“NO PRIDE BUT AWE!”
By: J.Farrell Fisher, October 9-10, 2017
In Psalm 19:1 King David sang, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” But is there a “sense of awe” in most men around you about what Almighty God has done and still does in and through His “awesome”, never-ending power, or are most men around you content with themselves in their, yes, pride and arrogance of ‘self-achievement’, many living as if God doesn’t even exist, or if He does, “What does He matter to me”?
The author of Proverbs, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote in Proverbs 11:2, “When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.” Later, in Proverbs 13:18, we read, “Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honored.” There are men, even ‘leaders’ (?) in nations, who see themselves wiser than God Almighty and reject Biblical Truth, and ‘entertain’ denial of God’s fountain of life, and drink from the dirty, clouded waters of fleshly living rather than receiving, yes, His gift of forgiveness, new birth, reconciliation, and a life of ministry in the here and now with eternal intentions through His “Living Water”!
In Proverbs 16:18 we read: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Oh, and then receive Proverbs 19:3! It says, “The foolishness of a man twists his way, and his heart frets against the Lord.” Foolish men! Fretting Hearts! Fleshly spirits! And unbelieving men think they’ve arrived without any need of God?
There’s such an emotional, elevating, energizing word in Joshua 1 with the Lord speaking to Joshua telling him, Joshua 1:2-9, “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them – the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.
From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Do you think Joshua 1:2-9 relates to the ‘spirit’ of Ephesians 2:8-10? Paul’s writing says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” AMEN?
“NO PRIDE BUT AWE”? Some say, “Well, whether Joshua or Paul, we’re just ordinary, sin-controlled individuals, strongly influenced by the world around us, at times even enjoying the ‘fruits’ of our self-centered natures! How then can we be ‘religious’ without the best-efforts our flesh nature can get under control?” And, I say, to even try to control what you are without Christ will not make the difference even if you determine to try! Christ Jesus crucified what we all were without Him, in bondage to the sin-nature, strongly influenced by an unbelieving world around us, and, yes, even deceived by Satan himself!
In Romans 6:5-7 the Holy Word is eternally true and clear and relevant as you read about “No Pride But Awe”! It says: “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.” WERE YOU CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, or is your religious persuasion to be one who enjoys a little bit of both lives – the old and the new, not freed from sin but able to enjoy it temporarily, the best of the ‘kingdom of the world and its darkness’, AND, the best of the ‘kingdom of Christ as I sense a religious urge’?
Look at Romans 6:1-4 Paul wrote: “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? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism (of the Cross! Not water-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.”
And if that “newness of life” is not Christ’s resurrected presence but your best effort, you’ve bought into a great religious lie that destroys understanding in many about the need to be reconciled to God through Christ! It may be a ‘strange crowd’ to the world around you, but those who deny ‘fleshly pride’ and live IN AWE of God’s love, grace, and mercy don’t live any longer under sin and Satan’s dominion over them but live under, through, and by the marvelous grace and mercy of their loving Lord and Savior!
In John 10:7-11, and Verse 14, the Lord Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep….Verse 14, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
Have YOU ‘entered’ the Kingdom of God under the sponsorship of Christ alone? Have YOU “rested” IN Christ’s finished work at the Cross AND at the door of the ‘empty tomb’? Have YOU received God’s gift also of the Holy Spirit to enlighten you, mature you from a babe in Christ to a mature son or daughter of the faith? Are YOU led by the Spirit to be Christ’s “witness” to the lost and needy mankind around you day by day in the positive witness of His love and mercy for those you care about? Has the Holy Spirit illumined your mind and heart day by day to, yes, “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”?
Are there true evidences unveiling true disciples of Christ? Oh, I certainly think so! And it goes beyond one’s ‘church membership’! Receive the word of Brother John who wrote in 1 John 3:4-9, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He (Jesus) was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. (That’s ‘present tense, continuous action’!). Whoever sins (present tense continuous action) has neither seen Him nor known Him.
Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous. He who sins (and keeps on sinning!) is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever HAS BEEN BORN OF GOD DOES NOT SIN (and keep on sinning!), for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” Praise the Lord!
But, be assured, the call of Christ to avoid sin, AND ‘sin not’, does not mean we will not be tempted by Satan and his evil armies to turn one away from following Christ! In Hebrews 4:14-16 the author of Hebrews wrote: “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us THEREFORE come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Very interesting word in 2 Corinthians 6:12 when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, some there compromising the Truth and willfully sinning, “You are not restricted by us (the apostles), but you are restricted by your own affections”, which means some ‘professing Christians’ there in Corinth find it so easy to ‘profess faith’ in Christ as they willfully yielded to the sin nature of their old man! (Of course, we don’t have to be concerned about that today! Right?) Times never change, neither the paths some “professing Christians” choose to walk in or, yes, the paths some ‘pastors’ tell them that their sin is OK since they were baptized and joined the church. Really? (Afraid so!). “No Pride But Awe?”
Is it humanly possible, void of the Holy Spirit’s presence to “guide us into all truth,” that some supposedly ‘in the faith’ today, living in fleshly, spiritual pride in themselves, choose to deny the Holy Word about what Jesus declared about ‘sin’ and what He declared about “true holiness”? In Hebrews 9:12 we read: “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but WITH HIS OWN BLOOD He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, HAVING OBTAINED ETERNAL REDEMPTION.” Notice also Verse 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?” That, my friend, IS awe!
HAVING OBTAINED ETERNAL REDEMPTION was that so you could continue ‘bowing to your sin nature’ as you professed faith in Christ, OR was it commitment to His Word, “Go and sin no more?” Hebrews 3:1-6 instructs true believers saying: “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.
For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, WHOSE HOUSE WE ARE IF we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”
“The rejoicing of hope firm to the end?” In Colossians 1 Paul heightened the awareness of the “true saints” of their spiritual inheritance “in Christ”, saying in Verse 27-28, “To them God willed to make known WHAT ARE THE RICHES OF THE GLORY OF THIS MYSTERY AMONG THE GENTILES: which is CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”
Oh, and in Colossians 2:6-10, Paul, again, was so inspired to see every true believer understanding what it means to be “one with Christ”! He said: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For IN HIM dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power.” “NO PRIDE BUT AWE?”
Don’t you find it mind-boggling that Jesus Himself said in John 5:30, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, BECAUSE I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” Does Jesus then say, “So send I YOU”? And whose will do you seek? Your will or the will of your Savior and Lord? “No Pride But AWE?”
Are YOU “the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”? Have you been made complete, because of your repentance toward God and faith only In Christ’s finished work through His shed blood at Calvary’s Cross? Are YOU the receiver of the gift of eternal life in Christ? Are you complete in Him lacking nothing? Are you more than conqueror in Christ? Have you passed from spiritual death into the free gift of everlasting life? Is YOUR ‘Christian faith’ YOUR paths of spiritual achievements or “Christ in you the hope of glory”?
Christians are not ‘burden bearers’ like Christ Jesus, but they know before Whom to bow in intercession for others, encouraging Christ to intercede for their friends as He did for them! Christians are not those ‘assuming’ to be something they are not, but are men and women who know, yield to, and surrender to the only “Lord and Savior and Redeemer of the Blood Atonement”!
Christians ARE NOT individuals who live with past-determined creeds by ‘self-introspective scholars’ (?), but men and women who live by the “resurrection Presence, Promises, and Power of the Indwelling Christ”! It was Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his writing, “Aids to Reflection: Aphorisms”, who wrote: “He who loves Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.” Coleridge also wrote: “Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a living presence.”
Henry Blackaby, in “The Power of the Call,” (p.229), wrote: “The credentials of a spiritual leader (or true disciple) is the presence of God, AT ALL POINTS AUTHENTICATING HIS SERVANT (CHRIST JESUS who said, “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve and to give My life a ransom for many.”).” Don’t you find it so amazing?
A “zero” becomes a cup of LIFE overflowing with the presence of God! A “zero” becomes a VESSEL in which Holy God pours in blessing after blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive full understanding of all His blessings in and through His Son’s presence in YOU! A “zero” overcome by his emptiness becomes a container full of the joy of the Lord which is his strength. A “zero” void of the love of God becomes the vacuum in which the deep fullness of God’s love flows without measure. A “zero” drunk with the wines excessive in self-importance all of a sudden becomes “filled with the Holy Spirit of God and His fruit. A “zero” empty of faith all of a sudden comes to a “perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
John 1:16 tells us, “and of Christ’s fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.” Question in closing! “Do YOU live in, by, and for the God-anointed SURE AND ALL-SUFFICIENT SUPPLY OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION PRESENCE IN YOU?”