if we stop there we shall get the strut of the spiritual prig.” Well, that’s true of some, but others are of the attitude and frame of reference, “I don’t want to be a fruitful field for God!” and they mean it!
FORGETFULNESS? “THE NECESSITY OF SPIRIT-ANOINTED LIVING? I’M NOT IN CONTROL? I BELIEVE I’LL PASS.” In Luke 24:49 Jesus said: “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.”
I don’t know how anyone could casually read through the Book of Acts and not be excited about Spirit-Anointed Living! A few disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, turned their known world upside down, inside out!
Receiving the ministry of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for every man Jesus loves and wants to breathe into His spiritual breath of life, but with some people in some places the Holy Spirit is not welcome when His one desire is to quicken Christ in us and empower us to overcome! Don’t reject the Holy Spirit! Don’t refuse His desire to bless you as He convicts you of sin, righteousness and the judgment to come!
Rather than forget, ignore, deny the Holy Spirit, why not say, right now, “Oh, Holy Spirit, I welcome you right now to honor Jesus IN ME and THROUGH ME. I yield to your desire to bless me ‘in Christ,’ I yield to your desire to cover me and crown me in Your anointing, empowering me to honor Christ rather than refuse His saving grace, mercy, and love. Fill me, Holy Spirit, with power divine – I’m tired of my impotence that does nothing redemptive in me or through me. Amen!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FORGOTTEN? MARRIAGE: A CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND BLESSING?
FORGOTTEN? When you look at our modern America and, yes, our world-at-large, concerning home and family, have we fatalistically been wrapped in a futile hope of something good and lasting being restored or will we be fully wrapped in the “Blessed Hope” of Faith and Fulfillment in families – or do we just settle in to marriage being ‘forgotten’ as God ordained it to be?
I’m sincerely afraid that for far too many homes and families biblical marriage, home and family have been set aside, or, at least for a period of time, ‘masquerading’ as if everything is A-OK in our ‘house’. Has America forgotten its biblical roots concerning marriage?
Are we pulled, pressured, paralyzed by a perilous secular society, sin-ladened, which it and us in the church refuse to recognize as our dilemma, OR, can there be again a spiritual reformation and re-awakening through a powerful pull of God by His convicting Holy Spirit, sin-forgiven through His mercy and grace and the blood of Christ concerning ‘family forgetfulness,’ gladly, again, giving Jesus His rightful place as Lord over our marriages and homes?
Related to the marriages, homes, and families, have we ‘FORGOTTEN GOD,’ living though as ‘practical atheists, believing in God yet living separately as if He didn’t exist,’ OR, will we be once again fully immersed, not only in belief in Him and His Word, but learning to LIVE the ‘exchanged LIFE IN CHRIST’ – living by the Resurrection Life of our Lord in our homes and families?
FORGETFULNESS? Have we all of a sudden inherited a lost sight of God in our marriages corresponding to a lost sight of our true identity in Christ, BLINDED by the ‘god’ of this world, OR, can we say once again: “You, God, see us in our homes and families…and Your gaze on us has gracefully and graciously revealed that we need “to turn our eyes [of marriage and family] once again on Jesus Only.”
Marriage? Home? Family? Kids? Have we FORGOTTEN? Will it be the “godless” lives of choice – selfish, impersonal, radical disobedience to Holy God, OR, will our marriage and home and family be the predestined, the redeemed, the reconciled – a “Christ-filled LIFE” of selflessness, service, caring, loving, ministering, teaching, disciplining, blessing – intent on marriage and family being a God-honoring witness?
There is no doubt in my mind that what was established by God as a holy, reflective institution of God Himself has been stolen by fallen humanity and establishing for themselves the absence of ground rules, with their own ideas negating biblical revelation!
Henry de Lubac in “The Drama of Atheist Humanism,” [trans. By Edith M.Riley, 1950; New York; World Publishing Com. 1963, IX] wrote: “Man cannot organize the world [dare I say (JFF) ‘cannot organize marriage & family’?] for himself without God; without God he can only organize the world against man, [dare I say [JFF], ‘disorganize marriage & family for his own selfish interests?]. Exclusive humanism is inhuman humanism.” And I believe that explains so much about the debacle of marriage and family.
Christopher Dawson wrote “Progress and Religion: An Historical Inquiry, [1931, Peru, Il: Sherwood Sugden & Co., 1991, p.228]. He said: “It seems as though a new society was arising which will acknowledge no hierarchy of values, no intellectual authority, and no social or religious tradition, but which will live for the moment in a chaos of pure sensation.” Is that descriptive to a great degree of marriages and families in our world today?
But I believe that what has been forgotten is God Almighty’s intent that “Marriage [be]: A Celebration of Life and Blessing”! I was recently reading through Hebrews 11 and God so clearly spoke to my heart about true believers in a maddening world of marriage and family chaos! My wife and I on June 10, 2012, celebrated our 56th anniversary of marriage. Hebrews 11:13 says, speaking of heroes of the true faith: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
Hebrews 11:14-16 goes on to say: “For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Is your desire a ‘better country’ for marriage and family around you, “that is, a heavenly country”?
You do understand that our ‘faith in Christ’ is because we knew, by His grace and by His Spirit, that we needed to be saved by His grace, had to be saved or we personally had no hope, but also, just as in the fleshly realm with fallen sin natures and a walk away from God, fleshly men AND women are only concerned in marriage with what brings them pleasure, and if their fallen sin natures aren’t pleased they look for new territory and new opportunities to satisfy that fallen sin nature!
In our modern society our population has been geared toward self-determination without God, self-rationalization as to what satisfies us the most with our fallen sin natures, self-realization on our own terms, and, yes, self-gratification which opens huge, wide doors away from God’s purpose and plan in Christ! Marriage failures usually come through one or even possibly both parties that live by a false philosophy of “self-enlightment” which is nothing more than fleshly indulgence! Mostly men, but at times some women, have decided to be free from marriage because they are “free from God”!
Read carefully Martin Buber’s convicting comment in Thomas F. Torrance’s “God and Rationality,” [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971, p.29], where Buber said: “Something has stepped between our existence and God to shut off the light of heaven…,[and] that something is in fact ‘ourselves,’ our own bloated selfhood.”
In I Corinthians 3 Paul challenged ‘men’ in the church, but I believe it speaks to all ‘men’ and especially those who live imitating men of fallen sin natures as it relates to their marriages or marriage failures. Paul said in the first three verses: “And I, men, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal,[fleshly, men with their old sin natures], as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you [do you believe that would include marriage troubles or divorces?], are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”
Isn’t it sad to you and heart-breaking that our marriage culture in America has become so superficial, so faithless, even indifferent in far too many families as to personal and family trust and yieldedness to Holy God and our loving Savior and Lord and to His Church? It’s as if marriage has decayed to a meaningless relationship that has no blessing, no reward, no prize out of the participants’ participation even though they live under the same roof!
This attitude toward marriage is what Martin Luther foresaw as he wrote the following: “[Fallen human nature] is completely self-centered…It puts itself in the place of everything else, even in the place of God himself and seeks only its own purposes and not God’s. For this reason it is its own chief and most important idol.” [ Luther, quoted in Paul Althause’, “The Theology of Martin Luther, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966, p.147]. Would you even think or consider that divorce, home-break-up, absentee fatherhood or motherhood, is because most bow before and yield to the idol of self-devotion, self-pleasure, self-idolatry? Could or would we even dare to speak about “marital narcissism” or self-indulgence at any price?
Too many marriage partners have established themselves as the final authority on what they intend to do in their marriages – stay or go? – and God and His will about it is overthrown, usurped, denied, as the partner wanting divorce establishes and bows before self-centered omnipotence! Can’t you hear them? “God may exist, but when it comes to what makes me happy I decide for myself!” And they reject, deny, even defame biblical authority! Do you sense as I do that tons of people in marriages across America and the world see no relevance of God to their situations and circumstances as it relates to what they do or don’t do in their marriages and families? Will of man in marriage or will of God in marriage? I’m convinced our Lord’s Lordship is as vital for our marriages as our personal relationship is to Him as our Lord of lords!
One of the reasons I sense for marriage failures and not blessing and celebration is a lack of “response-ability” [a term Craig Gay uses]. When I saw that term of Gay’s and hid it away in my mind and heart, I immediately thought of Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child [yes, a marriage mate] in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Most ‘bail out’ when they should ‘hold on’! Think about what Jesus said and relate it to your marriage and family: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [That’s ‘rejuvenation’ or ‘made young again’!]. Take My yoke upon you [Are you and your wife mutually yoked to Christ?] 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.”
And I tell you, it doesn’t matter about age – young, old whatever – as a marriage partner, get in the yoke of Christ; He’s strong, steady, set apart to the Glory of God alone – and every step tied to Him will be straight and in the right path!! But if you become your own ‘chief and most important idol’, even in your marriage, apart from God, you become just like yourself!! And Psalm 135:15-18 says: “The idols of the nations [marriages, self-worship etc.] are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. [Made by a fallen sin nature, the making of one’s self into its own idol, and worshipped, bowing before, yielded to!!] They have mouths, but cannot speak [wisely], eyes, but they cannot see; [blinded to God’s will, God’s way], they have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths [spiritually dead before Holy God and His Word!]. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.”
That should spur thoughts in you, right now, this very moment, about why there is ‘forgetfulness’ of celebration and blessing in marriages – you’re not sure? Come to Luke 22: 25-27! And Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.” In your marriages are you lords or servants?
Have you not grasped it yet? Has our Lord’s example in relationships not been enough for you? Taking the sentence of death unto ourselves daily, “in marriage,” is the awesome spiritual reality of overcoming fleshly selfishness and blocking out selfishness that the servant spirit of Christ might reign through us to our wives! Look at I John 3:16, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for [our wives!!].”
Charles Swindoll, in his book “The Quest For Character”, [p.107], wrote the following: “Home is indeed where life makes up its mind. It is there – with fellow family members – we hammer out our convictions on the anvil of relationships. It is there we cultivate the valuable things in life, like attitudes, memories, beliefs, and most of all, character. Give God thanks today for His help in using your home to develop these all-important essentials…”
Do you remember Paul and Silas imprisoned in Acts 16? The ‘keeper of the prison,” after the earthquake, said to them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said to him, Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, YOU AND YOUR HOUSEHOLD.” Because marriage is to be a redemptive relationship between husband and wife and parents and children!
Though Karl Heim was writing about “the Church”, I’m taking the liberty to change ‘The Church’ to marriage. In his “Christian Faith and Natural Science, [New York: Harper and Brothers, 1957, p.24], Heim wrote: “[Marriages often] are like a ship on whose deck festivities are still kept up and glorious music is heard, while deep below the waterline a leak has been sprung and masses of water are pouring in, so that the vessel is settling hourly lower though the pumps are manned day and night.”
What is ‘the leak’? One or both of the marriage partners has ‘sprung a leak’! One or both marriage partners have lost ‘mutual submission in the fear of God’! One or both marriage partners have lost the sacrificial spirit of laying down one’s life! One or both marriage partners have lost ‘the denial of self and the taking up of Christ’s cross’ to serve the partner!
Why would I apologize to you about what I firmly believe and know: Jesus Himself is not only the Savior of the world – He is the Savior of every marriage if He was given His rightful place! Christian marriage and Christian family living begins at the Cross and the empty tomb with all members yielded to His saving grace and Sovereign Lordship!
I love what Larry Christenson wrote in his book, “The Christian Family,” [p.151], “It is not a child’s intellectual immaturity, but the adult’s intellectual sophistication, which is the real barrier to faith. “Now they were bringing even ‘infants’ to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” [Luke 18:15-17]. Since it is by “FAITH” that we receive the Kingdom, we have here the unmistakable authority of Jesus to assure us that children – ‘even infants’ – can indeed receive His saving grace. This is absolutely fundamental to Christian family living. We must have the faith that the Holy Spirit works in even the very small child, bringing him into personal relationship with Jesus.”
Oh, I know you’ve heard it – but I’ll say it again: The family that prays, stays! The couple that prays, stays! Yes, even the children that pray, often hold families together! In the Name of Jesus, forget the old decaying life of marriage and settle in to the “celebration and blessing of marriage” in the Lord Jesus – He’s your marriages’ eternal foundation!
CHAPTER TWELVE
FORGOTTEN? CHILDREN A BLESSING – NOT A BURDEN?
You are so aware of this chapter title whether you experienced your childhood as if it were a ‘horror’ movie or not. I doubt if any family in America has lived through their generations without awareness of one’s own family, friends, neighbors, who’ve experienced that some parents didn’t, wouldn’t, haven’t seen children as a ‘blessing’ and not a burden. I was a product of a broken marriage, family, and especially with my father. The divorce was not my father’s desire, but even so, I only stayed in my father’s home only one night in my entire life. I never had a call, a note, or any encouraging word from him. It was if when my mother wanted the divorce, it included me also. But at three years of age, after the divorce, in 1939, I was taken by my mother to live with her parents as she went to another city to find employment. My grandparents raised me from three years of age to about twelve years of age when my mother re-married. There’s no doubt for my grandparents that I was a burden but also a blessing. They received me lovingly, carefully, and with a commitment to see I was nurtured and cared for physically and spiritually. They were always in church every time the church door was opened! There I was touched by many caring people who also saw it was their responsibility to be a blessing and nurture a needy child. I thank God for that and for all those years under the care of my grandparents and a caring church family.
Psalm 127:3-5 says to us: “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate.” Don’t you find these verses so interesting? Blessed with our children! A reward from God! A full quiver doesn’t make you ashamed, but even opens the door for you to speak with your enemies “in the gate.” I truly believe there is so much in those words that most of us have never touched what our Lord is telling us, but it sounds to me like our kids are even door-stoppers as our enemies seek to press in!!
In Deuteronomy 7:13 we read: “And He [God] will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also “BLESS THE FRUIT OF YOUR WOMB” and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.” Blessing? The fruit of the womb is blessing? The birth of new babies, the children of our households, our kids now teens then adults, and they are a blessing? I thank God, praise God, rejoice in His gifts to Sue and me – four grown children, and now nine grandchildren, and now one great grandchild – and I’m not blessed? Sue and I aren’t blessed?
David said and sang in Psalm 139: 13-16, “For You [God] formed my inward parts [and God made a mistake?]; You covered [wove] me in my mother’s womb[And He made a mistake?] I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame [bones] were not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” How awesome is that? From God’s point of view, He’s known of every birth in every nation, knew us before we were born, and put blessing after blessing after blessing in His book of the days fashioned for each one of us! And parents know that or they coldly reject anything God has to do with their children! That’s when “FORGETFULNESS” is birthed! That’s when children become a burden and not a blessing! Sadly some parents deny God any right to their children! But even with that attitude God overruled in my case! There is such an informative word for parents in Psalm 34:11 where David was speaking, “Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” And without a doubt this is that stumbling block for a lot of parents! “Fear God? I’m to teach my children the fear of the Lord?”
Isn’t that amazing? Rather than receiving that holy word, some parents believe themselves to be smarter than God and refuse to put that basic foundation into their children’s lives, even when Proverbs tells us at least 12 times that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge or wisdom!” In Proverbs 8 the Word speaks about “wisdom”: Verses 22-36, “The Lord possessed me [wisdom] at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I [wisdom] have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there ever was an earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth; while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, Then I was beside Him as a master; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men. Now therefore, listen to me [wisdom!], my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord; but he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death.”
I do not know of a more vital or important section of God’s Word than what you just read. Yes, we are to teach our children “the fear of the Lord,” understanding that precious “fear of God” opens parents and children to the wisdom of God, the wisdom of His Word, and the wisdom of parental watchcare of their kids as a sacred trust from God. As a result parents build the bridge in their children for the reception of “divine life,” “obtaining the favor of the Lord,” and having instilled within them a love for His life, not “wronging their own souls”!
Do you remember the angel appearing to Zacharias in Luke 1 telling him his wife would bear him a son, his name was to be John, and that he was to go before Jesus in the spirit and power of Elijah, verse 17, “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just [or justified], to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” How awesome and challenging is that concerning parental responsibility! Making ready and preparing your children FOR THE LORD!
I want you to also come to Matthew 7:6-11! Follow carefully!! “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. 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. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
I pray you also read the previous passage in Matthew from parents or a parental standpoint! Asking – receiving, seeking – finding, knocking – opened…BECAUSE YOU ARE PARENTS OR A PARENT FAITHFULLY GOING BEFORE GOD IN BEHALF OF YOUR CHILDREN!
But you realize there are those I call “bottom-feeders!” That’s parents with no faith, no interest in the things of God, rejection of the Gospel of Christ as an offense to them, who had just as soon give their children “stones” for bread, and the “satanic” for fish!
Though Titus was speaking of qualifications for elders in a local church, I believe what he said about “elders” should be true in every parent concerning their rearing of children or the lack of it. Titus 1:6 says a man is eligible for eldership if: “if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation [ debauchery or incorrigibility] or insubordination.” To Timothy Paul talked about a ‘bishop’ “ruling his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.”
Often in children, youth, you see not submission but rebellion, not faithfulness but unfaithfulness, not purity but impurity, not one who is moldable, but one who is incorrigible! Jesus even spoke of “children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death,” [Mark 13:12]. Spurgeon said: “Put poison in the spring [or well], and it will impregnate the whole stream.” A good, strong, worldly education will not equip your children for a God-blessed life – it requires, yes, requires daily parental example and instruction about devotion to the one true and living God and to a redeemed, reconciled, regenerated relationship with Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords!
Do you “teach” and live before your children the faith of our Lord and Savior? Do you impart the Word of God to them as their necessary milk, meat, fruit, bread, and water of the Word that spiritually sustains their lives? Oh, you know it’s true, except for a few reserved, nervous children! Excitement reigns in their little minds and hearts when you first take them to school. Why do you think it would be any different with them when you as a parent become their ‘spiritual school teacher’ and share God’s Word with them?
You’ve got to recognize and accept your parental responsibility in preparing your children for a life of faith, a pilgrimage with God, a journey of discovery for them of His good, acceptable, and perfect will for their lives.
It may not be easy at first or maybe never easy, but it is essential, necessary, mandated from God that every parent must respond to and to answer God Himself as to how we handled parental responsibility of nurturing our children. Children come into this world so cute and cuddly but it doesn’t take long for parents to learn that they are unplowed fields, yes, hardened soils of a separated heart from God, no order, no discipline, no awareness of why you plow and plow and plow, and why you carefully treat the soil of their hearts, and why you carefully seed them with eternal seeds of supernatural miracles coming to life through them! But they will and do learn. I really don’t know who said it, but I’ve kept it close and knew the moment would come when it would challenge some folks – how about parents? “To be on the road is not tantamount to arrival, but it is better than never starting.”
I’ve always appreciated Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings. You know he was imprisoned by Nazi Germany for his faith that could not, would not be silenced. In prison he wrote a powerful word for a niece who was about to be married. Bonhoeffer’s note to his niece said: “Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which he wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to his glory, and calls into his kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal – it is a status, an office.”
I even see marriage as a ‘holy calling,’ a heavenly ministry, an eternal training ground and equipping center, the location of the field of evangelistic harvesting, new-birth nurturing, and heavenly blessing on earth. It is to be an earthly expression of the heavenly body and enterprise of touching our world with grace. No church is built to the honor of Christ apart from parents and children living Him out in and through the daily life of home and their rich relationships. What do we read in Psalm 127:1? “Unless the Lord builds the house [dare I say family?], those who build it labor in vain.”
As I looked to closing out this particular chapter, I really wanted to pin-point for parents what is needed to spiritually, parentally, succeed in child-rearing blessings and not burdens in the children God entrusted to their watch-care. I was reading Spurgeon, and before my eyes, mind, and heart, there it was! Spurgeon taught on parents teaching the fear of the Lord! [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.2, p.356].
First, “Teach morality.” ‘What man is he that desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” [Psalm 34:12-14].
Second, “Teach godliness, and a constant belief in God’s oversight.” ‘The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.’ [Psalm 34:15].
Third, “Teach the evil of sin.” ‘The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.’ Psalm 34:16-17
Fourth, “Teach your children the necessity of a broken heart open to the Lord Himself.” ‘The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.’ Psalm 34:18.
Fifth, “Teach them the inestimable blessing or blessedness of being a child of God.” ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken.’
There’s no desolation of godly parents as they disciple and discipline and define their children in their Lord and Savior! There’s no desolation of children as they receive the care, training, discipling of godly parents! AMEN?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
FORGOTTEN? GOD’S BLESSING OF VISIONS, VOICES, AND DREAMS?
You’ve heard it in your spiritual pilgrimage: “You hear from God? What planet are you from? I may not be a PhD, but I’m smart enough to know your “talks, visitations, voices” from God is sure lunacy! If I were you, I’d visit a professional, highly intelligent psychiatrist!” And they walk away from you as if they had met the devil himself if they believed in him.
But I would point you to Abraham who was one of world history’s most famous people. In Genesis 15 “the word of the Lord came to Abram ‘in a vision,’ God saying to Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” And the history, the pilgrimage, the journey is still going on! In fact in John 8:56, Jesus said: [Did you read it right? Yes! “Jesus said,”] “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
Listen carefully to Galatians 3:5-9! “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? – just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 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 who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”
After being a Baptist pastor for 12 years, 1962 – 1974, in February 1974 I was truly and mercifully born again, born the second time, born of the Spirit, and began an amazing journey of faith and obedience to my Lord and Savior. Between 1975 through 1981, I made about one trip a year to Brazil, working along the Amazon River. A friend said to me in 1981, “Farrell, you need to go to India!” I was not impressed but our gracious Lord DID put India on my heart. My first trip there was about 1982, a door being opened by another friend to a Church of South India church fellowship where I taught pastors in the daytime and did a three-night open-air crusade in a huge lot next to the church. After the final service was over that Sunday night, alone, I walked around that open field, thanking the Lord for the gracious harvest and the huge blessings. Then the Lord clearly spoke as if in an audible voice – I will never forget it. It was if God opened the heavens and said to me, TO ME!, “Son, you are to begin a journey with the purpose of the rest of your life ministering life and truth to my India pastors!”
In 1983 Macedonian Ministry of Missions was established and for 25 years, 4-5 trips a year, from 3 weeks to 3 months, I have ministered all over India in pastors’ conferences and open-air crusades. I taught in Haiti, the Philippines, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Thailand, Cambodia, and a few conferences in England – all because I HEARD THE VOICE AND VISION OF GOD FOR MY LIFE AND MINISTRY!
In Numbers 24:1-4 God’s Holy Word says, “Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times, to seek to use sorcery, but he set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam raised his eyes, and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes; AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD CAME UPON HIM. Then he took up the oracle and said: ‘The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor, the utterance of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down, with eyes wide open..” What an awesome revelation from the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever! GET READY- HIS VISION, VOICE, OR DREAM IS ABOUT TO COME TO YOU!!**
Since God is no respecter of persons, examine Psalm 89:15-24, putting your name alongside David’s expecting God to do for you what He did for David! “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance. In Your name they rejoice all day long, and in Your righteousness they are exalted. For You are the glory of their strength, and in Your favor our horn [strength] is exalted. For our shield belongs to the Lord, and our king to the Holy One of Israel. THEN YOU SPOKE IN A VISION TO YOUR HOLY ONES, and said: “I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from among the people. I have chosen My servant David; with My holy oil I have anointed him, with whom My hand shall be established; also My arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague those who hate him. But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him, and in My name his horn shall be exalted.” And, Thank God, that the God of true salvation is no respecter of persons!
I remember being in a pastors’ conference that Pastor Peter Lord led in his church in Titusville, Florida, many years ago. As I recall that conference, I remember a young pastor in his late twenties or early thirties asking Peter a question. Peter had been teaching on hearing God’s voice and the young pastor said to him, “I’ve never heard the voice of God! How does it happen?” And Peter instructed us all as well as the young pastor to bow our heads in total silence, begin to ask the Father to speak to us personally, and after a number of minutes, in that quietness, we all began to hear a man weeping. It was the questioner – and Peter said: “Young man, what did God say to you?” And the young pastor, through his tears, said, “God said, ‘You are My son, and I love you!’” He or you will never be the same when God speaks, envisions for you, or gives you a ‘dream’ out of the heart of God!
What does Proverbs 29:18 tell us? “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” or “cast off restraints”! In Proverbs 8:32-36 there is such a valuable Word that truly opens the door to divine opportunity or closes that door leaving a man to ‘try’ and find his own way, which usually leads him away from God, not towards Him! It says: “Now therefore, listen to me [to wisdom], my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord; but he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death.”
But, what if you are one who does NOT love “death,” but has a deep longing in your heart to hear God, how does one ‘get in’ on “The Blessing of Visions, Voices, or Dreams?”
I BELIEVE THE BLESSING OF VISIONS, VOICES, OR DREAMS BECOMES REALITY WHEN ONE IS TRULY SENSITIVE AND OPEN TO GOD’S UNVEILINGS OF HIMSELF AND HIS WILL THROUGH HIS HOLY WORD! When you come to the Book of Habakkuk, in chapter 2, verse 1, we read: “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He [God] will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.”
That is one huge ‘life-changer,’ the attitude of standing watch over one’s own heart, setting one’s self in the frame of reference of WANTING TO HEAR GOD, and “watching to see what God will say to me.. and what I will answer when I am corrected!” But far too many are not interested in ‘correction’ but God’s approval for them to continue down the road of self-affirmation!
The promise IS GIVEN! Verses 2 & 3 tell us: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” In other words, God’s Word is sure!
What did Jesus quote to Satan who came to tempt Him in Matthew 4:4? “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Do you understand? God’s Holy Word has been written specifically for YOU as if YOU were the only one it was ever written for! Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word, God, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Is that true for you? The psalmist said in Psalm 119:130, “The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”
No doubt this is why Peter said in I Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,” [or grow up into your salvation!]”. It’s so interesting and so valuable and so important to us what God said in Jeremiah 23:22!! “But if they [the prophets] had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.”
I BELIEVE THE BLESSINGS OF VISIONS, VOICES, AND DREAMS, ARE BIRTHED EVEN IN THE MIDST OF GOD’S OPPORTUNITIES IN DRASTIC HUMAN EVENTS. Do you remember Paul and Silas imprisoned for the faith in Acts 16? Look with me at verses 25-34! 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. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.”
Jail, prison, hospital, family crisis, student dilemma, war and a soldier in a fox-hole, job crisis, job loss, business failure, marriage seemingly down the tubes of failure,…and somebody cries out: “God, help me,” – and He sends Jesus as your rescuer and Redeemer!
I BELIEVE THE BLESSINGS OF VISIONS, VOICES, AND DREAMS, ARE BROUGHT TO REALITY AND FRUITION BY THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. In I Corinthians 2:9-12 we read: 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.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
All of a sudden, by grace through faith, my journey is not determined by my best efforts, my own ‘wise’ or ‘unwise’ counsel, by even my fleshly attempt to learn from others’ failures, but by the holy presence of God’s promise of the Holy Spirit to be in me, ‘guiding me into all truth,’ ‘testifying of Jesus and His plans for my life,’ and ‘opening up God’s Word through Holy Spirit interpretation practically for MY journey day by day!’
Oswald Chambers said in his “My Utmost For God’s Highest,” [p.265], “If you try to dam up the Holy Spirit in you to produce subjective experiences, you will find that He will burst all bounds and take you back again to the historic Christ. Never nourish an experience which has not God as its Source and faith in God as its result.”
In John 20:21-22 we read, So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” No doubt this is why Paul had to ask the Corinthians if their walk was an explanation of Holy Spirit presence and power: I Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
Isn’t it amazing to you as it is to me after discovering God’s blessing of the Indwelling Holy Spirit that Christians often fear the Holy Spirit and apart from faith the unsaved don’t even know “the power of God and His leadership through the Holy Spirit?” Three times in the first five verses of Romans 8 Paul said: “according to the Spirit”! The Holy Spirit convicts, convinces, and converts, then consecrates a “new-born life” on the altar of sacrifice! Yield to the Holy Spirit!
I BELIEVE THE BLESSINGS OF VISIONS, VOICES, AND DREAMS, FLOURISH WHEN ONE IS OPEN TO SOVEREIGN, DIVINE DIRECTIVES, OUT OF THE MIND, HEART, AND SPIRIT OF GOD HIMSELF. Come to Acts 8:26-35! Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading from Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was this: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.” So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself, or of some other man?” Then Philip opened His mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.”
Notice, an angel of the Lord spoke to him. Notice, also, the Holy Spirit directs Philip. And notice, Philip was available to represent God before the eunuch! You’ve, no doubt, heard of “entertaining angels unaware”! Then praise God, the eunuch was spiritually sensitive enough to seek for himself, with help! But when pride enters in, when rebellion fills the heart, when hardness shuts the door, opposites of the eunuch neither listen, hear, or envision what God truly has in store for them.
It was T.S.Eliot in “Choruses from the Rock” who wrote: “Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?”
How on target is that? Endless activity, but no time for an angel! Endless effort, but no time for Life! Speech, words, motion but no time for the Master! Blessing doesn’t come in and of ourselves. Eternal purpose is never discovered when my ears are deaf to the spoken Words of Jesus. Overcoming power of fleshly lives never becomes “God’s helping hands” when I see only myself as the answer to and for me. In Jeremiah 13:25-27 [NIV] we read: “Because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods, I will pull up your skirts over your face that your shame may be seen – your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution!”
In “The Power of the Call,” Henry Brandt wrote: [p.49], “If a man is a sinner, the diagnosis disturbs him. It is my responsibility and the pastors’ to declare the truth to him. [Like an angel!]. It is important we speak the truth in love by describing what he will see in the mirror of God’s Word.”
Wrong road travelers need angelic assistance, passionate Philips, and those who speak to them under Holy Spirit anointing! Those under the curse and not the blessing need “truth-speakers” not agree-ers who know the end result of going one’s own way, doing only what one’s fallen sin-nature dictates, and feeling comfortable walking the ways of the godless, and at the same time thinking everything is A-OK when I deny God His rightful place in my life.
At least the psalmist feared God! In Psalm 119:37-38 we read: “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way. Establish Your word to Your servant, who is devoted to fearing You.”
In 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul walked where a lot of people in our troubled world walk, but not without hope. While he was in Asia trouble came his way to the point he was ‘burdened beyond measure..despairing even of life. Verse 9, Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” Spiritually dead! Trust in God – not in yourself!
I BELIEVE THE BLESSINGS OF VISIONS, VOICES, AND DREAMS ARE ACTIVE AND FULFILLING WHEN ONE”S HEART IS SINGULAR AND NOT DIVIDED. In 2 Chronicles 26:16 the Word says of Uzziah, “But when he had become strong, his heart was so lifted up that he acted corruptly. For he was false to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to make an offering on the altar of incense.”
At one point here was a man who grew in stature before the Lord and men, then fell away. Did it say “his heart was lifted up?” A lifted-up heart when God says, “Guard your heart?” A lifted-up heart when God tells us “the heart is deceitful?” A lifted-up heart when in Jeremiah 17:9 God tells us: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Verse 10, I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
But do you understand a “darkened heart”? Are you aware of a “deceived heart”? Does a “disillusioned heart” say anything to you? Human lives with no hope of “new”, “changed or exchanged,” “God-given hearts”, or some of the saddest people you’ll ever be around, even as they ‘smile’ at you or make fun of your faith!
Peter said “you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,” and he was talking about Jesus with whom God was well-pleased! [2 Peter 1:19]. Look at verses 16-18! “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ AND WE HEARD THIS VOICE WHICH CAME FROM HEAVEN when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”
Is your heart singular minded in yieldedness to Almighty God or are you still divided as to your allegiance and reception of God’s “His-Story”?
I BELIEVE THE BLESSINGS OF VISIONS, VOICES, AND DREAMS ARE TRULY LIFE-YIELDING WHEN ONE PRAYS THE PRAYER OF REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS – I SIGN ON TO THE TRUTH OF GOD’S UNVEILING OF THE ONE TRUE SAVIOR AND LORD! Look at Romans 10:8-13!! But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach); that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz has written a book entitled: “My Heart’s Cry.” [pps. 18-20], She wrote: “Years ago I had the privilege of praying with a woman in my class as she responded to God’s Word by confessing her sin, claiming the cross as her atonement for sin, and inviting Jesus into her heart and life, surrendering to Him as Savior and Lord. Her face was soaked in tears and wreathed in smiles when she got up off her knees. She was assured she belonged to the Shepherd and was safely inside the fold of a personal, permanent relationship with God.
Several days later, she asked me to accompany her as she went to tell her pastor of the decision she had made. I sat beside her on the small sofa in the pastor’s elegantly appointed study as she poured out her heart. With a voice that trembled with emotion and eyes that brimmed with tears, she described the commitment she had prayerfully made earlier in the week then blurted out, “I’ve been born again!”
The pastor, wearing a three-piece pinstripe suit with a gold watch chain draped across the front of his vest, listened attentively as he sat in a red leather desk chair. His silver hair was immaculate, his manicured fingers were fanned out and pressed together in a thoughtful pose, and his expression was kindly patient as his deep voice resonated in the paneled chamber. With a condescending tone that might be used with a rather slow-witted child, he explained, “But my dear Susan, you weren’t born again this week! Why, you were baptized when you were twelve years old! You’re a member of this church. You teach Sunday school. You’ve been a Christian all your life.”
I barely noticed the hostile dagger of a glance he threw me because I was so incredibly dumbfounded! His reaction to Susan was a totally unexpected revelation of what seemed to be a false shepherd!…Susan had taken God at His Word! She had heard the voice of the Shepherd, calling her by name, and she responded by following Him in a life of faith, with the first step being her own salvation. And this professional shepherd was saying it wasn’t so!…It was depressingly obvious that he was a false shepherd who had led that very prestigious church possibly without ever having entered through the Door of the fold for himself! He did not recognize or acknowledge the Shepherd’s voice in Susan’s life.”
Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the precious and powerful Holy Spirit, The Holy Word of God, that loving pastor, that caring friend, that unannounced angel, the heavenly, eternal music, that stranger in the night, that caring, ministering doctor treating you in the hospital, that true grocer, that loving neighbor…on and on and on!! Visions, voices, and dreams! They aren’t flukes of nature, lies out of hell, fiction stories from phony teachers – IT’S GOD! IT’S JESUS! IT’S THE HOLY SPIRIT!! And they say, “Come, come unto Me…and I [Jesus] will give you rest! I’ll make you young again!!” Come! Come to Him! His vision, voice, and dream is for your salvation!
“Where there is no vision the people perish!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FORGOTTEN? HOLY FIRE OR SMOKY FEELINGS?
Have you ever heard it? “Well, Brother Fisher, when I’m up, I’m up; when I’m in, I’m in; but when I’m down, I’m down; and when I’m out, I’m out; I don’t know about this “fiery stuff”, but I do have smoky feelings at times and really believe I just might be what I profess!” But there’s no change that reflects the Indwelling Christ. Could it be too much smoke and not enough fire?
What I’ve learned over my 78 years of life is: Wordy sermons touch heads; holy fires touch hearts. Intelligent teaching touches minds; holy fires touch the will of men. Classy speech in the pulpit moves intellect; holy fires touch the diseases of a compromised life!
Have you ever seriously considered why the first four centuries of the Christian faith were so powerful in touching our world with grace, but our modern world concerning church life and its impact on a sick world is so fragmented and fruitless to a great degree? I was recently reading Exodus and verses just exploded off the page in Exodus 3:1-5! Listen with your heart and your mind: Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
Did you see “mountain of God” or high places? Did you consider “the Angel” [messenger of the Lord] appearing to him? Did you see a manifestation “in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush”? Did you see Moses saying, “I will turn aside and see…?” Did you see, in the midst of all that, God saying, “HOLY GROUND”? What is it for you: smoky feelings or Holy Fire? Heart changes never come about redemptively through social or political recommendations but through the “holy fires of God”!
Has that changed for this modern day? I don’t think so! In Deuteronomy 4:11-12, as Moses spoke to Israel, so God speaks to us: “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice.” GOD HELP US! WE NEED GOD AGAIN SPEAKING TO US OUT OF THE FIRE!
In Jeremiah 23:29 God spoke through the prophet: “Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah the prophet suffered because he sought to be faithful to God’s revealed Word, will, and way. There came a moment when he thought he’d have to walk away. But listen to what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 20:9, “Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name,’ But His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.” God help us again to witness, not smoky feelings, but a fire in our bones!
Don’t you find it interesting, and, yes, convicting, that God’s Word tells us in Hebrews 1:7, “And of the angels [messengers] He [God] says: ‘Who makes His angels spirit and His ministers a flame of fire’”? How did John put it in Luke 3:16? John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Oh, really? Show me the fire in you! I was reading recently George Mallone’s book “Furnace of Renewal.” He really laid it out for disciples and churches when he emphasized ‘cosmetic renewal of the church’ is not an option churches and disciples are to take, but to find themselves “refined in the furnace of renewal”! That sounds to me like disciples and churches getting enveloped in “the fires of God”, not their fleshly best!
Leonard Ravenhill, in his book “Why Revival Tarries” made several penetrating statements: [p.20], “Preachers used to sow seed; now they string intellectual pearls. (Imagine a field sown with pearls!)…Away with this palsied, powerless preaching which is unmoving because it was born in a tomb instead of a womb, and nourished in a fireless, prayerless soul.” If one becomes ‘fireless’, it is an indication he hasn’t been on his face before the throne of God, and, is an indication spiritual death reigns in him rather than Resurrection Life, Resurrection Hope, and Resurrection power! No doubt this is why Samuel Chadwick wrote what he did: “Truth without enthusiasm, morality without emotion, ritual without soul, are things Christ unsparingly condemned. Destitute of fire, they are nothing more than a godless philosophy, an ethical system, and a superstition.”
Oh, but hear me: You know ‘godly fire’ when a man or a church’s impotence is infused with God’s omnipotence! You know ‘godly fire’ when a man or a church’s weakness is totally overshadowed by God’s reigning Spirit of power! You know ‘godly fire’ when the dry faith of a dried-up, shrinking disciple or the dried-up skins of a shrinking church’s faith is lit on fire by Holy Spirit anointing with rivers of living water flowing, yes, even through the flames! You really want to know what true Christianity and true church-life and true discipleship is all about? Stand next to the flames of the fires of God!
It was Andrew Reed who prayed: “Come as the fire, and purge our hearts with sacrificial flame; Let our soul an offering be to our Redeemer’s Name.” Sacrificial flames? You know, I’m sure, about Chuck Colson, former Special Counsel to President Nixon who ended up in prison and then came into the fullness of an intimate relationship with Christ Jesus. I read about him in the book “For Such a Time as This.” It’s an amazing story of the evidence of a Christ-lived, fiery testimony! Listen: [p.43], And on the darkest day of my life – when my dad had died, and my mother was alone, and the other Watergate fellows were released because they were sentenced by a different judge – the darkest day of my life – I received a phone call from Al Quie, the seventh ranking Republican Congressman in the U.S. House of representatives, later Governor of Minnesota. He said, “Chuck, I know what you’re going through in prison. Your prayer group has been praying and I’m going to see President Ford tomorrow and ask him if I can come in and serve the rest of your prison sentence.” I went to my bunk that night and said, “Thank You, Lord. I know you are real when no greater love as this, that a man will lay his life down for a brother.”
But that’s not all of the story! Listen to what else Colson wrote! [pps.43-44]. “I told that story across America. One day, a woman for PBS was interviewing me in Chicago after I received the Templeton Prize, and I told her that story. She said to me, “How can you be so sure that Christ is real?” I told her the story. As I was telling it, you could see the mascara was covering a lot of scars on her face. And as I was telling that story, the tears started to roll down her cheeks. She said, “Excuse me a minute Mr. Colson,” and she went in the washroom. When she came back, she had washed her face and gotten all the cosmetics back on. She said, “Let’s film that scene again. Would you repeat that story?” I repeated the story and I looked over the second time and the tears were flowing down her cheeks; she couldn’t stop. I met with her afterwards; she had grown up in the church, fallen away, got disinterested, and she looked at me and said, “If that really is the church, I’ve got to go back and be part of it.”
Our Savior’s love, grace, and mercy is a heavenly fire that attracts, draws, and embraces one to the point he’s willing to lay his life down as Jesus did His! Warm fires have drawing powers to cold souls! And certainly communities of saving faith are to be communities that are so strong and warm and loving and caring and touching others with our Lord’s selfless love that those touched don’t want to be any other place than surrounded by fires of divine love and compassion! This is why Paul said in Galatians 1:15-16, “…when it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me.” In Christ, you, yes, that’s YOU! And you are the “bond-fire” of His Living Presence that God uses to attract others to Himself!
But some say, “I haven’t sensed the ‘fire’; or, “I’m afraid that the fire I’ve known needs to be re-kindled!” I love how Robert Browning put it in “Fifine at the Fair”: “Beneath the veriest ash, there hides a spark of soul Which, quickened by love’s breath, may yet pervade the whole O’ the gray, and, free again, be fire.” The Lord Jesus is the Author of promises, and on His promises you can stand, filled again with ‘holy fire’!
It was Reinhard Bonnke in “Evangelism by Fire” who said: [p.22], “Fire is the ensign of the Gospel, the sign of the Son of Man. Only Jesus baptizes in fire.” I don’t know how it is with you, but one thing I’m assured of: Deep hunger calls for hot fires in the Spirit-realm of our journey! Fiery passion, not faithless pursuit, opens the door of Heaven for God Almighty to step down in our midst releasing His ‘rivers of Living Water’! Sovereign intervention ‘strikes the match’ to Holy Spirit release in us who find ourselves empty, dry, wondering how we fulfill His eternal purpose, and crying out for God’s help. Someone asked John Wesley about the “how” of his explosive ministry in England and across the world of his day, and he responded, saying, “I just set myself on fire for God and people come to see me burn!!”
I want you to come to Romans 8:22-23, 26-27! “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body…Verses 26-27, Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the SPIRIT HIMSELF makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” THANK GOD FOR THE INTERCEDING HOLY SPIRIT!
“Flesh” does not, cannot, will not bear witness to redemptive Truth, but the Holy Spirit “bears witness” through surrendered, yielded lives! Come to I John 5 where the ‘beloved disciple’, John, bears witness because of the Holy Spirit within Him: Verses 6-11, “This is He who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. AND IT IS THE SPIRIT [the HOLY SPIRIT] who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” THE SPIRIT BEARS WITNESS!
This is why Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:18, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” Didn’t we read in the beginning of this chapter, Hebrews 1:7, that God makes “His angels [messengers] a flame of fire”? That comes to each and every disciple! But do all receive that available gift and anointing? I don’t think so!
Fire without faith is a futile, fragile, feeble representation of the presence of Holy God in His fullness. Fire without fruit is the absence of the nature and character of Christ and fatal to an on-going walk that reflects Christ in His fullness. And fire without fullness is emptiness, a dry-well life, a river or lake spiritually drained to the degree of drought.
In Chuck Swindoll’s book, “Come Before Winter,” [p.44], he told about how, during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, that the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Swindoll said: “Lord Cromwell sent his men on an investigation of the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there. After investigating, they reported: ‘The only silver we could find is the statues of the saints standing in the corners,’ to which the radical soldier and statesman of England replied: ‘Good! We’ll melt down the saints and put them in circulation!’” Does a melted saint speak to you?
In Ezekial 34:26 God spoke then and now: “I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.” That is Spirit-fullness and Spirit-fire! Don’t miss Acts 2:14-21!! Please read!
In the close of Swindoll’s book, “Flying Closer To The Flame,” [pps.246-247], he wrote: “When we are Spirit-filled and therefore rightly related to the Spirit of God:
*We are surrounded by the Spirit’s omnipotent shield of protection, continually and routinely.
*We have an inner dynamic to handle life’s pressures.
* We are able to be joyful…regardless.
*We have the capacity to grasp the deep things of God that He discloses to us in His Book.
*We have little difficulty maintaining a positive attitude of unselfishness, servanthood, and humility.
*We have a keen sense of intuition and discernment; we sense evil.
*We are able to love and be loved in return.
*We can be vulnerable and open.
*We can rely on the Spirit to intercede for us when we don’t even know how to pray as we ought.
*We need never fear evil or demonic and satanic assault.
*We are enabled to stand alone with confidence.
*We experience inner assurance regarding decisions as well as right and wrong.
*We have an “internal filtering system.”
*We can actually live worry-free.
*We are able to minister to others through our spiritual gift(s).
*We have an intimate, abiding “Abba relationship” with the living God.
Have we so easily forgotten what John proclaimed in Matthew 3:11? “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Oh, how there needs to be the radiance of the Spirit over rituals, fruit of the Spirit over fleshly smoke, willfulness under the Spirit’s leadership over fleshly waywardness, the Spirit-Age over any church-age, tongues of Spirit-anointed truth over our ‘fleshly’ interpretations, solid Spirit-revealed Truth over the professor’s faithless interpretation, the divine ‘fire’ of the Holy Spirit over ‘dummy ammunition,’ the fullness of the blessing over the emptiness of Satan’s lies, furnaces of holy presence over the empty tin-can promises of Satan!!
In fact, in God’s Holy Word, Isaiah 59:19b, His precious Word tells us ALL: “…When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”
I close this chapter with words from Oswald Chambers in his “My Utmost…” [p.248] Quoting John 16:14, “He shall glorify Me,” Chambers wrote: “The pietistic movements of today have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them; there is nothing about them that needs the Death of Jesus Christ; all that is required is a pious atmosphere, and prayer and devotion. This type of experience is not supernatural nor miraculous, it did not cost the passion of God, it is not dyed in the blood of the Lamb, not stamped with the hall-mark of the Holy Ghost; it has not that mark on it which makes men say, as they look with awe and wonder – “That is the work of God Almighty.” That and nothing else is what the New Testament talks about….Jesus said, ‘When He the Spirit of Truth is come…He shall glorify.” When I commit myself to the revelation made in the New Testament, I receive from God the gift of the Holy Spirit Who begins to interpret to me what Jesus did; and does in me subjectively all that Jesus Christ did for me objectively.” And that objective work in me? The Spirit lights a fire!
For you, what is it? Holy fire or smoky feelings?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
FORGOTTEN? JOY COMES IN THE MORNING?
As long as ‘professing Christians’ are in control of their own spiritual destiny, ‘joy’ is not only forgotten, it is totally absent from the ‘professor of faith.’ Does it ever occur to us that ‘our choices’ cripple our joy in Jesus? Whatever happened to “Your will be done on earth [through me] as it is in heaven?” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Happiness is an emotion of feelings that has nothing to do with faith, but joy is the very fruit of the Holy Spirit filling, directing, and blessing your life! And, oh, how easy it is to slip out of Spirit-control to our own ‘fleshly control’!
Oswald Chambers wrote this: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.178], “What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. “I delight to do Your will, Father-God.” Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?”
As a pastor who performed many, many weddings, I don’t believe I ever knew a “friend of the bridegroom” who was downcast, unhappy, but literally joyful over his friend’s wedding! And “friends of the Bridegroom-Jesus”, are blessed with eternal joy, not fickle feelings of happiness!
There was a purpose, eternal purpose about why Jesus came. Isaiah 61:1-3, and verse 7, tells us: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me, to preach good tidings [joy?] to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness [or depression]; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified…Verse 7, Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; Everlasting Joy shall be theirs.” Wow! What a promise fulfilled through the Indwelling Christ in us!
Have you ever been around folks whose countenance is usually ‘uncommon despair’? But then you come face to face with a Paul! Listen to Dallas Willard in his book “Renovation of the Heart,” [p.236], “The weakness of the vessel, Paul’s physical reality, was accepted and recognized by him as the occasion for the triumph of the treasure.” And I’m sure the ‘triumph of the treasure’ was and is the Indwelling Christ and the fruit of His Spirit including “joy”!
Earlier in the same book, [p.133], Willard said: “But for joy, ‘all’ is well, even in the midst of specific suffering and loss. Self-sacrificial love is therefore always joyous – no matter the pain and loss it may involve. For we are always looking at the larger scene in which love rules: Where all things (no matter what) work together for good to those who love God and are drawn into his purposeful actions on earth.” No doubt this is why Paul said in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”
In Psalm 30:5b we read: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” That’s a sure promise from God Himself, but I have to ask, “Is a ‘night’ a twenty-four period or a season of the soul that is dark? Is the ‘morning’ the next sunrise or also that which can be future, a few days, a few years, or even decades?” But why do some forget, doubt, or refuse to believe, at least in their case that joy will come ‘in the morning’?
I BELIEVE SOME INTENTIONALLY FORGET THAT “JOY COMES IN THE MORNING” BECAUSE THEY CANNOT RELATE ‘TROUBLE,’ ‘CONFLICTS’, OR ‘TRIBULATION’ AS A PART OF RELIGIOUS FAITH. But in John 16:33 Jesus Himself said: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Can’t you hear the doubters, the drifters, the defiant ones, who would like to be a part of God’s Kingdom, but not if trouble is their ticket to a full and blessed life? “Your God can’t protect you? Your God can’t deliver you from trouble? You mean if I come to Christ I should expect hardship, battles, troubles, conflicts, even injuries body, soul, and spirit?”
Our walk with Christ, with the Living God, is a walk in His winepress – and we’re the grapes that will be crushed so His pure wine through us is released! Let me tell you of “the celebration of privilege” from Paul’s point of view! 2 Corinthians 11:22-28! “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? – I speak as a fool – I am more: in labors more abundant, 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 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 thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness – besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all churches.”
Hear me! There is abiding joy in Jesus regardless of our circumstances! There is abundant joy in Jesus in the midst of suffering! There is an always abounding joy in Jesus irrespective of what comes our way because HE IS WITH US! He tells us: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” And “joy comes in the morning!”
I BELIEVE ALSO SOME CIRCUMSTANTIALLY FORGET “JOY COMES IN THE MORNING” BECAUSE FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND AN UNBELIEVING WORLD AROUND YOU OPPOSE YOUR FAITH –IT’S HEAVY – BUT WE DON’T LOSE HEART! It was Eliphaz who said to Job in Job 4:7-9, “Remember now, whoever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? [You do see that Job’s friend thought he was cut off by God when Job’s suffering is coming from his friend in false accusations!]. Even as I have seen those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His anger they are consumed.”
Blaming behavior is a technique of friends and family who have no relationship with God or are totally deprived of understanding of His Word because they never read it! In Job 8:6-7 Bildad came against Job unmercifully: “If you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you, and prosper your rightful dwelling place. Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly.”
And here is an amazing blessing: Job 42:10, “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” “Joy comes in the morning!”
I BELIEVE “JOY IN THE MORNING” IS FORGOTTEN WHEN WE STRIVE IN OUR OWN STRENGTH AND FAIL! Nehemiah 8 is such an important chapter of biblical reading for every person anywhere in the world. Why? Because fleshly effort had birthed only failure and guilt and they knew they were ‘law-breakers’ without any strength!
But then in Nehemiah 8:10b Nehemiah said to those who had no joy but bathed themselves only in sorrow, “Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Try or trust? My effort or His ease? Our attempts or His Atonement?
I hope you clearly understand God’s understanding of YOU WITHOUT HIM! IN Romans 5:6 Paul wrote: “For when were we still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Self-strength people are truly the most hopeless people on earth because they believe they are “able” when truly, before Holy God, they are and need to be “helpless”!
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Paul bares his soul: “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 pleasures in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Do you see that, understand it, rest in it? Your strength – no joy, your striving – no joy, your best effort – no joy? You’ve seen it more often than you’d like – “self-made” individuals with any suggestion by you that they need to be finished with themselves and rest in the finished work of Christ at the Cross!
I BELIEVE “JOY IN THE MORNING” IS FORGOTTEN WHEN SOME ARE OVERWHELMED BY FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND THEY SUCCUMB TO THEIR ACCUSERS AND FALL IN ‘LOCK-STEP” WITH THEM RATHER THAN OUR LORD – AND WHATEVER JOY THEY EXPERIENCED IS LOST. I’ve witnessed that in a number of lives over the years, but I’m so encouraged when I see, read about, or witness the attitude of those like David: Psalm 27:11-14, “Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. 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!”
We just saw in Nehemiah 8:10 that “The joy of the Lord is your strength!” But the false accusations can be so debilitative if we are not cemented in His Word and standing faithfully with the heroes of the faith who are not swayed by the false accusers!
In Proverbs 25:18-20 we read: “A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth, and a foot out of joint. Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather, and like vinegar on soda, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.” Because of your faith in Christ, have you ever felt “the club, the sharp arrow, or the sword” in your mind, heart, or spirit? But then Proverbs 25:28 challenges us: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” Who or what ‘rules your own spirit’ – God and His Holy Word, OR, the false accusations of false accusers? As a result…Next,
I BELIEVE “JOY IN THE MORNING” IS FORGOTTEN OR LOST BECAUSE SOME WILLINGLY WALK AWAY FROM THE AWARENESS OF HIS ABIDING PRESENCE. In Psalm 16:11 there is such an encouraging, illuminating verse of hope and assurance: “You [God] will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” True? Absolutely – without any shadow of a doubt! But then there came a brief ‘moment’ when even David cried out, “God, where are You?”
I know, and I’m thankful, that there are those precious people who’ve never stepped away, never had a doubt, never stumbled into a state of despair or spiritual frustration, but at the same time I know the awareness of His abiding presence can slip away for moments, days, weeks, even years! And that ‘choice’ produces clouds of doubts about His presence.
So…settle it in your mind and heart: Jesus says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!” But, like David, there was a departure and he lost his joy! In Psalm 51:12 he cried out: “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” The deep valley of your own humiliation can become the mountain peak of His constant restorative love and grace!
Oswald Chambers wrote: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.139], “Have you the slightest reliance on anything other than God? Is there a remnant of reliance left on any natural virtue, any set of circumstances? Are you relying on yourself in any particular in this new proposition which God has put before you? [ Let me insert Proverbs 3:5-6 right here, right now! “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”] That is what probing means. It is quite true to say –“I cannot live a holy life,” but you can decide to let Jesus Christ make you holy. ‘YOU CANNOT SERVE THE LORD GOD,’ but you can put yourself in the place where God’s almighty power will come through you. Are you sufficiently right with God to expect Him to manifest His wonderful life in you?” It’s time to ‘run to Jesus’ if you’ve lost His joy!
I BELIEVE “JOY IN THE MORNING” IS LOST WHEN WE FAIL TO SEE “JOY” AS PLANTED SEED WITH “JOY” COMING AS WE FAITHFULLY REAP. Psalm 126:5-6 says, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seeds for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
There’s a sad word in Isaiah 16 as God came into Moab in judgment – and His Word says: Verse 6, “We have heard of the pride of Moab – he is very proud – of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath; but his lies [or vain talk] shall not be so.” And the result? Verse 10 says, “Gladness is taken away, and joy from the plentiful field; in the vineyards there will be no singing, nor will there be shouting; no treaders will tread out wine in the presses; I HAVE MADE THEIR SHOUTING CEASE.”
Isaiah 9 has a more encouraging word for those who want to “reap” JOY: Verses 3-4, “You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; they rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For You [God] have broken the yoke of his burden…” [Could that burden for you be “no joy”? It’s broken in Jesus Name!! Receive afresh and anew the joy of the Lord!!]
How did Paul put it for us in I Thessalonians 2:19-20? “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” Are you planting the seeds of joy and seeing a faithful harvest?
I BELIEVE “JOY IN THE MORNING” IS SIDE-TRACKED WHEN WE FAIL TO SEE THE TRUE ‘KINGDOM OF GOD’ LIVING IN THE HERE AND NOW. How often have you heard it: “Oh, Kingdom of God living? That’s when we get to heaven in the after-life.”
You do realize there are those who don’t believe the Bible to be God’s Holy Word, or, if they do believe it, never open it! But in Matthew 6:9-10 as Jesus Himself was teaching men to pray, He said: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Paul so amplified it for us when in Romans 14:17 he wrote: “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” And if the kingdom of God IS “joy in the Holy Spirit” in the here and now, it’s time to claim Kingdom of God ruling and reigning in our lives!
I BELIEVE “JOY IN THE MORNING” IS FORFEITED WHEN MEN LOSE SIGHT OF PRAYER AS THEIR FORTIFICATION AND FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S PROMISES. In Romans 15:22-33 Paul shared about his plans in the Lord to visit Rome. Don’t miss this for the very health of your daily spiritual life!
“For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while. But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may COME TO YOU WITH JOY BY THE WILL OF GOD, and may be refreshed together with you.”
Why would Paul request prayer for his joyous arrival in Rome? Do you remember him telling the church at Ephesus to “put on the whole armor of God” including the weapon of prayer? Because there are enemies of the Faith in the natural world and from the god of this age, even Satan! If there is ‘prayerlessness’ it is because we have no enemies in darkness, only friends, OR, we are shamefully neglectful of finishing our journey well – one becomes complacent, then indifferent, and then comes ‘shots’ out of Hell itself putting an end to your ‘profession’.
This is why Jesus said in Luke 18:1, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” I’ve never seen a ‘fainting spell’ by a lady or a gentleman to be a joyous occasion! Let’s let Oswald Chambers enlighten us a little bit: [p.259], “Our work lies in coming into definite contact with God about everything, and we shirk it by becoming active workers.” And there is such a huge distance between ‘active worker’ and ‘active warrior’ – and no one is ready to be a joy-filled servant who has lost the passion of prayer! Is prayer for others an evidence of a joy-filled heart?
In I John 3:16-17 are vitally important and discerning words: “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” And I don’t believe that you can separate love from joy or joy from love. Has your spiritual temperature?
Let me close this chapter in Hebrews 12:2, “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.” Where are you presently seated?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning died early in the year of 1861. I have a book of her poems that was published in 1838. It is 400 pages long. Her last poem was entitled “Weariness”. Follow her words carefully: “Mine eyes are weary of surveying the fairest things, too soon decaying; Mine ears are weary of receiving The kindest words – ah, past believing!…
Weary my hope, of ebb and flow; Weary my pulse, of tunes of woe: My trusting heart is weariest! I would – I would, I were at rest!
For me, can earth refuse to fade? For me, can words be faithful made? Will my embittered hope be sweet? My pulse forego the human beat?
No! Darkness must consume mine eye – Silence, mine ear – hope cease – pulse die – And o’er mine heart a stone be pressed – Or vain this, – ‘Would I were at rest!’
There is a land of rest deferred: Nor eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, Nor hope beheld is hope no more! There, human pulse forgets its tone – There, hearts may know as they are known!
Oh, for dove’s wings, thou dwelling blest, To fly to thee, and be at rest!”
I’m not really sure Where Browning was spiritually when she wrote “Weariness”, but I assure you that you can “FLY AWAY” with a joyous heart because of Jesus!
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
FORGOTTEN? PROFIT THAT BECOMES LOSS?
Because a man “gains the whole world,” is unusually successful in meeting all his pre-planned goals, pats himself on the back as a super-achiever, what has he ‘gained’ or what has he ‘lost’? It was the great Methodist preacher, J. Wallace Hamilton, who said: “people are training for success when they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success; poverty is more prevalent than wealth; and disappointment more normal than arrival.” And with that being true, which I think it is, what do we do about it?
Henry C. Link said: “While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” And I don’t look at that “becoming superior” as pride or arrogance, but one who learns true values, eternal purposes, a divine plan, that if he falls, he gets up and moves on with God!
Dr. James Kennedy, in his book “Cross Purposes,” [p.171], says the following: “The death of an unbeliever can be unpleasant. Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, was a great prince. In fact, he is immortalized as a royal personification in Machiavelli’s “the Prince.” He was devious and consummately dexterous in dealing with men and affairs. He was prepared for every extremity, for every circumstance of life. However, shortly before his death in a besieged castle in 1507, he is said to have written, ‘I have provided in the course of my life for everything except death. Now, alas, I am to die almost entirely unprepared!”
And I would say to you, “No man is prepared to live who is not prepared to die!” Why? Because this earthly, short life, is only a breath – after death is ETERNITY! Beyond the reality of death, ever before us as we live, is the question, “What is this earthly life all about?” And some never answer it although they find answers about how to prosper financially in the world they think they made for themselves!
There’s a reason for that: Look at Romans 1:21, 25! Verse 21, “because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened…Verse 25, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Forgotten? “Profit or Loss?” In Matthew 16:26 Jesus said: “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?” Richard Foster, in his book “Money, Sex, and Power,” [San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985, p.29], wrote these words: “Behind money are invisible spiritual powers, powers that are seductive and deceptive, powers that demand an all-embracing devotion.”
Didn’t Jesus give us all a warning in Luke 12:15? “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” It is possible for a man to be wealthy who is not captured by the deception of worldliness because the Lord Jesus has his heart, not his wealth being an idol he bows before!
I believe Jeremiah was so on target, so understanding of “profit or loss”, so gripped by the eternal difference between the life that truly profits against the life that ends up ‘bankrupt’. In Jeremiah 6:16 he heard 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.’”
Do you remember Jesus saying in Luke 14:11 these words? : “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” “Profit or loss?”
For many ‘profit’ is nothing more than self-promotion and bowing before an idol that one calls “wealth, money, lots of it for my pleasure!” For others ‘profit’ is counterfeiting dignity or the grace of human potential for ‘self-glory’. Your importance to God is not to be indulged in as importance to yourself only as number one in your own life or better or more important than anyone else! God is the author of visions and dreams and drives in every single life – profit or loss is dependent on whose road map you use, yours or God’s!
Are you familiar with T.S. Eliot’s “The Cocktail Party”? He wrote: “Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important..
They don’t mean to do harm – but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it, because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
And, how many have started, yes, even a walk with Jesus, and ended up disappointed, disillusioned, deterred, and detoured, fallen away, because they didn’t understand or know about “failing” or “falling” and getting up, or stopping short of the goal rather than persevering or pressing in or enduring to the end? They didn’t know, hadn’t learned, or comprehended about “counting the cost”, failing to see a cross in the walk before the manifestation of resurrection power!
In Romans 6:16 Paul wrote: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are the one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.” Phillips’ translation says it like this: “You ‘belong’ to the power which you choose to obey, whether you choose sin, whose reward is death, or God, obedience to whom means the reward of righteousness.”
And, either ‘profit’ or ‘loss’ is a radical choice that an individual makes on his own, influenced to spiritual profit by the Holy Spirit testifying of Jesus, or, influenced to ‘loss’ by the powers of darkness, brought into bondage by the devil himself even though his way appeared so ‘right,’ so ‘rewarding,’ but left one bankrupt!
John Bunyan wrote about the man he called “Mr. Facing-Both-Ways,” but that has never worked, never will work, and leaves one so fragmented, so fractured, so falling short of divine intent! This is why our Lord said: [Matthew 6:33], “But SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
In the book by Billy Graham entitled “The Secret of Happiness,” [p.7], he wrote: “A French leader has said that if the whole world had enough to eat, money to spend, and security from the cradle to the grave, they would ask for nothing more.” That sounded to me like President Obama and his ‘socialist’ philosophy bringing a people into bondage under government control! Jesus didn’t come to enslave a people but to set them free. Dr. Graham responded later, [p.9], “No man is so ignorant as he who knows nothing and knows not that he knows nothing. No man is so sick as he who has a fatal disease and is not aware of it. No man is so poor as he who is destitute and yet thinks he is rich.”
I’m not sure of Machiavelli’s spiritual allegiance or lack of it, but in “The Prince” he wrote: “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”
I want you to come back with me to Matthew 16 – and in this passage I want us to see verses 24-26, not just verse 26! It says, Jesus speaking, Then Jesus said to His disciples, “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?” “Profit or loss?”
What has Jesus told us? 1) DENY YOURSELF. Have YOU? Do you? Will you? 2) TAKE UP THE CROSS. And that’s daily – the sentence of death to one’s self daily, and, 3) FOLLOW CHRIST.
Mary B.C. Slade, in the 1800’s, wrote a hymn entitled “Footsteps of Jesus.” Hear these words:
“Sweetly, Lord, have we heard You calling, ‘Come follow Me!’ And we see where Your footprints falling, lead us to Thee….Tho’ they lead o’er the cold dark mountains, Seeking His sheep, Or along by Siloam’s fountains, Helping the weak…If they lead through the temple holy, Preaching the Word; Or in homes of the poor and lowly, Serving the Lord…By and by through the shining portals, Turning our feet, We shall walk with the glad immortals, Heaven’s golden street…Then at last when on high He sees us, Our journey done, We shall rest where the steps of Jesus End at His throne…Footprints of Jesus, That makes the pathway glow, We will follow the steps of Jesus, Where’er they go.”
Let me share several things my Lord has shown me: FIRST, SUBSTITUTIONARY LIFE FOR THE REAL, THE ETERNAL, THE PURPOSE-FILLED, THE BLESSING, IS SO AIMLESS AND EXTENDS AND EXPANDS ‘DEATH’ ALL AROUND FOR SOME! I don’t care how you interpret it but: “The wages of sin IS death,” always has been, always will be! There is such a huge difference in how fallen man interprets ‘life’ and how God interprets ‘life’! And you have grasped, if you’ve read this book this far that there is such a vast difference between ‘trying to survive’ and one being blessed, ‘trying to exist’ and truly “LIVING”, ‘trying to make it’ and being “made by God Himself”!
Haven’t you witnessed it far too often – the man who has defined life for himself void of God and saving grace, sold out to comfort, sold out to wealth security, sold out to a life of pleasure and prosperity. For this man, he is one navel-noticed and navel-rooted! He is the man who could be defined in no other way than ‘self-centered’. His wife knows it, his children know it, his friends know it, and even the world around him knows it! Substitutionary Life – without Christ!
SECOND, THE MAN WHO ALLOWS JESUS’ SUBSTITUTIONARY DEATH ON THE CROSS TO BE FOR HIM AS IF JESUS SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR THAT MAN ALONE FINDS LIFE ETERNAL AND ETERNAL GAIN AND PROFIT! John put it a little differently but so on target! In John 1:4-9, 12-13, John wrote: “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. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world…Verses12-13, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
IN HIM [JESUS] WAS LIFE, AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN! In John 8:12 Jesus told the woman ‘caught in adultery,’ “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of light.” Apart from Jesus Christ men are locked into the reality of spiritual death and separation from God Himself, but Jesus came “to set the captives free”!
Oh, please look, listen, and lay ‘your’ life down as you read Romans 5:1-2, 6-11! “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God….Verses 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.”
RECONCILIATION! Reconciled TO God, reconciled to His eternal purpose, reconciled to the God-head of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reconciled to eternal life – not fleshly, spiritual death, reconciled to the usefulness of our redeemed lives in honoring Him, reconciled to His purpose of being an extension of His life, an expression of His love, and the proof of His power, reconciled to be His vessel to touch our world with His grace, mercy, and love!
Usefulness to the glory, purpose, and honor of God! Do you have a “Big Dream”? I was recently reading Bruce Wilkinson’s book entitled “The Dream Giver”. He has a chapter entitled “You Were Born For This.” Don’t miss a word, but as you read contemplate our Lord’s words in John 14:12, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” Hear Bruce Wilkinson’s story!
“The Hollywood producer didn’t believe it was true, and I couldn’t seem to change his mind, even though I was about to buy him lunch at my favorite neighborhood restaurant. He couldn’t believe that every person has been created with a Big Dream, and that most people, for one reason or another, just aren’t pursuing it. He said only a few people are ‘born dreamers.’ “Just because you happen to be one of them,” he said, “you don’t really think everyone in this restaurant is one, do you?”
I was losing the debate as we took our seats, and I didn’t know what to do. Our conversation had special meaning to me because, although my producer friend didn’t know it, I was trying to help him pursue HIS Big Dream. I was almost to the point of giving up when an idea came to mind. Why not try to prove it right in front of him?
When our waitress Sonja came to take our order, my heart was pounding. But I took a risk. I asked her, “Are you doing what you’ve always wished you could be doing?” She looked at me questioningly. “What do you mean?” she asked. I said, “Well, maybe you ARE doing your dream, and that would be terrific. But I wonder, do you have a Big Dream inside of your heart that hasn’t come true yet?”
Sonja thought for a moment. Then she said, “My mother is a nurse. My sister is a nurse. And I always dreamed of becoming a nurse.” “Would you have been a good nurse?” I asked. Sonja became emotional. “I would have been a really good nurse,” she said softly. “Would you like to be a nurse at this very moment?” I asked. “Yes,” she said.
So I took another risk. “Do you happen to believe that God wants you to be a nurse?” I asked. She looked away for a minute, then said, “I think so.” “If God wants you to be a nurse, then there must be a way for you to be one,” I said. “What has stopped you?” Sonja listed the reasons: an education cut short by marriage, then two children, then the demands of raising a family. “Now it’s impossible,” she said. “It’s too late.” I heard the sadness in her voice.
“What would have to happen for you to become a nurse,” I asked. “We don’t have enough money,” she said. “I can’t afford a babysitter, so I can’t go to school.” “So if you had a babysitter, you would go to school?” I asked. “Yes,” she said without hesitation.
I glanced at my producer friend to make sure he was taking this all in. Then I took another risk, “Sonja, I believe there’s somebody in your life that cares about you and would babysit your children for free. Who is that person?” Sonja thought for a moment, then her face lit up. “It’s my mother!” she exclaimed. “She just retired two months ago! She loves her grandchildren. And she’s always wanted me to have my dream. She’d babysit my kids for free if I just asked her!”
While she spoke, her eyes brimmed with tears. Mine did, too. Anytime I see someone else’s dream surfacing, I’m deeply touched because I know how sad it is not to be able to live your dream. Without even taking our order, Sonja slid in next to a friend at another table to announce that she was going back to school. “I’m going to be a nurse!” she said with tears of joy.
My friend sat across from me, shaking his head. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” he said, “I wouldn’t have believed it. Maybe you’re right. Maybe everybody DOES have a Big Dream.” [Multonomah Publishers, Sisters, Oregon, 2003, pps.72-75]
Look at I 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.” WOW! In John 12:24-25 Jesus tells us all: “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.” Tell me about your ‘love-hate’ relationship with yourself in this world!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
FORGOTTEN? THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE OF PERSONAL WATCHCARE?
Have you considered that which is ‘spiritual’ has to do with a man’s relationship with God, or the lack of it? Are disciplines that which relates to athletes and the sports’ world? What about what is personal – does ‘personal’ define what goes on in the inner man between a man and his God? Is there such a responsibility to be accounted for called ‘watch-care’? Have you, have we, forgotten?
It’s my prayer that you are not one among many who so easily forgets “the spiritual discipline of personal watch-care”! It is not something that comes in a flash like a meteorite crossing the dark night’s sky afire and then is gone. It is not that which comes and goes like a temporary habit – but it is to be that which is constant, firmly established in the inner man, and permanently preparing a man for a God-honoring, Christ-exalting walk among men.
It was Robert Burns in “The Cotter’s Saturday Night” who wrote: “Compared with this, how poor Religion’s pride, In all the pomp of method and of art, When men display to congregations wide, Devotion’s every grace, except the heart!”
And if “the spiritual discipline of personal watch-care” IS everything but the heart, one has become lost in the sea of self-esteem not honoring God at all! But in Matthew 24:42-44 we read: “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
John Wesley was so wise as he wrote “Letter To Charles Wesley”. “I desire to have both heaven and hell ever in my eye, while I stand on this isthmus of life, between two boundless oceans.” Why? Freedom in this life to choose to look toward God Himself, knowing we have an enemy called Satan, is to be free to be all God desires me to be ‘in Christ’ – not deceived by the powers of darkness who want me enslaved to my ‘old man’ under Satan’s domination!
I don’t believe most men understand life apart from God’s blessing and presence with them and in them – “there’s nothing hazardous about being an unbeliever; I’m master of my own destiny;” but for those who know that there is a huge ‘masculine’ journey of faith, they want answers! I don’t know at all about journeys on the open seas without any directional helps at all. And when it comes to the journeys of life apart from God who created us, I don’t know how any man survives – and there is such a huge difference between a life of ‘survival’ and a life blessed by God Himself!
So…you ‘gain the world, the whole world’ but lose your soul? What advantage is that? What reward is that? What kind of blessing is that to “lose your soul”?
In William Barclay’s “Daily Study Bible,” [Vol. 2 on Matthew, p.170], Barclay wrote: “A man owes himself and everything else to Jesus Christ; and there is nothing that a man can give to Christ in place of his life. It is quite possible for a man to try to give his money to Christ, and yet to withhold his life. It is still more possible for a man to give lip-service to Christ, and to withhold his life. Many a person gives his weekly freewill offering to the church, but does not go to church; obviously that does not satisfy the demands of church membership. The only possible gift to the Church is ourselves; and the only possible gift to Christ is our whole life. There is no substitute for it, and nothing less will do.”
And, although church membership is a part of our journey, it is not my emphasis in this chapter – the emphasis is between you and Jesus alone! “The Spiritual Discipline of Personal Watch-care!”
Let’s look, first, AT THE MATTER OF SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE THAT RELATES TO ONE’S PERSONAL EXAMINATION AND TEST EVALUATION – ‘DO I BELONG TO CHRIST’? In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul wrote: “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?”
It’s so interesting that earlier, in I Corinthians 9:26-27, Paul said: “Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
Does that sound like a man who could care less about his spiritual development or one that knew, yes, the daily discipline of keeping watch over his body, soul, and spirit, as it related to Christ? And more than his own personal watch-care, he knew to Whom he had committed himself! In I Thessalonians 5:23-24 Paul said: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He also who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
Paul knew personal responsibility but also yieldedness to the Christ within him. He understood the attitude of the wise man of Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
Isn’t it amazing to you that the Son of God, Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, “…increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men”? [Luke 2:52]. In verse 40 of Luke 2 it also says: “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”
“Grace of God, be on us! Grace of God, abound toward us! Grace of God, increase our stature and our favor with You and with men around us! Grace of God, make us strong in spirit! Grace of God, fill us with Your heavenly wisdom! Grace of God, honor yourself through us who do examine ourselves whether we’re in the faith or not!”
But also, LET’S LOOK AT OURSELVES CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE OF PERSONAL WATCH-CARE RELATED TO GOD’S DIVINE PURPOSE AND PLAN FOR OUR OWN PILGRIMAGE. You’ll remember Stephen being martyred in Acts 7 as “the stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, who always resisted the Holy Spirit,” and along with Saul of Tarsus, consented to stoning Stephen to death!
Acts 8 opens with a great persecution against the church – and again, here’s Saul of Tarsus right in the middle of it! Acts 8:3 says “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison [because of their faith and commitment to Christ Jesus!].
Acts 9 opens with Saul “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” He’s determined to wipe them off the face of the earth! But look at Acts 9:3-6!! “As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’”
But, do you realize or comprehend how few there are who ask that question Paul asked? I love Oswald Chambers’ statement in “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.145], “A man is a slave for obeying unless behind his obedience there is a recognition of a holy God. Many a soul begins to come to God when he flings off being religious, because there is only one Master of the human heart, and that is not religion but Jesus Christ.”
There is nothing ‘passive’ about the spiritual discipline of personal watch-care! “Lord, what would YOU have me to do?” shows true faith is active as one lays his own life down for the glory of God alone. But far too many would not even ask Paul’s question because for them it’s surrender to someone else’s sovereignty other than their own!
This leads us to LOOK AT OURSELVES CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE OF PERSONAL WATCH-CARE RELATED TO THE DAILY DISCIPLINE OF DEATH TO SELF FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF RESURRECTION LIFE, POWER, AND HOPE. In Galatians 5:24 Paul is so very clear! “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh [your old sin nature] with its passions and desires.”
What did we see in Matthew 16:24? Jesus speaking, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” I’m actually afraid for many who have never, ever, considered themselves as someone who needed to deny himself, or take up his cross, or truly follow Jesus as his/her only hope! But Jesus not only volunteered for the Cross, He took us with Him – what did Paul say in 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 I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
In Romans 6 Paul laid it on the line for us to resolve in and of ourselves! Romans 6:1says:”What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” [Look at Romans 5:20b-21! “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.”] Now, look at Romans 6:4-14! “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 should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Again, Oswald Chambers so illumined for us in his book “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.256], the battle most ‘church-folk’ never enter! He wrote: “It is the things that are right and noble and good from the natural standpoint that keep us back from God’s best. To discern that natural virtues antagonize surrender to God, is to bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. Very few of us debate with the sordid and evil and wrong, but we do debate with the good. It is the good that hates the best, and the higher up you get in the scale of the natural virtues, the more intense is the opposition to Jesus Christ. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh” – it is going to cost the natural in you everything, not something…;Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.” In I Corinthians 15:31 Paul said: “I die daily”!!
But there is something else we all MUST CONSIDER! IN OUR SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE OF PERSONAL WATCH-CARE ARE WE AWARE OF THAT WHICH CAN SEDUCE, DISTRACT, AND DISTURB ‘GODLY CONTENTMENT’? Come to I Timothy 6:6-20! “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. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life, to which you were also called and confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust….”
Paul was so clear when in I Corinthians 7:35 he wrote: “And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction.” Are you aware in your pilgrimage of alluring distractions? The New American Standard version speaks of securing “undistracted devotion to the Lord.” For some it’s an ‘obsession’! I Timothy 6:3-5 says: “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, 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 that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.”
It was Francois de Salignac who said: “Resign every forbidden joy; restrain every wish that is not referred to God’s will; banish all eager desires, all anxiety; desire only the will of God; seek him alone and supremely, and you will find peace.” Does the cup of your life, your walk, your witness, overflow with ‘Godly contentment’?
Let’s look also at THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE OF OUR LORD’S CHALLENGE AND COMMISSION TO ALWAYS PRAY. Look at Luke 18:1 where our Lord’s Holy Word says: “Then He [Jesus] spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.”
Do you understand our Lord’s passion and love for His disciples? He’s not interested in a single disciple losing heart, fainting in the way, or stumbling along the way. I want to challenge you to take your Strong’s Concordance and compare the word ‘ought’ in Luke 18:1 to the word ‘must’ in John 3:7! You’ll not be surprised that the necessity of the ‘new birth’ is the same ‘ought-ness’ of “always praying and not losing heart”!
I so love Alfred Lord Tennyson’s words in “Morte d’ Arthurt”: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friends? For so the whole round earth is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.” Later Tennyson wrote about “battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer.”
Prayerless men are inept and useless to the glory and honor of God! Prayerless men are void of the very keys and notes of music that bring about the symphony of heavenly blessing and a heavenly harmony that soothes the troubled soul! Prayer calms the storms! Prayer chains our enemy! Prayer grabs hold of God who grabs hold of a praying man! Prayer is one saying ‘Yes’ to God’s willingness to answer and to bless! Prayer opens the door to the heart of heaven itself!
But, yes, the adventure of the spiritual discipline of personal watch-care grows rapidly WHEN THERE IS OPENNESS TO CONFRONTATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF CARE, CONCERN, AND COMMITMENT TO BE HIS INSTRUMENT OF OTHERS’ RECONCILIATION TO OUR LORD. Come to I Corinthians 9:16, 19-23! Verse 16 says, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!…Verses 19-23, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.”
Alan Redpath, author of “The Royal Route To Heaven,” studies in I Corinthians, has a chapter entitled “The Genuine Article,” and it is I Corinthians 9! He wrote, [p.107], “I believe the world is tired of religion that is a sham. People want to see in the hearts and lives of those who profess Christ the characteristics of the genuine article. Unless these marks are upon our testimony, others will not desire our Lord.”
Redpath later said: [p.110], “I do not wish to be uncharitable, but isn’t it sad that in so many instances Christian people move in their own little watertight compartments and never launch out into somebody else’s situation at all? They are locked in; their circle never touches the circles of unbelievers. They move only in their little circle of Christian fellowship; very seldom do they take the plunge outside in order to win another for Christ. I believe perhaps the greatest need of all in our evangelical circles today is that we might have the boldness in Christ to cross some of the barriers that exist to win others for Him. ‘Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel,’ says Paul.”
Let me close this chapter with the spiritual discipline of personal watch-care that thrives on ‘LOVING AND LEANING ON HIS HOLY PRESENCE’! In Psalm 16:11 David said: “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
I don’t know how it is with you, but I’m so thankful that living in His Holy Presence blesses me with the fullness of joy and that at His right hand are pleasures forevermore!
In fact, when I read Acts 3:19, my heart flourishes in His joy: “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.”
Don’t you know that the eternal desire of Jesus for you and for me is, “That My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full,”?[John 15:11].
The seventy returned with joy to Jesus, saying to Him, [Luke 10:17-20], “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you 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.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
FORGOTTEN? THE SPIRITUAL ALERTNESS OF “TODAY”?
It was really interesting as the Lord had laid “Today” on my heart – and I really wanted to know what He was saying to me. I opened up Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary to the word “today” expecting this huge explanation to stretch my brain and heart, and it simply said: “The present day.” ‘Present’ was really interesting because Webster said first: “Being in a certain place; opposed to ‘absent’. One thing is for certain – we should not be those absent from God’s presence!! And I was thrilled as I looked at John 14:25 where Jesus said to His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you while being PRESENT with you.”
Is Jesus ‘present’ with you “today” or somehow have YOU wandered away from His presence? Remember, He told the disciples that He would never leave us nor forsake us.
I really don’t know all that “Today” is to mean for each of us but there is building in my inner man an irrepressible desire, assurance, and confidence of His abiding presence with me and in me! It’s that inner awareness that apart from Him I could never fulfill God’s plan for my life but one with Him “Today” will be celebration day in the fulfillment of His good, acceptable, and perfect will!
You’ll probably remember C.S. Lewis’ statement in “Mere Christianity,” [New York, Simon & Shuster, 1996, p.21], “If I find in myself a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” But, I’m thinking, dissatisfaction with self is because I was made for another Lord – not lord unto myself but the Lordship of Jesus Christ in this world that I’m appointed to by His grace! If you’re ‘delighting’ in yourself, you’re living a lie, but if you delight in Jesus, you’re living in the Truth!
I don’t think any person has ever entered true beauty, true blessing, and a true benediction to life who has not settled into “I am the resurrection and the life…,” Jesus’ words of Himself. And when one is settled into Him, life becomes more than daily routine – it becomes divine reconciliation and enjoyment and blessing and fulfillment and satisfaction and peace and hope and love that is eternal and mercy that is Master-full!
Yet “today” there are those who ‘die’ in despair having never been enlightened to the Lord of this day and every day! You’ll remember Christopher Reeve who played ‘Superman.’ Before his premature death he said: “When I do good I feel good. When I do bad I feel bad. And that’s my religion.”
Hardness of heart is not a haven of rest for those who have “Forgotten” TODAY! Hardness of heart is not hope for those who have no hope in themselves and never see ‘hope’ in others’ choices.
It was the year 1969 when Lloyd John Ogilvie wrote his book “A Life Full of Surprises.” Receive what he wrote then for now! It’s his first chapter, first paragraph, and it’s so needed 43 years later! “The most exciting thing I see in our time of history is the new breed of humanity God is raising up out of the traditional church. In the midst of all the bad news about the failure of the church, much of which is more than justified, something now needs to be said about this amazing cadre of people who have come alive and about their churches which are wrestling with what it means to be a liberating fellowship. These are winsome, willful men and women who are constantly surprised by what God is able to do with life completely under his marching orders. They have a radical freedom expressed in a reconciling ministry. For them there is no tyranny of the either/or. They have both personal faith and social concern – love for Christ and love for the world – time for devotion and time to demonstrate.”
How awesome is that! “Today”!! A time for devotion and a time to demonstrate! “Today”! A time in radical freedom to be reconciling ministries! “Today”! The moment for the Master’s mind and will expressed through available vessels!!
Let’s look, First, at the “TODAY” OF HEARING HIS VOICE AND NOT HARDENING OUR HEARTS. In Psalm 95:7b-11 we read: “…Today, if you will hear His voice: Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘they shall not enter My rest.’”
Have you ever considered, thought about, or contemplated: “How many people are there who are listening for His voice ‘today’? How many are anxious and excited to hear God speak to them? I’m convinced God has spoken and still speaks through the revelation of His Holy Word. I have no doubt that when a man of God stands and preaches God’s undiluted, uncompromising Word, men can hear Him. I believe you’d be foolish to say that God cannot, has not, will not, speak through human circumstances and events. And I’m also assured His audible voice is heard at times by servants of the Most High God. And Jesus, Lord and Savior, also has appeared and has spoken to chosen servants.
But rebellion can close ears, blind eyes, and bring folks into an awful state of denial, intent on being masters of their own destinies! Israel tested God in the wilderness, tried the Lord as if He needed to be imprisoned by their judgments, and grieved Him in His heart for refusing to give Him His rightful place in their minds, their hearts, and their wills. They rebelled, they went astray from God, they refused to know His ways, and they did not enter His rest!
Is our modern day any different than those in the wilderness who in their ‘today’ harden their hearts and refuse to hear His voice? Peter spoke of those who “once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” [I Peter 2:10]. The God I serve is the God of love, grace, and mercy, who still is reaching out, speaking clearly, tapping on the shoulder, shining bright lights, and saving souls!!
But also in Joshua 5:9 there is such a word of hope that ought to put you on shouting grounds. Hear God’s Voice in this: The Lord said to Joshua, “Today, this day, this very moment in time, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of this place is called Gilgal [rolling away] to this day.” GOD ROLLS AWAY YOUR REPROACH!
For 400 years Israel was in bondage, in slavery, captive to a people and rulers who did not know God and had no desire to know Him – they opposed Him at every turn. To be unsaved, to be an unbeliever, to shamefully be controlled, manipulated, abused, by the powers of darkness, you are covered in reproach, bound in spiritual chains, locked up tight by enemies who call you their friends! To be in sin is to be in spiritual grave-clothes, bound body, soul, and spirit, by those who want you sharing their darkness!
The reproach of Egypt! Incarnate unbelief! The reproach of Egypt! Unbridled recklessness, abandonment of God, unbelief! The reproach of Egypt! Accursed actions, sexual abuse, immorality! The reproach of Egypt! Ungodly pleasures, ungodly biases and blunders, ungodly relationships, ungodly unions! The reproach of Egypt! Separation, saturation in worldly, fleshly, demonic activities, bowing before idols man-made, man-accursed, man-alienated from God!
But God “rolls away your reproach”! It’s by the blood, in the blood, through the shed blood of Jesus on Calvary’s Cross, that your reproach is now gone!
Lelia N. Morris, over a hundred years ago, wrote a hymn that says: “In the misty days of yore Jesus’ precious blood had power Even the thief on the cross to save; Like a bird his spirit flies to its home in Paradise, Through the power of Calvary’s crimson wave…I was lost and steeped in guilt, but the blood for sinners spilt Washed away my sins and set me free; Now and evermore the same, praise, O praise His holy name! Will the cleansing stream availing be…God in mercy asks you why, brother sinner, will you die When such full redemption He provides? You have but to look and live, life eternal He will give, For the power of Calvary still abides…Bring your burdens, come today, turn from all your sins away, He can fully save and sanctify; From the wrath to come now flee, let your name recorded be With the blood-washed, and redeemed on high…And the blood has never lost its power…No, never, no, never, Jesus’ blood avails for sins forever…And will never lose its power.”
And, having been washed in His blood and your reproach rolled away, God comes and says to us: “SON, GO, WORK TODAY IN MY VINEYARD.” That’s Luke 21:28! Verse 29 says that he answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went.”
Having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and your reproach rolled away, you don’t believe God has divine intent for you in holy service to the Lord? “Go, work today in my vineyard.”
Have you ever witnessed a new field of opportunity made ready for a harvest? There’s clearing away what needs to go; there’s making sure those weeds and wild things are removed; there’s the plowing and breaking up of hard ground; and then there comes the seed planting which is the precious seed of the Word of God. There’s watering, more weeding, still soil preparation – and then a harvest!
Whoever said “witnessing” for our Lord was easy – I’m not sure what they were talking about when it comes to ‘working’ in His vineyard! Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3:11, “For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.” And that is so true – it’s as if they see the field to be prepared for the harvest but they stand outside the fence and watch, but never work!
Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:19, “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” In 2 Timothy 4:5 he told Timothy, “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
And that’s the ministry of sharing the faith in our work-a-day-world! He had said to Timothy earlier in 2 Timothy 1:8, “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.”
As a result of God’s grace and our salvation, what’s the end result? Ephesians 2:10 says: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Tell me about your ‘walk’ of faith and your ‘good works’!
But there’s something else I must ask you about. We’ve just seen the ministry of evangelism. Is there legitimately and genuinely A MINISTRY OF DISCIPLES OF COMPASSION AND CARING FOR THE NEEDY AND THE POOR? In Luke 19:1-10 look with me at Zacchaeus and his encounter with Christ: Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was short of stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Is there a true test of heavenly spirituality or have we concluded that all that matters is showing up at church regularly and paying our tithes? I believe “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” is so beyond our church attendance!
Carelessness, carnality, and coldness toward the needy are not trade-marks of a true disciple devoted to the resurrected and reigning Christ! Look with me at John 13:14! Jesus said: “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
Listen to Oswald Chambers in his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [pps.187-188], “Ministering as opportunity surrounds us does not mean selecting our surroundings, it means being very selectly God’s in any haphazard surroundings which He engineers for us. The characteristics we manifest in our immediate surroundings are indications of what we will be like in other surroundings…The things that Jesus did were of the most menial and common-lace order, and this is an indication that it takes all God’s power in me to do the most commonplace things in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels and dishes and sandals, all the ordinary things of our lives, reveal more quickly than anything what we are made of. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the meanest duty as it ought to be done.”
But, also, I want you to consider “today” what you have chosen for yourself – A BLESSING OR A CURSE! Come to Deuteronomy 11:26-28!! “Behold, I set before you TODAY a blessing and a curse; the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.”
It was Thomas Carlyle in “Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches” who said: “Blessed are the valiant that have lived in the Lord.” And I have no doubt that ‘in the Lord’ IS THE BLESSING and without the Lord is THE CURSE!
To the Ephesians Paul wrote: [Ephesians 1:3], “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.” Have you fully grasped what Paul is telling us?
“God chose us in Christ,” “predestined us to adoption as sons,” “made us accepted in the Beloved,” “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,” “He abounded wisdom and understanding to us,” “He revealed His will to us,” “we have obtained an inheritance,” “we shall BE to the praise of His glory,” “we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,” “we have our guarantee”!!
And you choose “the curse”? Listen to Deuteronomy 30:14-20! “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 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 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 earthy 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.”
I believe I’ll “side” with Joshua and Jesus!! Joshua 24:14-15 says, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served…Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Why not see yourself as a new Jeremiah for our day? Jeremiah 1:4-10 says: Then the word of the Lord came to ME, saying: “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.” Then I said: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth.’ For you shall go to all whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces. For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” Look at verses 17-19! “Therefore PREPARE YOURSELF and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them. For behold, I have MADE YOU FOR THIS DAY a fortified city and an iron pillar, they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you,” says the Lord, “to deliver you.”
“Today” is not ‘never’; “Today” is not later; “Today” is not tomorrow; “Today” is not sometime; ”Today” is NOW! In Luke 6:21 Jesus said: “Blessed are you who hunger NOW, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep NOW, for you shall laugh.” What a promise from our Lord!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
FORGOTTEN? THE HOLY SPIRIT TO LIVE IN ME?
Isn’t it amazing to you how easily some ignore the revelation of God’s Holy Word about the Trinity? That’s God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – the three in one! Some say, “How is that possible?”, when they look at man and see man, husband, and father effectually working as one! Have you heard them? “I don’t even like to think about the ‘man’ part, and ‘husband’? Lord, help us! And ‘father’? What a poor representation of man!” But sadly some totally ignore the Trinity, and especially God the Holy Spirit – as if they’d wandered over into ‘ghost-land’!
I really don’t know, don’t understand, that if ‘discipling’ is a primary, foremost responsibility of the local church, how “Receive the Holy Spirit” is usually totally ignored by those in charge! Yet, most discipleship training materials are void of Holy Spirit training. But I also know that there has been abuse, misinterpretation, false teaching, even antagonism against those who do include Holy Spirit equipping and training. “God, help us! Save us from biblical ignorance and ill-equipped disciplers who will not touch Holy Spirit training!”
But I’m also confident that ‘power religion’ is not Spirit relationship. I’m also confident that much of the Spirit-training by some compartmentalizes private thoughts about their interpretation of Spirit-activity apart from the revelation of the Word! I’m also confident that if one teaches ‘ministry of the Holy Spirit’ from a denominational frame of reference much then of the all-inclusive ministry of the Holy Spirit is lacking, ignored, or even denied by some!
Of all the teachings necessary for a free, full, fulfilling relationship to Christ and His Holy Word, I’m convinced it is the scriptural foundation in one’s pilgrimage as disciple of Christ to be that of a proper, empowering leadership of the Holy Spirit in one’s daily life. But there is such controversy about the Spirit that some have assumed teaching about the Holy Spirit causes too many problems, causes too much controversy, and causes some to “fall away” not understanding no leadership of the Holy Spirit creates that vacuum!
Questions! Is the Holy Spirit truly a part of the Trinity or an invention of misdirected Bible teachers? Is the Holy Spirit a part of my salvation process? Is the Holy Spirit absolutely essential in the maturing process as a follower of Christ? Is the Holy Spirit necessary in understanding the Word of God? Is New Testament evangelism founded on the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Is a follower of Christ to be led by the Holy Spirit on one’s spiritual journey daily? These questions, and I’m sure others, will be with us as we traverse the paths of the Holy Spirit’s leadership.
Let me begin this study of the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1:1 where God “created the heavens and the earth,” with verse 2 telling us “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters,” letting us know Creation was a partnership arrangement between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In Genesis 1:26 our Holy Word tells us, Then God said, “LET US [PLURAL] make man in ‘OUR’ image, according to our likeness…” And this is so vital in your own understanding of your need of the Holy Spirit in the “new creation” activity of your own life in Christ – and, just as God saw “that it was good” in the natural creation [Genesis 1:31], so does Holy God see your “new creation” in Christ as good! The Spirit was, is, and always will be so involved in what God the Father and God the Son are up to in your life – look at Hebrews 9:14! “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.”
Did you notice, did you highlight “the eternal Spirit”? When Pharoah decided to set Joseph over Egypt as an officer over the food and grain of the land, he said to his servants, Genesis 41:38, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” Even pagan Pharoah recognized God’s Holy Spirit in and on a man like Joseph!!
Moses knew God’s people should not be without a shepherd. In Numbers 27:17 we see where Moses spoke with God about His ‘sheep which have no shepherd,’ and in verse 18 the Lord said to Moses: “Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him…” And, then, in Joel 2:28-29 God gives ALL His precious promise of the Holy Spirit to be with us in so exalting Christ through our daily lives. Through Joel God said: “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
What did God’s angel tell Zechariah in Zechariah 4:6? “This is the word of the Lord: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” It’s the Holy Spirit that authenticates the work and Word of the Lord – not men’s ‘might’ or men’s ‘power’! I’m sure this is why Thomas a Kempis once said: “Many are deceived in the end, who at first seemed to be led by the Holy Spirit.”
The one thing I pray for as I do this chapter is that I don’t misinform but inform, that I don’t mislead but lead, that I in no way deceive but enlighten us all in the ministry of the Holy Spirit! Evangelical spirituality is sadly scarred and bruised when ‘fleshly fruit’ is majored on rather than the Fruit of the Holy Spirit! Notice what God’s Word says about the Holy Spirit!
WHEN THE SPIRIT HAS COME [and He has!] THERE IS CONVICTION OF SIN! Here are the words of Jesus: [John 16:7-8], “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, HE WILL CONVICT THE WORLD of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment to come.”
Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says of CONVICTION: “The act of convincing, or compelling one to admit the truth of a charge; the act of convincing of sin or sinfulness; the state of being sensible of guilt…” And remember: “For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
What Paul then says elsewhere is so vital! 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
Hear Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost For His Highest”! [pps.240-241], “Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin; we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things; but conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only – “Against You, You only, have I sinned!” When a man is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, the man would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the rending of His heart in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. When we have been convicted of sin we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary, and nothing less; the love of God is spelt [spelled out] on the Cross and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the Cross of my Lord. There, His conscience is satisfied.”
BUT, ALSO, WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, HE WILL GUIDE US INTO ALL TRUTH. Isn’t that what John 16:13 tells us? “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.”
And I’m talking about GOD’S TRUTH, not a ‘truth’ some fallen man has fashioned or designed for himself. This is why ‘religious truth’ is so dangerous. In 2 Peter 2:1-3 Peter wrote: 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.
Then verse 10 speaks of those who are “presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,” and then in verses 12-17 we read: 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, or 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.
But the Holy Spirit has a different ministry than false teachers or false prophets! 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 says: But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And God graciously gives us the Spirit of Truth! In John 14:15-17 Jesus tells us: “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” Look at John 15:26! “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” JESUS IS TRUTH!!
But also DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE NECESSITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE REALITY OF NEW BIRTH FROM A SON OF SATAN TO A SON OF GOD? In John 3:1-8 we read: There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [the Word of God] 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.”
Physical birth? We know the reality of that – and most thank God for it! But the failure comes, those dark nights and days of the soul when one figures spiritual birth is fiction. Is it fiction or is it a reality and necessity of life? Jesus said: “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!” Truth or fiction? Nicodemus said: “How can a man be born when he is old?” He was looking only at physical birth and not the birth of the Spirit! But Jesus said and says today: John 3:3, “most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John had said in John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe [rely upon, trust in, adhere to] in His name.” Are you glued to Christ?
New birth is new allegiance! Your old man is old allegiance to self-rule, but the new man is new allegiance to the reign of Christ as Lord and King of the kingdom of God. New birth is new sanctified eyes where I begin to “see” my life under the sovereign rule of Christ as Lord of my life!
BUT ALSO WE MUST DISCERN THAT, HAVING RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT, WE DID NOT RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PART, OR PIECEMEAL, OR ‘A LITTLE DAB WILL DO YOU’!! WE RECEIVED HIM IN HIS FULLNESS! In John 3:33-34 we read: “He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give His Spirit by measure.” Look at Romans 8:9-11! “But you 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, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him 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.”
Is there a limitation to the Holy Spirit’s work in us? Oh, I don’t think so – there may be a limitation in us, a blockage in us – but not in Him! I’m not talking about a life now with sanctified common sense, but a life indwelt by the fullness of the Holy Spirit – He has no limitations but only our resistance to what He wants to do through us!
In Romans 8:26 Paul said: “We know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Never find yourself insensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit! Never close the door on His promptings! Never consider self as wise enough to make eternal decisions on your own – rest in the fullness of God’s Spirit and the fullness of God’s Spirit’s leadership!
I’M ALSO CONVINCED THAT WE MUST BE YIELDED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT IN BOTH PRIVATE AND PUBLIC WORSHIP! In John 4:23-24 Jesus said to the woman at the well: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Worship, both private and public, is one bowing before Father-God in full surrender, in one grabbing hold of God and holding on, in one bowing, under the Spirit’s leadership, in a life dedicated afresh and anew to the glory of God.
Worship is, led by the Spirit, a fresh bowing and a new and full surrender to our Lord’s Lordship – it’s yielding, it’s surrendering, it’s renewing, it’s rekindling! Dwight Bradley put the Spirit-worshipping life like this: [“Leaves From a Spiritual Notebook,” Harper & Row Publishers]: “For worship is a thirsty land crying out for rain, It is a candle in the acts of being kindled, It is a drop in quest of the ocean…It is a voice in the night calling for help, It is a soul standing in awe before the mystery of the universe…It is time flowing into eternity…a man climbing the altar stairs to God.”
In John 4:24 again – it must be cemented in your mind, heart, and spirit of daily living! “God IS A SPIRIT; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
I don’t see worship though as a rule but release of the fullness of the life within us. Worship is not a law but the overflow of love. Worship is not a life-jacket on the ship of “Faith’ but inner Presence expressed in outward magnifying! It was Napoleon Bonaparte who said: “If Socrates would enter the room we should rise and do him honor. But if Jesus Christ came into the room we should fall down on our knees and worship Him.”
David, in I Chronicles 16:29 said: “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” And, I wonder: How many ‘worship’ and ‘bow down’ in full surrender’!
ONE LAST TRUTH OF VITAL IMPORTANCE FOR OUR UNDERSTANDING OF OUR NEED TO BE YIELDED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT: FLESH [YOUR OLD SIN NATURE] DOES NOT, CANNOT, WILL NOT TESTIFY OF OR GLORIFY CHRIST – THAT IS THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN AND THROUGH YOU. In John 15:26 we read again: “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, HE WILL TESTIFY OF ME.”
And then in John 16:14 Jesus said of the Spirit, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit is YOUR limitless resource of honoring Jesus in your daily walk! Understand – the Holy Spirit reveals your blessing in Christ, your life in Christ, and interprets your every step as opportunity to honor Him and glorify Him on earth as He is glorified in heaven! YOU, in Christ, are a ‘partaker’ of the Holy Spirit, and He enlightens, empowers, and encourages your walk in Christ.
Settle in to Romans 8:26-27! “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
Oh, please hear and receive God’s Word for your own “SPIRIT-BLESSED SPIRITUAL HEALTH”!! I Corinthians 6:19 says, “Or do you not know that YOUR BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO IS IN YOU?” Have you made your body “a den of thieves” or is it the Most Holy Place where the Holy Spirit resides and is to reign honoring Christ? B.B. McKinney and Edwin Hatch wrote they hymn: “Breathe On Me”. It says: “Holy Spirit, Breathe on me, Until my heart is clean; Let sunshine fill its inmost part, With not a cloud between…Holy Spirit, Breathe on me, My stubborn will subdue; Teach me in words of living flame What Christ would have me do…Holy Spirit, breathe on me, Fill me with power divine; Kindle a flame of love and zeal Within this heart of mine…Holy Spirit, breathe on me, Till I am all Thine own, Until my will is lost in Thine, To live for Thee alone…Breathe on me, breathe on me, Holy Spirit, breathe on me; Take Thou my heart, cleanse every part, Holy Spirit, breathe on me.”
Tell me of your prayer to be filled with and by the Holy Spirit!
CHAPTER TWENTY
FORGOTTEN? EVANGELISM: HEARTBEAT OF CHRISTIANS AND CHURCHES?
Colin Sterne and H.E.Nichol wrote a powerful hymn many years ago entitled: “We’ve a Story To Tell.” It says: “We’ve a story to tell to the nations, That shall turn their hearts to the right; A story of truth and sweetness, A story of peace and light, A story of peace and light…We’ve a song to be sung to the nations, That shall lift their hearts to the Lord; A song that shall conquer evil and shatter the spear and sword, And shatter the spear and sword…We’ve a message to give to the nations, That the Lord who reigns above, Has sent us His Son to save us, And show us that God is love, And show us that God is love….We’ve a Savior to show to the nations, Who the path of sorrow has trod, That all of the world’s great people Might come to the truth of God, Might come to the truth of God!…For the darkness shall turn to the dawning, And the dawning to noon-day bright, And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, The kingdom of love and light.”
Darkness does prevail over most of our world today, but ‘in Christ’ the Light is shining – and our Lord, because of His grace, mercy, and love toward His chosen, redeemed people, has said: [Matthew 5:16], “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Because of what our Lord has done graciously and mercifully in Christians and churches, we are assigned the responsibility of touching our world around us with the same grace and mercy! Jesus even said in Matthew 5:13, “YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
In John 7:38 Jesus said of His new-born disciples, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” That’s a disciple – that is to be His church! If the Lord poured out His life for our salvation, is the mandate and mission on Christians and churches to be the same?
If the Word declares that He [Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, [I John 2:2], then do we have thrust upon us, Christians and churches, THE MISSIONARY MANDATE, THE WORK OF WITNESSING, AND THE WITNESSING OF HIS REDEMPTIVE TRUTH? If Jesus says “Go”, do we have the option to “stay”? If Jesus says “Tell,” do we have an option to be “silent” about Him? In Acts 20:17-28 Paul called for the elders of the churches of Ephesus: “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: ‘You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 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.”
Right before His Ascension Jesus spoke to His disciples in Matthew 28:16-20. Do you believe “last words” are important? Listen to Jesus! Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earthy. 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.
How could any disciple, any church, entrusted with God’s Holy Word ignore or set aside as an ‘option we hold’, Acts 1:1-8? “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
“You shall be witnesses to Me…!” Paul put it a little differently in 2 Corinthians 5:11, “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;…” Then, in a few verses later, he identifies all believers in this particular way: [2 Corinthians 5:14-20], “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: 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 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. 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.”
Witnesses, ministers of reconciliation, Ambassadors for Christ, Truth-Tellers, men and women of the holy, heavenly persuasion, living epistles known and read by men! In 2 Corinthians 2:12-17 Paul also said: Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord. I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia. Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”
Let’s look, FIRST, AT OUR HEARTBEAT FOR OTHERS BECAUSE OF WHAT JESUS CAME TO DO. When Jesus was speaking about Zacchaeus in Luke 19:9-10 He said: “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” BUT WE’RE NOT A PART OF THAT?
In I Timothy 1:15 Paul said, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” And didn’t we just read in 2 Corinthians 5:19 that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing [or reckoning] their trespasses to them, and HAS COMMITTED TO US THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION”?
RECONCILIATION? Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says this: “In Scripture, the means by which sinners are reconciled and brought into a state of favor with God, after natural estrangement or enmity…” And, ‘in sin,’ all are naturally estranged from God [“LOST”] and live even in enmity toward God! Well, what about our “lost-ness” in our sins and estrangement from God? Again, Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says: “Ruined, destroyed, wasted or squandered; employed to no good purpose;…forfeited, a ‘lost’ estate; unable to find the right way;…alienated; perplexed; being in a maze; hardened; ‘lost’ to shame; ‘lost’ to all sense of honor; shipwrecked, sunken…” And THAT”S WHO JESUS CAME FOR! THAT’S THOSE FOR WHOM HE DIED! THAT’S THE ONES FOR WHOM HE SHED HIS BLOOD! “LOST!!”
It was Jean Nicolas Gross, in “Alliance Weekly,” who said: “Do not shelter the mirror which reflects your soul’s lack of beauty; rather welcome the truth, and believe that next to the knowledge of God nothing is so precious as the knowledge of self.”
William R. Newell and Daniel B. Towner wrote these words to the song “At Calvary”: “Years I spent in vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He died on Calvary…By God’s Word at last my sin I learned; Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned, Till my guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary…Mercy there was great, and grace was free, Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary.”
Omission of Truth, carelessness of self-contemplation, denial of God’s deep love for the ‘fallen’ and the ‘lost’, irreparably unmade apart from God’s mercy and grace, deceived as to one’s separation from God and His eternal intent for man – it ALL says “Lost!” But I wonder, isn’t it better to say, “I was ‘lost’ but Jesus found me, I was blind but He made me see, I was bound in sin’s cruel bondage, but Jesus set me free!!??”
Also, OUR HEARTBEAT FOR OTHERS IS BECAUSE WE KNOW THOSE OTHERS AROUND US DON’T HAVE TO LIVE CAPTIVE AND SLAVE-LIKE ANY LONGER TO THEIR OLD SIN NATURES. In 2 Timothy 2:19b Paul said, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
I remember reading of those World War II U.S. veterans imprisoned by the Japanese in a prisoner of war camp who remained in their cells after U.S. soldiers approached the camp even though the Japanese had unlocked their cells then ran off! When some have been enslaved to their old sin natures for so, so long, it’s hard to believe they are truly free by our Lord’s sacrificial death and resurrection!
Didn’t Paul tell us in 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 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…”
To the church at Rome, and us, Paul wrote in Romans 6:10-23, [OH, how vital these words are to you, believer!]. For the death that He [Jesus] died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 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. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you 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.”
In Christ, we are FREE!! No longer are we captives and slaves of our old sin natures! The pillars of the Christian faith that keeps our spiritual health so strong are the pillars of God’s Holy Revelation about us ‘in Christ’ and the pillars of eternal freedom! Jesus died to set the captives FREE! John 8:36 says, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” And what happens to most of us is, we have to experience the renewing, the re-programming of our minds according to God’s Revelation, not our feelings, thoughts, or opinions! This is why in Galatians 5:1 Paul wrote: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty where-with Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
OUR HEARTBEAT FOR OTHERS IS BECAUSE WE KNOW, IN CHRIST, ONE DOESN”T HAVE TO LIVE UNDER THE CONTROL OF SATAN AND DEMON POWERS. To Timothy Paul wrote in I Timothy 4:1, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.” But, who are these who give heed to these spirits and demons? In 2 Timothy 3:13 Paul told Timothy, “But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
Do I believe ‘born-again believers’ can be harassed, challenged, intimidated, influenced, maybe even ‘led astray’ for a short period of time, or maybe “sifted like wheat”? Absolutely! But there is a difference for true believers between oppression and possession. In Hebrews 2:14-16 hear the truth of Christ’s aid to “the seed of Abraham”: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself [Jesus] likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.”
Can the demon-possessed be freed by Christ? Absolutely! He has conquered not only sin but the devil and every demon the devil sent to you! Listen to Revelation 12:9-17!! 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 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 has 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, 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 times 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.”
This large spiritual warfare is actual global warfare between the devil and people of God on every continent. Satan leads the war between good and evil, between the saints and the powers of darkness, between the armies of the Most High God and the armies of the devil himself. Ephesians 6:12 tells us: “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.”
But the promise of God’s Holy Word for every follower of Christ is found in Colossians 2:15! Jesus, “having disarmed principalities and powers, [He] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it [the Cross].”
And I ask you, right now, to pause and reflect upon Jesus – was He tempted, tried, tested by the devil? But you don’t believe unbelievers and believers have to consider a warfare with Satan and the powers of darkness? Please – let them all know that Jesus is their victory over their enemies! But if they refuse, if they rebel, if they yield even an inch to their enemy, share 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12! “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
It is also so vital that you share with those separated from God and His eternal purpose that ONE DOESN”T HAVE TO LIVE SEPARATED, EMPTY, AIMLESS, MEANINGLESS LIVES MISSING OUT ON WHAT GOD PASSIONATELY DESIRES FOR THEM TO HAVE, MISSING OUT ON WHAT GOD INTENDED FOR THAT LIFE!
In Romans 12:1-2 Paul challenges our aimless world, our self-centered societies, our ‘pressed-in’ and sadly influenced godless culture, that there is a better way! “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. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Earlier, in Romans 5:1-2, 8-10, Paul gives hope for those who are “without strength,” for those alienated and separated from God, experiencing only death in the daily walk. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Verses 8-10, But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet 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 saved by His life.”
God has called YOU! I Peter 2:9 says: “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.” And this precious, purposeful, powerful calling is so blessed with holy privilege. In I Peter 3:15 Peter wrote of the blessing of God’s intention of your faith-filled life in influencing others: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”
But also there’s something else you must grasp and give to your unsaved friends, family, and foes: ONE DOESN’T HAVE TO LIVE BLINDED TO GOD BUT CAN HAVE ONE’S EYES OPENED TO SEE, TO CELEBRATE, AND TO HONOR OUR LORD. In James 1:21-25 we read: “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
Disintegration of life is a sad, sad state. A divided life is a terrible turmoil. Discouraged lives are those based on self and not the Savior. Darkened lives are those never lit by the fiery, inner presence of Christ! But James said, verse 25, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
The perfect law of liberty? In John 8:36 Jesus said, and still says: “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Freedom is forgiveness in Christ. Freedom is fullness in Christ. Freedom is heavenly force for the fight of faith. Freedom is the free gift of blessing upon blessing upon blessing upon blessing – in Christ! Which leads us to:
ONE DOESN’T HAVE TO LIVE ISOLATED FROM THE GREAT BLESSING OF BEING A PART OF GOD’S KINGDOM, HIS COMMUNITY OF FELLOWSHIP, AND HIS FAMILY OF FAITH, OR BECOMING ONE WITH HIM WHO DESIRES TO WORK IN AND THROUGH YOU IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS! In Philippians 2:5-18 we read some of the most encouraging, challenging, fruitful verses that relate personally to a believer in a dark world and a community of faith that needs YOU! It says: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.”
In “My Utmost For His Highest” Oswald Chambers wrote: “Are you willing to be offered up for the work of the faithful – to pour out your life blood as a libation on the sacrifice of the faith of others? Or do you say – ‘I am not going to be offered up just yet, I do not want God to choose my work. I want to choose the scenery of my own sacrifice; I want to have the right kind of people watching and saying, ‘Well done.’…It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people’s feet. Suppose God wants to teach you to say, ‘I know how to be abased’ – are you ready to be offered up like that? Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in the bucket – to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served? Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it is beneath their dignity.”
Beneath one’s dignity? Our Lord and Savior humbled Himself and became a “foot-washer”, but that’s too menial for you? Have you “FORGOTTEN” Jesus? Poured spoke of being “poured out as a drink offering” – but you’re unsure of laying your life down in service of others? Almighty Jesus emptied Himself that we might be filled – open your life, pour it out, and see those around you blessed for eternity! The steadfastness of ministry in the name of Jesus should be the main highway you travel on! Be blessed!!
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
FORGOTTEN? “DEAF TO…”, “COLD TO THE WARMTH OF HIS WORD AND VOICE”,
OR, “LISTENING TO THE REDEMPTIVE VOICES”!!
Intro: There is one thing that must be settled in every human heart – redemptive faith is never the result of fleshly sight and fleshly hearing! Oh, all across the world everyday people are hearing voices that they think they ought to heed and follow.
In Deuteronomy 18:9-22 God is so gracious to forewarn His people: LISTEN!! “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations…There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer,, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. [That’s a demon!!]. For all who do those things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ – when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken;; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of Him.” Do you understand how many ‘prophetic voices’ are around you every day? – and their conscious or unconscious desire is to lead you away from God, away from His purpose, away from His Person and APPOINTED PROPHET?
Are you aware that ever since the Fall of man in God’s Garden of Holiness that even a ‘snake’ showed up there voicing deception and never spoke “TRUTH”?
And because of the Fall, there is the need of Redemption and Reconciliation with Holy God, regeneration through faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross – Redemption is God’s Reality, Redemption is God’s Restoration, Redemption is God’s Release into the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
But too many have ears superbly trained to hear what they want to hear, to hear what pumps their flesh, to hear what everybody does so they can fit in with anyone but the God who made them, lost them, but then bought them with a price!
I say to you: Beware of any voice, anywhere, anytime, that competes, contends against, or tries to contradict the Voice of Jesus only, the Voice of the One True and Living God, and beware of the voices that speak their opinions and not the revelation of His Word!
Redeemed men have redeemed ears to hear and serve God because they’re blessed with a divine love-gift of a life that hears Him speak, responds to His voice, and reaches out for His destiny and purpose in them and through them.
Redeemed men are not such that are inclined to tell God what they think He ought to do or to let out for His approval their plans, their ambitions, and their determination to “get- er-done” with or without Holy Him.
Redeemed men, blessed as “partakers of the divine nature,” are men who know and understand that it “pleased God…to reveal His Son in [them}..” and they comprehend their “walks” as disciples are an overflow, a release, a service, to the honor of Christ out of the explanation of sheer love, sacrificial devotion, spontaneous obedience to the Proven Voice and Living Word within them!
Do you remember Genesis 15? Verse 1 says, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.’” THAT’S FAITH IN GOD – NOT FAITH IN HIMSELF! And God gives Abram a vision –
Verse 5, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them…So shall your descendants be.”….”How will this be?”, Abram was asking. And God cut a blood covenant with Abram! WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?…Verse 11 says, “And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.” Oh, what a fighter, what a defender of the Faith, what a warrior in the eternal warfare of the ages! RIGHT?….Verse 12, “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; [Ever felt you’ve been in a deep spiritual sleep?]…and behold, HORROR & GREAT DARKNESS FELL UPON HIM.”….Verse 17 tells us: in that darkness “a smoking oven & a burning torched passed between those pieces,” God assuring Abram “he was on the right journey”!
COVENANT HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED! At the end of chapter 16, it says Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.” [13 years before Genesis 17:1!] – “When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said: “I am Almighty God; walk before me and be blameless.” Verse 3 – Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him…” He gave Abram a new name: Abram was ‘Exalted Father’ – Abraham was “Father of a Multitude”!
Sue and I established early in our marriage a mutual covenant – a covenant of prayer for our line of the Fishers to be established for a 1000 generations to honor God – WE HAD HEARD HIS VOICE!
In Job 42:2 Job said to the Lord, “I know that You can do all things and that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained or thwarted.”….And this, no doubt, is why David wrote the 23rd Psalm out of a heart that had learned to listen to God’s heart-beat and God’s Voice!! ….[READ!!]
In 2 Timothy 2:7-9 Paul wrote: “Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. 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 bound or 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.”
I’m telling you: YOU NEED TO STRIP FROM YOUR MINDS the thin gauzes of doubt, unbelief, speculation, indifference, and irreverence toward God’s Voice, and put on yourself the Royal Robe of Submission, Surrender, and SOLE RELIANCE on the VOICE OF GOD, not the wagging tongues from defiled hearts & rebellious minds who’ve determined: “WE DON’T NEED TO HEAR GOD’S VOICE!!” – I’m telling you: RUN even from a classroom, or a doctor’s office, or from a lawyer who is the ‘Law’ unto himself!
Listen to Dr. R.G. Lee out of his famous book “Payday Someday,” [pps. 55-56]. Dr. Lee preached: “In this Word of God which can never be bound or imprisoned, the historian has found his most thrilling chapters, the artist his loveliest conceptions, the poet his loftiest themes, God’s prophets their divinest messages, ethics its greatest authority, philosophy its profoundest inspiration, oratory its most beautiful quotations to bejewel its grandest flights, and many writers multitudinous themes and suggestions that blossom like rare and fragrant flowers in the world’s vast garden of literature.”
Do you understand that when one turns a deaf ear to “Redemptive Voices”, they have personally awakened in themselves afresh and anew the death knell to blessing, liberty, freedom, guidance, and the eternal destiny of fullness in Christ?
What did Paul say to the Athenians? “In Him [in Christ] we live, and move, and have our being”! And, I say, “Thank God for those who listen, hear, and respond in faith and obedience to the Redemptive Voices!”
FIRST, WE NEED TO HEAR, LISTEN, AND RESPOND TO THE VOICE OF THE LAW OF GOD. I want you to come to Exodus 19:4-6 and witness precious privilege, a treasured possession, a holy vow, and a Godly promise. The Word Says: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”…Then look at verse 19, ‘Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.” And then comes the voice of Holy Exposure in Exodus 20:1-21!!
Why the Ten Commandments engraved on those tablets of stone? Come to Galatians 3:10!! Are you ready? “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’” – Law’s Purpose? Galatians 3:24 tells us: “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Verse 7 has already told us “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” Why?
In John 8:56 Jesus said of Abraham: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”…THE LAW CARRIES EVERY MAN TO THE HOLY BAR OF GOD! THE LAW CONDEMNS EVERY MAN FOR VIOLATIONS! THE BROKEN LAW CAUSES US TO CAST OURSELVES ON THE MERCY SEAT and GRACE and LOVE OF GOD TO LEARN HIS ETERNAL WAY OF SALVATION and HEALING PROVISION
Look at the 10 Commandments, Listen to the Voice of God speaking, and then LEAN ON HIM in repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross!!…..THE VOICE OF THE LAW CONDEMNS –THE VOICE OF THE CROSS LIBERATES!….THE VOICE OF THE LAW SEPARATES – THE VOICE OF THE CROSS UNITES!….THE VOICE OF THE LAW EMBITTERS – THE VOICE OF THE CROSS SWEETENS!…THE VOICE OF THE LAW DECLARES JUDGMENT – THE VOICE OF THE CROSS DECLARES INNOCENCE!…THE VOICE OF THE LAW DECLARES DARKNESS TO THE SOUL – THE VOICE OF THE CROSS DECLARES “LIGHT” TO THE SAINTS!…
I want you to hear words from the great British preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, dead now almost 150 years ago: [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol. 4, pps. 237-238],…”Now, I beseech you, hear this word and believe it: ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.’ Oh, you can say, ‘I believe this Word – it is true – blessed be His dear name; it is true to me, for whatever I may not be, I KNOW THAT I AM A SINNER; [a Law-of-God breaker!]:…And, good Lord. You know when I say I am a sinner, I do not mean what I used to mean by that word. I mean that I am a real sinner. [A LAW OF GOD VIOLATER!!]. I mean that if you should damn me, I deserve it; if You should cast me from Your presence forever, it is only what I merited [ earned] richly. O my Lord, I am a sinner; I am a hopeless sinner, unless You save me; I am a helpless sinner, unless You deliver me. I have no hope in my self-righteousness; and Lord, I bless Your name, there is one thing else, I am a sorrowful sinner, for sin grieves me; I cannot rest, I am troubled. Oh, if I could get rid of sin, I would be holy, even as God is holy, Lord, I believe.’ But I hear an objector cry out, ‘What, sir, believe that Christ died for me simply because I am a sinner!’ yes, even so. ‘No sir; but if I had a little righteousness; if I could pray well, I should then think Christ died for me.’ No, that would not be faith at all, that would be self-confidence. Faith believes in Christ when it sees sin to be black, and trusts in Him to remove it all. Now, poor sinner, with all your sin about you [Law-breaking etc.], take this promise in your hands, go home today, or if you can’t, do it before you get home – go home, I say, upstairs alone, down by your bedside, and pour out your heart, ‘O Lord, it is all true what the preacher said today; I am condemned, and Lord, I deserve it. O Lord, I’ve tried to do better, and I have done nothing with it at all, but have only grown worse. O Lord, I have slighted Your grace, I have despised Your Gospel: I wonder You haven’t damned me years ago; Lord, I marvel at myself, that You suffer such a base wretch as I am to live at all. I have despised a mother’s teaching, I have forgotten a father’s prayers. Lord, I have forgotten You; I have broken the Sabbath, taken Your name in vain. I have done everything that is wrong; and if You condemn me, what can I say? Lord, I am done before Your presence. I have nothing to plead. But Lord, I come to tell You, You have said in the Word of God, ‘Him that comes unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.’ Lord, I come; my only plea is that You have said, ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.’ [Sinners? Law of God breakers and violators!!] Lord, I am THE SINNER; He [Jesus] came to save ME; I trust in it – sink or swim – Lord, this is my only hope..[THE LAW] has pointed me to Christ alone!”
I wish you could have heard my son’s Youth Minister preach recently on Mark 9:7-8, “And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!’ Suddenly when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but Jesus only with themselves.”
SECOND, WE NEED TO HEAR, LISTEN, AND RESPOND TO THE VOICES OF HEAVEN’S ANGELS AND DEPARTED SAINTS….Come to Revelation 11:15-18, “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He [Jesus] shall reign forever and ever!’ And the 24 elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, ‘We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come. Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.” [You do understand! God isn’t talking about non-environmentalists here!!}
I want to ask you a very serious question! Are you aware that there are loud voices opposed to God, loud voices intent on the destruction of the earth, of God-ordained intent, God-ordained purpose, and a God-ordained ‘way of life’?….Rather than ushering in ‘heaven on earth just as it is in heaven now,’ there are co-conspirators intent on ‘hell on earth as it is in hell right now’!
I love reading John Piper – and, in his book, “A Godward Life,” he wrote: [pps.207, 209], “Jesus had a lively, daily awareness of heaven & hell. These awesome realities were always relevant for the way He lived and taught. He was radically reasonable about these things. If we will live forever in bliss or torment, then securing the one and escaping the other is more important than most of what we think about…So He motivated loving actions with the hope of God’s fellowship in heaven, and he motivated radical purity with the fear of separation & torment in hell. For Jesus a profound desire for heaven and a potent fear of hell were practical, daily parts of living a glad and holy life….We are playing games if we say we long for heaven more than this earth & then live like earthbound people.” And then Piper quoted I John 3:3, “Everyone who has this hope fixed on [Christ] purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
Back in the early ‘80’s as I was pastoring Highlands Church in Ocala, Florida, it was the spring of the year. Into the Sunday a.m. fellowship walked a man & woman I’d never seen before – he had a white suit on and his lady friend, coal-black hair, also had a white suit. They filled out a visitor’s card and the address was the apartment complex across the street from the church. As per every Tuesday I made the visit, invited in, found out about his nationally known Christian ministry of piano with Rex Humbard’s church and even numerous appearances with Bill Gaither.
After casual and cordial conversation, he then informed me that the two were not married, that they both had left their mates and children so they could be together! I WAS STUNNED, to say the least! I then carefully dismissed myself and asked the man if he could come by my office the next morning – he agreed. Wednesday morning had almost passed – it was lunch time and I needed to go eat with Sue. But, as I was leaving, the man opened the church door, big smile on his face, then said: “Pastor Fisher, what did you think about what I told you yesterday about me and my lady friend?”….I pointed my finger at the man and said to him: “Sir, you are an adulterer and the woman you’re living with is an adulteress. And unless you both repent you’re bound for Hell! And I want you to know, unless you repent, don’t step foot in this door of God’s church.”…I walked out – and left him standing with his mouth wide open.
One year later, 2:30 a.m. in the morning I received a phone call. It was this man. He was weeping, crying, hard for him to talk, but I heard him through his tears say: “Pastor Fisher, I want to thank you. You are the only pastor nationally who told me the truth. Across Canada and America I asked leading pastors, well-known pastors, what they thought – and all but you said, “It’s OK, Brother; God wants you happy!”….NO!! GOD ISN’T INTERESTED IN YOUR HAPPINESS – HE WANTS YOU HOLY!!
The piano player and his wife had been reconciled, God had given them a ministry to troubled marriages, and they wanted to come to Ocala and share what God had done through truth shared!…Please, please, hear me: There are those “spiritually lost, spiritually destitute, spiritually inclined” to deny truth and destroy the earth – but there are the servants of God, the prophets, and the saints who’ve heard His Voice, Fear His name, and are willing to stand, & yes, die for eternal truth!
THIRD, WE NEED TO HEAR, LISTEN, AND RESPOND TO THE VOICE OF GOD CALLING OUT FOR VOLUNTEERS! Come to Isaiah 6:1-9! “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!’ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: ‘Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged.’ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’ And He said, ‘Go, & tell this people:…”
Did you catch it? I don’t know how you could miss it! Isaiah said what? “..I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go FOR US?” US?…ALMIGHTY GOD – LOVING SON and THE HOLY SPIRIT CALL TO US!! “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’; …And Isaiah responded: “Here am I! Send me.”
Are you aware that every day, men and women, boys and girls, are confronted by open doors to the habitations of the temporal or the habitations of the Eternal?….You are either pressed in to ‘pathological self-obsessions,’ ‘acute self-consciousness,’ the childish framework of ‘me, my, mine’ – or you’ve heard God’s Holy Voice calling out: “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?”
In Mark 1:14-15 Jesus had begun His public ministry. Mark wrote: “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, & believe in the gospel.” BUT THAT’S NOT ALL
Look at Mark 1:16-17!! “And as HE [Jesus] walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon & Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them: “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
In Dallas Willard’s “The Divine Conspiracy,” Willard wrote: “This is a call for us to reconsider how we have been approaching our life, in light of the fact that we now, in the presence of Jesus, have the option of living within the surrounding movements of God’s eternal purposes, of taking our life into His life.”….I’d rather say, “taking His life into our lives,” and with Isaiah say: “Here am I! Send me!” “I want to be what you want me to be! I want to go where you want me to go! I’ll be a shoe-shiner for the glory of Christ! I’ll be a carpenter for the honor of my Lord. I’ll be a musician for the honor & blessing of Christ Jesus. I’ll be a scientist, and especially one who affirms God’s creative genius – not one who denies it. I’ll be a doctor extending my Lord’s healing grace and power.”
How can one profess redemptive life and redemptive love and redemptive liberty and redemptive privileges, and not say with Isaiah: ‘Here am I! Send me!’………You may find yourself so very much at home with the Rangers and the Mavericks and the Phil Micklesons and your pets and favorite movie stars – but you need to grasp that it is God who made you, the Lord who saved you, and a world that needs you out there! Out there is a God-birthed, God-blessed, God-bathed, God-enveloped world that needs Him!….Have you ever heard it? “Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal”? And you understand – you can be heaven’s messenger of healing grace!….With transparent, transformed, and triumphant lives because of God’s grace and mercy, with the flames of our Lord’s unquenchable love, with a faithful and truthful presence and an available “Send me,” we can change the world around us!
It was Henry Ward Beecher who wrote: “Consecration is not wrapping one’s self in a holy web in a sanctuary & then coming forth after prayer and twilight meditation and saying, ‘There, I am [now] consecrated.’ Consecration is going out into the world where God is and using every power for His glory. It is taking all advantages [opportunities, crises] as trust funds – as confidential debts owed to God. It is simply dedicating one’s life, in its whole flow, to God’s service.”
FOURTH, AND LAST, WE NEED TO HEAR, LISTEN, AND RESPOND TO THE VOICE OF CHRIST – SAVED OR UNSAVED, LOST OR FOUND, SPIRITUALLY RE-BORN OR SPIRITUALLY DEAD!….Come to Revelation 3:18-22!….Let me tell you of the love of Jesus!! “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.”
It was Charles Morrison who once said: “The love of God is no mere sentimental feeling; it is REDEMPTIVE POWER.”……….Harold Cooke Phillips put it like this: “This coming to know Christ is what makes Christian truth redemptive truth, the truth that transforms, not just the truth that informs…”….I want to close with an old hymn!!
“My Faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine! Now hear me while I pray, Take all my guilt away, O let me from this day Be wholly Thine!…Verse 2, May Thy rich grace impart, Strength to my fainting heart, My zeal inspire; As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee, Pure, Warm, and changeless be A living fire!…Verse 3, While life’s dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread, Be Thou my guide; Bid darkness turn to day, Wipe sorrow’s tears away, Nor let me ever stray From Thee aside…Verse 4, When ends life’s transcient dream, When death’s cold, sullen stream Shall o’er me roll, Blest Savior, then, in love, fear and distrust remove; O bear me safe above, A ransomed soul!”
What is our Lord saying to us? From “Ashes to Fire”, From slave of Satan to son and servant of Holy God,
From a world-promoter to a world-changer, From a life of indifference to a life of passion to be God’s instrument in touching others with His grace and mercy,
From a nobody to His somebody, From chains to freedom in Christ,
From a darkened soul to an enlightened spirit,
From self-consumption to spirit-sacrifice,
From deaf ears and blinded eyes to one who hears and sees and responds to our Lord’s compassion for the needy!
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
FORGOTTEN? THE CONSEQUENCES OF ‘SINKING SANDS’ OR THE BLESSINGS OF THE SOLID ROCK?
Do you believe that every church building you see is exemplary of the True Body of Christ? Are you aware of the massive differences between ‘man-made churches’ and the spiritual ministries of born-again disciples of Christ? Does ‘profession of’ always mean the reality of ‘possession’ by the Indwelling and Ever-Presence of the Living Lord?
Is explosive growth always evidence of Christ-anointing and Holy Spirit presence? Does ‘pastoral personality of attractiveness’ assure Heaven’s Hand of anointing TO THE GLORY OF GOD?
‘Jokesters,’ ‘pumpers of flesh,’ ‘All-Stars’ of intellectual genius, ‘mental manipulators’ void of the Master, knowledgeable men acquainted with the Scriptures but absent of its Author – what goes on today in churches when ‘members’ of the congregation are hand-cuffed by a man’s personality, drugged by fleshly or false doctrines, fooled by a familiar spirit, and tranquilized by a man’s interpretation apart from God’s revelation?
Do men’s business acumen (sharp perception), talents, and training assure a church’s ‘success’ to the glory of God or does it become a stumbling block in hearing the voice of God because they ‘know’ it all?
God’s “beware” of false prophets is the divine call and encouragement for His people to “be wise” in the Word led by the Holy Spirit who will, if we let Him, ‘guide us into all truth.’ Then there are the spiritual arsonists who can craftily create ‘false fires’ which have nothing to do with the Holy Fires of God; ‘kiddies’ kindling small match-book fires never realizing they can erupt into major fire-storms – and though false preachers only want to light matches under, over, and in young followers, lighting devoted ‘followship’ to them, they are so unaware of spiritual deception in themselves that they don’t even flinch when their devoted followers begin to ‘burn’ in their fleshly spiritual bondage – prisoners of their preacher rather than bound to Christ!
“Stars” of the ‘false preachers parade’ shine best with darkness not Light, wanting to hover over their subjects in commanding fashion, not Christ-like faith and fellowship and fullness of the Servant Spirit. Christ Jesus IS Lord before whom we are to bow but I have personally witnessed ‘pastors’ who demanded devotion to them as if ‘they’ were the true Lord, them becoming so assertive and controlling of their parishioners as if they were the Lord Himself!
There’s an interesting verse in Isaiah 10:21-22 where God said to Isaiah, and us, “The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God….For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet [only] a remnant of them shall return…” Do you remember what Samuel said to Saul in I Samuel 15:23? “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 has also rejected you from being king [or reigning with Him].”
I don’t know how familiar you are with Habakkuk, but you need to major on it for days! Habakkuk 1:5-9 and also verse 12, “Look among the nations and watch – be utterly astonished! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you. For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places which are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers [or horsemen] charge ahead; their calvary comes from afar; they fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. They all come for violence; their faces are set like the east wind. “they gather captives like sand.” And verse 12? Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O ROCK, You have marked them for correction.”
Revelation 20 speaks of a day when Satan will be bound for a 1000 years. Then verse 7 says, “And when the 1000 years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. Verse 8 says, “And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.”
Now you must come and read, ponder, think, evaluate Matthew 7:13-27!! Here it is!! “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 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!’ Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken to a wise man WHO BUILT HIS HOUSE ON THE ROCK; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, FOR IT WAS FOUNDED ON THE ROCK. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house ON THE SAND; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
“SINKING SANDS OR THE SOLID ROCK?” “Sinking Sands?” In Proverbs 2:18, speaking of the “strange woman,” we read: Amplified Bible, “For her house SINKS down to death, and her paths to the spirits [of the dead].” Does that ring an awakening bell in your mind and heart? Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says of “strange” that it means “foreign, pale,…odd, unusual, irregular, estranged…” And could we say ‘estranged from God Himself’? “SINKING SANDS”!
Woodward said: “That finer matter called ‘sand’, is no other than very small pebbles.” And what are ‘pebbles’ when compared to ‘Solid Rock’? Is ‘sand’ what you’d build your spiritual house on or on the foundation of ‘Solid Rock’?
What did Jesus say in Matthew 7:26-27? [Amplified Version]. “And every one who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid [foolish] man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great and complete was the fall of it.”
A decision in one’s mind, heart, and spirit, to choose sinking sand to build one’s life upon is no doubt a major part of fallen man’s old sin nature! There is that that every man wrestles with: SELF-WILL, SELF-PLEASURE, SELF-RULE – warped living that always wants to shut God out and become himself the crumbling center of his own godless universe, denying God, denying the Word of God, denying the Son of God, denying the Cross and the Resurrection, and pushing to the surface of his mind, heart, and will, his own decision as to ruling, his own sick ambition to be his own lord, ‘master’ of his own destiny, denying accountability to Holy God at God’s judgment seat.
Sinking Sands? How casual, how indifferent, how resentful are they to the sinking, shifting sands, when they are defined, explained, or scripturally exposed! Sinking sands? That’s the world, the flesh, and the devil himself and his demon hordes that enslave, capture, confine, restrict, limit, abuse, accuse, bind up, suffocate, squeeze out any turning to eternal truth! In Luke 22:31 we read, “And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” Have you been ‘sifted’ lately?
What a warning for any life choosing to walk on sinking sands! It’s 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.”
Sinking sands? In 2 Thessalonians 3:1-3 Paul wrote: “Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”
Sinking sands? I Thessalonians 1:9b-10 says” “…and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He [God] raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
Sinking sands? Ignorance of ‘the times and the seasons’ – that’s a day when every man, woman, boy or girl, will stand before Holy God and give an account, “What then did you do with Jesus who is called the Christ?” In I Thessalonians 5:1-7 Paul calls us to spiritual sobriety while the world, the flesh, and the devil, are crying out “Peace and safety” for themselves when their eternal destruction is knocking on their door. The Word says:
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.”
It was Alexander Maclaren who wrote: “That which of all things unfits man for the reception of Christ as Savior, is not gross profligacy and outward, vehement transgression, but it is self-complacency, fatal self-righteousness and self-sufficiency.” Sinking sands!
“Sinking sands”? It is a walk through life in the animalistic intent on success and survival on ‘my terms’ strictly on the basis of ‘self-interest’ with no concern as to God’s eternal intent! This is why Jesus boldly said in Matthew 16:24, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Listen to Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost For His Highest”! [p.257], “Individuality is the husk of personal life. Individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates. It is the characteristic of the child and rightly so; but if we mistake individuality for the personal life, we will remain isolated. The shell of individuality is God’s created natural covering for the protection of personal life; but individuality must go in order that the personal life may come out and be brought into fellowship with God. Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself; individuality debases human nature for itself.”
Do you see that, understand it, run from it – to God? “Sinking sands”? “…individuality debases human nature for itself…!” “Individuality… all elbows” with no reaching hand of faith and trust and surrender and obedience to God! “Individuality… counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love…!”
“Sinking sands”? That’s standing in life fully devoted to carnality, at war with the Spirit of God, an unrenewed, fallen, rebellious sin nature, a nature and state and determination of one’s life to go it’s own way, to satisfy ‘flesh’, to deny ‘saving faith,’ one consumed with the passion to live, enjoy, incorporate his unrenewed nature in opposition to God’s eternal intent!
“Sinking sands”? It’s ‘bitten’ by the “Serpent” with a deadly poison flowing through one’s veins that has brought on a condition of life that defies human remedies! That one, yes, all, opposed to “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross” live ‘soul-shaken’! and ‘sin-stricken’, ignoring, denying, refusing, pleading blindness to saving grace!
“Sinking sands”? That’s establishing man-made religions in opposition to a personal relationship with God through the sacrifice of Christ! That’s ‘cosmetic coverings’ apart from true conversion in Christ! But there if ‘Hope’, not fatal forgetfulness; there is THE eternal answer to fallen man’s dilemma, not fleshly hopelessness; there is the Sovereign remedy of life and heart change and eternal hope as one stands saved, secure, sanctified, and Sovereignly sure on “The Solid Rock”!!
But there is ‘hope’, not fatal forgetfulness; there is THE eternal answer, not fleshly hopefulness; there is the Sovereign remedy of life and heart change and eternal hope as one stands saved, secure, sanctified, and Sovereignly sure on “THE SOLID ROCK”! Oh, please, please, STAND ON “THE SOLID ROCK”! In Matthew 7:24-25 what precious, personal, powerful words we find! Jesus is speaking here! “therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house ON THE ROCK; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”
It was Edward Mote and William B. Bradbury who wrote the famous hymn “My Hope Is Built”, or also known as “The Solid Rock.” The hymn says: “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly live on Jesus’ name…. When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil….His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay….When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne…. On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand. AMEN.”
In Matthew 16:13 Jesus had come to the region of Caesarea Philippi and He asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” And, no doubt, that questioned is ignored, answered faithlessly, denying Him carelessly, and, to them, totaling obliterating His Name as a subject they want to discuss or discern. But the disciples answered Him in verse 14, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Then, here it comes…!
Then Jesus said to them, “But WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?” And, praise God, for Simon Peter who answered in verse 16, “You are the Christ [the Messiah, the Eternally Anointed Promised Savior], the Son of the Living God.” In verses 17-19, what a revelation! Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and ON THIS ROCK I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
And for yourself, WHO DO YOU SAY JESUS IS? Plus, you do understand that how you answer is evidence of your life on “sinking sands or Solid Rock”!
SINCE CHRIST JESUS IS “THE SOLID ROCK,” THEN ONE’S ANSWER DETERMINES HIS FAITH IN GOD’S MIRACLE OF GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE – OR ONE’S LACK, VOID, ABSENCE OF TRUST IN CHRIST ALONE! What did Jesus say? “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to Father-God but by and through Me and My redemptive work at the Cross.”
I John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Then in John 17:3 we read, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Oh, how misconstrued life becomes when one alarmingly believes it’s what he/she wants, what he/she wills to do, and what he/she does to form their private constitution independent of Christ!
I want you to know “The Solid Rock” is our Lord and Savior, and intends He become our Master and mastery of life! “The Solid Rock” is Emmanuel, ‘God With us’! In his book, “The Secret of Happiness,” written by Billy Graham in 1955, he wrote: [p.136], “To know about Christ is not enough. To be convinced that he is Savior of the world is not enough. To affirm your faith in Him, as we do in the Apostles’ Creed is not enough. To believe that He has saved others is not enough. You really don’t actively believe in Christ until you make a commitment of your life [to Him] and receive Him as your Savior [and Lord]…You can best demonstrate your faith in a bank by putting your money in it. You can best show your faith in a doctor by trusting him with your physical welfare in times of illness. You can best prove your faith in a boat by getting aboard and going someplace on it. You can best demonstrate your faith in Christ by trusting him with your life and receiving him unconditionally as your Savior.”
SINCE CHRIST JESUS IS “THE SOLID ROCK”, THEN ONE’S FAITH UNDERSTANDS, KNOWS, AND IS WILLING TO COMMIT TO “STANDING” ON “THE SURE FOUNDATION.” In I Corinthians 3:10-11 we read: “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
So desirous of encouraging young Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2:19-21, Paul wrote: “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’ But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.”
Is your life “founded on the Rock”? Is your life “safe on the Rock”? Is your journey “sure on the Rock”? No doubt this is why the wise man wrote in Proverbs 10:25, “As the whirlwind passes, so is the wicked no more; but the righteous is an everlasting foundation!”
Raging winds, raging waters, raging wars – but the life “founded on the Rock” will never blow away, wash away, or be a victim of a senseless spiritual war – His Rock Is Christ!
SINCE CHRIST JESUS IS “THE SOLID ROCK,” AND ONE IN REPENTANCE AND FAITH RESTS HIS/HER LIFE ON THE SURE FOUNDATION, THEN IT’S NOT “THE RUDDER OF RHETORIC” BUT THE REVELATION OF GOD’S HOLY WORD THAT KEEPS OUR FEET ON THAT SURE FOUNDATION! I want you to open your own Bible to 2 Samuel 22! What an awesome Word! It’s David, King David, and he’s singing a song to the Lord!
In verses 2-4, as David sings, “The Lord IS my ROCK and my fortress and my deliverer; the God of my strength, in whom I trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Savior, You save me from violence. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.” And I’m asking you, right now, this given moment of opportunity: IS GOD YOUR ROCK, YOUR FORTRESS, YOUR DELIVERER?
In verse 5-7 David sings about opposition and God’s answer to it: “When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my voice; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears.” And I’m asking you, right now, this given moment of more than likely your own opposition: “In YOUR distress have YOU called upon the Lord?
In verses 8-20 David sings about those ‘shaking sands’, the Sovereign answer, and David’s deliverance!
In verses 21-31 David sings about “Solid Rock rewards,” about “Solid Rock watchcare,” about “Solid Rock” windows of enlightment”!!
SINCE CHRIST JESUS IS “The Solid Rock,” HIS PEOPLE SHOULD BE THOSE WHO “ASCRIBE GREATNESS TO OUR GOD”!! Deuteronomy 32 :3 Moses proclaims “the name of the Lord;” and he says, “Ascribe greatness to our God.” Why? Deuteronomy 32:4, “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.”
Isn’t it sad when you read a Socrates saying, “If we could but see God, we would know how we ought to live,” and yet ever before any man, anywhere, anytime, God has shown Himself! Isn’t that John 1:14? “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
In “Mere Christianity” C.S. Lewis wrote: [chapter 10], “If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world (something supernatural and eternal.”)
But you know that some deny “The Solid Rock” and have no desire to “ascribe greatness to…God.” They suppress Truth and live for The Lie!!
In closing this chapter I want YOU to turn in your Bible and read Romans 1:16-32 at least three times!! Amen??