“HIDDEN GLORY, HARDENED HEARTS, OR HEAVENLY HOPE AND HELP IN CHRIST ALONE?”
October 29-31, 2017
There’s an extremely interesting verse of Scripture in Psalm 65:4 when David “sang” a hymn to, primarily the Lord Himself, but also to men David knew God desired and desires to enlighten about their relationship to Him. The Verse says, “Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that He may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple.”
Are YOU “the chosen of God” or is He hidden from your eyes and are you hidden from His glory because of a ‘fleshly’, hardened heart and mind toward His revealed Truth with that Truth remaining, by YOUR personal choice, “hidden from your eyes” without redemptive faith in “the heavenly hope and help in Christ alone”?
For some who are worldly and ‘fleshly’, and stymied by Satanic influence, even ‘religious’ men can profess, assert their dignified relationship to God, unite with a ‘church gathering’, and yet be an eternity apart from King Jesus because emotionally they know they have a need they can’t explain, even their tears have no redemptive flow, and their ‘will-worship’ is void of faith’s true yieldedness and, yes, full surrender to the King of kings and Lord of lords! Their ‘religious faith’ becomes a ‘religious game’ they enjoy playing, but Christ, though knocking on their hearts’ doors, is not allowed to enter and transform their lives into His tabernacle of Holy Presence!
And to the woman at the well in John 4:23-24 Jesus said: “..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.”
Unrepentant men and women, in the natural life, are void of ‘spirit and void of Truth’ – they are ‘without Christ resident, ruling, and reigning in them, for them, and through them’! They are aliens away from and strangers to His Kingdom-Rule and Reign! In themselves they have no eternal hope and are void of His presence, though He knocks on the door of their hearts! But Paul stated in Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Dare I ask you? “Have YOU been truly washed in the blood of the Lamb of God and has your very life become the “Tabernacle” of His abiding Presence”? To the ‘religious crowd of His day’, in John 6:63-64, Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh (Old sin-natured life) profits nothing. The words that I speak to you they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Pretenders are not true sons and daughters in the Holy Family of God!
Christ Jesus said two things in John 3 I want to highlight for you: John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Then, John 3:5-6! “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (physical birth) and the Spirit (spiritual birth), 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.”
The Apostle Paul was very intent on truly equipping his young followers on the Truth of redemptive, life-changing, Christ honoring devotion. 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.”
“Hidden glory”? Has it ever entered your mind or inquisitive nature related to knowing, discerning, receiving, and applying the wisdom of God daily in your spiritual walk, if you have one? In Job 28:20-28, Job proclaimed, “From where then does wisdom come? AND where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air.
Destruction and death say, ‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’ God understands its way, and He knows its place. For He looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole heavens, To establish a weight for the wind, and apportion the waters by measure.
When He made a law for the rain, and a path for the thunderbolt, then He saw wisdom and declared it; He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out. AND TO MAN HE SAID, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.’”
Consider this!!: THE CREATION OF THE WORLD IS ENOUGH TO KNOW OF THE GREATNESS, THE POWER, AND THE AMAZING GRACE AND LOVE OF GOD TO, YES, TURN A SINFUL HEART TO THE MERCY, GRACE, AND POWER OF ALMIGHTY GOD! Yet, many men live avoiding ‘wisdom’ and choosing the ‘way’ of their sinful natures, living with no fear of God but by faith in their natural abilities, living with no spiritual concerns for now or for the eternal that stands before every man every minute of every day, living as if there is no spiritual domain of life but living only for the “best” or “worst” that they know has their hearts and minds for today – no consideration of eternal destiny!
In Psalm 19:9-14 the “redeemed servant”, King David, wrote: “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Yet the sad truth is that many are blinded even to their fallen away from God sin nature, a defective mind darkened to the Light of eternal truth, and captivated by their devotion to fleshly pleasures without any consideration of God’s eternal love in breaking the chains of their bondage in body, mind, and soul, setting them free to willfully glorify God on earth as He is in heaven – but they resist Truth, resist the Holy Spirit, resist the Resurrected Christ, and resist His earthly witnesses of and through His chosen people!
Hear me! There is a ‘flesh nature’ and there is a miracle Spirit-nature; there is an unregenerated state of physical existence and the grace-filled life of spiritual birth; there is a mind-filled, scholarly knowledge that is void of redemptive, Spirit-convicted and Spirit-converted life by the seed of the Holy Word of God, but, by the Holy Spirit, there is the conversion to “new life in Christ” by the Spirit who plants the ‘seed of God’s Word’ and tends until the miraculous “new birth” occurs, and then stays with us until He guides us into all truth!
Finding God doesn’t come by sincere analysis, devoted educational discernment, or the lowest or highest level of human reasoning – God finds us, God confronts us, God convicts us, and God Himself knocks on our hearts door, desiring to come in to be Himself in your heart as He continually is in Heaven! The “hidden treasures” of God come as He finds us, knocks on our hearts’ doors, calls for repentance toward Him and faith alone in Christ’s finished work at the Cross and the empty tomb, then having truly repented and forsaken the “old-Adam-nature”, and birthed as a new-born babe into the family of faith, we feed on “the Bread of Life,” on the “milk of the Word”, maturing even to the “meat of the Word” and to the “fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”! (Are YOU a maturing child of faith or ‘a cheap imitation’?).
Yet, it’s frightening to me to hear some ‘church-goers’ talk about having no interest in the daily devotion to the Word of God – they’ll say, “I’m saved now, and that’s all that matters” – and I want to ‘shout out’ about their scriptural stupidity! “Man does not live by bread alone, he lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!” Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God IS the seed of the “new birthing” – not attempting “best effort” but allowing the “Word-seed” out of the mouth of God to germinate its intent in us! And in Psalm 119:9-11 the psalmist wrote: “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your COMMANDMENTS! Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Do you understand that biblical truth? Sin will keep you from the Word of God OR the Word of God will keep you from sin!
In Jeremiah 15:16 the prophet wrote, inspired by the Holy Spirit, “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.” Do you in faithfulness feed daily on the awesome, authoritative, anchoring Word of faith and truth?
TELL ME: What is ‘Christ’s redemption through His blood’? What is “the riches of His grace which abounds to those who are ‘in Christ’”? What is “the mystery of His will” and how do you discover, discern, depend upon, and declare it? What is your “inheritance in Christ”? AND, what is His foreordained purpose for the New-born life in Christ? Do you know of, discern, appropriate, live by, “the exceeding greatness of His power”? If His Resurrection is “the fullness of Him who fills (all believers) all in all, is your testimony-walk in a dark world the “Light of His Resurrection Presence” because your ‘blood-bought life’ in Christ is manifested in you and through you as you faithfully feed on His Life-giving Word? Do you live as an extension of His life, an expression of His love, and the proof of His power?
Did Paul say that “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God”? There is no “divine life” for the natural man who resists the conviction and convincing of the Holy Spirit but seeks even ‘holiness’ by his/her best efforts – controlled spiritually by the ‘best’ of human reasoning closing the door to the Holy Spirit’s miraculous gifting of “new life in Christ”! It is not simply being aware of one’s need of the Holy Spirit’s purpose in the redemptive birthing but being fully aware of the need to be guided by the Holy Spirit daily in one’s maturing process – receiving Jesus but neglecting the Holy Spirit shuts the door on heavenly maturity that unveils “Christ in you the hope of glory”!
And the author of Hebrews , Hebrews 10:29c, speaks of the danger of “insulting the Spirit of grace” – and when I read that, I wondered, “how often have ‘faithful’ church-folk insulted the Spirit of grace because they personally sensed no need of being guided by anyone – they are satisfied with their limited, short-fall, yes, far- away-from Holy God in their religious activity”! But in Galatians 5:25 Paul wrote: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit,” saying in Galatians 6:8, “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."
Is it possible that in our modern-day ‘church society’ that there are those who try to live out their faith in that “best effort styling” void of the Holy Spirit’s eternal guidance? Paul wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:4-5, about “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS BUT DENYING ITS POWER. And from such people turn away” – that’s people unashamedly in the church fellowship who “resist the truth”, (2 Timothy 3:8!). And many of those who live apart from the Holy Spirit will call you a “kook” for your spiritual devotion through the leadership of Spirit-guidance! Sadly, even some ‘professing believers’ live subjectively in their own thoughts and not objectively by Spirit exposure. They are ‘guided’ by earthly mind-sets and not ‘governed’ by Spirit-controlled, Spirit-directed, Spirit-inspired Holy Will and Holy Ways and the Holy Word – their ‘fleshly’ control is all they need!
“Hidden Glory, Hardened Hearts, Hollow Spiritual Intent, Heavy in “I’m OK, you’re OK. Who needs saving grace, mercy, and love of an absentee-god? I choose ‘self’ over your Savior, my spiritual death over His gift of forgiveness and everlasting life, my fleshly opinions over His Holy Revelation, my thoughts over His Truth, my way, my highway, my earthly understanding, of my mind-filled subjective thinking void of the unveiling of His Spoken and Resurrected and Living Word, my ‘law of living in the ‘best’ I choose, not God’s exposure of the law of sin and death nor even of His “gift” of grace, mercy, and love – I choose grit, ‘make-it-on-your-own’ lifestyle, and even breaking the chains of Satan and a sinful nature without the sacrifice of Christ that I don’t need!”
How many do you intercede for who live in ‘self-made lifestyles’ without any concern for God’s gift of forgiveness, reconciliation, and “new-birth” in and through the Lord Jesus Christ alone?
In 2 Peter 1: 1b-4 the beloved Peter exposes ‘inclination without appropriation, thoughts without transformation, argumentation without acceptance, theories without Truth, and even ‘thirst’ but no desire for “living Water”! He said:
“To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as HIS DIVINE POWER has given 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,” adding in Verses 10-11,
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, (Don’t forget, God said of some, “I called, but you refused”! Are YOU faithfully responding obediently to His holy instruction for your life?), for if you do these things you will never stumble; (but how many do you know who heard “God’s call” but turned deaf ears to His love, grace, and mercy, settling for their ‘grit’ rather than His grace!) for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Do you remember that Old Testament passage that says, God speaking, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”? Dare I tell you? Believe I will! That’s the shed blood of Christ shed to bring YOU into “At-One-Ment” with Him through your repentance, faith, and obedience of being the vessel through which Christ is invited to BE HIMSELF in you and through you!
Don’t you think it’s time to “let go and let God His merciful Way in and through your life”? His merciful Way is Christ Jesus and His finished work alone – not your godless disinterest in the eternal purpose of God for your earthly existence! There’s an old hymn that I just remembered about “Come Home” – and that Home is the heart of Christ beating vibrantly in you, for you, and through you! It’s time once again to “Come to Jesus”, and He will give you “rest”! The hymn is entitled “Softly and Tenderly” written by Will L. Thompson. It says:
“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, Calling for you and for me; See on the portals He’s waiting and watching, Watching for you and for me.
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading, Pleading for you and for me? Why should we linger and heed not His mercies, Mercies for you and for me?
Time now is fleeting, the moments are passing, Passing from you and from me; Shadows are gathering, death-beds are coming, Coming for you and for me.
O, for the wonderful love He has promised, Promised for you and for me; Tho’ we have sinned He has mercy and pardon, Pardon for you and for me.
Come home…come home…You who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home.”
Dare I tell you? Believe I will! “It’s time to come home to Jesus! Repent before Holy God the Father and Rest in the finished work of Christ at the Cross and Empty Tomb, showing YOU Resurrection Life, resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope! Come home to Jesus NOW!” Amen?