PRIDE, PREJUDICE, PERSONAL PERSUASION, OR PRINCE OF PEACE PRESENCE, PERSUASION, PRIVILEGE,AND POWER ANOINTING?
By: J.Farrell Fisher, Feb. 15-April 15, 2018
INTRODUCTION
Though ‘fallen humanity’ has been deeply wounded and ‘fallen away from God’, some deeper and further from others, the Truth of the Word of God is that ‘Holy God’ reached down, out, and around to the fallen, alienated, and separated to give them freely eternal hope!
Though ‘fallen humanity’ has been so seriously wounded by their native, fleshly sin natures, by the grace, mercy, and love of God through Holy Spirit conviction and, yes, gift of repentance, He offers the ‘door-opener’ between God and man, and ‘the gift of faith’ in the finished work of Christ at Calvary’s Cross, and sinners may become saints in and through Christ alone!
Didn’t Paul say, “Christ in you the hope of glory”? That, my friend, is an amazing, eternal gift of caring, merciful God! A few words I’ve written for hopefully greater enlightening for saints and sinners. I wrote:
“Though wounded we may have been by our natural, native, fleshly sin, by the grace and mercy of God through Spirit- conviction and repentance, we receive inheritance of the gifted Presence of Holy God, through Christ’s blood, and now sealed as sons and daughters of God!
“Christ in you the hope of glory” – what an amazing, eternal reality! Though having strayed and become lost on our ‘self-ordained range’, God sought us out to bring us to His home of ‘heavenly change’.
Christ’s Resurrection Life is man’s eternal hope, but how many do you know who live as if the Savior doesn’t exist? Once again, even often, they will hear “His knock at the door”, but because of unbelief and rebellion they will not SOAR but sorrow in tears and sadness forevermore – because they know, “WE DIDN’T ANSWER!”
Some have discovered, “TO BE IS TO LIVE FOR THE PURPOSE OF GOD,” but never ask about “The Door” to His Holy Presence, and are illiterate about His “keys to the Kingdom.”
Yet some know of the keys to the Kingdom yet have hidden them away in their personal heart-deception, never desiring to take and insert the key of repentance and faith into His everlasting Kingdom!
But it’s time to awake, time to arise, time to surmise, how to stand up and look into His merciful, gracious, loving eyes, repenting of your sin, resting in His blessing, turning to His Promises of one’s eternal residence!”
However, does pride, prejudices, or personal persuasion speak to you identifying afresh the reality of sad but certain ‘godless living’? Or, possibly, is there in YOU the comforting, strengthening, assuring Word in YOU, “Christ in ME, my hope of glory?” HEAR ME!!
To be “in Christ” is no longer one’s identity in the register of all fallen sinners, blinded mankind, or family of the faithless in Satan’s fallen and conquered captives, but one “in Christ” who knows: “Blood-Forgiven”, blessed with repentance and faith as new-born sons and daughters of the eternal family of God, no longer descendants of Satan’s deceived, captured, blinded, and forever perishing but never dying family of Satan’s devotees to faithlessness, BUT divine royalty, as sons and daughters of God because, yes, you’ve taken “washed in the Blood of the Lamb of God, and Christ Jesus, as Lord and Savior of YOUR life!” AMEN?
In the old “American Hymnal” copyrighted in 1933 by Robert H. Coleman of Dallas, Texas, and published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, is a hymn by Philip Doddridge and E.F.Rimbauet entitled “O Happy Day”. It says:
“O happy day that fixed my choice on You, my Savior and my God! Well may this glowing heart rejoice, And tell its raptures all abroad.
O happy bond, that seals my vows To Him who merits all my love! Let cheerful anthems fill His house While to the sacred shrine I move.
It’s done; the great transaction’s done! I am my Lord’s, and He is mine; He drew me, and I followed on, Charmed to confess the voice divine.
High Heaven, that heard the solemn vow, That vow renewed shall daily hear, Till in life’s latest hour I bow, And bless in death a bond so dear.
Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away! He taught me how to watch and pray, and live rejoicing every day; Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away!” Dare I tell you? Get on board, and never tire as we travel together with the Prince of Peace’s Presence, Persuasion, and Power anointing, and His Happy Day!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: PRIDE, PERSONAL PERSUASION, OR PRINCE OF PEACE PRESENCE, PERSUASION, PRIVILEGE, AND POWER ANOINTING?
CHAPTER TWO: SHALLOW STREAMS, DEEP OCEANS, OR MIGHTY RIVERS OF FAITH?
CHAPTER THREE: TRIVIALIZING THE SACRED OR EXALTING THE ETERNAL?
CHAPTER FOUR: ATHEISTIC UNBELIEF OR ATONING FAITH?”
CHAPTER FIVE: HEATHEN TRASH OR HEAVEN’S TREASURE?
CHAPTER SIX: WILTED PHILOSOPHIES OR WILLFUL PURIFICATION?
CHAPTER SEVEN: GODLESS NATURES UNVEILED OR DIVINE NATURES BIRTHED?
CHAPTER EIGHT: DECEPTION MINIMIZED OR TRUTH MAGNIFIED?
CHAPTER NINE: DEATH THE END OR THE ETERNAL UNVEILED?
CHAPTER TEN: LOVE? FLESHLY INDULGENCES OR UNDYING REALITY?
CHAPTER ELEVEN: ENCHANTED, EMBRACED, OR ENTITLED?
CHAPTER TWELVE: KNOWN, BUT NO GODLY LIFE, NO LOVE FOR HIM, AND NOT LIBERATED?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: “SETTLING FOR LESS OR SETTLED IN THE ETERNAL BLESSING WITH GOD?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: TRAGIC PAIN OR TRIUMPHANT PLEASURE?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: HUMANISTIC BETRAYALS OR HEAVENLY BLESSED?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: AFFLUENCE’S DECEPTION OR THE ATONER’S DELIVERANCE?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: BLENDING, BUT NOT BLESSED –BORN AGAIN, AND DOING HIS BIDDING!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: CRUSHED LIVES – COMPASSIONATE LIBERATOR!
CHAPTER NINETEEN: KINGDOM CHOICE: KINGDOM OF DARKNESS AND SELF-RULE OR THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST’S ETERNAL RULE IN ETERNAL LIGHT?
CHAPTER TWENTY: EVIDENCES OF THE “NEW BIRTH”!
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: ACCELERATED FLESH OR ARMED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: LIVING BY MAN’S DESIGN OR LIVING BY THE MASTER’S DEMANDS?
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: NUTTY NATURES OR NEW MINDS?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: LIVING ON THE CUSP OF CHANGE?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: THE COMMON-BONDED CROWD OR THE BLESSED FEW OF FAITH?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: FLESHLY GRIT OR THE GRACE OF GOD?
CHAPTER ONE
PRIDE, PERSONAL PERSUASION, PRIVILEGE, OR PRINCE OF PEACE PRESENCE, PERSUASION, AND POWER ANOINTING?
Humanity has always ‘strutted’ in pride, prejudice, and personal persuasion yet for far too many totally and blindly living in a ‘cloud’ of flawed, futile, fleshly ‘treasures’(?) that ARE TEMPORARY, UNFULFILLING, AND COUNTERFEIT, substituting ‘successful living’ with fleshly dreams fulfilled, determined aims short-circuited, and eternal ambition imitated but never fulfilling giving no honor and glory alone to the God who loved them, lost them and then bought them by the shed blood of the Lamb of God several thousand years ago!
Humanity worldwide, without God as Sovereign in and over their lives, chooses, YES, dark clouds that lead them to deep chasms of separation, alienation, even personal imprisonment that chains and enslaves with mind-control that blinds them, contaminates them, deceives them to the point that they are more important, more full-filling, and more content than God Himself, they think!
The deceived, the ill-informed, the spiritually blind, the deaf-earred, satisfied with the sounds of the fallen-away-sin-nature, sadly living much of their lives influenced by the voices of demonic darkness, plus self-fulfilling, worldly, and Satanic aims void of the love, grace, and mercy of Holy God!
The worldly, fleshly, godless, and, sadly, even some professional ‘church-goers’, are motivated by their own view of ‘a salvation-experience’, as they define it for themselves, with no interest in the “shed blood of the Lamb of God’s Historic, Biblical occurrence at the Cross several thousand years ago” – that to them is repulsive!
What about you? Is it blasphemous self-righteousness or the Savior’s rescue of your life from the deep, deceitful, darkening waters of “best effort living” void of any “Amazing Grace”? The pumping of ‘sinful flesh’ in and through the determination of ‘self-righteousness’ necessitates Holy Spirit convincing, conviction, conversion, and consecration at the Victorious Altar of Christ rescuing them from their dark world of godlessness!
Most never consider that to live void of God’s love, grace, and mercy is to live witnessing the sad remnant of decay as they can’t fathom for themselves Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Eternal Hope in Jesus Only!! To them He and His believers and followers and chosen servants are ‘suijuris’ or ‘self-governing’ individuals, blinded in the spirit-realm of life saying they are “capable in themselves of determining for themselves what makes ‘us’ feel happy or fulfilling of what we dictate for ourselves”!
And Satan celebrates as he finds another ‘sucker’ deceived in his/her finite darkness! In Romans 8:1-14 we find an awesome Word of God! It says: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, [Dare I ask you? Are you ‘around’ Christ Jesus OR are you “in Christ Jesus” being His Holy Temple in which He presently resides, dwells, and lives out His eternal will through you?],…again, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, WHO DO NOT WALK ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, BUT ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh (or old sin-nature), God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you (“IN CHRIST”!!) are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, IF indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, 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.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Sinners without Christ are ragged individuals while “in Christ” the “new-born” are royal members of the household of God! Sinners, wooed by the world, their old sin nature, and Satan or his demons, have a seemingly glad exterior but in reality are bound in heart by a ‘demon spirit’ of ruling, reigning, ruining consequences; and each day without Christ Jesus the eternal storm-clouds are intensifying, growing darker and more dismal in their inner beings without an ounce of understanding why!!
There certainly are physical suicides by some ruled in mind, heart, and will by self-trust, self-assertion, and self-will rather than faith-fully “trusting in God’s providential care”!
But spiritual suicide is ‘self-determination’ rather than being ruled and reigned over by caring, merciful, purposeful Sovereign God!
“No” to God is yielding to Satan rather than God’s sovereignty, yielding to worldly influences and pressures rather than to God’s merciful care, and yielding to fleshly indulgences rather than to Eternal Graces! In fact, Holy God spoke through a prophet to Israel and, yes, even to many across the ages, “I called, but you refused to listen!”
Consider ‘national submission’ to the God who made them, but many nations, like much of American modern-government, has said: “He has no place in our governmental affairs nationally, statewide, locally, or in their homes, schools, businesses, and for some, ‘Yes, even in our local church assemblies – we’ll determine the degree of our religious devotion as we see it through our cloudy church eyes!’” HOW STUPID IS THAT ATTITUDE THAT SPREADS IN MANY AREAS LIKE A WILD-FIRE?!?
Consider every-day human affairs, whether work, home, office, in pleasures or sports, but there are those who still say , “What does your God have to do with who I am, what I do, or what one desires for himself or herself?”
Consider even a minister, a professionally highly-educated pastor and his ministry, but he doesn’t see that God has a plan, a program, a ministry as He sees it, not what they determine for themselves!
Oh, and then reflect upon our world without Him or our world with Him, in Him, through Him, and by Him! Consider then, “Friend of God or enemy of God”? Consider, ‘intellectual genius’ so dumbed down he/she knows nothing of the gifting of God, God’s empowerment and anointing, or the graciousness of God in His blessings beyond measure!
What about ‘governments’ that establish ‘general counsels’ and find them sufficient without God’s aim or God’s determination and direction, void of a necessary divine plea or holy plan. How many governments do you discern whom you know who say, “God, what would YOU have us to be and to do?”
YES!! GOD CALLS! GOD KNOCKS ON THE INDIVIDUAL’S DOOR, AND, YES, GOVERNMENT-DOORS – HE CARES; HE CALLS BECAUSE HE HAS A PLAN FOR EVERY LIFE, EVERY CITY, EVERY STATE, EVERY NATION! HE HAS CONCERN AND A PLAN FOR THEIR PRESENT AND THEIR FUTURE!!
God calls because He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think! God calls because He sits on the Throne of mercy and grace! God calls because of His mind, heart, will, and desire to bless who and what He cares about doing in them and through them!
I found a statement written anonymously that says: “The demand of the human understanding for causation requires but the one old and only answer, God.” And I absolutely love another old statement that said, “Every day God makes silk purses out of sows’ ears.” How awakening is that Word? Without Him, one chooses to live piggish-ly, while “in Christ” He desires us to live in heavenly royalty!
There is no substitute for the Lord God Almighty’s Presence in us and through us when it comes to living an overcoming, God-honoring, victorious life because only living in and through His abiding Presence does one experience abiding peace that passes all understanding!
Holy God is the Master-filled Designer and Planner, Equipper, Strength and Power of the Heavenly Nature! He built awesome universes and planets! Give Him your life! Contemplate! One can choose to live without Him in their natural lives abandoning the choice of allegiance to the God who made them, lost them, but historically bought them with a price, the price of the precious blood of the voluntary Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who willingly choice the suffering and death of the Cross that through Him you might choose His resurrected, reigning, royal Life in you, your only hope of eternal glory!
It was Sarah Flower Adams in her writing, “He Sendeth Sun, He Sendeth Shower” who wrote: “He sendeth sun, He sendeth shower, Alike they’re needed to the flower; And joys and tears alike are sent To give the soul firm nourishment. As comes to me or cloud or sun, Father! Your will, not mine, be done.”
How clear was Jesus Christ when to the early disciples in Matthew 6:9-10 He taught them and us saying, “After this manner therefore pray: ‘Our Father which is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Is that YOUR daily prayer of allegiance to the only Savior and Lord and Sovereign Ruler of a blessed life?
Are you aware that there ARE times, seasons, dispensations, throne-movements of Holy God, yes, events of calling one’s attention to the need of God in one’s life if they live in, by, and out for the glory of God alone?
Have you known prosperity but not its provider? Have you known or experienced a mediocre life yet realize it’s been the undeniable blessing of God on you? Has, yes, hard and difficult circumstances been to you not leaning to your own understanding but resting in God to see you through, and as you examine, you sense, “He never left me alone; He walked with me even in my dark moments?”
When ‘dark shadows’ prevail for a time, do you see by a never dimming Light God’s grace, His mercy, and His love? When temptations are rampant, do you ‘rest’ in temptations’ Overcomer, even Christ Jesus who “knew no sin”? Would you be brave enough, honest enough, trustworthy enough to say, ‘Come Hell’s assaults, the world’s deceptions, or the demons deceit, in all times “I rest in Christ alone!”
A few recent verses of inspiration unveiled by God in a quiet moment in my office: (Written: February, 2018),
“Troubles come, trials abound, but in those dark, disturbing, testing times, Holy God is all around.
Our Savior has said, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you, and many angels will presently abound.”
Though troubled and restless at times we fear, but then the Spirit tells us, “Jesus is near!”
“Lean not to your thoughts and fears but rest in His Truth because He’s always near!”
Made for God but some live for ‘self’, putting saving faith on some basement, lower shelf.
Then TRUTH arises: “Though Restless in yourself, no need to try and find an empty shelf; understand, the heart of a man is constantly ‘restless’ until it finds its REST in Christ alone, beyond life’s befuddling moans.”
Your life, though seemingly common as a desert bush, is a life to be given to God to light aflame with Christ as a “never ending burning bush”!
Earth crammed with Heaven, Lives aflamed by God, hearts as home to the Savior, your earth and His heaven becoming One!
Phrenzied minds desolated, but the mind of Christ captivated – repentance toward God and faith in Christ alone, and earthly men and the Heavenly Lord become One!
God creates; man enjoys – but only men of saving faith know the difference between ‘toys’ and God’s treasures – His blessings, His never-ceasing joys!
Eternal Presence in the human heart is not an audacious dream of a temporary part, but a divine promise of celestial order and ever-abiding residence – Christ in you His hope of glory, Christ in His Eternal Resurrection Presence In You!” Amen? HEAR THE WORD OF GOD!!
“I AM – (In Christ) – the righteousness of God in Christ!
“I AM – (In Christ) – blessed with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly Places which IS blood-washed, new-born sons and daughters of Redemptive Faith!
“I Am – made alive together with Christ having been crucified with Him when He took me with Him to His Cross; my old sin-nature was crucified with Christ!
“I Am” – raised up and seated with Christ at the RIGHT HAND THRONE OF GOD – redeemed regenerated, forgiven, washed, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God!
“I AM” – a recipient by grace of a new-born, eternally blessed divine nature, our sin nature crucified with Christ!
“I AM” – complete in Christ lacking nothing concerning the nature and character of God Himself!
“I AM” – kept by His promises, His power, and His preeminence over the world, the old man, and Satan himself!
“I AM” – sealed with the Holy Spirit of Eternal Presence and His Eternal Promises!
“I AM” – a son or a daughter of Holy God, my Heavenly Father with Jesus as my Lord, and the Holy Spirit’s presence in me as my assurance!
“I AM” – the finished work, the completed product, the “new creation” of His tabernacle Presence forever blessed with abiding joy in the heart, peace in the mind, and completeness and obedience in my sanctified will!
“I AM” is the faithful obedient spirit in me of doing all things He asks of me because of Christ living in me!
“I AM” graciously superior and greater than all or any in the world because of “the Christ in me, my hope of glory”!
“I AM” – an overcomer because of the blood of the Lamb of God, able to reign and over my world, my flesh, and the devil because of Christ in me WHO IS more than conqueror!
“I AM” – blessed by the Loving Father with mighty armor able to tear down any stronghold that opposes His purpose, His grace, and His will! I RULE and I REIGN IN JESUS’ NAME! GOD HAS GRANTED ME DOMINION AND HIS SOVEREIGNTY OVER ALL!
“I AM” – no alien, no enemy, no stranger to God and His will but a ‘soldier-partner’, a covenant recipient in Christ of the all-sufficiency of His shed blood!
“I AM”- a member of the royal household of God, a son or a daughter of the royal, eternal, reigning family of God! Yes, a ‘saint’ set apart for His glory and His honor!
“I AM”- anointed by the Spirit, super-charged, assigned my gifting and hearing my calling, equipped in heavenly authority to overcome, yes, any enemy of God!
“I AM” – eternally blessed with boldness in Christ; I’ve been given His authority over any or whatever work of darkness Satan brings, whether through influences around me, local, national, or worldwide!
“I AM” – His tabernacle of Resurrection Presence with His Great Physician Ability, supreme and reigning over all works of darkness that come against me, being His registered, trained, disciplined soldier able to bring all obedience captive in the Spirit of Christ in me and around me!
“I AM” – the vessel of God filled with the Holy Presence of God willing to be Himself, through me, yes, beyond me – His tabernacle, His throne-room, His Hospital-walk-Way, with Christ Jesus, YES, working His signs and wonders through me.
“I AM” – a beloved son, His vessel of Holy Presence, and in me, through me, Holy God is able, and chooses to extend Himself, prove His love, and express His omnipotent power, mercy, and grace.
BUT You, yes, YOU, CHOOSE “THE LESSER LIFE”, “THE DARKENED SOUL”, and “FLESH OBEDIENCE” RATHER THAN “THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST”?
May Holy God, by His Holy Spirit, overwhelm you in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ Jesus, our Lord, Savior, Master, reigning supreme through you as daily you take the sentence of death that His Resurrection Life may be manifested in mortal flesh to the Glory of Loving, Merciful, compassionate God who calls YOU to Himself!
CHAPTER TWO
SHALLOW STREAMS, DEEP OCEANS, OR MIGHTY RIVERS OF FAITH?
Following Chapter One and our journey, yes, battle, between flesh and Spirit, between the temporary and the Eternal, between indulgent wishes and Divine Will, between ‘self’ and the Savior, between demonic activity and the Atonement, are there choices before every fallen man declared by Holy God? And, of course, there is, and some, living independently of God, secured in the ‘flesh nature’, and, under Satan’s deception, live with the choice of where, why, and with whom one walks as ‘my choice, my determination of what or Who has my heart, resolving for myself the importance of the ‘temporal’ or the Eternal’. And the Holy Word declares, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”!!
In 1 John 1:8-10 we read: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him (Holy God!) a liar, and His Word is not in us.” Yet there are those who will say, “Jesus didn’t have to die for me – I live a good, decent, clean life,” when in reality they are consumed by Satanic deception!
There is a powerful revelation in 2 Peter 2:1-17!! Read it carefully!! It says: “But there were also false prophets among the people, EVEN AS THERE WILL BE FALSE TEACHERS AMONG YOU, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
By covetousness they will exploit you with DECEPTIVE WORDS; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds )–
Then the “Lord knows” how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.
But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children.
They have forsaken the right way and gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity; a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.”
SHALLOW STREAMS? They are identified as lives lived having chosen self over the Savior, one’s best or worst without any consideration of God’s will, His design, or His eternal plan; human effort over Sovereign grace, blind allegiance to one’s sin nature apart from any willfulness to “rest” in a Savior, yielded to earthly dreams void of Heavenly intent, ‘natural brute beasts’ with aim of life and assimilation empty of the mind of God, content with the wages of unrighteousness, carousers in fleshly pleasures, carousers in their ‘spiritual deceptions’,
Blinded by ‘eyes full of adultery’, fleshly wills that cannot cease from their old sin natures, enticed by the powers of the world, the flesh, and the devil, they willfully accept their unstable souls even bragging how much they enjoy their sinfulness with no awareness of continual decay often uninformed of their dark eyes that can’t see the Light with their eyes growing deeper in the darkness, and empty of understanding about ‘a heart trained in covetous practices’ deepening and widening themselves from the “Way of Salvation” pleased only with the ‘wages of their own unrighteousness’, lives described as “wells with no water” tuning in to those who only speak and understand ‘swelling words of emptiness’, yes, birthing slaves of corruption, ‘dogs constantly returning to their own vomit’ and ‘sows or fleshly pigs at home wallowing in the mire’!
Shallow streams are the waters of ‘the presumptuous, the self-willed, the scoffers who ‘walk’ according to their own lusts’! At the same time, you’ll witness those inclined to the spiritual realm without yieldedness or appropriation to Divine Will or eternal purpose! Shallow streams are temporary thoughts with no willful desire for transformation! Shallow streams will even “argue” their validity with no acceptance of God’s will for avoiding the deep waters of man’s deception rather than “surrender to Eternal Will”. Fallen mankind often see themselves as worldly, fleshly ‘theorists’ but without an ounce of truth! They’ll even ‘thirst’ but not for the “Living Water”!
Shallow stream ‘waders’ find it so easy to be conformed to fallen humanity to the point that, yes, at least for a time, will gloat in being conformed to worldly, fleshly, demonic lusts because “it comes so natural for us”, not redeemed from the corruptible but enslaved, never realizing, apart from Holy Spirit conviction, that there is a deadly warfare occurring against their souls, not transformed but ‘tripped up’ by the constant warfare from, yes, enemies of God!
Shallow stream ‘waders’ are easily identifiable because, “fitting in with their fallen world”, they live according to the “lust nature”, doing the “warped will of fallen mankind”, which according to 1 Peter 4:3 is, “walking in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries”! Oh, they ‘feel’ so alive and liberated when in eternal reality they walk in ‘pride’ wondering why “the chosen” want to walk knowing, doing, and honoring the will of God! And, sadly, they fail to understand that in “wading shallow streams” of self-indulgence, “accounting Day before Holy God” comes sooner than they expected!
BUT, ARE YOU AWARE OF THE DEEP OCEANS THAT WILL SUCK MANY IN AND DOWN AND AWAY FROM HOLY GOD FOREVER AND EVER? I’m sure that you are probably aware of what John said to the ‘religious pretenders’ in Matthew 23:33 when He said: “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?”
Are there “deep oceans, deep waters” of accountability that will be issued, answered, and dealt with by every godless man, woman, youth, or child, and, yes, even true, born-again believers? In the Word of God, are there declarations about what the faithless, disobedient, and unbelieving will have to swim in as they realize, “Yes, there are deep oceans I’ve been walking in, and I’m held accountable in every stroke I took as I enjoyed my “sinful, fleshly nature”! Earlier, in Matthew 3:7-12, the beloved John spoke! He said:
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father?’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 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. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
It’s highly, highly interesting that in our modern day of church life the matter of “bearing fruits of repentance” is seldom uttered! In fact, much of modern-day ‘churchianity’ says, “Join the church, be baptized, and rejoice in the ‘work’ He’s never had, and still doesn’t, in you. Church membership is what counts, and those who preach and teach ‘repentance’ really don’t know the heart and mind of God!” Really?
Recently reading Samuel’s writings, I was in 1 Samuel and came to 1 Samuel 3:1 when it said, “Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. AND THE WORD OF THE LORD WAS RARE IN THOSE DAYS; there was no widespread revelation;” and I had to ask myself, “Across America today, just how ‘widespread’ is the Word of God?” I’m 81 years of age, to be 82 as of June 12, 2018! Over my early childhood, youth, college days, and years of pastoring, yes, nation-wide there was no rarity of the Word, even in public schools and universities, but then over the past 50 to 60 years the liberal-minded, godless leaders shunned and banned the Word of God, and few opposed that godless stupidity, with generations being raised to “figure life out for yourselves; you’re able; you don’t need the ‘supposed’ Holy Word of God to guide your modern life!”
And, so Peter described, in 2 Peter 2:17, the ‘walkers in the world around us’ who ignore the Holy Word of God as, “These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” But, there are those who want out of their deep, destructive black oceans, desiring the “True River of Living Water” whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ, son of Holy God, the third Person of the Trinity, assigned BEFORE the foundation of our world to BE its Savior, Master, Redeemer, Lord, Reconciler of the ‘fallen’ to loving, merciful, caring, compassionate, Holy God!
And, as a result of His sacrifice, and your repentance toward God and your faith in Jesus’ “finished work”, you now, or can be, “WALKING ON THE MIGHTY RIVERS OF FAITH” to the glory of God!
NOTICE FIRST, THE DOOR-OPENER OF GOD FOR FALLEN MANKIND WHO “REST” IN CHRIST’S DEATH ON THE CROSS, HIS BURIAL, HIS RESURRECTION, HIS ASCENSION, AND PRESENT REIGN AS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL TRUE BELIEVERS – GOD DECLARES, AND HIS CHILDREN OF FAITH RESPOND!
Do you remember in John 3:9 Nicodemus saying to Jesus, “How can these things be?” In Verses 12-21 our Lord and Savior spoke so clearly!! He said: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. AND as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to), believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world (a world of lost-ness, rebellion, alienation and separation from Him) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to!) is not condemned; but he who does not believe is CONDEMNED ALREADY, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who DOES THE TRUTH comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
[Do you think that may be while Paul said, “I die daily”, so that Christ’s Resurrection Life would be manifested faithfully in and through our mortal flesh?].
NOTICE SECOND, HOLY GOD DEFINES TRUE BELIEVERS ALSO WHO, YES, DRINK FROM “THE WELL OF WATER OF CHRIST’S EVERLASTING LIFE”! In John 3 to the ‘woman at the well of physical water’, the Lord Jesus said: Verses 13-14, “Whoever drinks of this (physical) water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him (water of the Word!) will become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” GLORY!!
How familiar or acquainted are you with the “Book of Acts”? Does it lay out for us the true picture of true disciples who become obedient to that which Jesus spoke after His Resurrection and before His Ascension, that all believers were to “be My witnesses”? Does a witness ‘testify’ to others about what he/she has experienced, sharing with others “the good news” as a way of life?
Acts 4:12 reveals words of Peter, redeemed, set apart, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, saying: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men BY WHICH WE MUST BE SAVED.” Are YOU ‘saved’ and are YOU His witness? Examine what happened:
Acts 4:13, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they REALIZED that they had been with Jesus.”
I tell you, our Lord is looking for His people who are willing to be shaken, obedient to His calling, and boldly proclaiming to all around them the “good news”! Peter and John had been opposed, arrested, then released, but Acts 4:18-20 tells us, “So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Examine Acts 4:29-31 AND Verse 33!! Bold Peter and bold John then called on the Lord as they faced extreme opposition: Verses 29-31, “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.”
Oh, and then Verse 33 says, “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” Grace upon the appointed, anointed apostles? Grace upon new disciples? Grace upon pastors and elders? Grace upon small children of true faith? Yes!! If they are true disciples, they’ve chosen to walk in faith being obedient to all Father-God asks of us!
THIRD, HOLY GOD, HAVING DISTINCTIVELY IDENTIFIED HIS OWN ‘SPIRIT-BIRTHED’ SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF SAVING FAITH, COMMISSIONED THEM AS HIS WITNESSES, HAVING WOOED US AND WON US OVER AS HIS SERVANTS, HE DRESSES US IN THAT WHICH CLEARLY SETS YOU APART AS A MEMBER OF HIS ROYAL FAMILY! In Ephesians 6 Paul the Apostle described the activity of God in true, born-again believers, followers, and disciples of Christ, commissioned by Him to be a faithful servant of the only Savior and Lord! He said, in Verses 10-18, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints…!”
FOURTH, HOLY GOD, ON HIS THRONE, IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE “TO DELIVER US” BECAUSE THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE OR “FLESH”, AND SATAN WITH HIS HORDES OF DEMONS WILL SEEK TO DISTRACT YOU FROM YOUR ROYAL COMMISSIONING AS CHRIST’S AMBASSADOR! How familiar are you with the Psalms? They ALL should be read through every three to four months! But notice now especially Psalm 18:1-6! “I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies. The pangs of death surrounded me, and 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 God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.”
One’s salvation experience through Christ’s “Blood Atonement” is God’s hope of seeing His love for the world poured out through you and me! In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Paul enlightened us, challenged us, and motivated us to fulfill our calling from Holy God – that’s all “blood-bought” disciples of Christ – and Owned By God, we’re to be obedient to His every Word! Paul wrote:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he/she 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. For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Do you remember Paul saying in his Ephesian letter saying in Chapter 6, Verses 19-20, the following challenge to his prayerful friends in the faith, and us the following? “…and pray for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I AM AN AMBASSADOR IN CHAINS; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” DO YOU SPEAK BOLDLY ABOUT KING JESUS, OUR SAVIOR AND LORD?
I close this Chapter with an old hymn from “The Broadman Hymnal” published in 1940 by a F. Whitfield, from a Greek Melody entitled, “I Saw the Cross of Jesus.” It says: “I saw the cross of Jesus, When burdened with my sin; I sought the cross of Jesus, To give me peace within; I brought my soul to Jesus, He cleansed it in His blood; And in the cross of Jesus I found my peace with God.
I love the cross of Jesus, It tells me what I am – A vile and guilty creature, Saved only through the Lamb; No righteousness, nor merit, No beauty can I plead; Yet in the cross I glory, My title there I read.
I clasp the cross of Jesus In every trying hour, My sure and certain refuge, My never failing tower; In every fear and conflict, I more than conqueror am; Living I’m safe, or dying, Through Christ, the risen Lamb.
Sweet is the cross of Jesus! There let my weary heart Still rest in peace unshaken, Till with Him, never to part; And then in strains of glory I’ll sing His wondrous power, Where sin can never enter, And death is known no more.” AMEN?
Are YOU sailing on the “mighty river of faith” overcoming in and through Christ alone?
CHAPTER THREE
TRIVIALIZING THE SACRED OR EXALTING THE ETERNAL?
The ‘self-administration’ of one’s soul life is a strong wall difficult to tear down when one is more concerned how he/she sees things in and around them without any consideration of “Why has God made me? Does He have a purpose for my life, for which I have to say, I’m not concerned about His opinion – I know who I am and what I want to be about in this earthly existence.”
There are those whose ‘earthly existence’ is “trivializing the sacred” because they are consumed by living their earthly journey through, in, and by their sinful natures, debasing the sacred, debunking faith and obedience, satisfying fleshly, earthly, demonic indulgences in their lewdness, their lusts, their drunken sprees, their dark-night revelries, and, sadly unaware, but bowing, worshipping, while dissipating, what outer and inner man ‘exists’ in them as they truly and sincerely ‘love’ who they are and what they do, yes, more importantly than “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” with man created by Him with the choice of ‘trivializing the sacred’ or “exalting the eternal”!
Trivializing the sacred is willfully trampling on the precious Lord and Savior of mankind. Trivializing the sacred is willfully sharing in abominable iniquity. Trivializing the sacred is to adorn one’s self with the attitude of Satan who’d just as soon see Jesus dead as living forever! Trivializing the sacred is to be ashamed of the Holy Covenant. Trivializing the sacred is one who is comfortable with the foul smells of unbelief, of resistance to Biblical Truth, content with the rotten flesh of self-promotion rather than the fruit of the Spirit!
Trivializing the sacred is one seeing God and a relationship with Him as unimportant because, in their ‘flesh-mind’, in their ‘knowledgeable astuteness’, in their view of a ‘personally normal’, ‘good’, ‘decent’ man, though certainly enjoying the ‘dark side’ of their natures, convinced they are not ‘bad’ people who need ‘blood redemption’!
Trivializing the sacred is to be willfully in love with the fallen sin-nature “in all of its ‘naturalness’ that sets one apart from the animal kingdom” – a lion is a lion, but a man is a sinful man by the selfish mind, heart, and desires of living in the natural kingdom of life “without any God telling ME what I ought to do or be in His spiritual Kingdom!”
Trivializing the sacred is to be ‘nutty natured’ because a ‘serpent’ called Satan or the devil, with his fallen cohorts, that, yes, do exist and are presently active at the door of every man’s mind, and continually do seek to keep a door closed between God and man are hyper-active to enslave you to the kingdom of darkness. There is a ‘kingdom of darkness’ Satan rules over, and he loves ‘deceit’ to keep men, women, boys and girls, in his clutches so he’ll have them, rejecting Christ, welcome in his kingdom of darkness, doubts, bondage, disillusionment about eternal spiritual truth, keeping unbelievers bound with his chains of slavery to his plans, his family of faithlessness, and in and under his shadowy rule and reign!
Trivializing the sacred is to twist, distort, short-change what the cost of the Cross was all about! Trivializing the sacred is to pump up confusion in fallen minds, assuring the devil’s disciples how much more important they are to him and his dark kingdom than to be representatives of the King of kings.
Trivializing the sacred is the art-work of the king of darkness, the devil, who, in the early days of earthly creation by God Himself, the ‘king of darkness’, knowing personally what brings about spiritual death, assured Eve and Adam that to disobey Holy God doesn’t produce death, even telling them, “You surely will not die”, but they did!
Trivializing the sacred is to blind, bind, and bend men away from Purposeful God and have them distorted in their fleshly pleasures. Trivializing the sacred is to dabble in “fig-leaf religions”, disobeying Holy God, exposing their spiritual nakedness, yet like Adam and Eve, they ‘cover’ themselves in order to “hide from the presence of the Lord God”, with ‘fruitless trees’ abounding!!
Trivializing the sacred is to turn deaf ears toward God yet open ears to anything the world, the sinful nature, or the devil and his demons suggest! In Genesis 4:6-7 we read, So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Dare I tell you that fallen countenance, angry response, disobedience of Truth is to be one producing rebellion not obedience, disobedience not the pleasure of pleasing the God who made you, created you for Himself, but you “choose” to live like the powers of darkness, not the King of Light, in submission to the Father’s will, and, yes, the pleasure of doing what Holy God says, even the Cross!!!
Trivializing the sacred? Personally examine, contemplate, receive James 1:12-18!! It says: (Remember. This is the brother of Jesus writing!). James wrote: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”
But ‘trivializing the sacred’? “I can certainly choose in and of and by myself to be ‘the kind of firstfruits’ I desire because of my self-determined independence, not by any help of your God you call the God of grace and mercy. I don’t need His grace – I have grit; and I don’t need His mercy because I possess strong ‘self-means’! Leave me to myself – I’ll merit His mercy and grace!!” So, they awaken to their self-determined journey in Hell with the devil and His demons and all sad, distressed, captive unbelievers having to wallow in their seas of “I choose MY best, not what your God offers me!”
Didn’t James 1:18 say, “Of HIS OWN WILL He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of HIS creatures”, not self-best or Satan’s distress?
Trivializing the sacred? Toward the end of 1 Samuel, in chapters 26-31, you find the tremendously interesting relationship between young David and King Saul, and how David sought earnestly to impact King Saul with the divine, holy message of hope for Saul’s life, his family, even his nation! Though near to true trust as, yes, some come ‘near’ to today, in 1 Samuel 31:4-6, you find a tragic ending to what could have been a ‘blessed life’ in the mercy, grace, and love of God:
It says: Verses 4-6, Then Saul said to his armorbearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me.” But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it. And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him. So Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day.”
Ungodly influences and influencers will, yes, destroy lives, families, nations, and opportunities for “Saving Grace” to be exampled, and will by the choice of “death” rather than the choice of “eternal life” end spiritually bankrupt!!
Trivializing the sacred? “Studying to show one’s self approved unto God is such a ‘proud walk in one’s self’” is from the voices of the trivializers an affront against men of true faith who know they ARE sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, and day by day “rest” in His finished work and His abiding presence in them, choosing daily to be ‘dead to themselves’ that His Resurrection Life would be manifested in them and through them! THAT is not ‘trivializing the sacred’!!
That, my friends, is choosing daily to be a redeemed, born-again, Spirit-filled life “Exalting the Eternal”!!
In the old Broadman Hymnal, copyrighted and published in 1940, there is an old hymn entitled “Awake, My Soul, Stretch Every Nerve”, by Philip Doddridge, inspired by Handel, that says: “Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve, And press with vigor on! A heavenly race demands your zeal, And an immortal crown, And an immortal crown!
A cloud of witnesses around Hold you in full survey; Forget the steps already trod, And onward urge your way, And onward urge your way.
It’s God’s all animating voice That calls you from on high; It’s His own that presents the prize To your aspiring eye, To your aspiring eye.
Blest Savior, introduced by God, have I my race begun; And, crowned with victory at His feet I’ll lay my honors down, I’ll lay my honors down.”
I therefore assume: “Yes, Christ IS my ‘All in all’” as YOU “Lean not to your own understanding, but in all your ways, YOU acknowledge Him and give Him His rightful place to be Himself in your bodily temple of abiding presence, having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, forgiven, new-born, and willing to be His earthly Holy Temple!”
As Paul began his first Corinthian letter, he did so saying, “called to be an apostle”, and the truth is, ‘There is no true disciple who hasn’t been called!’ Every true disciple has HEARD the Lord’s “KNOCK” on his/her heart’s door, and through repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work, out of spiritual death we open the door, Christ Jesus enters, and we’re raised up in “newness of Life”, our Lord’s Resurrected, reigning presence in the born-again heart, mind, and body!!
In 1 Corinthians 1:2-9 Paul also was inspired by the Spirit to write, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified (set apart!) in Christ Jesus, CALLED TO BE SAINTS, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that YOU WERE ENRICHED IN EVERYTHING BY HIM in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ WAS CONFIORMED IN YOU, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation (the unveiling) of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also CONFIRM YOU TO THE END, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. [And the day of the Lord Jesus is not some future event but the reality of His present temple, YOUR re-born life submitted and committed to His honor and glory alone!]. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” How about another GLORY, HONOR, and PRAISE TO THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!!
ARE YOU AWARE OF THE CALLING OF “EXALTING THE ETERNAL”? In Philippians 2:5-11 the Apostle Paul alerts us, awakens us, and admonishes us all who ARE “in Christ”, saying: “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!!!”
How clear, convicting, and radiating with grace, mercy, and love when you hear Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but THE GIFT OF GOD is eternal life in Christ”! In my Holman Study Bible (NKJV) the editor, evaluating the previous verse, inserted the following: “Lest the figure be misunderstood as a payment for merits earned, “eternal life” is a “gift of God” through Christ. One master (sin) pays an earned wage of “death”; the other master (God) pays in unearned grace, resulting in eternal life,” followed by John 17:3 which says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
I thank God for the blessed, inspired, life-giving Word of Holy Scripture! In 2 Corinthians 4:3-11 Paul continues to inspire seekers world-wide and for many, many centuries. He said: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age (Satan!) has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image (exact likeness!) of God, should shine on them.
For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But (And I say!!) we have this treasure in earthen vessels, THAT THE EXCELLENCE OF THE POWER MAY BE OF GOD AND NOT OF US. WE are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed (at times), but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, (Did the Word tell us about ‘taking the sentence of death daily’? Paul clearly saying, “I die daily!”), that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” Glory!
Paul said in Verse 16, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” On June 12, 2018, I will celebrate my 82nd birthday, but more importantly, SHOUT, because, though my old body is aging fast, I get younger in my spiritual journey than ever before!! And I choose to celebrate the gracious life, the marvelous wife, my kids, grandkids, and great grands, along with my spiritual sons and daughters blessed into Kingdom living by His calling to be His witness, His ambassador, His chosen servant to lean on Him! I CHOOSE TO “EXALT THE ETERNAL”, and that’s the Resurrected, Redeeming, Reigning Christ ministering His “saving grace”!
CHAPTER FOUR
ATHEISTIC UNBELIEF OR ATONING FAITH?
I’ve chosen to entitle Psalm 14 as “A Fool’s Paradise” because sadly there are those blinded to the reality of Holy God’s eternal purpose for His created mankind that He wanted to be free to choose whether or not they would or wouldn’t respond to His love, mercy, and grace, assisting Him in establishing His everlasting Kingdom or ‘rule’ in a world of their own choosing! Psalm 1 says:
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
They have ALL turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call on the name of the Lord? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous.
You shame the counsel of the poor , but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion, (even the author, long before Jesus came, knew there would be a “Redeemer” coming to the world!)! When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.”
And the Promised Messiah came! But, the fool still says in his heart, “There is no God.” Sadly, some saw that as a ‘limited deliverance of Israel’ from an enemy’s control, never seeing the need of deliverance, healing, and, yes, salvation from sinful hearts!
Psalm 10:3-6 speaks of fleshly pride, hardened hearts, and diminished minds to “God allegiance”! It says: “For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his ‘proud countenance’ does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts. His ways are always prospering; Your judgments are far above, out of his sight; as for all his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity”!
The arrogance of atheists or unbelievers is staggering, stupid, and strong evidence of a sinful, self-centered, Satanic deception! In Exodus 20:3 Holy God stated, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” yet all of fallen mankind, and especially ‘atheists’, become a ‘god’ they bow before, in love with their deception about themselves! They know nothing about “the destruction of transgressors and of sinners being together”, and “those who forsake the Lord (and, yes, deny He exists!) shall be consumed,” and face the burnings of everlasting Hell that cannot be quenched!
On the computer recently, I came across a writing by Tim Whitmarsh in which he wrote: “Disbelieve it or not, ancient history suggests that atheism is as natural to humans as religion!” He went on, “Rather than making judgments based on scientific reason, these early atheists were making what seemed to be universal objections about the paradoxical nature of religion – the fact that it asks you to accept things that aren’t intuitively in your world. The fact that this was happening thousands of years ago suggests that forms of disbelief can exist in all cultures, and probably always have.”
There’s no “probably” about it! There has always been ‘atheists’ who deny that God exists! In ‘probably’ every culture across the ages, in every culture one will find ‘atheists’ who insist, “God doesn’t exist!”, easily denying historic and cultural and Scriptural-Truth realities across the globe!!
In John 4:24 the Lord Jesus Christ said: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Earlier, in John 3:3 Jesus clearly and in a convicting word said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” because, Verse 6, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Untrue or Eternal Truth?
“Born flesh”? In 1 Corinthians 13:11 Paul wrote: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things,” and unbelieving atheists are “crippled children” needing the grace and mercy of God in ‘learning’ how to walk as mature adults who long to glorify God in their earthly but redeemed bodies! One, yes, can be “born again”! There IS the Second Birth wherein one confronted by God, convicted by the Holy Spirit, cornered by the Living, Resurrected, Reigning King of kings, can and does graciously give a “new life” of His abiding Presence to those willing to give Him His rightful place!
‘In the world, of the world’, distinctively different from “holy temple living”, fallen mankind, even unaware of it, share in the spirit-life of darkness with the world, in and a part of “base things”, in and of, yes, the “foolish things” when God is omitted, in and of “natural man’s fleshly things” avoiding that which is of the Spirit of God, the Will of God, the word of God, and the ways of God, content as “mere men” when He is interested in “Mastered men” governed, guided, and graced by the Resurrection Life within Him following repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross and empty tomb, co-reigning with Him, we accept, yes, His rule and His reign from the very Throne of God!
Atheistic unbelief is strong in ‘some’ lives as they rest and retire in “the wisdom of a fallen world” that is “foolishness with God.” ‘Atheistic unbelief’ is “the ‘wise’ caught by God in their own craftiness”, not knowing “the thoughts of the ‘wise’ are futile” (2 Corinthians 3:20), and Holy God exposes their intellectual stupidity! And ‘atheistic unbelief’ is seen often in the dark clouds of sexually immoral people who seek to ‘justify’ their darkness by their confessions of an unawareness of a Holy God!
Much of the opposition of the ‘atheistic community’ is because of “exposure” to what goes on in an atheist’s walk, yes, in the dark side of fallen humanity’s life journey as they DENY HIS MERCY AND GRACE AND LOVE IN REIGNING OVER THEM! Paul challenged the former world’s sinful journey that he witnessed in their faithless lifestyle, saying in Colossians 3:5-7, “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. [Are YOU aware atheism is an idol before which they daily bow, intent on ‘worshipping’ their ‘fleshly, sinful, warped natures’!]. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.” THERE IS A SCRIPTURAL PROMISE OF DELIVERANCE FROM THE FOUL LIFE OF ATHEISM DRASTICALLY WITNESSED IN PREMIER-ATHEISTIC-ALLEGIANCE!! The promise? “What you once walked in as a premier atheist, by the grace of God, through repentance and faith, you can be raised up to the very Throne-Life of the Victorious Jesus over, yes, atheistic unbelief!
I’ve known, seen, and witnessed atheistic devotees who having met Christ Jesus through faithful witnesses who have, yes, entered His “Haven of Rest”! Consider those atheists you’re encountering, and think of them and your faithful witness to them as you read the words of the following hymn:
“My soul in sad exile was out on life’s sea, (the sea of ‘atheistic unbelief!’), So burdened with sin and distress, Till I heard a sweet voice saying, “Make Me your choice,” And I entered the haven of rest.
I yielded myself to His tender embrace, And, faith taking hold of the word, My fetters fell off, and I anchored my soul: The haven of rest is my Lord.
The song of my soul, since the Lord made me whole, Has been the old story so blest, Of Jesus, who’ll save whosoever will have A home in the haven of rest.
Oh, come to the Savior, He patiently waits, To save by His power divine; Come, anchor your soul in the haven of rest, And say, “My Beloved is mine.”
I’ve anchored my soul in the haven of rest, I’ll sail the wild seas no more; The tempest may sweep o’er the wild stormy deep, In Jesus I’m safe ever more.”
In atheism there is no safety! In atheism there is no deliverance but bondage-mental, spiritually, fleshly, Satanically!! In Jesus there IS “The Haven of Rest”!! For You? Atheistic unbelief OR “ATONING FAITH”?
It’s so interesting to read what “The Random House College Dictionary”, published in 1975, had to say about, first, “ATHEISM”, saying, “the doctrine or belief that there is no God or gods (opposed to ‘theism’!); ungodliness, immorality, or wickedness.” Then, defining an ‘atheist’, they published the following: “A person who denies or disbelieves the existence of God or gods – (adding) -; ungodliness, immorality, or wickedness.” Then defining an ‘atheist’, they wrote the following: “a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of God or gods – adding: Atheist, Agnostic, Infidel, referring to “persons not inclined toward religious belief or a patriotic form of religious belief”- continuing: “An atheist is one who denies the existence of God…an agnostic is one who believes it is impossible to know anything about God or about the creation of the universe and refrains from committing himself to any religious doctrines. Infidel means an unbeliever, especially a nonbeliever in Islam or Christianity.”
EXAMINING ATONING FAITH!! A shocking but sensational TRUTH denied by even some ‘believers’ (?): Though ALL SIN has been FORGIVEN by Christ’s SHED BLOOD, by HIS BLOOD ATONEMENT, because He shed His blood for sin and sinners worldwide, only repentant hearts and trusting wills in His “finished work” experience His “washing, cleansing, purifying, raising up in newness of Life – His Resurrection Presence”!!!
In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 is an amazing, convicting, life-transformation Word from Holy God!! Holy God inspired Paul to record His Truth of reconciliation for all the world but unveiling the Father’s true family of faith in and through Christ’s work at the Cross and His empty tomb, then rising to be seated at the right hand of Father-God to welcome His new family of faith, ‘born-again’ as His “new creations”! It says: “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. For He (God the Father) made Him (the Son) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Did you notice? ALL THE WORLD’S SIN FORGIVEN BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, BUT NOT ALL THE WORLD RECONCILED TO HIS RESURRECTION LIFE BECAUSE THEY SEE NO NEED TO REPENT OR BE “NEW BORN” – THEY ARE’OK’; THEIR REPENTANCE IS UNNECESSARY, THEIR SURRENDER TO GOD BECAUSE OF THE SON’S ‘FINISHED WORK’ IS NOT REQUIRED – THEIR ‘RELIGIOUS DEVOTION’ IS ALL THAT IS NECESSARY!
To the ‘religious Hebrews’ of Peter’s day, he wrote in 1 Peter 1:17-23, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here is fear (reverential awe?); knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your AIMLESS CONDUCT (“I’m OK – you’re OK”? but no repentance and faith?) received by tradition from your fathers, BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times (of Judaistic culture!!) for you who through faith (trust, surrender, yieldedness to His Lordship as a way of life!!) in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, SO THAT your faith and your hope are in God only!”
And here’s the next “Salvation awareness ‘Door-Opener”!! 1 Peter 1:22-23, “SINCE you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another with a pure heart (even an unbelieving world?), having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…” Oh, and there’s reason why it’s “living and abiding through the Word”!
Verses 24-25 are so clear!-because “All ‘flesh’ (old sin-nature) is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away. BUT the word of the Lord endures forever.”
David F. Wells was, is, the author of a book published in 1993 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, that I have treasured since receiving it. In his Introduction (p.10) he wrote: “In saying that I am a staunch disbeliever in the modern world, I do not wish to appear immodest, as if I come flushed with the knowledge of a new discovery. In fact, I do not. In this connection, I well remember G.K.Chesterton’s story about the restless yachtsman who set sail from England with the intention of arriving at an exotic South Sea island.
After many days, he sighted land and, as soon as he could, beached his boat and ventured inland. Before him stood a dreadful pagan temple. Undaunted, he decided to claim it for England. He scaled its walls and bravely planted the Union Jack at its pinnacle. Only then did he realize that what he had scaled was the Brighton Pavilion on England’s south coast! He thought he had sailed in a straight line, but, because of an unfortunate miscalculation, he had actually traveled in a circle. He imagined that he was first in the land, but it turned out that he was the last.”
Tell me about the calculation of your present journey! “Flesh” or Spirit? “Best effort” or “Amazing Grace”? “Trying” or “TRUSTING”? “Worldly understanding or HEAVEN’S REVELATION IN THE CRUCIFIED, RESURRECTED, INDWELLING LIFE OF CHRIST”? “HUMAN GRIT” OR “HOLY GRACE”? “Restricted by your own affections or RELEASED BY HIS BLOOD ATONEMENT”?
In the old “Broadman Hymnal”, published in 1949 by the Broadman Press of Nashville, Tennessee, they included a song by Grant Colfax Tullar and Mrs. Frank A. Breck that says:
“There was One who was willing to die in my stead, That a soul so unworthy might live, And the path to the cross He was willing to tread, All the sins of my life to forgive.
He is tender and loving and patient with me, While He cleanses my heart of its dross; But “there’s no condemnation”,” I know I am free, For my sins are all nailed to the cross.
I will cling to my Savior and never depart – I will joyfully journey each day, With a song on my lips and a song in my heart, That my sins have been taken away.
They are nailed to the cross, they are nailed to the cross, O how much He was willing to bear! With what anguish and loss, Jesus went to the cross! But He carried my sins with Him there.”
- ATONING FAITH HAS BEEN IN THE HEART, MIND, AND WILL OF GOD EVEN BEFORE THE WORLD WAS CREATED, BUT WHEN CHRIST JESUS CAME, HE FINISHED GOD’S WORK OF LOVE FOR THE ‘LOST’! Examine carefully, earnestly Hebrews 9:13-28! “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, HOW MUCH MORE SHALL THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. (Explanation? If you still accept your old sin nature as still remaining, the ‘confessing’ testator is powerless and his sin nature has not been accepted as “crucified with Christ” as he chooses to ‘believe’ but not “RECEIVE” what His free gift is “in Christ”, which IS the victorious Life over sin and death, CHRIST Extending Himself through you!)
Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.’ Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (“Better blood”?). For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God FOR US; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
Just before Jesus’ crucifixion, in John 12: 27, we read of Jesus unveiling God’s intent as Jesus called out to the Father: “Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ (The hour of the Cross, suffering, and dying for all mankind!!) But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” And the Father IS glorified as Christ suffers in our place, and He is to be glorified in every true disciple’s life as moment by moment we die to the old ‘self’ that the “new man in Christ” may be honored in all we are, in all we do, and in all we say to uplift, magnify, and glorify His Precious Name across our globe!!
- CHRIST JESUS DID SO BECAUSE ATONEMENT WAS NECESSARY! Look with me at Luke 24:40-49! The Word says: When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.
Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and
That repentance and remission of sins should be PREACHED IN HIS NAME, to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
Simon Peter gave his personal testimony to “the rulers and elders of Israel” in Acts 4:10-12, “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 here (Simon Peter himself!) 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.” THE BLOOD ATONEMENT OF CHRIST WAS AND IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY FOR SALVATION!
3)THE BLOOD ATONEMENT OF CHRIST JESUS IS INDISPENSABLE AND CANNOT BE ASSERTED AS A ‘WAY’ “BUT NOT THE ONLY WAY”! How insane to believe there is more than one way to be reconciled to Holy God, as many religions claim and some ‘brain-dead believers think’! Look at 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 Him (trusts in Him alone, relies upon His finished work at the Cross only, and faithfully adheres to Him, giving Him His rightful place as Sovereign Lord in you and through you!)
……..4) THE BLOOD ATONEMENT IS UNIVERSAL, NOT SIMPLY A HEBREW RELIGIOUS PRACTICE! In 1 Timothy 2:5-6 we read, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time…” Is it YOUR TIME TO TESTIFY? Later, in 1 Timothy 4:10, Paul challenges every believer: “For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe, or trust, or rely upon, or adhere to!!!
Let the Holy Spirit guide you and challenge you as you read 2 Corinthians 5:14-15! “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.” True, born-again disciples of Christ live under the urgency of sharing the faith, the testimony of “new life in Jesus only”, yes, even willing to die for that name if necessary!
For WHOM DO YOU LIVE? Satisfying ‘flesh’ or honoring Christ by a faithful witness?
CHAPTER FIVE
HEATHEN TRASH OR HEAVEN’S TREASURE?
If a man ‘trashes’ Truth, would he/she be seen as ‘heathen trash’? If ‘heathen’ is seen as one who substitutes his mental awareness, his social worshiping activities, his dreams and visions of ‘self-nature-endowed thoughts and trips’ as doing his ‘best’ but unashamed of his worst, if ‘facts’ in one’s life, revealed as ‘heathen trash’ by the Word of God, then how does one interpret himself? “Heathen Trash” or “Heaven’s Treasure”?
If a man turns Truth out of his life and settles for what should be “embarrassing encumbrances”, has he substituted “Heaven’s Treasure” for “heathen trash”? You are aware that multitudes, who’ve never encountered Truth, who turn inward on themselves to satisfy their fleshly desires, wants, even dreams, will translate God’s Heavenly Treasure as “trash”, and make, yes, ‘their trash’ something bigger and better for them than God’s truth!
There is a world of folks who settle in their minds and hearts that the fulfilling of ‘flesh natures’ is the ultimate story of ‘flesh’, transcendent behavior and character, though identified by Holy God as resistant to Truth, as diabolical as Satan himself, and though highly respected and accepted in their known world, merciful God takes all their ways, natures, and lives and crucifies it all ‘in Christ’ at the Cross, and through the shed blood of the Lamb of God offers new life, new hope, new blessing, new fulfillment, and a new heart, new heaven on earth, and a new beginning with eternal blessings overflowing!
Heathen trash will ‘treasure’ “secular humanism” as worthy of God, “if there is One”, upholding their worth and value in ‘self-independence’! Of ‘compromising cultures’, yes, THEY WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST! Of ‘natural orthodoxy’, there are numerous ‘intellectuals’ who denounce Biblical Revelation and encourage defiance to Holy Truth! I find it so interesting recently to read in Nehemiah 8:8 about, yes, men of faith, who to the ‘seekers’ “read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading,” but ‘in the world’ you’ll find ‘distinguished intellectuals’ who defy the Word of God and, I’m afraid, unknowingly, are opening ‘doors of disaster’ to anyone who’d rather believe ‘trashers’ than “Truth-bearers”!
Sadly, most of our modern world, birthed in a physical world, are ‘slaves’ to natural laws, even promoted by the powers of darkness because they’d rather see you devoted to ‘self’ rather than seeing you in need of the Savior! Servants of the natural laws, rather than sons and daughters of the Emancipating Lord and Savior, freeing you from world, flesh, and demonic bondage, even gleefully celebrate their ‘natural identity’ with no desire to entertain the God who, yes, knocks on their hearts’ doors – and He does!
Psalm 30:5b says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning,” while for “heathen trash”, their commitment to “fleshly joys”, godless living, and sin-nature indulgences is ‘joy’ canceled and weeping potentially forever in a ‘God-forsaken way of life’ with Satan and his demons and the “Christ-rejecters” who have no need of the Savior and Lord, and no interest in “Eternal Heaven” before God’s Presence but unexpectedly having to ‘live’ eternally under the domination and distress of “eternal Hell”! It would be interesting, enlightening, and convicting if you took the time to evaluate through the Word of God and through fleshly examples around you to see “The Rewards of Trash-Choices”!
What do you see around you that causes you heart-ache, pain, sorrow, even fear, because before your very eyes you see the awful endings of folks ‘treasuring the trash’ of choices from their sinful natures, darkened minds, and Satanically-seduced ways and means, and rewards from godless living, from compromised truth and error, even neighborly futile faiths and devotions?
Are YOU “crushed” and disturbed and distressed when you see and sense and sorrow over those you know, love, and are deeply concerned about who only look ‘inward’, never “Upward” to Holy God on His throne of mercy, grace, and love, and only looking ‘inward’ you and they are seen as substituting revelation, historical events of true salvation and mercy, for the knowledge, awareness, results, and reward of ‘godless living’?
Have you ever read any of Thomas Jefferson’s evaluation of God’s true and chosen people when he openly talked about those whom “He (God) made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue”? Unbelieving, fallen, self-centered, ‘flesh’ and ‘sin-nature’-dominated deny the “joys of the Lord” in rejecting reconciliation with, by, and through the “door” of His shed, redeeming, restoring, reconciling ‘Lamb of God’ blood-sacrifice in their place!
Think about the disastrous scene of ‘marriages’ across America! I remember reading at some point in the last 10-15 years that in the year 1880 America saw about one in every twenty marriages dissolving while in this 2018 year it is and has for quite a while dissolved into one in two marriages! The unimportance of God’s help in life or marriage is not seen as necessary in many, many lives! Would you even dare think that in our modern ‘church-world’ that there has erupted an implosion of disciple or church casualness about evangelism and missions and the call to disciples to be conformed to the image of Christ as He laid His life down for the world?
Sacred instruction, Biblical inspiration, heavenly mandates from the Word of God are ignored, even denied, and certainly seen as unwanted and undesirable as most ‘church-folk’ rest in their spiritual ignorance to the call, “You shall be My witnesses”! We’re living in a ‘modern-day-world’ of church-life where MOST ‘DISCIPLES’ LIVE UNCONCERNED ABOUT THE PERISHING WORLD AROUND THEM!! Under God’s Throne of grace, mercy, and love, how do believers, pastors, churches, even some denominations ‘live’ unconcerned about the world around that their Savior and Lord sacrificed His life for?
Are “disciples” today satisfied with financially supporting churches that see No Mission, No Calling, even no responsibility or accountability in answering God’s mandate in evangelism and missions? Have churches, pastors, and disciples been unknowingly ‘discipled’ into benign, numb-less, uncaring localities of ‘self-preservation’, denying the mission of God “in Christ”? Are there churches, pastors, disciples today who ‘live’ with a false concept of ‘true Christianity’ because “our doors are always open to anyone who wants to enter”, but they never go out those doors to even ‘canvas’ their cities, communities, or neighborhoods, or knock on their doors!
“Witnessing” is no longer vital to a disciple’s life or a church’s ministry! In ‘modern-day-church-life’, “a God full of compassion” for a needy world seems unimportant to a contented body of believers, satisfied with who and what they are! Have YOU truly “returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls”? And as the redeemed people of God, having obtained mercy from Him, is that inherited mercy not to be shared with the needy, ‘lost’, separated from God lives abounding around you? Did the Lord Jesus say, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I say?”
I often wonder how many ‘church-folk’ understand what Christ Jesus was talking about when in Mark 4:18-19 our Lord and Savior and Commander-in-chief said, “Now these are the ones who HEAR THE WORD, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for OTHER THINGS entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful (in them!).” No “witness” or “witnessing” – because for us, our being forgiven is all we’re concerned about or responsible for – just let the world around me “go to Hell” without any word from me? “Heathen Trash or Heaven’s Treasure”?
Dare I tell you that there is a better ‘spiritual’ road upon which you should be “walking under the command of the King of kings and Lord of lords”? We must see, settle in, and seriously take into our minds, hearts, and wills as true believers, that we are entrusted with “Heaven’s Treasure” to be shared with the needy world of unredeemed around us!
I want you to examine thoroughly “The Acts of the Apostles”, but, first, in Acts 3:25-26, freshly birthed Peter and John, saying, first, to the Jewish converts, and, of course, then us in the 21st Century, “You are sons of the prophets, and of THE COVENANT which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning every one of you from your iniquities.” And the result of being sought and saved by the blood of The Lamb of God, does it mean now, “Be at peace, rest in Me, but forget why you’ve been redeemed in, yes, equipping you with the message of redemption for all around you?” I call that attitude, “Phony bologna!!”
“Christ Jesus sent to save, sent to bless you, sent to turn every one of you from your iniquities”, but, then, no instruction to ‘witness’ to your needy world of unbelievers around you? Do you truly grasp it? Peter and John said in Acts 4:20, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard!” In Verse 33 we read, “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” Are we living in “grace-less days” or do you, are you, motivated by, yes, days of opportunity to extend His love, exalt His grace, and prove His power to be faithful as a faithful witness?
Is there always a ready-reception to your witness? No! There will be resistance, rebuke, insult, even for some, physical persecution! I traveled for 25 years across India, and many of my ‘faithful brothers in Christ” suffered, even a few I personally knew were viciously beaten and a few I knew ‘martyred for the Faith’!
Interesting Verse in James 1:12 when the brother of Jesus wrote: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
Temptation? In 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 the Apostle instructs us: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. For no temptation has overtaken you EXCEPT AS IS COMMON TO MAN; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” THERE IS ENDURANCE IN CHRIST JESUS EVEN WHEN ONE IS TESTED BY THE DEVIL HIMSELF – and YOU will be tested, tempted, tried to discover Who or What YOU presently ‘trust in’!!
“Heaven’s Treasure” is not putting any trust in yourself but totally abandoned to the “Supremacy of Christ Jesus”, even as you face the darkest temptations known to Satan himself!
Salvation “in Christ” is not a homogenous experience of “blending” or “adapting” or “attempting”, but “resting in” the supernatural miracle of, yes, born the second time in Spirit as a work of Christ Jesus’ Resurrection Life which IS our only eternal hope! We’re not “in Christ” commonly blended but supernaturally : “born the second time” as a result of REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD and BIBLICAL FAITH IN CHRIST’S RESURRECTION LIFE, CHRIST’S POWER TO RAISE THE SPIRITUALLY DEAD, AND RESTING IN CHRIST’S PROMISE OF IMPUTED, IMPARTED, IMPLANTED HOLY PRESENCE IN THE FULLNESS AND BLESSING OF HIS RESURRECTED LIFE, POWER, AND HOPE THAT NEVER WANES!!!
Salvation “in Christ” is not ‘self-asserted opinion’ or ‘self-sustaining mind-set’ or ‘self-determined reasons why man’s good (?) should be enough for “Your God”, or ‘self-evaluation’ that, yes, is a shame before the God who crucified it, or ‘self-determination’ that you believe should convince “your God of my worthiness”, and is not “new civilizations” of man’s untiring efforts that “we don’t need your God”! Oh, yes, you do! You need His mercy, His grace, and His love, you need His word, you need His eternal remedy for breaking the sin-bondage that rules Christless lives, and you need the gifts, the callings, the purposes, the plans, by which He takes your “new creation life in Christ” and pours you out as a ‘drink offering’ to the thirsty across the land, He redeems you, sets you free from sin and death and grants you forever eternal hope in and through Christ’s willing offering as God’s sacrifice to set you free from sin and death and grant you everlasting life, everlasting peace, and everlasting hope that never wanes or fades away!
Jesus grants you “new life” for the broken, absent link in you of Holy Presence! Jesus gives you an “eternal hope” never to be shattered. Jesus pours out to you His Word, His Promises, and His power that continually raises you up in Victorius Acclimations because of His Atoning Word, Work, and Will!
In the old Broadman Hymnal published in 1940 by Broadman Press in Nashville, Tennessee, is an old hymn entitled “Glory To His Name”. It says: “Down at the cross where my Saviour died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my heart was the blood applied, Glory to His name.
I am so wondrously saved from sin, Jesus so sweetly abides within, There at the cross where He took me in; Glory to His name.
Oh, precious fountain that saves from sin, I am so glad I have entered in; There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean; Glory to His name.
Come to this fountain so rich and sweet; Cast your poor soul at the Saviour’s feet; Plunge in today, and be made complete; Glory to His name.”
CHAPTER SIX
WILTED PHILOSOPHIES OR WILLFUL PURIFICATION?
I don’t know if you’ve ever ‘majored’ on Aristotle or not, but, at least, in college days there was and probably is today those professors who will “major” on what Aristotle had to say! You’ll remember that he majored on his conviction that all philosophy begins ‘in a land of wonderment’, guiding many lives but apart from Biblical Truth – in fact, I’m not sure Aristotle ever came into “born again by the grace and mercy of God through Christ”! (My 81 years of age may have dimmed what I once knew from college days over 60 years ago!).
Philosophy void of Biblical Truth can and does end in a dead-end street if it doesn’t approach, examine, and embrace “the sacrifice of God’s Passover Lamb, the Promised Messiah”!!
It was interesting in reading Ravi Zacharias’ book, “Can Man Live Without God”, that he commented about “a generation of young people apathetic, cynical, and evil fearful. To the question “What do you wish for most in your life?” asked of Canadian teens during a survey conducted a few years ago, the number-one answer, revealing our cultural tragedy, was “Somebody we can trust.”
Dare I say that “wilted philosophies” never unveil the path to Eternal Truth or unveil spiritual, ‘trust worthy’, “sons or daughters of merciful God who’ve had Christ change their minds, hearts, or wills, but camouflage themselves”?! “Wilted philosophies” have never, can never, will never, solve “human imperfections void of the presence of Holy God in one’s life as the only hope, the only remedy, the only answer to ‘dead to sin but made alive in and through the blood of the Eternal Passover Lamb who sacrificed Himself in our stead at the Cross 2000 years ago’”!
Wilted philosophies are birthed, received, loved, worshipped, and shared because the Apostle Paul was so right and on target when he wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, saying in 2 Timothy 4:3-5, “For the time will come when they (even religious Pharisaical Jews of their highest religious order!) will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; And THEY WILL TURN THEIR EARS AWAY FROM THE TRUTH, and be turned aside to fables. But you (true disciples!) be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (Isn’t that the bulk of ‘wilted philosophers’? They turn aside to fallen men’s fables and, yes, DENY the need of Christ’s Blood Atonement!).)
Dr. James Dobson, in his writing entitled “Stories of the Heart and Home”, (published by Word Publications, Nashville, Tenn. years ago) wrote: “Do we live in a day of primarily emotion experiences, validated in our minds as to whether those emotional experiences ‘feel good’ or not – but is there a spiritual journey that should bless one beyond measure?” And I ask, ‘Were the majority of Pharisees in Jesus’ day observers of their ‘traditions’ but blind to the Truth of Christ’? They crucified Jesus! Oh, and by reviewing Biblical Truth, Paul having exposed Judaism’s empty living, though religious, added in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 his testimony: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who loved His appearing.” Even today there are multitudes who have no love even for the mention of His Precious Name!
In examining “Wilted Philosophies Or Willful Purification?”, you’ll find needed enlightment in reading about Christ Jesus delivered over to Pilate’s Court! In fact, it was an eternal moment when Pilate could have yielded himself to Christ, but he instead had Him crucified! In Matthew 27 the Lord Jesus faced Pilate. Matthew 27:15-26 unveils, yes, Pilate’s cooperation in crucifying Christ! It says:
“Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.
While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.” But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!”
Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!” When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.” Scourged Jesus? That was 39 cruel lashes “flogging” the King of kings and Lord of lords!
Wilted philosophers are still numerous today even saying, ‘I didn’t have anything to do with the crucifixion of your Jesus!”, but they did! Those chief priests and elders of the people in Jesus’ day were ‘spitting images’ of every ‘sinner’ across every continent, nation, state, or city! There are many ‘Judases’ who for “thirty pieces of silver” will betray even our Lord’s Name and especially our Lord’s intent in “blood sacrifice” because they see themselves as deserving of very God ‘bowing’ before them!
In the early days of man’s ‘birthing’ in human flesh, Sovereign, Holy God graciously, lovingly gave men “choices of allegiance” to themselves or Him. He wasn’t interested in “robots” but redeemed men and women accepting “crucified with Christ” but raised up in the “newness of His abiding Presence and Glory within them” because they wanted His Eternal Life more than their fleshly existences!! (Does it surprise you to hear Jesus say, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he was glad”?)
It was William Butler Yeats who once wrote: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre the falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.”
While waiting on my wife in her doctor’s visit yesterday, seated in the lobby I notice a comment from an article that said: “If there’s a “drifting away” is there hope of a ‘redirection correction’”? Fallen mankind, alienated and separated from Holy God, ‘masters’ over their own ‘flesh-kingdoms’ of self-rule with no need of God, their ‘redirection correction’ is Sinatra’s old song, “I did it my way” without an ounce of consideration of Holy God’s plan, His purpose for the Kingdom of God family, His revelation of divine intent, His Holy instruction – they ignore it, doubt it, refute it, and, yes, continually crucify anything or anyone that doesn’t line up with their ‘self-directed remedy, redirection, rule, and results’, even separated from Holy God with no concerns – they are ‘god in and of ourselves’!
Wilted philosophers, enemies of Bible-revelation, often-times become captured in cults, deceived in Eastern religions, and even manufacture ‘religious tones’ empty of holy truth! For many of them, stripped of any desire for, blinded to holy, doctrinal substance, devoted to self-determined thought, virtues, and dreams, hostile to revealed, signed, and declared ‘words of God’, inventing their own sub-strata or foundation of their ‘bent-mind’ determinations, establishing sin-driven bureaucracies of ‘fleshly passions supreme’ and ‘self-indulgence superiority’ “making us God-like”, and certain in themselves as wilted philosophers to be smarter than God, wiser than God’s Holy Word, and more intellectual than “those brain-dead disciples or believers or teachers of the one they call Christ Jesus”, unveiling their sad state of sick minds and sick hearts! These thoughts or proclamations by unbelieving, ‘smarter-than-God folk’ clearly are tormented ideas, yes, even seen as inspired by Satan and the powers of darkness, and held onto by many leading school, universities, even having infiltrated some liberal seminaries!
Though uneasiness prevails because of ‘brain-dead and heart-defiled’ teachers, leaders, and individuals, strong in ‘self-determination’, Holy God promises, in trusting Him, a “peace that passes all understanding”! It’s even sad that among modern-day evangelicals you’ll find some leaders who substitute obedience to the Word into ‘self-determined’ explanations and meanings that “please us and help us feel better about ourselves”, rather than “new-born”, by the Word of God into “new creations” who live, not by their self-centered philosophies about being ‘religious’, but a daily submission to the King of kings and Lord of lords, faithfully saying, “Lord, what would You have me to do?” Ralph Waldo Trine once shared about, I believe, man’s, not philosophers’ purpose, being “in Tune with the Infinite”! Are YOU in ‘tune’ with God or playing ‘the piano of ‘off-chords’ as You see fit?’
And three truths I encourage before I shift fully into, not wilted philosophies, but the foundation of “Willful Purification” by the blood of the lamb! 1) 1 Timothy 1:10b-11, where Paul taught Timothy, “…sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.” Are YOU a ‘trust-worthy student of the Word of God”? Didn’t Jesus tell us, “Man does not live by bread alone, he lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” 2) Titus 1:9, “…holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, “by sound doctrine”, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.” And 3) 2 Timothy 1:13-14 highlights submission to Christ’s Lordship, superintended by the Holy Spirit! “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit(!!) who dwells in us.” [In your profession as a disciple of Christ, are you, yes, locked in to the “firm foundation” of the Word and the Spirit?]
Wilted philosophies by wilted philosophers or Willful purification by the blood of the Lamb resulting in “new creations” by the grace, mercy, and love of God? Ravi Zacharias wrote in his book, “Can Man Live Without God?” (p.99), a paraphrase: “It is not the absence of knowledge that births ignorance of the things of God; it is the suppression of Truth!!” And, suppression, denial, overlooking, avoiding divine revelation births ‘messy’ interpretations of one’s unredeemed life or the redeemed life unveiled in Holy Scripture – there must be a return, a revival of submission to Holy Truth, not a man’s description of it, or a church’s ‘point of view’ – related to true salvation, but must have, not mixtures but the blessed message, "If “any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creation; old things pass away”, and all things related to ‘being saved’ permeating only with Biblical Truth, not one’s interpretation of it!!
I don’t know how physical-existent people can look at “God’s World” and “God’s Will”, including Eternal Intent and believe it’s, for me, “just a short, temporary time for my personal enjoyment as I see fit – what your God says doesn’t impact my short time to enjoy the world, the flesh, and the devil, if I choose, because it’s my time my way. When I die, it’s over, life for me has ended.” How utterly brainless can one be?!? That attitude is for the unredeemed who know nothing of God’s eternal, divine, blessed intent! Holy God created our physical world in its entirety, but He sits on the Throne of His Eternal Kingdom – and every ‘living’-person after physical death, will still ‘live’ to stand before Holy God and explain his/her explanation of “no need of Your salvation, Your blessing, or Your plan to see me settle for myself what my life ‘after physical death’ will be about, and why I chose ‘flesh-allegiance’ over “Faith’s eternal Atonement” through the Lamb’s shed blood, broken body, His death, but then Your Promise God, to all, of His Resurrection Life, His Resurrection Power, and His Resurrection Eternal Intent for the “blood-redeemed”, I still see as an option for all, and what ‘you say’, God, meant for all humanity just doesn’t ring true with me.”! Oh, really?
“Free will” is real, but it’s result, absent of “Blood Redemption”, is not “bright stars” and “blue moons” but ‘stark darkness’ and ‘Satanic intense, unending pain, heart and mind instability’, constantly ravaged but never rewarded, only with unimaginable suffering, constant degradation and denial of any ‘hope, the inheritor of unending woes, forever and constantly and unceasingly reminded of his/her ‘trophy’ of ‘self-made unbelievers’ void of God’s Presence!
But, convicted by the Holy Spirit, convinced there is God’s Way rather than the rule of ‘flesh’, unbelief, and Satanic interference, HAVING REPENTED AND RESTED IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS AND EMPTY TOMB, AND PRESENT REIGN ON THE THRONE OF GOD, you understand, and receive all the Savior and Lord has promised! It was St. Augustine who once said: “I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and beautiful; but I never read in either of them: “Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you “rest”!” Yes, “guiltless blood for All guilty men was shed” BY Christ Jesus with your name and mine uppermost in his heart and mind as He suffered, bled, died, and rose again for us – YOU and ME!
Certainly, we are truly awed when we consider: Christ Jesus submitted, yielded, and obedient to the will of Father-God! We are awed that “God in flesh, a human body,” willingly sought “Only My Father’s will”, surrendered to the Father’s sovereign right to rule, was immersed fully in the overflowing fountain of unending, sacrificial love, richly blessed by being God’s “foot-washer”, powerfully influenced by the Light of His emerging Kingdom and eternal hope, and never considered “I can do as I please, even fail in my mission, since I am the Son!” He said, “Father, what would You have me to do?” Hearing it, Jesus fully obeyed! If Christ Jesus is your Lord and Savior, the Master of your life, have you been ‘hood-winked’ that it’s OK for you now to do as you please?
Following the Lord Jesus is not the freedom to do as I please, but to daily take the sentence of death to your ‘mortal flesh’ that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in you and through you, willing to be finished with ‘fleshly existence’ and overflowing in “the fullness of the blessing of the Indwelling Christ”! Following Christ Jesus is one having been found by Him, and it’s Christ knocking on your hearts door that is locked by the key of ‘fleshly birth in the natural’ with the ‘fleshly one’s desire’ to do what one’s flesh, the world, and Satan dictates, and will continue to be in bondage until conviction by the Spirit opens one’s eyes, heart, and mind, to THE eternal hope of being freed, forgiven, and faith-filled in His Presence, guided by the Holy Spirit!
From worldly tunes of ‘flesh distress and faith-abandonment’, a repentant heart, transformed by the blood of the Lamb, and in-filled by the Holy Spirit in divine life, begins to sing a “new song” because God makes him a “new creation”, and Jesus said in John 8:52, “If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death,” the true disciples of Christ LIVE “tasting the good word of God and the powers of the age to come”, knowing daily “Victory In Jesus”!
And the explanation of true disciples walking in the Spirit of His victory? There’s an old hymn entitled, “Jesus, I My Cross Have taken”, which interprets that “sentence of death to ‘self’ so that He might be manifested clearly in us”. It’s not a “wilting Philosophy” but, yes, “Willful Purification in the Blood of the Lamb”! It says: “Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow You; Destitute (that’s spirit, mind, and heart!!), despised, forsaken, You from hence, my all shall be: Perish every fond ambition, All I’ve sought, and hoped, and known; Yet how rich is my condition, God and Heaven are now my own!
Let the world despise and leave me, They have left my Savior, too; Human hearts and looks deceive me; You are not, like man, untrue; And, while You still smile upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might, Foes may hate, and friends may shun me; Show Your face, and all is bright.
Man may trouble and distress me, It will but drive me to your breasts; Life with trials hard may press me, Heaven will bring me sweeter rest. O it’s not in grief to harm me, While Your love is left to me; O were it not in joy to charm me, Were that joy unmixed with You.
Haste You on from grace to glory, Armed by faith, and winged by prayer; Heaven’s eternal day’s before you, God’s own hand shall guide you there. Soon shall close your earthly mission, Swift shall pass your pilgrim days, Hope shall change to glad fruition, Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.”
“Willful Purification In and Through and By the Blood of the Lamb of God?”
- They’ve been “born again, born the second time, born by and in the Spirit” – but you have nothing that you feel you can celebrate? In John 3:5-8 we read , from the lips of Jesus: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Flesh ‘birth’ IS flesh ‘birth’, while “born again by the Spirit” is “new birth” equipping us in “Kingdom of God Presence and Assurance”!
- They’ve been, because of repentance toward God and faith in Christ alone, designed, designated, and “dressed” in Christ’s fullness to be Himself in and through the “new temples” earthly as He’s always been in the heavenly!
- They’ve been new born, dressed in the fullness of Christ’s presence, and, also, understanding of daily choosing the promise of the Life that now is – His Resurrected Life, His Throne Rule, His Faithful Promise: “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you,” ‘spending’ moment by moment the given coin of “holy trust” – what He says, He’s able to do, in you and through you!
- They’ve been “BLESSED” with “BLESSED ASSURANCE” that never should fade but faithfully produce in us assurance, confidence, boldness, and the ‘peace that passes all understanding’! There IS God’s “Willful Purification”!
Do you remember the words of the famous Fanny J. Crosby hymn? “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.” Amen?
CHAPTER SEVEN
GODLESS NATURES UNVEILED OR DIVINE NATURES BIRTHED?
In Genesis 2:7 the Holy Word tells us, “And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a ‘living being’.” Though God created all mankind as “living beings”, there was of necessity the ‘creation’ of “living beings” with, yes, the right to choose whether or not they would live under God’s authority, His life and His purpose – mankind was not created to live as mechanical ‘robots’ doing whatever Sovereign God desired and what button He pushed. Living beings with the right to choose whether or not they would live under God’s Sovereignty? And created mankind, from Adam and Eve, have always chosen ‘the fleshly nature’, never knowing the blessing of the divine nature apart from true repentance toward God and redemptive faith in Christ Jesus’ work in and through His Cross and empty tomb!
If a man reads the Word of God, he quickly discerns that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Though Rousseau knew that “Man was born free; and everywhere is in chains”, being true, that limited evaluation is strongly resented, denied, and ignored by much of “fallen mankind’s opinion, evaluation, or resolution” about themselves. How many have crossed your path resentful of your opinion or ‘testimony’ of their need of “life-change” through repentance and faith?
There are many, dictated to and blinded to the necessity of heart, mind, and life-change, who resent even a suggestion by a disciple’s witness of “You must be born again” from the lips of Christ Jesus seeing no danger in denial of Jesus’ MUST!! Godless natures are ‘self-magnifiers’, strong ‘self-industrializers’ intent on building ‘tall standing’ monuments in the human environment of godlessness, and effective ‘writers’ of “why I don’t need your God”, strongly influencing the stance of independent lives that need no ‘eternal lighting or Light’!
Do YOU understand that godless lives live entrapped to natural affections? Godless lives seldom have a serious thought about God but are consumed with, “How do I satisfy the ‘flesh temptations and flesh pullings, flesh-suggestions, yes, from either the world within me, my sin-nature domination, or even demands from the ‘demonic, devilish temptations’ unaware or avoiding God’s knock at the door of their minds or hearts, Him desiring to set you free?”
Godless lives, sadly, are often as Jesus described them in Luke 9:24-25, “For whoever desires to save his life (for himself) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” It will be answered: “Devotion to your world as you define it for yourself OR devotion to Christ’s calling – “Follow Me, and I’ll make YOU a fisherman of man!”
What do YOU glory in? Your godless nature unveiled or His divine nature birthed in you by His Holy Spirit and Eternal Word of love, grace, and mercy? Is it ‘my choosing’ or God’s greater choice for my life or your life? In 1 Corinthians 1:20-31 the Apostle wisely educates, informs, and inspires us! He said:
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, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Holy God magnifies His sovereign grace, doing so that He might keep us humbled before and in Him alone!”
Finely dressed children of the natural world of fallen mankind live spiritually blinded to the mercy of God, but “new-born children of the King of kings and Lord of lords” live in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, yes, because of blood redemption in and through Christ, and are clothed in the robes of Heaven’s righteousness, raised as true sons and daughters, from a tenement of unrighteousness to the Temple of His holy presence, from spiritual death to the tabernacle of Resurrection Life, from temporary, fleshly, sinful pleasures to eternal, spiritual, heavenly blessings that no man, no movie, no job, no indulgence could ever match, and, yes, from the vile to “Victory in Jesus”, from the mire of rebellious indulgence to the mercy of the Conquering Christ in His indwelling Presence in the life of a man of repentance and liberating faith in Christ’s ‘finished work’ at the Cross!
Godless natures unveiled? That’s unashamed conformity to the world, to its fleshly desires and tainted wants, to its denial of accountability before Holy God and the Judgment Day, to its blindness to eternal consequences of unbelief and its shamefulness in rejecting Biblical Truth, to its insistence of, yes, unashamedness in adopting, adapting, and ascribing that ‘worldly living’ is normal and natural and, in fact, insist “It’s the way your God made us!” Godless natured folk will even promote that there really is no distinction between those of worldly wickedness and those of spiritual faith, seeing the difference as either being legitimately “free to do as one pleases” or those of faith, “unappreciative of the right to fulfill your own desires, and that with God’s blessing!” They refuse one’s accountability before Holy God, determined to live life as they define it, not as God purposed and planned through His Son, the Savior!
The Savior?, they say! “What does He think we need to be saved from?” And they never sense it’s salvation from their fallen sin-natures, salvation in and out of a deceived world blinded by the powers of darkness, Salvation from “emptiness” because apart from Christ they are invested in that which has no eternal profit or gain! Is it possible that, having been ‘blind-sided’ by Satan and the powers of darkness, that YOU have been deceived also that one doesn’t have to be concerned about “danger” when he/she ‘plays’ with dynamite that detonates, destroys, and darkens in the dungeon of separation from Holy God and the merciful Savior and Lord? How many have you known who resisted your ‘witness’ because they were enslaved to the dances of the demons, enslaved to the temporary delights of sinful slavery, and that to consider eternal, atoning matters between God and fallen man, and to choose His Life over their ‘death, was, is, always will be “spiritual stupidity” in the earthly, sin-captured minds!
Godless natures revealed and manifested? You’ve witnessed it: THERE ARE THOSE WHO LIVE IN “SHAME” NEVER ASHAMED! There are those who live with no desire to be “reconciled to God”! There are those whose determined daily living is to blaspheme the Holy Name of God, Son, and Holy Spirit! There are those who look upon the grace of God as ‘slippery grease’, and they have no desire to ‘slide’ through life professing a faith they don’t need! There are those content with ‘roving feet’, not sanctified feet walking a holy path that gives honor to God! There are those willfully determined not to give up worldly, social, and demeaning desires that they see as fanatical zeal for the ‘flesh’ because they’ve been well-groomed in their sinful choices to honor flesh, Satan, and the world – not some sinless, selfless, sacrificial Lamb!
Godless natures? Does vileness ring a familiar bell? Does fleshly debasement strike an appealing chord? Doesn’t adultery, adulterers, adulteresses ‘please’ some who are committed to deny the call in honoring God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, because their ‘fallen natures, demonic encouragement, and devilish interference’ easily convinces them sensual, fleshly, sexual indulgence is acceptable in their world without consequences?
Godless natures? Are ‘sinners’ blinded to the need of God reinforced in their state of rebellion, spiritual decay more and more intensifying, spiritual awareness of the need of reconciliation with God through Christ even rampant in denial, with a spirit of deceit loosed stronger in their minds, hearts, and wills as the Satanic bondage spreads like it is, a deadly disease! Consider ‘debauched’, examine ‘debilitated’, reflect upon ‘decay’ of the Holy call and Holy knock on one’s heart and mind, examine what it means as a ‘debauched individual’ rejecting God’s multitudinous “door knocks”, even reflecting upon Paul’s words, “The wages of sin is death!” And the reason this happens? Because ‘sinners’ turn deaf ears to God when He calls them (Didn’t He say in one of the prophets of the Old Testament, “I called but you refused, I knocked but you didn’t open your heart and mind doors”?).
The Word declares: “True worshippers (in the Spirit, to God and the Son) shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeks such to worship Him”, and in 1 Corinthians 10:31, Paul wrote: “Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God”, but ‘sinners’ are defiant saying, “That’s for the spiritually stupid, not real world devotees!” Though Holy God does “call”, not all men choose to hear what merciful God has to say! REMEMBER! “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament reveals His handiwork!” REMEMBER! Though ‘born in sin’ men do have ‘ears to hear when God calls’, but some choose deafness to God’s mercy and grace choosing the desire to merit God’s attention to their ‘self-effort’ and ‘fleshly grit’! Others could care even less about what God says because “We know what we want in our earthly pilgrimages, and we don’t need your God’s help!” But loving, merciful, caring God doesn’t leave us to ourselves!
YOU may choose your ‘godless nature’, but there IS the biblical promise, the historical reality, and proven “life-change” through the Redeemer’s shed blood, His Resurrection Presence, and Holy Spirit-convincing, converting, and consecrating! How familiar are you with the Old Testament? In Isaiah 9:2 we read, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined,” followed by Isaiah 9:6 which 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. Verse 7, Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever!! The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
Yet how many ‘church goers’ do you know who’ve been enslaved to ecclesiastical traditions but live voided lives to Biblical Truth, with no sound revealed Truth or the Word and words of the Indwelling Christ fulfilling His promises?
I’m personally convinced, though what Paul was addressing to ‘elders’ in churches also is the pathway and walk of every born-again disciple of Christ since His Resurrection Victory even until now, and beyond us in 2018! In Titus 1:7-16 we read: “for a bishop must be blameless (2 Peter 3:14-18!! Don’t miss these words!!), as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful words as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
Verses 10-16 of Titus 1, “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”
Church life in Christ has always faced moments when “professors of faith” rather than “Possessors of faith” ‘take the stage’ of performing “their best” which Christ crucified, while true disciples take daily the sentence of death to ‘self’ that Christ’s Resurrection Presence might be released in them and through them! Paul wrote also in Titus 2:11-15 the following:
“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, (that’s serious-minded!), righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing (His unveiled majestic Presence in your inner man!!) 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. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.” NOTICE:
- GOD CALLS US! Examine for yourself 2 Timothy 1:8-10, when Paul said to his spiritual son of the faith, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings of 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 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.” (In one of the prophets, didn’t Christ say, God Himself, “I CALLED but you refused”, or “I knocked, but you didn’t respond!”?
- GOD CALLS BECAUSE HE CARES! I don’t know how anyone reads John 3 apart from the precious awareness of the love of God for every human soul or human being! In John 3:14-21 I share one of the greatest inspired verses ever written! It says: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who DOES THE TRUTH comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (Could that be why Paul said, “I die daily”, because he understood that saving faith is not ‘trying’ but TRUSTING, not attempting but living HAVING BEEN ATONED FOR BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!!
- GOD CALLS BECAUSE HE, SOVEREIGNLY AND LOVINGLY, HAS A PLAN! Can you begin to comprehend the mind and, yes, emotions of God Himself when before our world’s building by His grace and loving mind and heart that He wanted mankind birthed but not as automatic ‘robots’ – His desire was, yes, sons and daughters free to choose to be His servants, fulfilling His aim for God-anointed lives redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, not machines, but repentant, re-born, regenerated, truly released sons and daughters birthed into Kingdom Presence?
- GOD CALLS BECAUSE HE IS ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL WE ASK OR THINK! Does the song, “Amazing Grace”, really grip you, fill you, and emboldened you to truly be a faithful son or daughter?
- GOD CALLS BECAUSE HE SITS ON A THRONE OF MERCY AND GRACE! That’s not a nation, nor a kingdom of earthly man, not a region of our widespread world that He does not care about! North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia! And mercifully He’s always sent anointed, appointed messengers of His “good news”!
- GOD CALLS BECAUSE HIS DESIRE IS TO BLESS WHAT, WHO, AND WHERE HE CHOOSES! And what does the Holy Word declare? “God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son of God” – and the blood of Christ flowed from His veins on Calvary’s Cross, BECAUSE HE CARES FOR YOU, and by the blood salvation shed by the Lamb of God, God’s eternal Kingdom comes in full fashion to His glory, honor, and praise! AMEN?
I close with Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19! “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up – if in fact the dead do not rise.
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. IF IN THIS LIFE ONLY WE HAVE HOPE IN CHRIST, WE ARE OF ALL MEN THE MOST PITIABLE.”
Charles Wesley wrote: “Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia! Sons of men and angels say: Alleluia! Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, you heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
HAVE YOU BEEN RAISED UP IN THE RESURRECTED LIFE OF CHRIST JESUS?
CHAPTER EIGHT
DECEPTION MINIMIZING OR TRUTH MAGNIFIED?
“Deception minimizing”? “It is wrong in saying that ‘biblical truth’ is the only door that gives understanding to mankind about reconciliation with God!” The folks who tout that deranged thought prevail in many places, believing their ‘warped religious thinking’ is enlarging their base of support in opposition to the Word of God!
How much, if any, of men’s radical thoughts and teachings lead mankind back to God, or is it that their ‘false assumptions’ create more resistance to Him?
Whether market-places, some homes and neighborhoods, some universities and local school districts, even national governments, many will offer strong resistance to Biblical Truth “because it has no place in public agendas!”
It absolutely amazes me, breaks my heart, and amplifies sad emotions, when you find out or discover that ‘caring God’, the ‘Healer, Jesus’, has no place in a doctor’s skills or a nurse’s care or a hospital’s agenda! Their belief? “Proper medical education equips those who sense it’s their ‘mission’, but Holy God isn’t needed there – we’re equipped in ourselves, even in ‘life or death’ circumstances!” Really?
How familiar are you with the Book of Daniel? You’ll find early in Chapter One that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Israel and ‘besieged’ Jerusalem seeking to demoralize the Jews from worshipping their God, but in Daniel 1:8 we read, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” Minimizing ‘deception’ certainly leads to “falling away” from Biblical truth!
It was Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah described as ‘the four young men’ captured by Nebuchadnezzar’s army who strongly opposed deception’s minimizing of God’s “way”! Daniel 1:17 says, “As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.” In Augustine’s “On the Gospel of St. John”, he wrote: “Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.” And New Testament ‘belief’ IS trust, confidence, assurance in that WHAT GOD HAS WRITTEN IS TRUE! Have YOU received the “inspired Word of God”?
There has never been a day in human history when there was never a day without either “deception minimizing” or “Truth Being Magnified”! Alcuin wrote “To Charlemagne” many, many years ago, “Men can be attracted but not forced to (true) faith. You may drive people to baptism, you won’t move them one step further to religion (or True Faith!).”
“Deception minimizing” in the sea of life is ‘religion’ established without the True Foundation but consistently tossed by worldly waves that never rests at Heaven’s Gate! Fallen man’s, fallen unbeliever’s, fallen educational intelligentsia void of true faith, fallen ‘imitation’ and ‘pretense churches even’, yes, heavily involved in establishing ‘religions’, will seem to them and the immediate world around them as vital, but proves ‘deathly’ in a short span of time!
“Deception minimizing?” Most have a ‘tick’ toward human respectability, but their ‘religious activity’ fails to produce “new births” into God’s eternal kingdom! In fact, there is, even religiously by some, an aversion to “being born again”, even substituting ‘the dust of denominationalism’ for the transformation of the human soul and its ‘building’, temple, or present existence, the residency of the Resurrected, Reigning, Restoring Christ through His God-given mission, power, and inward Presence in the repentant, trusting transformed life!
“Deception minimizing?” There IS the minimizing of true Faith’s work and the maximizing of faithless indifference to Heaven-birthed ‘life change’! Deception sees ‘religious activity is normal’ but apart from God’s transforming power through the Living Word! In fact, didn’t Robert Burton, in his “Anatomy of Melancholy” once write: “One religion is as true as another”? In fact, there are those who, sadly, believe that religion’s product, or one’s affiliation with any religion, will birth transformed lives, is nothing more than a ‘hoped-for’ situation that never meets the reality of the Resurrected Christ! If you want to call Christianity a ‘religion’, I’ll not quarrel with you as long as you can assuredly say, “My true religion IS redemptive faith in the shed blood of the lamb of God, Jesus only, to wash my sins away, and graciously grant me new life, new hope, and a new eternal ministry as Christ’s appointed, anointed ambassador! You, my friend, should never trust anyone who does not easily emit the reality of Christ’s Resurrection Presence in their heart and life, allowing Him to be Himself in them and through them!
“Deception minimizing?” That’s ‘professing lives’ that ‘feel certain they’re in the kingdom’, but are not bound, tied, or ruled by the Master’s commands, or have no testimony of being obedient sons and daughters of the true Faith! True Faith is, yes, the miraculous birth into the Eternal Kingdom of God with Christ’s expansive heart, mind, and will allowed to be Himself in and through a sanctified, born-again, Spirit-filled true believer, yes, true to His Word, even yielded to His every command!
“Deception minimizing?”! It was Benjamin Disraeli, in his writing entitled “Lothair” (Ch.17), who wrote: “Religion should be the rule of life, not a casual incident of it,” but ‘religion’ and its rules can be denied, but Christ ‘in you the hope of glory’ sets aside ‘religion’, birthing a Presence in the biblical message, “You must be born again” – that’s relationship, not religion!
“Deception minimizing?” Biblical Faith extended to repentant hearts by gracious God does reach and touch both mind and one’s heart, but for some who see it as ‘mind-change’, if it’s only ‘mental gymnastics’ stretching one’s brain, it has, yes, totally ‘minimized’ one’s mind and not ‘birthed’ the “new heart” by Father-God’s grace, mercy, and love, leaving only ‘religious fanatics’ but not sons and daughters of the Holy Family!! ‘Religion’ without the new heart bans “Duty and Obedience” with the ‘religious’ seeing faithful sons and daughters to Christ’s every command as unwise, untaught, unable to properly reveal Him “because their obedience heightens ‘emotion’, and that can’t be of God!” Really? Notice Matthew 9:35-38!
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. BUT when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, LIKE SHEEP HAVING NO SHEPHERD. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” ( HOW MANY CHURCHES, PASTORS, CHURCH-MEMBERS DO YOU KNOW WHO SEE THEMSELVES AS LABORERS IN CHRIST’S “HARVEST-MINISTRY”?).
“DECEPTION MINIMIZING?” True disciples are men and women of Biblical Faith, not taken out of the world in order to protect them, but, by God, left in the world to be its “salt and light”, and though living in neighborhoods, too many disciples, born again into God’s family of brotherhood, leave a perishing world around them to their infectious disease of unbelief, some with the disease of ‘religiosity’ void of Redemption, and certainly blind to biblical creeds and Christ-like deeds! In the absence of true Faith men establish religions, and all of a sudden realize they’ve created a gorilla cage!
“Deception Minimizing?” In one of my books of Bible quotations, I came across the powerfully used true disciple, Dr. Martin Luther King. He once said, “Any religion (or faith) that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a dry-as-dust religion.” WOW! Let me shift gears!
“DECEPTION MINIMIZING OR TRUTH MAGNIFIED”? It was Phillip Brooks who said quite a while ago before his death: “Christianity knows no truth which is not the child of love and the parent of duty.” That really upsets some religious fanatics who don’t believe ‘duty’, as a child of faith, IS the “Heavenly Parent’s Call”, upon conversion, to lay one’s life down in ministry, service, outreach, care, confrontation with the unredeemed to show them the power of the shed blood of Christ in “washing” and “making one whole and new” in and through only His blood-sacrifice! BUT IT IS! Before His Ascension Jesus instructed ALL DISCIPLES to be His “WITNESS”, and “go and make disciples”! Unless you believe ‘salvation’ was His invite to attend church each Sunday! (“God, help us! Most American preachers and churches believe “pew-sitting” to be their highest, holiest, and only command!”).
“TRUTH MAGNIFIED?” I will not minimize it, materialize it, or try to manufacture it from my point of view! Jesus said, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but through Me!” Glory! The most humbling thing you’ll ever know is, “Truth Magnified” IS Christ Jesus sacrificed on the Cross in your place! He took you, your sins, your sin nature, on Himself as the “redeeming sacrifice” before Holy God!
Recently studying and reading from a book entitled “The Behavior of Belief”, written by Spiros Zodhiates in the mid 1960’s, are words that caught my attention: (Chapter Twenty-six, p.107), “It’s easier to preach than to practice, It’s easier to say than to do; Most sermons are heard by the many But taken to heart by few.” (That, my friends, though a true statement, should produce sadness and repentance and a greater faith IF WE ONLY HEAR BUT FAIL TO OBEY THE SPOKEN AND WRITTEN AND AUTHENTICATED WORD OF GOD!
Zodhiates’text of inspiration was James 1:22, “But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Look also at James 1:23-25! The brother of Jesus wrote: “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.” (How many ‘life courses’ have you witnessed that lived in, by, and for the glory of God through their obedience to the Word?)
I won’t go into the Greek word of “you be” doers of the Word, but it’s certainly near a child, yes, in the footsteps of his father, and, of course, I ask, “As a child of the King, are you “walking obediently” in His footsteps?”
Over the next few hours, even the next few days, examine with intensity and full consecration open to the ‘Guiding Holy Spirit’ as you reflect upon James 1:25! “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.” Glory!
ARE YOU MAGNIFYING THE TRUTH OF THE HOLY WORD IN YOUR DAILY WALK WITH CHRIST?
Ponder seriously 2 Timothy 3:16-17! ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Do you remember in Matthew 4:1-4 the Lord Jesus being led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil? It tells us that Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward, being hungry, Satan came to tempt and challenge Him, saying, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread,” (thinking he could deceive Jesus with the ‘lust of the flesh’!), but the Lord Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”).
In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus amplified understanding about ‘the ministry of the inspired Word’ when in this Verse He unveiled its ‘anointing’! He said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. THE WORDS THAT I SPEAK TO YOU ARE SPIRIT, AND THEY ARE LIFE.” Verse 64 then says, Jesus speaking about some then and some now! “But there are some of you who do not believe.”
That truth has never changed! In our world today there are those who deny, oppose, and try to shame true believers about “your brain-dead allegiance to ancient tales that have no significance in our modern world!” So, they live ‘perishing’!
ARE YOU A ‘DOUBTER” OF THE WORD OF GOD OR A “TRUE BELIEVER” WHO WALKS THE ROAD OF YOUR SALVATION OBEDIENT TO CHRIST AND HIS WORD? In Luke 6:46 Jesus asked a powerful, convicting, and, yes, a life-unveiling of one’s true identity! He said: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?” The difference between a ‘casual life of acquaintance with Christ’ OR a true, obedient, submitted life in Christ is evidenced by an unconcern to do what He asks or the spirit of true obedience, even with a surrender to martyrdom if called upon!
Examine carefully Romans 16:25-27 and evaluate either your lack of obedience to Christ OR ‘self-abandonment’ and ‘surrender’ to His Lordship! And, dare I tell you, He’s either Lord, Master, Sovereign Ruler in you and through you with your testimony, “Obedience to His Holy Commands and instruction” OR you’re a ‘pretender’, OR you’re a worldly opposer to everything He or his Holy Word has to say!!
In David F. Wells book, “No Place For Truth”, he uses words from himself but also words from Bryan Wilson, and Wilson’s words ARE awakening words! First, Wells stated: “Even in churches that are active and among believers who are ‘religiously observant, it is possible that theology (or a study of the Word, unveiling divine revelation) has become peripheral and remote. Even “those who count themselves as believers, who subscribe to the tenets of a Church, and who attend services regularly,” Bryan Wilson has observed, “nevertheless operate in a social space in which their beliefs about the supernatural are rendered in large part irrelevant.”
I say to you, “There is nothing irrelevant about you, your testimony, or your obedience to the words of King Jesus, your Lord, Savior, and Master of your life, or even better: Your surrender to the Christ who lives in you to be Himself through you!” That, my friend, will get you martyred in modern-day churches truly void of the Lordship of Christ, yes, directing the steps of His true disciple!
Ravi Zacharias, in his book, “Can Man Live Without God?”, has a chapter (Chapter 16) entitled “The Believer’s Treasure”. On page 169 he shared, “Recently “Forbes” magazine invited several scholars from around the world to contribute to its seventy-fifth anniversary issue, addressing, of all themes, the question, “Why are we so unhappy?” These scholars, including writer Saul Bellow, historian Paul Johnson, and others of international renown, approached the topic from their own various backgrounds and perspectives. In a memorable collection of articles from so diverse a group, they all agreed on one point, we are a troubled civilization because of the loss of a moral and spiritual center.” Dare I say, that center is Holy God, the Loving Son and Savior, the blessed Holy Spirit, the inspired Word of God, and, yes, “the family of faithful followers”, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, then becoming the Savior’s temple, building, mansion of His Holy Presence, unveiling Him through us as we choose to be “salt and light” to the darkened world around us! Why do some believers AND some churches not understand, “Christ in you the hope of glory”?
Thank God for Christ’s Cross, but you never consider His “Empty tomb”? In the blood redemption He washed us clean, preparing us as “Earthly-presence -Temples of grace, and He empowered us by His Spirit to be faithful witnesses, He trains us, equips us, anoints us, and sends us out to extend Himself through us, and He faithfully watches over His own as the loving, Heavenly parent. To Him be all glory and praise!
Receive Philippians 2:5-11! (From the Holman Study Bible, NKJV Edition, 2013), 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 those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess (and keep on confessing) that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Is Holy God at work IN YOU both to will and to do for His good pleasure? Are YOU a yielded vessel rejoicing because as you “trust Him” for your salvation, He “trusts YOU” to faithfully walk “in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”?
Are you a ‘modern-individualist-church member’ or a “new-born” son or daughter of Christ who clearly understands “washed in the blood of the Lamb, re-born by the Spirit, in-filled with the Spirit, anointed and appointed as His vessel of holy presence, having commissioned YOU to ‘die daily’ that His resurrection Life is manifested in your mortal flesh?
I close this teaching with a prayer of John Jewel recorded in “No Place For Truth” by David F. Wells. It says: “And You, O most merciful Father, we beseech You for Your mercy’s sake, continue Your grace and favor toward us: let the sun of Your gospel never go down out of our hearts; let Your truth abide, and be established among us (and in us) forever…Apparel us thoroughly in Christ, that He may live in us, and so Your name may be glorified in the sight of all the world. Amen.”
Is that what holds, inspires, motivates, and overflows through you because it’s your only desire, your daily calling, your willful determination?
“Jesus, be Jesus in me, No longer me but Thee, Resurrection power fill me this hour, Jesus, BE JESUS in me!!” Amen?
What about?,Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
“Deception Minimized Or Truth Magnified?”
CHAPTER NINE
DEATH THE END OR THE ETERNAL UNVEILED?
In Job 14:14 Job is really asking God, “If a man dies, shall he live again?” Reading Job one realizes, senses, sees unveiled in his/her reading that the ‘journey’ of Job, yes, the ‘life journey’, for him, brought a huge search for eternal answers! I’m not really sure in our modern day that mankind is flooded with questions about death and the hereafter – many are only concerned about ‘good times’ in the ‘flesh life’ as they live in chains to their old sin natures, the world’s ‘pleasures’, and though they don’t even know it: Satan’s temptations!
One thing I’m truly assured of: The Divine Spirit within, overseeing true believers’ lives, rules, not to extinguish your life and faith in the death process, but to oversee, superintend, express Christ’s Life, and extend your life forever and ever beyond death, and constantly express His love and confidence in your truly repentant heart and inheritance of the intent, mind, and will of the Lord Jesus Christ!
As Christ Jesus IS ‘the Deliverer from death’ for the true believer, in a rebellious, unbelieving, rejecting sinner, He ‘shows’ the door to Hell for unbelievers who’ve lost their physical bodies, but their unbelieving, independent- from- God spirit and mind, bound by his/her ‘flesh nature’, finds the wide-open door to eternal separation from God, superintended by Satan’s demons as they, unbelievers, enter their eternal cell of Satan’s punishment, even though unbelievers think, “at least Satan will show us a good time!” Really?
It was Anna Letitia Barbauld who wrote an “Ode to Life”, and as I read it, I thought, “Has she ever opened the Holy Word?” Her writing said: “Life! We’ve been long together Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; It’s hard to part when friends are dear – Perhaps it will cost a sigh, a tear; Then steal away, give little warning, Choose your own time! Say not good-night, – but in some brighter clime Bid me good morning.”
I tell you: There are no good mornings for those who physically die without a Spirit-blessed life of faith and obedience, but only torments eternally for those who settle for physical life with no eternal, Christ-Blessed, gift of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!
Death the end? It was Thomas Adams who once wrote: “The devil is no idle spirit, but a vagrant, runagate walker, that never rests in one place. – The motive, cause, and main intention of his walking is to ruin man,” and he walks about seeking whom, forever, he may continue to feed off of at HIS eternal dinner-table with the ‘undying flesh-nature’ from those who choose their sin-nature over God’s saving grace; yes, but not only from the penalty of your sins, but the blood of Jesus breaks Satanic control over lives living in, through, by Christ’s “blood-redemption”!
I don’t think Karl Barth, in his writing entitled, “The Word of God and the Word of Man”, (Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.), was off target when he wrote: “The devil may also make use of morality”, because demons and the Devil himself finds it easy to substitute ‘flesh morality’ for the Divine Nature Holy God desires to implant, yes, in even ‘good men’, the Resurrection Life and Presence of Christ, because he, Satan, sees no difference between ‘goodness’ and “God-likeness”!
If you studied English in high school or college, you probably read Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Aurora Leigh”, when she wrote: “The devil’s most devilish when respectable.” Wow! Respectable demons and the devil when they or he sidetracks you from trusting God’s gift of salvation are pleased when they witness you, convincing yourself to “Do your best – that’s the true measure!” Oh, really?
There’s no doubt that Satan has determinedly built a “Big Stage” for ‘play actors’ who imitate, to a degree, God’s goodness apart from His grace, mercy, and love, leading downward and darker to an endless location of godlessness, under his control! It pleases the devil when he finds a ‘faithless, unredeemed life’ that is committed to ‘goodness’ over Godliness!
I thank Holy God for His informative, inspirational word through Peter in 1 Peter 5:6-11,
“Therefore HUMBLE YOURSELVES under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settled you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
As a disciple of Christ, under whose dominion do you choose to live, walk, and bear witness – your ‘best efforts’ against the powers of darkness or Christ Jesus’s abiding Presence as Victor in you and through you, even over Satan, as you ‘yield’ to the Lord Jesus’s Power and Authority over the devil’s kingdom of darkness, disobedience, and delight in deceiving ‘flesh, sin-nature-allegiance’?
Have you truly appropriated the necessary, valuable, empowering word of Ephesians 6:10-18? Paul wrote: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. PUT ON the whole armor of God, that you may be ABLE TO STAND AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this dark age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to ‘quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one’. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which IS the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”
Elsewhere, in 2 Timothy 2:11, Paul challenges truly faithful, trusting believers: (Examine yourself!), as Paul tells you, This is a faithful saying: “For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him,” and that’s living in Christ AND His victorious life over Satan’s tempting, testing, and trickeries!
But, at times, not as a way or walk of consistent surrender to the devil’s temptations, but, I pray, only a ‘fleshly moment’ if you give in to the powers of darkness, that you’ll quickly respond humbly in reaching to Christ, confessing, and, yes, forsaking your ‘fault’ of momentary failure!
There’s a powerful, faith-building word in 2 Timothy 2:20-26! It says:
“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 (That which dishonors the Word and wisdom and walk of Christ!), he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful lusts; but PURSUE righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart.
But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses, AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
It was Shakespeare in his “Comedy of Errors” who wrote: “He must have a long spoon that shall eat with the devil”, and, sadly, how do you respond as you witness “Christ-professing believers” entertaining the ways of the devil’s darkness?
“Death the end”, therefore the men and women, and boys and girls signed on to allegiance to the world, the sinful flesh, and Satan, sure hope their physical death is the ending of all things, and hope there is no judgment bar, after death, they’ll have to give account for, but that’s not what the Word tells us! In fact, unbelievers, having died physically, and without Christ as Lord and Savior, awaken in Satan’s dark kingdom and immediately are under Satan or his demon powers’ full control, delivering unimaginable suffering!
You see, unbelievers who do not want to yield their allegiance to God, His Son, or His Spirit, are certainly thinking, “since there is no life after death, the we need to make the most of our ‘fleshly desires’, and do as we please”! They’ll even say, “Your God shouldn’t look down on us, if what we choose to do makes us happy”! Holy God is not interested in fallen humanity being ‘happy’ – He wants them to know God-birthed spiritual life full of eternal blessings that only comes through the “blood sacrifice of Christ, His Resurrection Presence, and His heavenly, authoritative, spiritual power to raise men up in the “fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ”, entrusting Himself to the “new-born” in Resurrection blessing after blessing!
In John 11:25 the Lord Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die”! (John 11:25).
Because of that Word, all men SHOULD live blessedly fulfilled in the reality of heavenly wonder and awe, blessed daily and forever in never-fading-Truth, constantly overwhelmed by God’s everlasting love, and ASSURED of Godly security!
DO YOU UNDERSTAND, COMPREHEND, CELEBRATE, AND FEED DAILY OFF OF GOD’S HOLY PROMISES AND HIS NEVER-FADING –OR-FALLING- AWAY- WORD?
R. Kelso Carter, in the old Broadman Hymnal published in 1940, wrote the hymn: “Standing On The Promises”! It says: “Standing on the promises of Christ my King, Thro’ eternal ages let His praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, By the living word of God I shall prevail.
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Savior’s sword, Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, Resting in my Savior, as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God.”
As a result, a rearing, and a resting in the Word of God, are YOU, as a true disciple “Standing On The Promises”?
In Matthew 7:13-28 we find a shocking revelation from King Jesus because it reveals His searching out for ‘true disciples’, not religious pretenders! 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.
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 thorn-bushes 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 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.
Consider Christ and His never-failing Word! In John 1:6-18 we read: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of that 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.
He was in the world, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. BUT as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (believe’s root is the Greek word ‘trust in’, ‘rely upon’, or adhere to’, not simply an intellectual awareness of His true identity!), who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
Jesus, the “true Light” which gives light to every man coming into the world (John 1:9)? But though instilling the reality of “light” in all men, not all receive Him as their Lord and Savior and the “true Light” because they prefer the darkness of ‘self-rule’, ‘self-indulgence’, ‘self-management doing as I please’ and ‘certainly not some supposed God of creation – creation is an accident, and so in your birthed life you choose your creation-purpose!’ Oh, really?
DEATH IS NOT THE END! And merciful God exposes the hypocrisy of those who say it is, and that after physical death, to them, nothing follows! Plus, the God of mercy and grace reveals and unveils that life without Him or life in Him never dies but is Eternal! There are those who choose “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire”, accepting “everlasting chains under darkness”, willfully to serve and enjoy their ‘flesh natures’ rather than submit to Sovereign grace, mercy, and love, because they are gripped by sensual pleasure with no desire for the Savior’s peace that passes all understanding!
Oh, but then we read in Jude 20-23 “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. And on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by flesh”; then Jude overflowed with “Glory to God”! Jude 24-25 says,
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.” Do you say ‘Amen’ to the grace of God in extending to you Victorious Life in Christ in the here and now, and beyond physical death, to know He blesses you forever, beyond earthly into Heaven itself, Him raising you up in that fullness of Christ’s everlasting life? Has the “ETERNAL” been unveiled to you, whether eternal death or eternal life in Christ?
CHAPTER TEN
LOVE? FLESHLY INDULGENCES OR UNDYING REALITY?
When it comes to ‘love’ it shouldn’t be difficult to distinguish between the ‘fleshly love of fallen mankind’ and the “love of God” fully expressed in His Holy Word and His “spiritually-birthed family of God” through the “shed blood of His Holy Lamb sacrificed at the Cross” thousands of years ago, even settled in His mind and heart before the world was ever created!
Whether the reader agrees or not, there is mankind in the natural realm because Holy God was not interested in ‘push-button-zombies’, but He knew that He must create mankind with ‘free will’ to choose whether or not they are governed by fallen nature styles of life or graced by God through repentance toward Him for their sin or gripped by the grit of ‘flesh-pleasure; no God-involvement in my life!’
But if one knows God created mankind for a purpose and that He wants free will operating in their decisions, it’s evident for ‘flesh’s sake’ that many are pleasingly captive to their fallen natures, and have NO desire to forsake it! Then others, moved upon in conviction by the Holy Spirit, aware their very life was and is the gift of God, and that He does have eternal purpose in their earthly birth, then they begin to listen; that’s listening to the very voice of God, “I call!”, to the voice of the Holy Word, to the voice of sent messengers, and even one’s own inner voice as to their evaluation of life’s purpose! Are YOU a creation of Holy God?
Or have you, with a ‘brain-dead intelligentsia’, unwisely determined, “Faith in your God is unnecessary when it comes to choosing what is important in your life journey”, so you witness the birthing in more modern minds AND evil hearts of ‘the RELIGION of INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY’ that IS an eternal “death-nail” sealing one’s opposition to the Holy Spirit who, yes, comes to “guide one into all Truth”! Can you even, as a Bible believer, imagine creating “institutes of the higher mind” with no foundation on “THE MIND OF GOD”?
Ravi Zacharias, in his book “Can Man Live Without God?”, (p.66), wrote, “If I am a creation of God, then life must be deemed sacred. But if I am the product of pure chance, the body may be profaned, for life itself is disposable.” So true!!
In James 1:26 the brother of Jesus wrote: “If anyone among you thinks he is religious (and I say:‘without knowing how irreligious’ he really is!), and does not bridle his tongue BUT DECEIVES HIS OWN HEART, this one’s religion is useless.” WHY? Because there IS a pure and undefiled ‘faith’ – and it is the Eternal, God-inspired, life-changing revelation Word unveiling the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel of love, grace, and mercy, proven by His Life, His Death, His Resurrection, and all unbelievers WILL BE AWARE OF HIM AS THEY WITNESS HIS RESURRECTION PRESENCE LIVED OUT IN THOSE AROUND THEM, WHO COMMIT THEMSELVES TO LIVE UNSPOTTED BEFORE THE WORLD AROUND THEM! Yes, like Abraham, there are “friends of God”!
‘No bridled tongue’, ‘religious’, ‘ lives with a deceived heart and mind’, but, yes, living with a ‘pretender’s appearance of devoted disciple of Christ’ when in reality they live devoted to the world, the flesh, and the devil, with Academy Award Winning ‘belief’, but Holy God then responds: “Depart! I never knew you!”
Are you aware that there are those seriously devoted to being ‘religious’, some sure of their ‘intellectual religious faith’, with the sad declaration of inspired Scripture, that some “seem to be religious” when it’s only ‘pumped up flesh’, not the “born again reality” by faith in the Word that produces true repentance, faith in the crucified Life of Christ and their sin nature with Him, and surrender and yieldedness to God’s eternal Presence, God’s revelation-Word, and His gracious gift of new hearts, new minds, new desires, new hope, and the new determination to rest in the crucifixion of one’s ‘old man nature’, resting, responding, and rejoicing in “Christ IN ME the hope of glory”!
“If anyone among you THINKS he is religious…?” That determination comes about when one is ‘self-evaluating what he/she does’ but is void of “the finished work of Christ at the Cross”! They even ‘think’ Jesus died ‘for’, but have no comprehension of “crucified with Christ”! “If anyone among you THINKS he is religious…?” ‘Fleshly thinking’, promoting, implementing, and resting in one’s best religious, mental calculation about himself as ‘truly religious’, has no understanding at all of the divine revelation of ‘moral man (?)’ crucified WITH CHRIST! THAT THINKING is only braggadocio words from truly a faithless life, and is in reality terminally, spiritually ill, dead in body, mind and heart to the Truth and love of God!
It was Thomas Hood, in “Blanca’s Dream”, who wrote: “But of all prides, since Lucifer’s attaint, The proudest swells a self-elected saint.” In “Essay on Man”, (Epistle 1, p.124), Alexander Pope described unredeemed yet proud religious men saying, “In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blessed abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods.” Sound familiar across the “supposed intellectual communities”, even in some churches?
Psalm 75 is one powerful Word exalting thanksgiving for “God’s Righteous Judgment”. It says: “We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.
God then says, “When I choose the proper time, I will judge uprightly. The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved; (but) I set up its pillars firmly. I said to the boastful, ‘Do not deal boastfully,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high; do not speak with a stiff neck.”
For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one and exalts another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wines is red; (Is that the sacrificial blood of the Lamb?); it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down.
But I will declare forever, I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. ALL the horns of the wicked I will also cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.”
‘Wicked’? It’s so interesting, convicting, and enlightening when one reads Proverbs 4:19, “The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” In our world today are there “stumblers” who live in themselves, denying “Resurrection Life”? But Proverbs 4:18 had just said, “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines brighter until the perfect day.”
‘Wicked’? Do you understand ‘sin addiction’? Didn’t Paul tell us that “the wages of sin is death” and that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”?, never truly knowing, Romans 3:24, “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”, even unsure WHY Romans 3:25-26 ‘seems to be sure for those religious fanatics’! Paul wrote about this redemption and freedom in Christ, “whom God set forth as a propitiation BY HIS BLOOD, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
But that ‘faith’, is it ‘faith in His forgiveness’ , but allowing His Presence to reign being unnecessary? Where does that foolishness come from? Is it not from ‘the forgiven’ who want to decide how their daily walk will be lived out? Examine carefully Romans 5:1-5! “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Chris, through whom we have access by faith INTO THIS GRACE IN WHICH WE STAND, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” [But, have you heard ‘professing disciples’ speak about, “Who needs the Holy Spirit? I’ve been saved, therefore, nothing else or no one else is needed?” Really?
In 1925 it was T.S. Eliot who wrote shocking words, yes, even about intellectual geniuses and short-sighted religious believers. He wrote: (From Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”, in “Complete Poems and Plays”, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1952, p.56), saying:
“We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw! Alas! Our dried voices, when we whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats’ feet over broken glass In our dry cellar.”
Did Eliot miss it or did he speak in prophetic tones of those who choose to live apart from God? In fallen men, alienated and separated from God, and ‘church members’ who embrace church membership rather than Christ’s Resurrection Presence in the repentant heart, who live ‘religiously’ but not “new born”, who live convinced ‘church membership’ overrides obedience to the Lord Jesus because they say, “That’s works”, rather than seeing God’s Works as their calling in and through Blood Redemption?
Do you sense, especially in American churches, pastors, and imitating church folk, clouds of dark interpretations of discipleship, even compromising Truth, coloring over constant self-fulfillment, and degrading ‘death to self’ and emphasizing best effort while “Trust” in Christ’s finished work is ignored? Is there a major erosion of Biblical truth concerning, “What does it mean to be saved? Or a part of the Christian church-community”? Do you understand? Church life or discipleship is seen as a mind that “rests” from what and who Christ is and what He presently decides to do now through you, about ‘measuring up’, not by best effort apart from His Living Presence, but doing as He always did and does, obeying Father-God with great joy and delight in His Heart! If you are a believer, is the Christ within being released through a “sentence of death to self daily” that His Resurrection Presence in you may sense, yes, an open door willingly for Him to be Himself through you?
Do YOU know the love of God? Have I unveiled for you ‘the fleshly love of indulgence’ in such a way that the Holy Spirit, convicting one of the sin nature, ruin, and death from flesh indulgence and self-allegiance, and then glorifying Christ in your mind and heart’, and giving the offer of, yes, the “gift of repentance and faith”, will YOU receive His gifts?
Holy God is the Author and Giver of awesome gifts that save, heal, deliver, and transform us from ‘fleshly vainness’ to Fulfilling, unceasing Victory in Jesus, from ‘the law of sin and death’ into His “Grace-world” of “Everlasting Life”, from the state of earthliness to His Paradise of Holy Presence in the “new-born” life in Christ as a ‘child of the King’! If YOU have received His gifts of repentance and faith, you’ve become enlightened to the reality of “Amazing Grace” –not grit!
LOVE? Not the ‘vainness’ of ‘loving’ self so strongly while you ‘profess faith’ but miss Him, never possessing what Christ says is yours because you chose ‘trying over trusting’, disobedience over obedience, pretense over Truth, weighing what you are by what your religious thoughts are rather than His revealed will and Word, and buying in to a religion’s instruction rather than through His “blood-redemption ministry”! There IS a better, blessed, beautiful Truth that the Holy Spirit revealed through Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. The Holy Word says:
“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. For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” But you see no ‘Undying Reality’ in that? In James 1:21 and Verse 26 James wrote: Verse 21, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Verse 26, “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s ‘religion’ is useless.” Thinking and not trusting, believing but not receiving, bragging about one’s spiritual brilliance apart from humbling one’s self before Holy God, working on better appearances without the divine intervention of a “new heart”, and, for some, a flashy mind, unbridled tongue, deceiving ways apart from the holy will and ways of God, but certain their world knows who they are as a ‘professing believer’ and ‘church member’, but Jesus rises to say: “I never knew you!” A ceremonial, man-made religious profession works to improve some’s mental evaluation about themselves, but that is not testimony in and to the glory of God alone!
How many have you witnessed who ‘profess faith’ but no real concern as “ambassadors FOR Christ”, who bask in the ‘light’ of their own redemption with little concern for the “lost” across their immediate locale, their nation, or the world? Is that “saved” but not sent? Is that “busy” about one’s ‘fleshly ambitions’ but void of the command of Christ: “You shall be My witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth”, but if there’s blindness locally to evangelism and missions, there definitely will be blindness nation-wide or world-wide!
I read it in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, edited and compiled by Frank S. Mead in 1965(?), where a quote by David Livingstone is posted: “The spirit of missions is the spirit of our Master; the very genius of His religion. A diffusive philanthropy of Christianity itself. It requires perpetual propagation to attest its genuineness.”
Does it ever concern you that many local churches and pastors look upon Missions and Evangelism as ‘legit’ for some but not all? Sometimes you witness a church’s existence but not its extension of the Gospel, living, sadly, with a different spirit than Jesus who clearly said, again, and will go on repeating it: “I came to seek and to save that which is lost!” Are there impure ‘church philosophies’ that are so ‘inward’ that they never look up to His Throne or receive His command or execute His Spirit of Missions and Evangelism where they are and beyond? Rather than ‘pure and undefiled’ faith in His mission and ministry, some choose ‘impure interpretations and even defiled disobedience’ in interpreting by ‘practice’ an avoidance of obedience to our Lord’s command!
Love? The love of God “in Christ” fully expressed as, yes, He even died at the hands of leading ‘religionists’, false prophets, and warped, ‘spiritual’ “do-gooders” who frown on the truly faithful witnesses who were and are at times martyred for their boldness, obedience, and love of even their persecutors!
Love? “Lord, what would You have us to do?” “Is Your mission my mission?” “Is my earthly life of redemptive faith to be built, erected, finished in the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, clearly understanding that ‘God so loved the world’, my new-found faith in Christ should be established in His world vision for the salvation of every soul?”
There’s an interesting Verse in Proverbs 21:1 when the “wise man” wrote: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; Like the rivers of water, He turns it wherever He wishes.” “In Christ” is your heart and mind willingly committed and submitted to obedience as you sense, hear, and receive His heart-cry for lost, separated from God, fallen humanity, surrounding your life every day, and are YOU going ‘wherever He wishes you to go, touching those He cares about, willingly suffering and dying for them on His Cross, even possibly at the cost of your own life?
Love? The True Spirit of God’s Love “in Christ”? “Love? Modern-day and historic with ‘fallen mankind’s self-love’ OR “Christ’s love in the laid-down life for eternal purposes”? I close this chapter sharing James 2:14-24! (Let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart and mind and filled YOU with Christ’s passion of being The Faithful Witness of His redeeming love for, yes, all of mankind! It says: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of says to them, “depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.” “Love”? Fleshly indulgences or Eternal Residence and Undying Loyalty? Your choice!!!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ENCHANTED, EMBRACED, OR ENTITLED?
“Enchanted!” My Random House Collegiate Dictionary, revised edition of 1975, defining ‘enchanted’, said, it was, and is: “subjecting to magical influence, casting a spell over, bewitching; imparting a magic quality, or effect to; to delight to a high degree; charm, fascinate, captivate.” Would you dare say that one ‘enchanted’ by the world, one’s own deceiving sin nature, or by Satan and his satanic demon forces can subject men and women living under, yes, the curse and curses of their primary enemy and his enchanting ‘tempters’ or be ‘swept up’ by godless forces, or by ‘flesh’ or ‘sin-natures’ as strong endowment?
Think about the enchantment of lives, void of God’s eternal Presence in them, whether aware of it or not, who live enchanted by anything or everything opposite of the nature and character of God Himself! It was Sir Francis Bacon in the old “New Atlantis” who wrote: “The reverence of a man’s self is, next to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.” What an illuminating statement shared in truth about the godless nature of all men born and reared even in the best as well as the worst of universal mankind! “But God so loved the world!” He wasn’t interested in seeing His creations He birthed free to choose swallowed up in the death deception of ‘enchantment’!
Mankind that reins over himself and rules over his fallen sin-nature, over his fleshly passions, over his dark desires and scary fears, doesn’t understand that the absence of God’s grace and mercy and Loving Life subjects the unredeemed soul to the bondage of the spirit and fallen nature of ‘self and Satanic slavery’, binding one in spiritual chains that only the power of God can break! Fallen mankind is not blameless and harmless, but is ‘bound’ in the nature that IS, YES, crooked and perverse, and, as James said in James 2:26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also,” and he spoke, I’m convinced, not only about unbelieving lives, but even ‘professing believers’ or ‘pretenders’ who ‘say’ without Biblical authority, and ‘do’, but without any ‘fruit of the Spirit’!
I’ve long been a former college student from the mid to late 1950’s who in my English classes was greatly blessed by the writings of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, finding years ago in an old antique bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah, one of her books that was written from 1826 to 1844 entitled “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”. One of the poems in her book was entitled “The Soul’s Travelling”. I can’t use the whole poem, but I want you to catch the ‘spirit’ of which she wrote about! She wrote:
“I DWELL amid the city. The great humanity which beats Its life along the stony streets, Like a strong unsunned river In a self-made course, is ever Rolling on, rolling on!
I sit and hear it as it rolls, That flow of souls! The infinite tendencies, in the finite, chafed and pent, – In the finite, turbulent! – The long, drear monotone, Made of many tones that rise Each to each as contraries!…….(Space here).
The whine of voices that have made Their own grief’s sacredness a trade – The curse that ringeth hollowly The crime against the misery –The haggling talk – the organ’s grinding – The grinder’s face being o’er it leant, Most vacant even of woe,-…….(Space here).
I dwell amid the city, and hear the flow of souls! I do not hear the several contraries – I do not hear the separate tone that rolls In act or speech, For pomp or trade, for merrymake or folly – I hear the confluence and sum of each, And that is melancholy! – Your voice is a complaint, O crowned city, The blue sky covering you, like God’s great pity!” Thank YOU, Elizabeth Barrett Browning!
Did James say that “the body without the spirit is dead”? And would you think that “the body without the Spirit of God” in a new-born, regenerated, redeemed, reconciled ‘life’ NEEDS, not ‘enchantment’ with ‘flesh life’, but God’s grace, mercy, and love, in “raising, birthing, and instilling His Divine Presence in a repentant heart and Trusting Mind in His “It is finished” declaration and historical reality?
It was Richard West, in his writing, “Ad Amicos”, who wrote: “Part mortal clay, and part ethereal fire, Too proud to creep, too ‘humble’ to aspire,” with the true interpretation of only aspiring for the finite not the infinite, aspiring for the best of ‘flesh’ endeavors not divine graces, aspiring for the flourishing of temporary pleasures not eternal blessings, or aspiring to prove one’s self worthy not needing ‘some strange God’s mercy in making a difference in my life – I’m OK!” Really?
“The body without the spirit is dead”, yet in that physicality of life most overlook or turn only deaf ears to, yes, God’s plea to make THE difference in their short-circuited existence! There are some of our vast humanity, past and present, who choose to live in their ‘finite mind-set’ with deaf ears to the voice of God, while others will ‘listen’ without any concern to what God says. Have you heard it? “Man is his own star, and he needs NO divine light”! But Truth speaks, and we learn, we know, and we know it can’t be denied: “A man without God is alone his only fleshly savior or a devil, but void of the blessing, the miracle, the grace, the love of God, BUT, if one, convicted by the Holy Spirit opens the Door, leans on Jesus, invites Him in, there is the miraculous birth of “new life”!
There is an ‘enchantment’ in life birthed by the nature of ‘fallen flesh’, a fleshly sin-nature, or a dark-side of human existence manufactured and dispersed openly by the powers of darkness before the very Throne of God by Satan and the demon forces who rebelled against Holy God and His will and ways before Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden! And, again, Holy God had no desire for ‘clay puppets’ automatically doing what He desired – He wanted us free to choose, and, yes, all mankind, before being “blood bought”, live with cloudy minds, unredeemed hearts, a ‘this world view’, a ‘me, my, mine’ concept of acceptable living without any concern for the will, the ways, or the Word of God which is eternal – “my will, my ways, my word is my only heart and mind desire!” Really?
Most ‘enchanted lives’ bound to the powers of darkness, bound to ‘sin-nature allegiance’, bound to world philosophies void of “God-knowledge, redemptive will, and the Fruit of His transforming power”, live, yes, seduced, enchanted, enslaved, deceived, convinced of being able to fulfill fleshly purposes and lives “without your God’s help”, seduced by what Aristotle described as the conviction that “man is either a beast or a god”, but unsure of, yes, the one true and living and caring and merciful God!’
Enchanted lives? Robert Browning, in “Bishop Blougram’s Apology” wrote: “Men are not angels, neither are they brutes”, but can it not be written compassionately with eternal desire and purpose, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”? But if one truly loves poetry and men’s insight about the sin of men and their falling away FROM God, maybe John Bunyan’s words in his writing, “A Book for Boys and Girls”, the following:
“From God he’s a backslider; Of ways, he loves the wider; With wickedness a sider; More venom than a spider; In sin he’s a confider; A make-bate and divider; Blind reason is his guider; the Devil is his rider.” Wow! Enchanted lives?
Enchanted? Yes! Without question, reservation, or attempt to refute! But, WHY?
BECAUSE ENCHANTMENT LED AND LEADS TO “EMBRACING THAT WHICH IS OPPOSITE OF THE VERY NATURE, HEART, MIND, AND WILL OF GOD”! Self-determined, self-made, self-willed, and as Epictetus, in “Fragments”, wrote: “Man is a little soul carrying around a corpse.”
And the Holy Word declares: “The wages of sin is death” – not a buried body in a cemetery plot, but that does happen, but a continual death spiritually in avoidance of believing in, trusting in, and obeying the God who made mankind with an eternal plan! Fallen men, yes, in love with themselves, in love with their sin natures, in love with fallen mankind’s ‘fruitless faith in himself’ related to eternal purpose in God’s creation plan, but willfully shutting his eyes to Truth, stopping His ears from listening to God’s voice, and yielding willfully to his sin-nature, blinded to God’s desire to instill in them by grace and faith His Presence and purpose, satisfied with Adam’s fallen nature and satisfied in doing his or her ‘best’!
Embracing? What did the beloved John write about in 1 John 2:15-17? He wrote: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh (or old sin-nature!), the lust of the eyes, and the pride of (fleshly) life – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
Enchantment describes, embracing unveils, and ‘entitled’ is the final ‘death-nail’ in eternal separation from Holy God, from the Living Lord, and from the Holy Spirit who, yes, wanted to ‘guide them into all truth’, but their ‘flesh life’, their ‘sin-nature’, and their ‘selfish will’ birthed unbelief in saving grace, no need of heavenly grace and mercy, and their ‘self-determining’ way said: “No need of Him; I can meet life’s challenges without His help!”
The prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 17:5-7, heard, yes, the Voice of Holy God speak, saying, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.” These are men, women, even boys and girls who “choose” the “lesser life”, living in the “dust of willful surrender and devotion to me, my, mine” – which is the darkness of unbelief, the bondage of demonic activity, and the birth, maturing, and yielding to their sin-nature rather than the Savior and Lord, darkness rather than Light, to their deceived minds rather than Christ’s Indwelling Presence in the fullness of the blessing of His presence, provisions, and Eternal Promises!
Oh, but I truly, sincerely, and excitedly, love what Edward Young wrote in his writing, “Resignation”, saying: “Though man sits still and takes his ease, God is at work on man; No means, no method unemployed To bless mankind if He can.” God can! But are YOU willing to receive Him as the Author and Finisher of your faith?
You may remember, before his death, that Martin Luther King, as he accepted the Nobel Prize for Peace, stated, that he would “refuse to believe the notion that…man, in the river of life, is unable to respond to the eternal oughtness that forever confronts him.” But “oughtness” and “willingness” are two different things! Many men are not totally blind to God’s oughtness in them but are twisted, sadly in love with their sin natures, even knowing separation FROM God becomes wider, deeper, and further away!
It is not the absence of knowledge that births ignorance of the things of God but the suppression of Truth, the consuming love of self-will and self-control, with sensuality the more darkening cloud over true faith and a transformed life! Knowledge, awareness of God’s abiding love, understanding of the possibility of ‘life change’ by God’s grace, mercy, and love, are not lost but blocked out by sensuality, chosen separation, and fleshly sentiments, with an earthly attitude of deciding for ‘self’ what is best, not needing a Savior who Blesses! Oh, but the Lord Jesus said: John 10:7-11, “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.”
Enchanted? Embracing? Entitled? What deceiving dilemmas! Yet too many hear Truth and reject it, are introduced to Jesus with no desire of an eternal relationship walking away from Him, and are of the opinion that if there is a loving God and He wants me in relationship to Him, then He should be willing to accept me as I am, when the Truth is, He knew you as you are and took you to the Cross with Him, “crucified with Christ”, that your old life was and is done away with that He might give you Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope that IS ETERNAL!.
Don’t YOU know? Man’s deceiving dilemmas become God’s merciful opportunity! He knew before creation of the world, and birthing men there, that with the free will He granted to all, all would choose ‘grit’ over grace, flesh over Spirit, self-will over divine will, deception over divine revelation, self-education over Sovereign Inspiration, mind-trained philosophical deception over Prince of Peace deliverance and delight, faulty foundations of education that avoids God’s will, educationally and philosophically avoiding the depravity of man as an ‘old, brainless, wives’ tale, as they “SEE” men avoiding God more and more, substituting “best effort” for Biblical Salvation, healing, and deliverance, yet dumbfounded as the godless continue to manifest more and more living without faith in and reconciliation with Holy God through the Reconciler, the Lord Jesus Christ!
Sometime in the immediate future, don’t fail to find in a public library or a Christian bookstore a book written by Ian Hunter entitled “Malcolm Muggeridge: A Life”, (Toronto: Totem, 1981, p.40). Ian Hunter spent some worktime as a journalist in India – I traveled to India for 25 years, spending an enormous amount of time there. The quote of a number of sentences is from Ravi Zacharias’ book, “Can Man Live Without God?”
“One of the most powerful stories I have ever heard on the nature of the human heart is told by Malcomb Muggeridge. Working as a journalist in India, he left his residence one evening to go to a nearby river for a swim. As he entered the water, across the river he saw an Indian woman from the nearby village who had come to have her bath. Muggeridge impulsively felt the allurement of the moment, and temptation stormed into his mind. He had lived with this kind of struggle for years but had somehow fought it off in honor to his commitment to his wife, Kitty. On this occasion, however, he wondered if he could cross the line of marital fidelity.
He struggled just for a moment and then swam furiously toward the woman, literally trying to outdistance his conscience. His mind fed him the fantasy that stolen waters would be sweet, and he swam the harder for it. Now he was just two or three feet away from her, and as he emerged from the water, any emotion that may have gripped him paled into insignificance when compared with the devastation that shattered him as he looked at her. “She was old and hideous…This creature grinned at me, showing a toothless mask.” The experience left Muggeridge trembling and muttering under his breath, “What a dirty lecherous woman!” But then the rude shock of it dawned upon him – it was not the woman who was lecherous; it was his own heart.”
Enchanted, embraced, entitled? That’s the ‘walk’ of those who refuse and deny sin and the sin nature, and excuse even what they’d like to be a part of, living with no conviction of what God says separates Him from man! That’s the ‘walk’ of the ‘fleshly mind’, the strong arms of self-will, and the, yes, enslaved spirit to that sin nature, the spirit of fallen mankind, and the alluring temptations of the lord of darkness – Satan! Is there an answer to, yes, the desperate state of men and women, boys and girls, alienated and separated from Merciful God? Does it relate to God’s intervention, whether Adam and Eve, or a 21st Century of mass humanity intervention? Merciful God continues to unveil His love for all, being reminded of John 3:16 that “God so loved “the world” that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Do you remember the Lord Jesus in His early ministry teaching men to pray? In Matthew 6:9-10 and Verse 13b, Jesus said, “Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…Verse 13b, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
The ‘kingdom’? Your kingdom or God’s kingdom? Your world or His Presence? Your ‘fleshly dreams’ or His Holy Vision of sons and daughters of “new hearts” truly living to please the Father in His every desire for them? Your devilish-influenced heart and mind that “twists truth”, distorts divine intent, accepts Satan’s “lie” that you can still sin and not die, entrenched in the ditch of worldly enticements and the kingdom of Hell spirit of unbelief in God’s Truth, or, yes, ‘radical repentance toward God and faith only in the Cross, the death, and the Resurrection Presence of “Christ in you the hope of glory”?’
What’s just as tragic as the alarming choices fallen mankind has made and still makes is even the early picture in Genesis when Adam and Eve yielded to “Fig-leaf religion”! Oh, but we don’t have to be concerned about that do we? “Fig-leaf religion” or repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s “finished work at the Cross” and the reality of His Resurrection Presence IN YOU?
How about: For me, away from Enchantment, away from Embracing the world, the flesh, and Satan, and ‘God, help us’, away from the sense of entitlement that we’ve earned God’s blessing! No! A thousand times, No! We TURN to the Author and Finisher of true redemptive faith in His death, burial, and resurrection, KNOWING “Jesus is the Only Way, the Only Truth, and the Only Eternal Life – and because of that true faith one can experience Heaven on earth!” Glory! It’s Jesus!
It was Fanny J. Crosby and William J. Kirkpatrick who wrote the hymn “Redeemed”, published in the “Broadman Hymnal” of 1940! It says:
“Redeemed how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; Redeemed thro’ His infinite mercy, His child, and forever I am.
Redeemed and so happy in Jesus, No language my rapture can tell; I know that the light of His presence, With me does continually dwell.
I think of my blessed Redeemer, I think of Him all the day long; I sing, for I cannot be silent; His love is the theme of my song.
I know I shall see in His beauty The King in whose law I delight; Who lovingly guards my footsteps, And gives me songs in the night.
Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; Redeemed, redeemed, His child, and forever, I am.” REALLY?
In our modern day of church life or TV ‘preaching’ (?), how often do you hear “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb”? Or, is it, ‘Make sure you find a church, and stay in it!’ Sadly, many are deceived in ‘church life’ who’ve never repented, never wanted to forsake their sin, but just wanted a ‘religious presence’ without a redeemed heart and life, never taking the Cross daily so His presence will be manifested in mortal flesh.
Enchanted, embraced, entitled? That, my friends, is ‘mind deceived’, a ‘will of enormous self-indulgence’, and a ‘heart diseased and dis-eased’! But, dare I tell you? Believe I will! My God is the God of mercy, forgiveness, and grace! My God is the God of Resurrection Life in and through Christ and available to every repenting heart and one accepting of his life crucified with Christ with God GIVING Christ’s Resurrection Presence to live in you with YOU as His Temple, His Tabernacle, His Kingly Throne where, because of your repentance and faith, He chooses to dwell and reign victoriously!
It’s TRUE! Your stubborn, flesh-will, and mind-set, CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, can and must be exchanged for the attitude of Christ: “Father-God, what would You have me to do?” You have a “better way” than the “blessed Way, Truth, and Life in Christ”? If Christ Jesus ISN’T, BY YOUR CHOICE, then YOU remain in the state of life, alienated, separated, enemy of the God of love, grace, and mercy!
Belief or unbelief? Trust or trying? Whether an atheist or unbeliever without any concern or thought at all of “the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world”, there are those aware of Christ but without trusting, AND, praise God, there are those before the Throne of Christ daily, bowing, confessing, and surrendering to His Lordship moment by moment, day by day, and year by year! They are in for “the eternal haul” “resting, trusting, and blessing His Holy Name” in song, in adoration praises, and in a day by day yielding to His Lordship in and over their lives, and with the family of faith that look forward to an awesome gathering in the Eternal Heaven!
There’s an old hymn written by Lida Shivers Leech entitled “Trust, Try, and Prove Me”, probably written before 1940. It says:
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, All your money, talents, time and love; Consecrate them all upon the altar, While your Savior from above speaks sweetly, “Trust Me, try Me, prove Me, says the Lord of hosts, and see If a blessing, unmeasured blessing, I will not pour out on you.
When my wavering faith in trials falter, When His guiding hand I cannot see, Then in wondrous love and tender mercy, Through His Words He says to me, My child, just “Trust Me, try Me, prove Me, says the Lord of hosts, and see If a blessing, unmeasured blessing, I will not pour out on you.
I have yielded Him my life forever, All I am, or have, or hope to be, While I hear Him say to me, My child, just “Trust Me, try Me, prove Me,” says the Lord of hosts, and see If a blessing, unmeasured blessing, I will not our out on you.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
KNOWN, BUT NO GODLY LIFE, NO LOVE FOR HIM,
AND NOT LIBERATED
You are aware, regardless of where you reside, that the majority of the residents at least believe, “Yes, there is a God”, known, but is He received? Have you ever encountered people around you who will, at least, acknowledge God exists, and they, at least, are thankful that He created mankind, but turn to, “I’ll take care of myself – I don’t need God in my life.” Oh, they see our world as having a beginning, and, at least, they’ll say, “He did a good job creating the world. He’s OK, but world creation doesn’t mean there has to be allegiance to the Creator! My gosh, be satisfied you’ve got a blessed earthly life! Why do YOU think a spiritual faith and worship of the Creator is called for? That’s mental instability and no confidence in the best of flesh performance around you.” Really?
It was a long-ago quote without a signature, but ‘someone’ said in past history, “To most of us it would be very convenient if God were a rascal”, but He’s not – He’s Holy, loving, merciful God proven in the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus, at Calvary’s Cross that we, yes, might be liberated from the law of sin and death!
I read a stupid statement long ago, and had it stored away for a moment of writing, like this chapter. Someone, sure of themselves living in arrogant pride, said: “All the thousands and tens of thousands of gods are all but one God.” How blind unbelieving men become! Oh, and it was Richard Alleine, quoted in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, (Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey), who said: “He who knows what it is to enjoy God will dread His loss; he who has seen His face will fear to see His back.”
As I read that I contemplated: “God turning His back on unbelieving multitudes who walk away from Him, or the multitudes turning their backs on Him?” There are those who temporarily “enjoy” God, but when they know His ‘demands of discipleship’ they find it easy to walk away because they are more ‘in love’ with their “sinful pleasures” than the will of God for their ‘walks’ in life, and for them, the walk of faith demanding obedience is too great a price to pay – they’ll “wing it on my own without your God!”, willfully turning their backs on Him!
It’s as if fallen mankind that sees ‘God’ as only a temporary light that shines and then is gone, like them, short time of life pleasures, then the grave, and that location is, sadly, where many want the One True Living God to be, ‘in the graves of our memories, not Mastering our lives’! You’ve heard a few to say to you, “I don’t need your God”, when in reality, the greatest need they have is to be “reconciled To God”!
Have you ever read Augustine’s historical statement about “God making us for Himself, and that the heart of mankind is restless until it finds its “Rest” in God”? In Psalm 37:7-11, a psalm of David, we read: “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in ‘his way’, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; DO NOT FRET – it only causes harm.
For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more (No more in their scandalous ways on earth, but Hell-living goes on without any rest!); Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, (his place on earth no more, but, on earth, Christ’s establishment and care of His Eternal Kingdom and the blood-bought citizens redeemed, transformed, and thoroughly washed and purified in the blood of the Lamb of God!), but it shall be no more.
But the meek (the teachable) shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”( No intent to confuse, but IS “His Kingdom on earth” as it always has been in Heaven?).Do you see yourself, on earth, as one who’s OK with a dark kingdom, or inheriting on earth what He longs for, died, for, and was resurrected for, in ushering in “His Kingdom of Light”?
In John 1:6-16 you’ll find a powerful illuminating, life and thought changing when you learn of our Lord’s eternal purpose! It says: 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. (Both unredeemed and redeemed?). He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. BUT as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word (the Living Word) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, “He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” Initial grace is the open door to ‘grace upon grace upon grace’, but you settle for “grit”?
Turn your hearts and minds to Romans 1:16-25 initially! It says: Paul the Apostle writing: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for IT IS the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to), for the Jew first and also the Greek. For IN IT the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ (Brief interruption! Does from faith to faith mean from one religious faith to another religious faith, strengthening the faith of all, OR “the just living by faith enters the “Door’, and from infancy to adult maturity spiritually “grows” from faith to faith’s fullness?).
Verse 18, 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 attributes are clearly seen, (If they are clearly seen by all, why do some choose to say, “I never saw that!” Really?), 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, (but chose!) they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, BUT BECAME FUTILE IN THEIR THOUGHTS, AND THEIR FOOLISH HEARTS WERE (WILLFULLY) 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.
Does Romans 1:28 say that “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting”? When a nation, or a state, or a city or community, or educational systems, or homes, or individuals decide for themselves: “The knowledge, the will, the purpose of God for us is not as important as being ‘true to yourself’,” then quickly you observe either ‘godless lives’ or lives in tune with God’s Sovereignty over them in every respect! How, yes, heartbroken are you when you witness lives around you who do not like to retain God in their knowledge-wheel-of mind and heart?
Opening Roman 2 and discovering God’s claims in His righteous court of those who deny Him, refuse Him, and relegate Him to “the minds of brainless Christians who aren’t smart enough to determine their own life’s purposes,” God’s compassions exposes WHY unbelievers fall under His righteous judgment forever and ever as Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write Verses 4-11 saying: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, NOT KNOWING THE GOODNESS OF GOD LEADS YOU TO REPENTANCE? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; BUT TO THOSE who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; BUT glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”
Do you understand, are you aware of, yes , can you discern the difference between the “sought”, the “Convicted”, the “broken-heartedness” of offending God, the spirituality of repentance, confession, and acceptance of the death of the old sin nature crucified and buried with Christ, yet supernaturally, by His Blood, washing us and raising us up as true Servants as we daily die daily to self, allowing His Resurrection Life to be manifested in us and through us, willingly choosing to be the Tabernacle in and through which He willingly resides?
Are you a ‘champion of contempt against Christ’ or are you willingly His servant? Didn’t Jesus say, “I didn’t come to be served but to give My life as a ransom for the many?” – and that’s the repentant –heart – mind -and message of a true believer! Are you one who is void of mercy or one overflowing in the Spirit of mercy that has flooded your life since conversion? Are you ‘organized chaos’ or the ‘overcomer’ filled with grace, mercy, and love?
Have you ever faced a situation of seeking to counsel a ‘professing believer’ who has no awareness of the call of God on his/her life? Have you ever had to say, led by the Spirit: “If you only knew…!” But most know the ‘flesh’ and deny the Spirit, they know their desires and deny God’s will; they love the ‘temporal’ and have no concern about the Eternal; they know “my will, my thoughts, my pattern” with no interest in God’s design for ‘victorious living in the Spirit’ or ‘being sanctified to the glory of God’, but choose a “Hollywood” end of life ‘star-awards’ for fleshly stupidity and the ‘golden-globe award’ on how to live life pretense in the best of flesh; oh, but “awarded” with the judgment of God as deserving eternal separation, and hearing the voice of God: “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
Without hesitation, I’d say that 75% to 85% of the world population attests to a ‘belief in God or a god or gods’, but hearing the “fireball missionary” lady, Bertha Smith, before she died, having invested her entire missionary life all over Asia, saying in a conference of about 40 pastors, that she estimated 85-90% of attendees in church gatherings were not “born again, but most good ‘church folk’”! That was an awakening statement from one of the most God-like women ever to walk on our planet!
That figure represents, sadly, those who have ‘professed’ but never been possessed by Christ’s Resurrection Life being manifested in them and through them! “Known”! “Known, but no Godly life! Known, but no abiding love for Him! Known, but no liberty, no freedom, no eternal purpose or eternal pleasure, but, at least, gathering in a church at times to assert and affirm they ‘believe’ but no born-again reality and dynamic of the Fruit of the transforming Holy Spirit!”
I tell you: at times I am so frustrated by American churches, pastors, and ‘professing disciples’ (?) who really are not troubled at all about unconfessed sin, unbridled ‘professing lives’, unattentive ‘believers’ who know little of even “the milk of the Word”, and unavailable to extend Christ’s life, express His love, or prove His power – “just save my marked seat in my church”!
Having traveled over India for 25 years from about six weeks to up to 3 months, on one occasion, five to six trips a year, I became so aware of and alerted to a ‘religious faith’ that sadly had never reconciled ANY to Holy God! They ‘live’ (?), as a ‘religion’, experiencing continual death because that “serving in their ‘faith’ then dying” are actually hoping the ‘past’ had been satisfied, the present so living in such a way that after dying, they’ll reincarnate to someone or something that is better than in their former life, and when they ‘reincarnate’ they’ll come back even better, because if you messed up in the past life, though now dying, karma says, though you ‘pay’ for messing up, you’ll be allowed back, ‘but not sure what you’ll be’! Their ‘philosophy’ is the caste system with the ‘rankings’ established, and “if you suffer, if you get sick, if you die, it’s OK because we care for our sick and suffering, even if it means their reward in their return may be ‘a better person’, or even a hog, a cow, or a stallion, or, maybe, a better person of India than you were in your first life”! Much of that ‘religion’ is like what Christopher Reeve once said: “When I do good I feel good. When I do bad I feel bad. And that’s my religion.”
And that, dear friends, is even ‘copied’ by so-called ‘Christian disciples’ and ‘Christian churches’ that deceive their people, with a “Do your best” rather than “rest” in the “finished work of Christ” through His death, burial, and resurrection, ready to establish YOU as His “tabernacle of eternal Truth AND His living holy temple, with your repentant, reconciled, redeemed heart and life through faith in His finished work at the Cross and the empty tomb – through repentance and faith, choosing death daily to yourself, and then voluntarily offered as the “New Temple” of His abiding Presence, available for Him, as He wills, to do exceedingly above all we ask or think through us as available vessels!
Holy God KNEW that in our cooperation with our sin natures that, out of His love and mercy for us, He “crucified us with Christ at the Cross”, blocking any man-made philosophy of you at your best and only ‘head-knowledge-affirmation of Christ’, that you in the best of flesh and Him in Resurrection Life, us of ‘our best’ and Him available, us cooperative and Him available, “we” can change the face of ‘mankind’! Phony bologna!! Christ Jesus not only knew our sin natures, He also knew that, though we try, He also knows in our best efforts we’ll not unveil “the Way of Salvation”! Christ paid the price for our sin, our debt, and our bondage to the world, the flesh, and Satan!
It was John Dryden, in his “Religio Laica, (l.303), who said: “For MY salvation must its doom receive, not from what others, but what “I” believe.” But ‘true belief is far more than head knowledge – true saving faith is “faith in Another”, yes, trust in the shed blood of the Lamb of God AND the power of God the Father to raise Him from the dead, and GIVE TO HIM RESURRECTION LIFE, RESURRECTION POWER, AND RESURRECTION HOPE! You’ve read it already I’m sure, but…Receive it: “My hope is built on NOTHING LESS than JESUS’ BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest in His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the vale.
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.”
Look with me at John 10:7-17, and verses 24d-32! The Jesus said to them again, “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. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
Verses 24d-32 follows! The Jews surrounded Jesus saying, “How long do you keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 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 Mt hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” How easy to be in love with one’s self and in love with one’s, yes, religious traditions, and to ‘pick up stones’, denying the True Lord and Savior, holding on to one’s opinions, desires, and self-wills, blasting the need of repentance and shunning redemptive faith in the Crucified, Resurrected, Reigning Christ, because “religious traditions are enough to earn God’s respect”! Really?
What did King Jesus say in John 3:3-8, responding to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, confounded by Jesus, and Christ Jesus answering 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 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.”
Much of ‘modern-day’ religious life is a ‘religious, amateurish, unattached rendition-performance- of Christ-likeness’, but not the reality of His Indwelling Presence in the “new-born”, reconciled To God, true-foundation-and-true-fruit-and true-tabernacle, not having to ‘wait’ for some future, crowning day, but, YES, “The King HAS COME, and my repentant, sin-forsaking mind and heart, has been, by faith in God’s Promises, and continues to be, re-established, rebuilt, re-made, and re-assigned by the Father as, yes, the abiding place of the King of kings and Lord of Lords!” Again, believe it! “Christ IN YOU the hope of glory!”, not someday, but the day of repentance toward, reconciled, re-born, and a defined ‘sinner’, saved by grace, becoming “the royal tabernacle of Abiding Presence” with His Promise: “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you!” Glory!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SETTLING FOR LESS OR SETTLED IN THE ETERNAL WITH GOD?
In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Who Am I” chapter of his writing, “Letters and Papers from Prison” (New York: SCM Press Ltd., 1953, 1967, 1971), p.221), the last part of his poetical writing asked: “Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army, fleeing in disorder from the victory already achieved?”
Do you think Bonhoeffer went through troublesome waters, dark dungeon’s, perilous times, really unsure of even life itself, wondering if there is any hope for this life? And be sure, if anyone has never settled the ‘why’ of life or, ‘if there is a God involved in this process’, what is His purpose, and do I want to see it fulfilled in me and through me, or just let God be God in others, just leave me to my self-wanderings – if THAT is unsettled, life faces ‘twists, turns, torments, testings, tales, troubles of unimaginable consequences’ – and no help, no answer, no lasting, no lifting, or no life-saving hope, only anguish, despair, disappointment, and distress that multiplies beyond the grave to eternal regretfulness never fading!
Settling for less? I’ve said before, I’m sure, that God is not interested in ‘automatic robots’; He pushes the buttons, and the machine-mind responds and does what the owner desires, but has always wanted ‘free-will’ men and women, boys and girls to willfully respond to Him, His ways, His Word, or, ‘choose whom or what they’ll serve’ – and it truly breaks God’s heart to see those who choose devotion to their sin natures, the deceptions of the world, and the dark temptations of the devil himself! God mourns over that!
In Joshua 24:14-15 Joshua gathered the people he loved and the people he knew God loved – and he challenged them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit! “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. 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.”
Settling for less? Genesis 2:7 says, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” But are YOU aware that “living beings” were created with the mind, will, and heart to submit willfully to their Maker or rule by self-will, self-pleasure, and self-determination of who and what has his/her life will be about! In John 20:22-23, the beloved disciple and servant, John, wrote: And when He had said this, He breathed on them (His new disciples!), and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”[In my present Bible, Holman Study Bible, (NKJV), the editor attached to the bottom of this page some comments. He said:
“The reference to forgiveness or lack thereof may echo the reference to “the key of the house of David” in Isaiah 22:22. Jesus bestowed on His followers authority to announce access or disbarment from God’s kingdom based on reception or denial of the gospel message. For those who reject Jesus, His messengers are commissioned to say that they do not have forgiveness of sins.”
No forgiveness of sins, no relationship with Holy God! No repentance, no will to surrender to Christ’s Lordship! No ‘resting in Him’, no striving achieves what His shed blood applied releases! No hearing, only willful chosen ‘deafness to God’, releases the verdict of eternal separation!
Settling for less? In Daniel 12 there is an eye-opening passage of “divine choices freely given to Israel’s appointed people in birthing the Christ”, yet to say it relates only to them is to cooperate in compromising the Holy Word, for what Holy God said to all of Israel, He says to all of us today in the 21st Century! Daniel 12:1b-3 says:”…and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, (or) some to shame and everlasting contempt. THOSE WHO ARE WISE shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”
Settling for less? There are those who choose spiritual blindness over spiritual sight in and through the eyes of Christ! There are those spiritually asleep rather than awakened by the grace and mercy and love of God! There are those living under the ‘curse’ of their sin natures, while at the same time there are those “born again by the Spirit” and prepared by grace as Christ’s earthly residence! There are those, by choice, willing to remain in a ‘divorced state’ from Christ rather than to be “Married” to Him, since He is the “Bridegroom” and the truly repentant are His Bride! There are those, truthfully all men, born into the sin-nature curse, and convicted, responding to the Holy Spirit, willfully being “blessed”, gracefully blessed in the fullness of Christ’s Resurrection Life and His personal gifts or keeping the door of their hearts strongly closed to the Spirit!
I think I mentioned earlier, if not in one of the first chapters, at least, not long ago, sharing in a message that since my college days I’ve treasured the writings of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, reading a book of her poetry I found in a book store in Salt Lake City, Utah, written earlier than 1910! One writing is entitled “Memory and Hope”, (pps.81-83). Read it carefully!
“BACK-LOOKING Memory and Hope sprang from out the ground! One, where the flashing of Cherubic sword Fell downward, sad and broad; And one, from Eden earth, within the sound OF the four rivers lapsing pleasantly, What time the promise after curse was said – “Your seed shall bruise his head.”
Memory is very wild, As moonstruck by Cherubic flashings near When she was born. Her deep eyes shine and shone With light that conquers the sun And stars to wanner paleness year by year. With sweetest scents she mixes things defiled – She tramps down earth’s grasses green and sweet, With her far-wandering feet.
She plucks many flowers, Their beauty on her bosom’s coldness killing. She teaches every melancholy sound To winds and waters round. She drops tears with seed where man is tilling The rugged soil in yet more rugged hours. She smiles – ah me! in her smile does go A mood of deeper woe.
Hope seemed of happier sprite. Crowned with an Eden wreath she saw not fade, She went a-nodding through the wilderness With brow that shone no less Than sea-bird’s wings, by storm more frequent made,- Searching the treeless rock for fruits of light; Her white feet being armed from stones and cold, By slippers of gold.
And Memory did her wrong, And, while she dreamed, her slippers, stole away! But still she wended on with mirth unheeding, The while her feet were bleeding, Until she met her on a certain day, And with her evil eyes did search her long And cruelly, whereat she sank to the ground In a stark deadly swound.
And so my Hope were slain, Had it not been that YOU, MY GOD, was standing near, Oh YOU! Who said, “Live,” to spirits lying In their own blood and dying! For You her forehead to Your heart did rear And make its silent pulses sing again – Pouring a new light over her darkened eyne (plural – eyes), With tender tears from Thine!
Therefore my Hope arose From out her swound and gazed upon Your face! And meeting there that soft subduing look Which Peter’s spirit shook. Sank downward in a rapture to embrace Your pierced hands and feet with kisses close, And prayed You to assist her evermore To “reach things above.”
Then You gave the smile Whence angel-wings thrill quick like summer lightning; Vouchsafing rest beside You, where she never From love and Faith may sever! Whereat the Eden crown she saw not whitening A time ago, though whitening all the while, Reddened with life, to hear the Voice which talked to Adam as he walked!”
I can only wonder! “What is it fallen, unbelieving, unredeemed men and women think about or even consider about “life’s eternal Purpose”? I want to paraphrase Jeremiah 2:31-36a! “O present generation in March of 2018! Hear the Word of the Lord! Have I (the One True and Living God) been a ‘wilderness’ to you, or in your opinion ‘a land of darkness’? Why do the people I created say, “We are lords in and of ourselves, and we aren’t coming before the Throne You profess to sit on! We have better things to do!” But…
Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet the people I created in the 21st Century, many forget Me days without number. Why do you beautify your way to seek ‘love’, adapting to the world pattern without “adopted by the shed blood of My son”, but denying His offer of sins forgiven and you becoming the Residence of the Resurrected Christ? And you never give Me time in your self-centered existence!
Why do you beautify your appearance to seek love? Therefore you have also taught the wicked women around you even a more debasing way and walk! Even on her skirts is found the blood of the lives of the poor innocents (abortions?). I have not found it by secret search, but plainly on all the things the fallen are unashamed about.
Yet you say, ‘Because I am innocent, surely His anger shall turn from me.’ Behold God pleads His case against YOU, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’ If so, why do you gad about so much to change your way?”
Is there a “gadding about” in the modern world that professes, “Yes, we believe in God”, but their admission in His existence is only a small stone on the pavement of the eternal ‘HIGH-WAY’ of faith, mercy, grace, trust, and obedience to the God who made us, lost us, then bought us with a price! But not only in the midst of the ‘modern world of self-seeking in what one sees as only a ‘drifting’ from Eternal will’, but not a destiny of separation and alienation, though their ‘walk’ is one of a desired relationship with the world, their sin-nature, and even Satan himself, and it doesn’t phase them or shake them or disturb them or frustrate them, because the separated from God souls “take pleasure in self-pleasure, self-will, and self-gratification”, excluding yieldedness to Holy God as unnecessary and unimportant!
Do you understand? In YOU, is there a spirit, attitude, and will concerning sensitivity to the desire of God to redeem you, reconcile you, rescue you, restore you to His intent, His eternal plan for you, His willingness to meet every need you have, so that in deep appreciation and thanksgiving you live yielded, not divided, as your life in Christ relates to, yes, the extension of Him through YOU?
Why should ‘the grace of God’ decline in any true believer’s walk, witness, and work in, yes, glorifying Christ in every phase of your journey? Is it possible that some claiming allegiance to Christ, rather than walking on “the sure foundation of His victory over sin, death, and Satan”, fall back on the ‘sinking sands’ of “try my best”, falling away even faster than imagined as he/she yielded to the ‘flesh’ rather than willfully choosing “yielded to the Holy Spirit daily”?
Settling for less? Do you remember Paul, in Ephesians 2:1-3, describing the ‘fallen-away lives’ that then and now need to discover God’s mercy and grace? He wrote: “And you God made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”…But God, verses 4-9, tells us, “who is rich in mercy, because of His Great Love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ, 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, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Glory!!
Settling for less? “Gadding about”? “Well, since I truly believe in “living under His grace and mercy”, I know it doesn’t matter to my Father if occasionally I choose to indulge the old sin-nature, occasionally ignore His call or knock and settle in to my fleshly desires, or devote a large portion of my time to the political realm of my country, or to occasionally ignore “dinner with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” through His “daily bread”, unconcerned about the “fruit of the Spirit”, or, yes, failing to enjoy daily “the meat of His Word”!”
If it’s the “Bridegroom” knocking at your heart’s door, how is it that some can and willfully ignore the knock without any concern that it’s Jesus or not? Is it that “the pull of the world, the sin-nature of old, and Satan himself”, has greater priority than Christ the Lord?
I’m sure it’s never happened to the most of folks I know, but it occasionally happens to me. I get ‘orders from headquarters’ – that’s instruction from my wife, “Go here and do this”, and as I leave home, pushing toward my 82nd birthday in June of 2018, on the journey, all of a sudden, “Where is it I’m supposed to go?” (Of course, that doesn’t happen to the many, only “us few”, at times, ‘brain-dead’ folk!). Shift to the relationship of Father-God and His children, shift to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, and, yes, TO THE WORD OF GOD! Are His instructions clear, and are you faithfully walking His chosen path, yes, obedient to His Word, His Spirit, and His plan?
Dare I ask you? “Is there ‘a fire in your bones to the glory of the Lord’ or has ‘that blaze of heavenly glory’ begun to fade in you? It happened to Israel as ‘the spiritually elite’ began to fade from abiding faith and loyalty to the God they ‘professed’ to serve! Consider Deuteronomy 32:28-43! Though a long passage of the Word, it is convicting, challenging, an d life-changing! It says:
“For they (Israel) are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, THAT THEY WOULD CONSIDER THEIR LATTER END! How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
For their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras. ‘Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? VENGEANCE IS MINE, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.’
For the Lord will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, WHEN He sees that THEIR POWER IS GONE, and there is no one remaining, bond or free. He will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?’ Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge.
NOW SEE that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; (crucified with Christ and raised up in Him?); I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. For I raise My hand to heaven, and say, “As I live forever, If I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me. (Psalm 81:15!).
I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.”’ “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; HE WILL PROVIDE ATONEMENT FOR HIS LAND AND HIS PEOPLE.”
In closing this chapter, “Are YOU a ‘pretender’ or do YOU live by the Life of Another, even King Jesus in you, the hope of glory”!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
TRAGIC PAIN OR TRIUMPHANT PLEASURE?
You’ll find vitally important, convicting, direction-changing, yes, life-changing words of God in Psalm 116:1-7! It says: “I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called upon the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.”
Dare I tell you that “loving the Lord” doesn’t mean that you’ll never face troubles or ‘tragic pains’ because you’re a disciple of Christ Jesus or a devotee to the one true and Living God – His invitation to follow Him IS a declaration of world awareness and Word-clues that “the way of the Cross may lead to the wealth and treasures of Heavenly inheritance”, but in gaining that eternal relationship by God’s grace and mercy, it arouses Satan and the powers of darkness, along with a ‘world system’ that resents even a mention about God, and even an internal warfare with your ‘flesh-nature’ and the remnants of self-will, self-determination, and self-pleasure! Did the psalmist say that the ‘pains of death surrounded him’ and the ‘pangs of Sheol laid hold of him’, and he ‘found trouble and sorrow’?
Oh, it’s not only ‘the pains of death that surrounded Him’, ( and you ought to seek out that subject!), but then the psalmist mentioned ‘the pangs of Sheol laid hold of him’; and one wonders: What are the pangs of Sheol? A ‘pang’? The Random House College Dictionary defines it as: “a sudden feeling of mental or emotional distress or longing, sharp pain (in the mind, heart, and spirit?), or sudden spasms.” Sheol? (Hebrew theology. “The abode of the dead or departed spirits”!). And one considers: “You mean that even those who’ve already died, in their eternal abode, desire to inform, warn, or challenge us to “Avoid Pain” and choose for yourself “Triumphant Pleasure”? Well, at least, God isn’t interested in you living as His child of faith with no understanding about “the pains AND the pleasures” of a disciple’s journey!
Examine Mark 8:31-33!! And Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
And ‘in the things of men’, alienated and separated from God, unborn spiritually, living ‘self-promoting, self-indulgent, self-will lives’, is THAT THE life-style of one ‘flesh-chosen’ and ‘Satanically-inspired’ and void of the mercy, grace, love, and intent of his/her Creator, Lord, Savior, and Master of “victorious living”? Are YOU aware of “the yokes of bondage” that enslave the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the worldly and devil-influenced, the “me, my, mine” mind-set that, sadly, until convicted by the Holy Spirit, doesn’t care what God says, intends, and proves in the sacrifice of His Own Son?
Oh, I know, even in ‘professional religious circles’ today, that there are those who ‘joke’ and ‘criticize’ and ‘frown’ upon those who believe, warn, and fight against the ‘circle of Satan and his demon-hordes’ who are out to disgrace, denounce, and deny the Resurrected, Reigning Christ, yes, Savior of the world, but many in the world, wanting no part of His “blood redemption”, His “resurrection Life”, and His “promise of an eternal home in Heaven”, not Hell, will continue to fight the losing battle of ‘Christ-denial’!
Yes, there are ‘enemies’ of Christ, even major ‘religions’ across the world, who may ‘mention’ Him, but to let Him ‘reign’ in them, over them, and around them, they’ll fight you, imprison you, and crucify you!
‘Religions’ are, sadly, often “cloaked flesh”, as the leaders and constituents desire to ‘profess THEIR version of religious faith’ as they ‘worship’ then ‘live’ indulging in what Christ Jesus crucified “At The Cross”!
Of course, when one truly comes to Christ Jesus, there IS spiritual warfare between the servant of Christ, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, yet facing on the fields of spiritual battle the world, the flesh, and Satan and his demon-army! In Galatians 5:13 and Verses16-25, Paul seeks to prepare even “soldiers of the Cross and the Victorious Christ” to be discerning about where they are in their “walk of faith and obedience”! He said:
Galatians 5:13, “For you, brethren, have been CALLED TO LIBERTY; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Galatians 5:16-25 then challenges, inspires, and warns all believers and servants of Christ! It says: “I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are “led by the Spirit”, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things WILL NOT inherit the kingdom of God.
BUT the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. AND “those who are Christ’s” have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. IF we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Have YOU examined ‘your walk’ lately? Do you even think about it? Didn’t Paul say in 2 Corinthians 13:5 the following Holy Word? “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.” Paul had said earlier, in1 Corinthians 11:28-29, “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”
In Ezekiel 33 the Lord God Almighty spoke to the one He designated His “watchman” over His chosen people – that was Ezekiel! And he was told, Verse 3, to speak to the people. He was to ‘blow the trumpet’ and warn the people. But in Verse 5 God also said, for those who heard the trumpet and didn’t respond, “He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself.”
I so want Christ Jesus to speak so clearly through His Word that, by the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us, IT IS AS IF HIS BODILY PRESENCE STOOD BEFORE US ALL! In Matthew 25:29-46, though lengthy, it’s a “must read” for me – and you! Jesus said and says:
“For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 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; for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
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 come 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.”
Are YOU aware of it? “They heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn’t respond to the warning! SO…their blood is upon themselves!” But how often have you heard “the trumpet sound”, even the “trumpet-blast”, but hearing, it was a nuisance to you and not “the Good News”? Oh, it may be in some a nuisance, but they respond even still in a rebellious fashion: “I take responsibility for my own rebellion, stupidity, and life choices; and if I miss your God, I’ll still take ‘pleasure’ in my hellish existence”!
Holy God actually said in one of the prophets, “I called, but you refused!” In the Book of Proverbs, Chapter One, Verses 22-33, though speaking of the “Call of Wisdom”, there is no call TO wisdom, (Biblical Wisdom),apart from the very call of God Himself, because wisdom apart from God seals ‘foolish wisdom’ in warped minds and sinful hearts! The Words says, “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? (Simplicity apart from reconciliation with Holy God?). For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.
Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore “they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.
For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.” WHAT AN AWESOME WORD FROM HOLY GOD!”
Oh, the refusers of God’s wisdom, God’s call, God’s invitation, are so “foolish” in their fleshly, fancy, frivolous, and “fake news determination of what’s best for them”, some even shaking their fists in the face of God! Job 5:2 says, “wrath kills a foolish man”, like a sudden Texas tornado that blows men away unaware of its force of nature – wrath being God’s judgment for those who laugh at Him! What does John 3:36 declare?
“He who trusts in, believes in, relies upon, adheres to, the Son of God (as Savior, Redeemer, Master, and Lord of lords!) has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
IF you come to Christ and rest in Him, you’ve not deceived yourself about your ‘flesh-life’ without Him, thoroughly aware that when Christ died, your old nature WAS “crucified with Christ”! Paul then stated in Colossians 3:5-7, “Therefore (YOU “in Christ”) put to death (daily) your (old) members which are on the earth: (all around, easily recognizable in those who’ve chosen ‘flesh’ over the Spirit of Christ!) – fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.”
Hear me! If you are a “professing believer” and unashamed of continuing with “flesh-practices”, I challenge you, “Accept your crucifixion with Christ, and let Him raise you up as “a new creation”! “REPENT – OR ELSE FACE THE JUDGMENT”!
Do you remember the part of the Verse, Ezekiel 33:5, about the one ‘hearing’ but not responding to the warning, having heard, but “did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself”?
But if Christ’s blood washes a man clean and pure and spotless, why does one then think it’s OK just to indulge the flesh nature when it calls? That’s not what I read in the Word of God! In Ephesus 5, to husbands loving their wives, I believe it’s even foundational in YOUR ‘marriage’ to Christ! Ephesians 5:26-27 says, “that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church (a glorious disciple, a glorious servant), not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” What a challenging, convicting, consecrating Word of Holy God!”
“In Christ” we’re ALL ‘children of the Heavenly King’, called to follow Him intently, freely, and HELP-FULLY by His Word, by His Spirit, and by His servants who challenge us: “Lean not to your own understanding, but “Trust and Obey” – there is no other way to walk as a true believer and true disciple!
Do YOU live in “tragic pain”, OR “Triumphant Pleasure”? In my ‘growing up years’, from 3-12, after my Dad’s and mother’s divorce in 1939, I was taken by my mother to live with her Dad and Mom, since she took a job away from their home, my grandparents raising me for about eleven years when my mother married a second time, wanting me to live then with her and my step-father. But in those 9 years my grandparents had two daughters, one just two years older than me and the other about 8 years older than me. For nine years I experienced God’s love, grace, and mercy, through their positive witness, care, and love! They unveiled the caring Christ to me – and I became His follower! (It took about twenty years for me to come into “full understanding” of His eternal intent!). I WAS PERSUADED – AND I WAS NO LONGER LOST! There’s an old invitation hymn that was sung often in my home church then entitled “Almost Persuaded”, written by P.P.Bliss in the old “American Hymnal.” It Says:
“Almost persuaded” now to believe; “Almost persuaded” Christ to receive; Seems now some soul to say, “Go, Spirit, go Your way, Some more convenient day On You I’ll call.”
“Almost persuaded”, come, come today; “Almost persuaded”, turn not away; Jesus invites you here, Angels are lingering near, Prayers rise from heart so dear, O wanderer, come.
“Almost persuaded”, harvest is past! “Almost persuaded,” doom comes at last ! “Almost” cannot avail; “Almost” is but to fail! Sad, sad, that bitter wail – “Almost – but lost!”
Do YOU really grasp: “God is real! God is amazing! God is powerful! God is loving! God is merciful! God is able! God is wise in His Creation, wise in His placing of man on earth with the will to choose! God is wise in His understanding, when ‘redemption’ is the consideration, no way can sinful men reconcile themselves to Holy God! God knows that it’s His love that lift fallen mankind out of the valley of their personal despair to heights of everlasting glory, because repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ inspires the ‘seeker’ to “rest” in Christ alone, having repented from the old life and embraced the “New Life” that comes only through the Resurrected Victorious Jesus over the world, man’s sin nature, and Satan himself! Jesus is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think!
I close this chapter with the passage in Luke 15:10-31! Get ready for amazing Truth! It says: Jesus is speaking here: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a ‘far country’ and there wasted his possessions with ‘prodigal living.’ But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he “began to be in want”. (Dare I tell you, sadly, lost men need the “dregs” before repentance and faith is ever birthed in their minds, wills, or hearts, because of ‘fleshly pride’ in themselves!).
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to “Feed swine”, (Without God as Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and Master over lives, most don’t know it, but they’ve descended to “swine feeders”, not servants of God!). And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself (beginning to discern that there’s something else than eating the pods swine eat?), he said: ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion on him, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to the father, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.”
You do know that men who are ‘away’ from God in the land of independence from God, alienated, separated, lifeless of the nature and character of Holy Presence, bound and entangled in their fallen natures, blind to the love, grace, and mercy of God, will STAND for whatever gives them a little ‘fleshly pleasure’, even if it’s ‘dancing with the demons of hell’! Even ‘pleasure’ in the “dumpsters” of their choosing is OK with a lot of ‘alienated from God’ individuals! But, God CALLS! God KNOCKS on their hearts’ doors! AND God inspires the Holy Spirit to convict you of your sin, guide you into ALL TRUTH, plant the “Seed” of Holy Presence in you, and then watch you grow to His glory, honor, and praise!
Why don’t YOU “Let go, and let God have His marvelous Way IN YOUR LIFE? Amen? YOU, ALL MANKIND, has a choice:
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
HUMANISTIC BETRAYALS OR HEAVENLY BLESSED?
Life is like a ‘garden’ birthed in the mind and heart of God with eternal intent – and He needs or desires ‘tillers’, ‘workers’, ‘farm-hands’, sharing in His plan for a Glorious Gathering Together of the Fruits of this labor – God’s labor and God’s labor THROUGH YOU as His ‘field-supervisor’! But, He had no desire or mind-set, or will for ‘mechanical robots’! He knew that His heart’s desire for His field-workers and sharers in the rewards had to be those with no confidence in their spiritual abilities, no commitment to themselves, but absolute surrender to the Owner, Planner, and Rewards-Blesser, and no cheap imitations of a twisted desire to be free to choose ‘an earthly crop’ or His “heavenly blessed seed, Son, and Water-of-Life” to be shared between Holy God and His faithful servants!
Humanistic betrayals are often seen, unveiled, and easily ‘performed’ by some who desire to have a relationship with God on their terms – and once they enter that false attitude of a ‘redemptive faith’, they unveil humanistic betrayal because of an unclean heart, not a “new heart”! A ‘faith’s verbal failure’ is not the same as “Biblical Faith’s Victorious Fulfillment”!
There are passages that I call passages “Unveiling Humanistic Betrayals”! 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 is one of them. It says: And so it is written, “The first Adam became a living being.” The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was OF THE EARTH, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, (“In Christ”!) we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” TRUE MANHOOD IS A MAN SPIRITUALLY “BORN AGAIN” INTO THE RESIDENCY OF CHRIST WITHIN, NO LONGER TO BE TROUBLED BY FLESH, THE WORLD, OR SATAN HIMSELF!
Paul went on to say in 1 Corinthians 15:50, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.”
“Flesh”? That’s man in his ‘natural state’, alienated and separated from God, intent on being ‘lord’ of his own passions, his own lower kingdom allegiance, and ‘rolling the dice of sin’, hoping he’ll hit the “jackpot” of the most accomplished ‘self-willed man’ on the face of the globe!
“Flesh”? Do you remember God’s people ‘bound’ in Egypt under the domination of the Pharoah of Egypt? Moses and Aaron, sent by God, were to confront Pharoah, saying in Exodus 5:1 “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.” And in Exodus 5:2 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.” “That’s the ‘flesh-battle’ of all men who know Him or don’t know Him, but for sure, they’ll both do what “flesh” demands without any concern of yieldedness to the King of kings and Lord of lords!
“Flesh”? Do a serious study of mankind from the Garden of Eden thousands of years ago or a study of mankind even in our ‘modern’ 21st Century! Sadly, things haven’t changed in most “self-willed, self-determined, self- promoted ‘flesh’”! Why? “For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” When men are bound inward to their old sin-natures, the mind, will, and emotions are GOVERNED by “flesh”, GOVERNED by “world logic”, and GOVERNED by “Satan” himself and his demon hordes!
“Flesh”? Does “empty simplicity” capture many hearts and minds today building a higher wall to hide the reality of ‘who’ they really are, and even camouflaging the true identity of Holy God? “Don’t be so serious about trying to discover if there is a God and whether or not He supposedly cares about you! Don’t you know? “You love me. I love you. In our world of ‘flesh-imagination’, we’re a ‘happy’, deserving family”!” Really? With no consideration of your eternal destiny?
“Flesh”? “I may be ‘guilty’ according to your God’s insight into me and others, but since I am ‘lord’ over my own residence, I’ll just do as I please – and accepting your jealous God’s careless judgment of good and bad men, with me in between is scandalous to me!” So arrogantly he/she/they just “mouth on” on their journey to hell’s clutches!
“Flesh”? It’s a ‘religious’ game most unredeemed play! Kurt Bruner, in his book, “Inklings of God”, (p.85), wrote: “If birth is a leaping dolphin, death is a circling shark,” but I paraphrase it: “If my fleshly walk is as I please, my life and my death WILL BE encircled by sharks rather than the Lamb of God and His sheep!”
“Flesh”? How aware are you of “the illusion of ‘fleshly’ omniscience”? How adept are you at ‘spiritually sensing’ “off-chord songs of self-promotion”, denying God’s Truth about the condition of unbelievers? Flesh-oriented men, bound tight in unbelief and resistant to the mercy, grace, and love of God, are blind to God’s hope, oblivious or unmindful or simply, naturally forgetful of the goodness of God, determined in their minds and hearts: “My way, not God’s Way, Truth, And His professing Life. Thank you – I’ll just face my future on my own.” Really?
“Flesh”? Haven’t you witnessed it? There are those who willfully choose to “try my best, even though I realize I’m experiencing the ‘death of hope’ in myself, and my family and friends don’t know it, but I feel I’m about to die from personal despair and a sense of hopelessness” – but THEY DO NOT WANT ANYONE TELLING THEM: “There’s eternal hope in and through Christ alone. Let me tell you about Jesus,” but many respond, “I really don’t want to hear about your Jesus!”
“Flesh”? Can you even fathom that Blaise Pascal once said, “The more enlightened we are the more greatness and vileness we discover in man.” Greatness of flesh, but no glory before and in God? Greatness of flesh, but no explanation for the “wild weeds that multiply in the mind and heart”? Does ‘flesh’ at times “play God” without an ounce of concern about “trusting God”?
“Flesh”? Theodore Dalrymple is, if he’s still living, a British psychiatrist, who wrote the book, “Life at the Bottom.” He was, at least for a period of time, unsure about the reality of God, even unsure about accountability before Him, and, really, that there should be no concern about whether to avoid wrong and choose right, or choose wrong and be right! Dalrymple said: (p.267), “The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose and for someone else to pay when things go wrong…Implicitly they disagree with Bacon’s famous dictum that ‘chiefly the mould of a man’s fortune is in his own hands.’ Instead they experience themselves as putty in the hands of fate.”
“Flesh”? James Beattie, in his writing, “The Minstrel”, (Bk.1), said: “Let those deplore their doom, Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn…”! Oh, and what about Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s words in his “Idylls of the King, Geraint and Enid,” (1, l.355), “For man is man and master of his fate.” In God’s granting of ‘free will’, it does fall on us all to respond in Faith to the Lord’s knock on our heart’s door, or to refuse to answer His call, thus going through life’s journey void of Merciful, Omniscient God’s divine plan for your life or mine, OR, responding to Christ Jesus, “Open the Door – and I’ll come in!” But too many are not interested in their bodies, hearts, and minds being the Savior’s “earthly residence rebuilt, remade, re-established ,as His Holy Temple!
T.Z.Koo really nailed it when he wrote: “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.” SO TRUE!!!
But “flesh”? That’s ‘self-rule’! That’s ‘self-interpretation’ and ‘self-determination’ of “what I can do to make my earthly journey successful”, rather than, “Lord Jesus, what would YOU have me to do”, even willfully yielding your life ‘as clay’, but “in the Hands of the Potter”!
Intellectuals without a ‘grain of grace or redemptive faith’ have written throughout human history about man’s ‘self-overcoming’ abilities but blinded to the compassion, grace, and mercy of God to “birth” “new creations” living victoriously in and through His Divine Sovereignty! I don’t know the background of a lady named Caroline Bigelow Le Row who wrote “True Heroism”, but in it she said: “But I will write of him who fights and vanquishes his sins, Who struggles on through weary years Against himself and wins.”
As I read that writing, I wondered: “Did she not know of “crucified with Christ” and of, as a result of repentance toward God and faith in THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST, the miraculous birthing, indwelling, and guidance of “Christ in YOU the hope of glory?”
In 2 Corinthians 4:1-15 you’ll find one of the greatest liberating passages in the Word of God! It says or Paul the Apostle says: “Therefore, since we have received this ministry, as WE HAVE RECEIVED MERCY, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, BUT by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed –
Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are ALWAYS DELIVERED TO DEATH FOR JESUS’ SAKE, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”
BUT, has ‘humanistic betrayals’ overshadowed being “Heavenly Blessed”? Consider it! “Try your best or TRUST God’s heavenly blessing”? Does ‘humanistic betrayals’ also include ‘excusing sin and the sin-nature’ or does “heavenly blessed” unveil through Christ the blessing of “new creations” washed in the Blood of the Lamb? Does ‘humanistic betrayals’ “white-wash” fallen men with a paint-covering that fades away or does “heavenly blessed” unveil the reality of “new creations” birthed through repentance and raised up to “Glory” by the Holy Spirit?
IF “guilty before God because of our sin and sin nature”, and one wants to be free of the reality of condemnation, how under God’s blue heaven does forgiveness, reconciliation, and new life occur? Sin is SHAME, rebellion is ALIENATION, and ignoring the Holy Word is DISOBEDIENCE! In 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 the Apostle tells us: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”
Human betrayals or Heavenly blessed? AND, knowing one has been “Heavenly blessed” and most of His walk has been pure and Christ-honoring, are there those moments when some will have wandered from the path of holiness? IT HAS HAPPENED! In 1 Timothy 1:18-20 Paul informs and instructs Timothy to be the Shepherd’s good “watch-dog”, ready to circle the stray lamb! “This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
Heavenly blessed but ‘experiencing ship-wreck’? Heavenly blessed but allowing or permitting yourself to shame the Name of Christ Jesus in ‘human, fleshly betrayal’? In Revelation 2:1-5 is a shocking revelation about one of the early churches. It says, the Alpha and Omega speaking, “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, WHO WALKS IN THE MIDST OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN LAMPSTANDS; I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake, and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent. “
In Verse 7 the Lord says: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Left your first love, but you don’t think you have to overcome that rebellion or disobedience? How serious is it for followers of Christ to allow deafening mixtures in their spiritual eardrums where responding in obedience to Christ is ‘waxed’ out because one allowed ‘falseness’ to prevail over “Truth-Living”?!? Rather than mercy and grace, some believers adjust to mind-misery, dimmed eyesight to Truth, and, sadly, a divided heart between allegiance or compromise, obedience or a refusal to obey, a ‘self-determination-attitude’ rather than “LED BY THE LORD, THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE WORD, AND GODLY EXAMPLES WHO LIVE IN “THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST”!
What is it that YOU are embracing in your ‘faith-journey’ as a disciple of Christ? It was Frank McCourt who once said: “All the religions are spread before me, a great spiritual smorgasbord, and I’ll help myself, thank you.” Help Yourself? When IT, YOURSELF, was “crucified with Christ”? Oh, I know, in the U.S.A. we are a part of, certainly, a ‘spiritual melting pot’ – and just as Adam and Eve, and every man and woman, and every nation or folks wanting to be a part of a nation, “choose”, but, regretfully, some are not free to choose but enslaved to whatever their national leader ‘dictates’, and, of course, Holy God says, “Choose you this day whom YOU will serve!”
You’ll remember Joshua gathering all the tribes of Israel together in Joshua 24. And in Joshua 24 the people were informed about how God sought to care for His people. In Verses 14-15 the challenge came! “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt! 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.”
Oh, mankind today, worldwide, are making “choices” that relate to Eternal Life or eternal death, to be “blessed of God” or cursed with the world, the flesh, and Satan! TELL ME ABOUT YOUR CHOICE! In God’s precious Word, there is the “call of renewal and re-enforcement” when in Hebrews 12:7-17 the inspired writer shared: “If YOU endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? {And, be assured! It’s a “loving Father” who, yes, DOES chasten His Sons! If there is no ‘chastening’ in your walk, would you think there may be no father who ‘cared for or loved you’?}.
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 that 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. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
“Grace living in Christ” is not an open door to do as you please in the attitudes of the unredeemed, but there IS the call to learn, “if I fall away, will loving God had ‘mercy’ on me?” Forgiveness abounds from the heart of God, but SOME fail to appreciate or embrace “the Father’s chastening”, and reject ‘discipline’ because, in their hearts and minds, knowing it’s ‘painful’, will REJECT “the peaceable fruit of righteousness”, because, “I know what I did was wrong, offensive, and shameful, but I’ll not bow before a God who “chastens” His children – I’ll just enjoy my ‘pleasure’, and walk my path of defilement – to me, my defilement is acceptable, while I reject His discipline and His correction and His mercy and grace!”
I remind you again of what the author said in the Hebrews passage, Verse 14: “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; Verse 15, looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled…”! Are YOU walking defiled or delivered? Are you presently walking in shame, OR have YOU been sanctified? Are you still ‘trying’ or “TRUSTING AND RESTING IN THE SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD AND HIS RESURRECTION FULLNESS IN YOU, your “hope of glory”?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
AFFLUENCE’S DECEPTION OR
……………………THE ATONER’S DELIVERANCE?
It’s really interesting when you open a dictionary and read about ‘affluence or affluent’, and you read, “an abundance of money, property, or wealth; abundance of thoughts, words, (maybe ‘deeds’?)..conditioned by or based on prosperity or wealth: ‘an affluent society’…”!
Oh, and then you open the Holy Word, ‘and by chance’ (?), you read Jesus speaking in Luke 9:23-26! The Lord and Savior says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life (for himself!) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it if a man gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”
And, as we begin this study, I assume that you are aware of ‘affluent deception’, that monetary wealth is evidence and interpretation of how God feels about those who work hard and ‘earn’ their wealth – they deserve it! Really?
Do you remember Mary’s “song” in Luke 1:46-55? She sang, and you MUST hear the melody of praise and the unveiling of a significant ‘warning’! Her words? “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth ALL GENERATIONS will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud “in the imagination of their hearts”. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly.
He has filled the ‘hungry’ with good things, and the rich (in his/her pride of self-achievement ‘earning’ her wealth) He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”
Consider Genesis 12:1-4 asking yourself, “Is God a respecter of persons, and what He has done for a few, He won’t do for ALL?” The Holy Word says, the Lord speaking to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” SO Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” Age is not a ‘qualifier’ when it comes to responding to God’s call! I believe Jesus said in one place, examine Matthew 18:1-5, At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.” HAVE YOU RECEIVED CHRIST JESUS, HAVING HUMBLED YOURSELF AS AN OBEDIENT, TRUSTWORTHY CHILD OF FAITH, LONGING TO BE ONE WITH CHRIST ON HIS TERMS?
Affluence’s Deception? “My reception by God should be because of who I am and because of what I do! Look at my effort! Look at my abilities! Look at my famous winsomeness – but your God has nothing to do with that kind of personality?” NO! God crucified it!! Because of ‘fleshly pride in themselves’ some cannot fathom God’s Eternal Oughtness!
Affluence’s Deception? Affluence is not a curse, but when men don’t see God’s blessing and His anointing with eternal purpose involved, then ‘affluence’ becomes a curse with the noose already around the neck! Affluence often does mean ‘prosperous or wealthy’, but that relates to more than just a man’s bank account – it can be, and often is, the signature mark of a man the Spirit sees as “trustworthy” in who he is in Christ, and how God has “richly” endowed him/her with the “wealthy gifts from the fruit of the Spirit”!
Ledgers don’t reveal to a man what he’s ‘created in himself’ or ‘evaluated about himself’ or ‘realized about himself’! “True wealth” is revealed in and through one’s emptying of himself and him then trusting Christ to be his All in All! And the Lord Jesus “prospers” His disciples in ways the world cannot and will not comprehend because the thought of wealth has to center in their own intellectual genius on accumulating wealth by their own abilities that from God’s Throne is viewed as mental stupidity! A man is ‘rich spiritually by who he/she is in Christ – not what is in his/her bank account!
In Matthew 6:19-20 Jesus said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” There is the reality of some in ‘building’ “treasures” for themselves, but in Exodus 19:5-6 I read, “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”, (or to the people of True Faith reconciled to God and then poured out as a drink offering to all around them!). A ‘treasure’ by what they do or because of true faith in what Merciful God has done through Christ to ‘grace’ them with true riches?
Affluence’s Deception? It was William Blake, in his writing, “Riches”, who said: “Since all the riches of this world May be gifts from the devil and earthly kings, I should suspect that I worshipped the devil If I thanked my God for worldly things.” There’s no doubt that many, deceived in, yes, the Christian community, promoting the ‘gospel of wealth’, see it as the “best effort” of man’s fleshly determination apart from the Sovereignty of God, even ‘sub-consciously’ thinking, “We deserve this ‘blessing of God’”, when in reality it’s become a heavy ‘cross’ of ‘self-crucifixion’! Orin Philip Gifford once wrote: “Ahab sold himself for a vineyard, Judas, a bag of silver, Achan, a wedge and a garment, Gehazi, silver and raiment. Are you for sale?”
In Genesis 25:29-34 we read about Esau “selling his birthright.” It says, Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom, (or “Red”, gaining an identity he really didn’t need or should have!). But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, AND WENT HIS WAY. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Are you aware that for ‘earthly pleasures’ men will forfeit grace and mercy? It was Oliver Goldsmith, in his writing, “The Deserted Village”, who wrote: “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.” So good, but I believe that decayed men accumulate wealth because it, and not He, is the ‘god’ they serve! Matthew Henry, of the Matthew Henry Commentaries, wrote: “There is a burden of care in getting riches; fear in keeping them; temptation in using them; guilt in abusing them; sorrow in losing them; and a burden of account at last to be given concerning them.”
There is a prophetic warning in Jeremiah 9:23-24 where we read, Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, NOR LET THE RICH MAN GLORY IN HIS RICHES; but let him who glories glory in this, that He understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.
How warped are godless men who, sadly, have no concept of ‘true riches’ and the awesomeness of God giving them to men whether ‘poor or rich’ concerning ‘blessed gifts’ from Loving God – and I hope you sense that I think that ‘tons of money’ are nowhere near the Best Eternal Gifts out of the overflow of God’s heart wanting to “enrich” His earthly Kingdom in the minds and hearts of all men! The poorest man on the earth financially can be and often is “the richest man on God’s planet with little money but overflows in the “gifts”, the “graces”, and the “governance of God in who they are and what they do to His honor and His glory”! And God rejoices!
In Matthew 6:19-21 the Lord Jesus said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroys and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Are you familiar at all with the fact, at least for some, that they overvalue wealth and become possessed with a passion that energizes them for wealth while living but about the will of God being alive, well, and through them touching others with the wealth they’ve been blessed with TO THE GLORY OF GOD? In Psalm 62:10b King David wrote: “If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.”
In Colossians 3:22 is an interesting Word because in Bible times “bondservants” were considered by some to be ‘slaves’ and in bondage! Paul wrote: “Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God,” and most were still slaves and in bondage to their owners, but “free” as sons and daughters of Christ willfully, joyfully, and free “in The Spirit and Divine Nature of the Christ within them”, and not with eye-service as men-pleasers but willfully the “servants of Christ” and those He wanted to touch through His own disciples, not slaves! Are those of us “in Christ” today His “bondservants”?
Oh, in Psalm 50:23 we read: “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God.” Have YOU come to that necessary place in your life where worshipping, praising, honoring God, becomes primary in wanting your life to be a channel of praise in and through which Holy God recognizes one who, yes, offers praise, submits Himself to the authority of the Word of God in ordering your conduct aright, and miraculously, by His grace, mercy, and love, becoming a vessel through which others order their conduct aright, because they learn through you, yes, “seeing the salvation of God”? Oh, and here is how Dr. Martin Luther King used to state before his death as he had his acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize for Peace: “I refuse to believe the notion that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to respond to the eternal oughtness that forever confronts him.”
Affluency’s Deception OR The Atoner’s Deliverance? In Genesis 3:20-24 we read of early history of fallen mankind, and eventually, God’s ‘rescue’ of “the clothed” in need of new hearts! The Word says, And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all (physically) living. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Blessed and awesome three in One?), to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever – therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He (Almighty God) drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Maybe a look at “the sword of the Lord” would be enlightening for some who need to know that God cares about who ‘tries’ to enter His garden, but believe it’s their way and not His Way! Dare I to say that “the sword of the Lord” IS His eternal judgment on those who want a relationship with Him on their terms and not His? Examine Isaiah 34:5-12! It says: “For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, (and on ‘pretenders’ across America?), and on the people of My curse, for judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made overflowing with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. The wild oxen shall come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust saturated with fatness.” FOR IT IS THE DAY OF THE LORD’S VENGEANCE, THE YEAR OF RECOMPENSE FOR THE CAUSE OF ZION. (Does Zion represent our Lord’s Messianic Kingdom with great concern about the “pretenders”?).
Its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone; its land shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day; its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; no one shall pass through it forever and ever. But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it, and the owl and raven shall dwell in it. And He (God0 shall stretch out over it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.” Is what you’ve just read an explanation of “Affluency’s Deception”?
But what about “The Atoner’s Deliverance”? In Ephesians 3 Paul the Apostle unveiled under the Holy Spirit’s anointing the very purpose of, yes, “the mystery of Christ” that those without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, conviction, and convincing will never understand! In Verses 8-21 the Apostle, in the Spirit, informs us! He said: “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was GIVEN, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of this mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; TO THE INTENT THAT “NOW” THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD MIGHT BE MADE KNOWN BY THE CHURCH to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be ‘glory in the church’ by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
The Atoner’s Deliverance? “In Christ” we’re delivered from the law of sin and death! “In Christ” we’re delivered from the bondage of ‘temporary flesh’ and in-filled with the freedom of the Eternal Spirit! “In Christ” we’re set free from the chains of “self-love” to live in the liberty of the never-fading love of God! “In Christ” we’re released from the constant emptiness of ‘flesh allegiance’ with the chains broken, severed, crucified with Christ, and liberated in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, yes, into His “good news” that never grows old!
It was Richard Salter Storrs who wrote: “God forgives – forgives not capriciously, but with wise, definite, Divine pre-arrangement; forgives universally, on the grounds of an atonement (the shed blood of Christ at the Cross!) and ON THE CONDITION OF REPENTANCE AND FAITH.” Amen?
George Gordon, Lord Byron, in “Sacred Songs. Sound the Loud Timbrel”, wrote: “Sound the loud timbrel over Egypt’s dark sea! Jehovah has triumphed – His people are free.” Do YOU “live” in the freedom and triumph of “Victory In Jesus”? In Galatians 5:1 Paul wrote: “STAND FAST therefore in “the liberty” by which CHRIST HAS MADE US FREE, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” How does one “know”, having truly repented, that he/she is “free”? In Verses 24-25 of Galatians 5 Paul added: “And those who are Christ’s HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH (old sin nature, like Paul saying, “I die daily”!) with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Are YOU truly “married to Christ”? Some enter ‘church life’ in a ‘dreamless existence’ of ‘married to Christ’ rather than “God-blessed, God-anointed by the Holy Spirit, and God-filled with Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope” because of His eternal purpose in Christ, His provisions in Christ, and His earthly presence in, of, and by Him alone, for His glory , in unveiling through Christ’s Indwelling Presence in you, “God’s dreams of divine reality deposited in Redeemed hearts and lives willing to be the “containers” of His eternal presence! Amen?
It was Alice E. Everitt and B.B. McKinney who wrote a hymn I found in the old “The American Hymnal”, published by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn., in 1933! It was entitled, “Christ Lives In Me”! It says:
“God gives me health and strength and power, Christ lives in me; I feel His presence every hour, Christ lives in me. He fills my heart with love and peace, My sorrows Fade, my joys increase, My faith in Him will never cease, Christ lives in me.
The Son of God dwells in my heart, Christ lives in me; I know He never will depart, Christ lives in me. He gives me life and faith and hope, He gives me strength with sin to cope, ‘Mid storms and strife I need not grope’; Christ lives in me.
God breathes His love into the air, Christ lives in me; I feel His presence everywhere, Christ lives in me. He holds my hand and guides my feet, He bids me smile at all I meet, My heart is filled with love replete, Christ lives in me.
Christ lives in me, Christ lives in me,…O, glorious victory, Christ lives in me.” IS THAT TRUE OF YOU? If not, repent, then run in obedience to every Word the Lord speaks TO YOU as you “rest” in His finished work at the Cross and the empty tomb! Yes, YOUR past as the sinner is under the blood of the Lamb of God – you’ve been raised up, in Him, as the ‘saint’ who’s been set apart to His glory, honor, and praise! Let go and let Christ have His Way in and through your available life! Oh, and the second verse of Martin Luther’s hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God”, says: “Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the Right Man on our side, The Man of God’s own choosing. Do you ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth is His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.”
“Let go; let God have His marvelous Way with YOU – His marvelous Way IS Christ in you the hope of glory!” AMEN?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
BLENDING, BUT NOT BLESSED – BORN AGAIN,
AND DOING HIS BIDDING?
These weeks of writing this new book has been an amazing journey for me at 81 years of age, approaching 82 years of age, June 12, 2018! Over many days and many years, I’ve seen again and again, that salvation “in Christ” is not a homegrown experience of “do your best” in ‘blending in’ to a religious community, but it is the supernatural miracle of, yes, “born the second time in the Spirit” as a work of Christ Jesus’ atonement and His present Resurrection Life and Resurrection Hope graciously given to, truly, repentant hearts which IS one’s only hope of eternally blessed and not eternally cursed! We’re not “in Christ” commonly blended but supernaturally “born the second time” as a result of REPENTANCE toward God and BIBLICAL FAITH in Christ’s crucifixion, Christ’s resurrection Life, and in Christ’s power to raise the spiritually dead, with Christ’s promises of IMPUTED, IMPARTED, IMPLANTED HOLY PRESENCE of His Resurrection Life, Power, Promises, and Eternal Hope that never wanes or fades away!
The words that you’re going to read were copyrighted in 1933 by Robert H. Coleman but written by Rev. A.H. Ackley before that! The hymn was published in the American Hymnal! It’s entitled: “If You Let Him”. It says: “The Savior is waiting your sins to forgive, He can and He will if you let Him…Without His forgiveness your soul cannot live, He can and He will if you let Him.
The Savior is longing to comfort your heart, He can and He will if you let Him,…The joy that you need He will gladly impart, He can and He will if you let Him.
The Savior is ready your life to refine, He can and He will if you let Him… And make you a channel of power divine, He can and He will if you let Him. He can and He will if you let Him…He can and He will if you let Him; Let Jesus come in, He will save you from sin, He can and He will if you let Him.”
But, of course, YOU KNOW! There can be either stubbornness or surrender to the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God! In John 12:44-50 we read: Then Jesus CRIED OUT and said: “He who believes in Me (the ‘word’ believe in Greek means “trusts in, rely upon, or adhere to”, far more than just intellectual awareness!), believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My word, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” Blending?
In Romans 12:2 we read, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be (being) transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what IS that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
It’s certain that “blending into the world system” is contrary to the eternal purpose of God for fallen mankind, alienated and separated from Him, but for some, ‘commonality in doing good should be enough for ‘respect’ from God’! What some will admit is a problem is the commonality of doing evil and rebelling incessantly against the Holy Word of God! But both good and evil is not accepted by Holy God – only those “washed in the blood of the Lamb” through repentance toward God and faith in what Christ did at the Cross, opening the door of “true salvation”, producing reborn lives, renewed minds, and yielded wills to God, unveiling the truly redeemed sons and daughters of faith!
In Psalm 32:1-5, and verses 8-11,David shared his heart, inspired by the Spirit! He said: Verses 1-5, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. (That’s covered under the blood of the Lamb of God!). Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all day long. (Sin has consequences!). For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; (because God cares and intervenes exposing the burden sin brings!). For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. (Look at Psalm 38:3-8 where David experienced the heavy hand of God’s divine conviction! No doubt there was a time when David lived carelessly as a ‘captive sinner’, yes, under the heavy-handedness of the world, the flesh, and Satan – sin has consequences! David said what? “Verse 3, There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, God, nor any health in my bones BECAUSE OF MY SIN, my willful rebellion. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me .(Because sin has weighty results!). My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness.
David goes on confessing, Verses 6-8, I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are full of inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.” (And dare I tell you? At least David was troubled greatly when conviction exposed his sick walk, at that time, not living for the glory of God, but to ‘satisfy’ the lusts of his heart and mind!)
But again, returning to Psalm 32:5, David said, “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Glory! Oh, then look at Psalm 32:8-11, David sensed Holy God, merciful God, speaking to him, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, MERCY SHALL SURROUND HIM. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”
At times there are those who ‘try to bend’ before God, but because of the “flesh nature of sin”, they choose ‘blending in with the fallen-away-ones’, even seeing some ‘try to bend toward God on their own’, but man’s sin-nature cannot produce “new birth” – only spiritual disappointment as they fail and fall away from Biblical Truth! ‘Fleshly faith’ is verbal failure, while “Spiritual Faith, IS Word of God Revealed Faith” resulting in divine forgiveness, “new birth”, and Victorious fulfillment day after day after day, yes, through all of Eternity under the watch-care of the King of kings and Lord of lords!
Come with me to Matthew 21:28-32! Get ready, if you’re a ‘religious, self-qualifier of ‘faith’ as you see it’, or “True Faith” unveiled by Christ Jesus! The Word says: “But What do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, “Son, go, work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”
Dare I tell you? Obedience is not an option in the age of grace! Have YOU overlooked Luke 6:46? “But why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” Christ Jesus spoke then and speaks now! Is your ‘life of faith in Christ’, yes, “the walk of obedience, a daily yielded walk under His administration, and surrender to what He asks of every true disciple”? Are you one who is avowedly unyielding to His will and Word, or one, yes, willing to die in obedience to His Word, will, and ways? In the modern world around you, there are those very vocal, intent on letting you know that though you live to honor Christ in all He asks of you, the hard-hearted will easily say, “I will not walk through life being obedient to your God or Savior! I am my own man doing as I will and indulging in what pleases me because your God, your Savior doesn’t own me!” But THEIR judgment day does come!
Are you aware that there are those around you who avoid the “Rock of their salvation” because they are so comfortable in “their shifting sands”? – and because they have no True Foundation, they’re ‘open game’ to Satan’s prime hunters! Oh, but then a John the Baptist comes! And John 1:29 tells us, The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, (early days of Christ’s public ministry before His cross three years later!), and John said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Verses 30-34, John continuing, “This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
And in John 3:14 the Lord Jesus said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It’s such a thrilling, life-changing, exuberant moment to truly “Meet the Master”, and you learn, “Forever you’re under His wings”, watched over, spiritually provided for, guarded by His heavenly armies, and, yes, protected by His Word, His Spirit, and His angelic hosts!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CRUSHED LIVES – COMPASSIONATE LIBERATOR!
In reading Shakespeare, especially in your school days, or later, do you remember when he said, “He jests at scars who never felt a wound”? Certainly, David was not a man who made light of his wounds because there was a time when he felt he was “a crushed life”! He learned about the “Compassionate Liberator” because he tells US in Psalm 147:3, “He (God) heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
In Isaiah 53:4-6 the prophet unveils his “new-found liberation”, so desirous of encouraging others that there is a “High-Way of Healing”! He wrote, speaking of the Coming Christ, the Messianic promise of God fulfilled, when he wrote: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. BUT He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned (by example!), everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him THE INIQUITY OF US ALL!”
“Crushed Lives”? In Jeremiah 31:15-25 is a historical Word for failing Israel AND for “fallen away” humanity worldwide since who need the “Compassionate Liberator”! It says: (Read it as a Godly parent today, heartbroken for godless, wayward, self-centered ‘kids’ who haven’t “grown up”!), THUS SAYS THE LORD: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” (Could that be ‘children’ who are no more, “devoted to the God who made them, lost them, but bought them with a ‘price’”?)
Again, Verse 16 & following: Thus says the Lord: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, And THEY SHALL COME BACK FROM THE LAND OF THE ENEMY. There IS hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained bull; Restore me, and I will return, For You are the Lord my God. Surely, after my turning, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I WAS ASHAMED, yes, EVEN HUMILIATED, because ‘I bore the reproach of my youth.’
Is Ephraim My dear son? (The twelve tribes of Israel, the masses of fallen humanity? Does God see them as ‘sons’ who have fallen away from Him?). Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; (Does God know YOU by name, and does He remember YOU though you’ve fallen away, and remain alienated and separated from Holy God?); therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.
Set up signposts, make landmarks; set your heart toward the highway, the way in which you went, Turn back, O virgin of Israel, turn back to these your cities. How long will you “gad about”, O you backsliding daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth – a woman shall encompass a man.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, WHEN I BRING BACK THEIR CAPTIVITY: ‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice and mountain of holiness!’ And there shall dwell in Judah (the house of praise!) itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. FOR I HAVE SATIATED THE WEARY SOUL, AND I HAVE REPLENISHED EVERY SORROWFUL SOUL.”
“Crushed lives?” Are “crushed lives” even aware of broken-hearted God over their, yes, sorrow, because they’ve “come to the end of themselves” and wonder: “Is there hope for one so ‘fallen away’ from the God who made me?” “He knows I’m a ‘weary soul’ – and He has hope in ME?” “I’ve lived on ‘sour grapes’, but does He really promise me the fruit of His Spirit?” “My sin has left me old, blind, and wretched in my fleshly spirit, but you say, “God has hope in YOU through His Son, the Lord Jesus, and that the way of His Cross leads me home to God’s abiding Presence?” Yes!! Glory, Hallelujah, Praise be to the God of grace, mercy, and love!
How familiar are you, and how often do you reflect and share God’s Word in Psalm 32:1-5, and Verses 10-11? The psalmist wrote: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You (God) forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Glory! Oh, but examine Verses 10-11! “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” Without the Savior and Lord over your life, you’re ‘down-cast’ when you could be ‘uplifted’ in the very embodiment of Christ IN YOU, the King of kings and Lord of lords! A Verse of an old hymn says, “Could your tears forever flow, could your zeal no longer know, All for sin could not atone; Christ must save and He alone.”
There is a ‘doctrine’ in the New testament that unveils “justification”, which means “acceptance”, ‘just-as-if-I’d-never sinned’! How awesome is that?!? Again, Psalm 32:1, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” And HOW did that truth become birthed in the history of fallen humanity, fallen away from God and His eternal purpose? Oh, bathe yourself in the Truth of Colossians 2:13-15! It reflects “crushed” and unveils the “Compassionate Liberator”!!
“And YOU, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He (Christ Jesus) has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (the Cross!).”
“Crushed lives”? Have you ever witnessed some who ‘failed’ in fulfilling their fleshly dreams and end up in a bemoaning state of life, because, in themselves, they sense they haven’t and can’t ‘measure up’ to what they anticipated for themselves? Shattered dreams can birth “crushed lives”! But even in THAT frame of reference, a ‘dream for one’s self’ may not be shattered as they accomplish “my dream”, but having seen its ‘completion’, if it’s not God’s handiwork, then the most “successful dreamer” can be the one the furthest away from Holy God!
“Crushed lives”? How many “experts” have you witnessed crossing your path, but as you learn about them, whether highly successful in scientific achievements, medical research, or financial ‘wizards’ in the Stock Market, or Academy Award winners in the movie or television business, or ‘super-stars’ on the fields of athletic achievements, at least you’ve discerned, their ‘spiritual lives’ stayed in the “wrong turn”, and they end up ‘blind to God’s love, grace, and mercy’, but ‘captured’ in chains of deception, because “faith in God, obedience to His commands”, were truths they wanted no part of for their choice of a ‘life-style’ – overlooking God’s Word in Proverbs 27:20, “Hell and Destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.” You do discern that the eyes, hearts, and minds of some men who IGNORE TRUTH have a great capacity for fleshly lust, even envious of others and their ‘hellish lifestyles, and their godless greed’!
“Crushed lives”? In Proverbs 30:11-17 we read: “There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation – oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.
The leech has two daughters – Give and Give! There are three things that are never satisfied, four never say, “Enough!” The grave, the barren womb, the earth is not satisfied with water – and the fire never says, “Enough!” The eye that mocks his father, and scorns obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it.”
“Crushed lives”? Often unaware of ‘self-serving pride and personal boasting’, many around you are experiencing a deeper and greater ‘disease’ that is, yes, deadly to potential, deadly to God’s intent, deadly to relationships, and deadly to being reconciled to God! In 1 John 2:16-17 the beloved John wisely wrote inspired by the Holy Spirit, “For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world (spirit). And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
In Proverbs 16:18-19 we read: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” You’ll find earlier in Proverbs 15:14 the following: “The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge (that’s biblical knowledge!), but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.” And the ‘foolishness’ of trying to live without God, the Savior, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Word? In Luke 24:25-27 the Lord Jesus spoke, so troubled by the hearts and minds of those who never consider Eternal Purpose in their journey through life on earth: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter God’s glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself”!
“Crushed lives”? In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, Paul ‘judged’ immorality, but not the immorality of the “lost, the alienated, the separated from God” – if he had, he’d have no relationship with those who needed to be “born again”, so he explains, “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner – not even to eat with such a person.” And his emphasis “Crushed Lives” can be, at times, within a ‘fellowship of believers’ – and they are certainly not to be overlooked ,not corrected, or disciplined – but his concern was an open relationship with ‘world folks’ without ‘judging them’ but inspiring them with the need of reconciliation with the God who loves them and, yes, wants them free of their bondages of a sin-nature that Jesus took to the Cross with Him!
“Crushed lives” exposed leads to the “Compassionate Liberator” BECAUSE: Galatians 5:1 enlightens us, “Stand fast therefore ‘in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
Do you remember Jesus revisiting Nazareth where He had been raised by Mary and Joseph? In Luke 4:16-19, we read, So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Christ Jesus, sharing Truth of His eternal purpose, was cast out of the ‘Holy City’ by the ‘religious pretenders’ and ‘radical sinners’, going to Capernaum, and, yes, began teaching on the Sabbath.
In Luke 4:33 the Word tells us, Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, crying out, “Let us alone, Jesus! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are – the Holy One of God!” And the next Verse tells us that Jesus challenged the demon and ordered it out of the troubled man’s life! And the demon left!
Knowing it’s ‘easy’ having been delivered from the law of sin and death, delivered from demonic control and demonic influences, birthed into Christ’s Sovereign Kingdom and established as His ambassador, at least for ‘some’, to ‘fall away’, ‘give in to temptation’, be “wooed by the fallen world”, to DRIFT and find one’s self ‘enticed by the powers of darkness’, “it’s OK, because God understands!”! Really? But, Thank God, His Son and our Savior “IS able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think,” and in our spiritual pilgrimage, if one “falls away”, the Lord and Savior will confront you and challenge you: “Repent or else!” And gloriously, having fallen away, but sought out by Jesus and the Holy Spirit, you will, if you fall, “Look TO the Author and Finisher of your faith” with thanksgiving in your heart!
But, for the majority of “true disciples”? THERE’S NO INTEREST IN “FALLING AWAY” but in living in the fullness of His Abiding Presence, resting in His “finished work”, leaning “in” His strong arms, celebrating His promises, obeying His every command, upholding and broadcasting His Word, Will, and Way, and “abounding in His promises,” “passionate in our desire to please and honor Him”, even saying with Paul, Philippians 3:10-14, “that I may KNOW HIM and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also LAID HOLD OF ME. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I PRESS TOWARD THE GOAL FOR THE PRIZE OF THE UPWARD CALL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.”
Is Christ Jesus YOUR “Compassionate Liberator”? P.P. Bliss wrote the old hymn, “Once For All”, copyrighted in the “American Hymnal” in 1933! It says: “Free from the law, O happy condition, Jesus has bled, and there is remission; Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, Grace has redeemed us once for all.
Now are we free – there’s no condemnation, Jesus provides a perfect salvation; ‘Come unto Me,’ O hear His sweet call, Come, and He saves us once for all.
“Children of God,” O glorious calling, Surely His grace will keep us from falling; Passing from death to life at His call, Blessed salvation once for all.
Once for all, O sinner, receive it, Once for all, O brother, believe it; Cling to the Cross, the burden will fall, Christ has redeemed us once for all.”
I often wonder how many ‘professing’ disciples or ‘church members feed daily as their spiritual milk, spiritual bread, and spiritual meat! In Colossians 2:2-10 we read some uplifting, relieving, and rescuing words for ‘faltering disciples’ who’ve, yes, ignored WHO THEY ARE “IN CHRIST” and IGNORED HIS WORD! It says:
“That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and ATTAINING to ALL the riches of full understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
COMPLETE IN CHRIST? But one ignores His mission? Complete in Christ? But some live by physical bread alone? Complete in Christ? But some are twisted by men’s philosophies, not freed by His Word of Truth? Complete in Christ? But not as His ambassador? Complete in Christ? But your church membership is primary over Christ’s commands?
In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 I close this chapter with challenging words from Paul! “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. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Really? But no submission on your part to be obedient to Him, yes, concerning evangelism and missions through YOU to the glory of God? Is a “new” Great Awakening needed?
CHAPTER NINETEEN
KINGDOM CHOICES: THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS & SELF-RULE OR THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST’S ETERNAL RULE IN ETERNAL LIGHT?
There’s a powerful statement I read in the Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations that I’ve noted earlier in this book, but it related to what I see in the Word as “The Kingdom of Darkness and Self-Rule.” James Milner is quoted as saying: “While a man rests on his own merits for acceptance with God, it is of little consequence whether he is a pagan idolater, or a proud, ignorant Pharisee. – I know not which of the two is most distant from the kingdom of God.” So very, very true!
When it comes to the “spiritual Kingdom of God”, established, envisioned, and ordained for our world before it ever existed, the reality of it flowed out of the mind, heart, and will of God with conditions. The Kingdom of God was birthed by His Divine Will, understood by Him, and He wanted ‘righteous men and women’ to be His tools of Inspiration!
And the Kingdom of God doesn’t come because of a self-righteous ‘thought’ it may be a good idea! William Temple, one of the former Archbishops of Canterbury in England, wrote in “The Malvern Manifesto: “There is no structural organization of society which can bring about the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth, since all systems can be perverted by the selfishness of men.” IT IS EVIDENT! Because of the fallen nature of mankind and, yes, even the “self-centeredness of religious zealots”, that men, under even the domination of the powers of darkness, can, at least, ‘think’ they are serving God by establishing their own religious kingdoms!
True Kingdom Rule is when in a man’s heart, convicted by the Holy Spirit, resting in the “finished work of Christ at the Cross and empty tomb”, transformed by the renewing of the mind and heart through God’s amazing love and grace, equipped by the Spirit in giftings and callings, and taught by Jesus “how to pray”, the True Kingdom was birthed! Do you remember Jesus speaking to the young disciples in Matthew 6:9-13? In this manner, therefore pray: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed by Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. FOR YOURS IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOREVER. Amen.”
Apart from the “Saving Grace and Mercy of God”, the fallen ‘world’ is ‘the kingdom of fallen men ruled over by the powers of darkness! You know it; you WERE a part of it before you were “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb,” easily embraced by your sin nature, deceived mind, and ‘fleshly impulses’ inspired by Satan, committed to gaining ‘your world as you saw it for yourself’, and in and of the ‘world’, and though the “Light” always shines, YOU WERE IN THE DARKNESS, AND YOUR DARKNESS DID NOT COMPREHEND “SAVING GRACE” OR “THE LIVING LORD” because YOU were under your sin-nature control and domination!
I’m always amazed as I review John 3, and recently I came to John 3:25-36, awed by what I read, deeply moved by “the bridegroom’s voice”! John wrote: There arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan River, to whom you have testified – “Behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”
John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. HE MUST INCREASE, but I must decrease.
He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. 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 the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in (Trusts in, Relies upon, Adheres to) in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
KINGDOM CHOICES? IS THERE ANY DOUBT THERE IS THE KINGDOM CHOICE OF DARKNESS AND SELF-RULE? You are not aware that the Holy Word of God declares that “the self-movement, self-worship, self-determination, and self-will” dominates the “lost society of willful, self-centered, and a sin-chosen allegiance” in place of surrender to the God of love and grace and mercy through the sacrifice of His beloved Son at the Cross”, then resurrected Him to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords?
KINGDOM CHOICES? Because humanity was created free to choose, from Adam and Eve onward to this 21st Century, created men are born enslaved to their sin natures and live to satisfy what they experience in their devotion to their old sin natures! And their identifiable ‘heart’ of that ‘devotion’? “Self-love” rules rather than the Creator! The constant ‘drive’ to satisfy, yes, Satan and the old sin-nature never wanes apart from God’s conviction through the Spirit!
Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, shared God’s view of ‘fleshly men and fleshly women’ when he wrote, in 2 Timothy 3:1-9, “But know this, that in the last days (of the time periods of any short-lived existing societies?) perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away.
For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambrees resisted Moses (Exodus 7:8-13!), so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”
Do you know any around you today, declared ‘religious leaders’, who ‘profess’ faith, but really have no desire to share the faith with the ‘lost’? Christ Jesus may have said, “Share the Faith”, but they’d rather, in their little circle of friends, talk about it while millions around them are being consumed by Hell’s fires of engulfing seduction!
The kingdom of darkness and self-rule IS “alive and well” in a lot of American churches today! In David F. Wells’ book, “No Place For Truth,” (pps.182-183), he wrote: “The sort of Christian faith that is conceived in the womb of self is quite different from the historic Christian faith. It is a smaller thing, shrunken in its ability to understand the world and to stand up in it. The self is a canvas too narrow, too cramped, to contain the largeness of Christian truth. Where the self circumscribes the significance of Christian faith, good and evil are reduced to a sense of well-being or its absence, God’s place in the world is reduced to a sense of well-being or its absence, God’s place in the world is reduced to the domain of private consciousness, his external acts of redemption are trimmed to fit the experience of personal salvation, his providence in the world diminishes to whatever is necessary to ensure one’s having a good day, his Word becomes intuition, and conviction fades into evanescent opinion….
Theology becomes therapy, and all the telltale symptoms of the therapeutic model of faith begin to surface. The biblical interest in righteousness is replaced by a search for happiness, holiness by wholeness, truth by feeling, ethics by feeling good about one’s self. The world shrinks to the range of personal circumstances; the community of faith shrinks to a circle of personal friends. The past recedes. The Church recedes. The world recedes. All that remains is self.”
How many do you know, in the church, leadership and membership, who ‘major’ on ‘self-growth’ without a concern about the conversion of the lost and perishing in their world around them? It’s a dramatic shift from world evangelism to a church’s ingrained devotion to its self with, really, not much, if any, concern about world evangelism! Is that “The Kingdom of Darkness and Self-rule”, omitting evangelism as one of the church’s most important ministries – and, I do say, a church’s ministries, plural! When it comes to “church life”, Marshall McLuhan was on target when he once said: “As people become more involved, (in church life!), they know less and less.” So true, as they center on themselves without an ounce of concern for a ‘lost world’, alienated and separated from God, but they ‘think’, “I’m alright, you’re alright, and our world is alright”!! Really?
Kingdom Choices? Is it fleshly, mindful, even ‘faithful’ evaluation of a church’s intent, but without or apart from the scriptural unveiling of the birth of the ‘church’ and God’s intent in establishing it? Does the pastor, do the elders or the deacons, and the membership-at-large, major on divine revelation or is it only what one ‘thinks’ the church should be about? Does the leadership major, yes, major on what it envisions for itself or the unveiling of Holy Spirit inspired aim, goal, and purpose as revealed through “the Acts” of the apostles, set-apart church leaders, and the “new-born” church membership, under the anointing, guidance, and teaching of the Holy Spirit? Did Jesus and the early church commit themselves to His, You shall be My witnesses” or see their role examining their ‘spiritual navels’ every week they gathered – in fact, they were assembling daily in the early church!
How sad do you think it is when truly born-again disciples of Christ, within a local church setting, are silenced about ‘evangelical church-intent’, when a ‘lead pastor’ and church elders don’t want research into their purposes as they ignore the call to “make disciples” into evangelical missionaries?
For instance! It’s a small assembly in a small town! When they’ve saturated their community faithfully, do they have a vision for a neighboring city, state, or nation, OR are they even inspired by their pastor in any international outreach? It breaks my heart, at 81 years of age, to even think about leaders and churches who have no world vision for the cause of Christ! They’re too comfortable in themselves to be concerned about others!
Kingdom Choices? In Matthew 20:26-28 we read: “…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.” But some across modern society have the ‘desire’ to be served, not to serve others in the name of Christ!
In Romans 1:24-25 Paul highlights the folks who settle in to their ‘self-kingdom-allegiance’! “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 e. Amen.” “The Lie”? “You can sin, and not die”, even though “the wages of sin is death”!
This is why in Galatians 5:13 Paul issued a warning to the “believers”: “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity (or excuse) for the flesh (your old sin nature!), but through love serve one another.” Life without God, choosing your ‘kingdom’, not His, is nothing more than the stench of death waiting to die! In fact, in Hebrews 2:2-4 the author really highlighted you alternatives in ‘life choices’. He said:
“For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE IF WE NEGLECT SO GREAT A SALVATION, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?”
Escape while ignoring the Sovereign work of God? Escape as if the ‘sin-nature’ has us bound? Apart from Christ, every man, woman, boy, or girl, worldwide, IS a ‘slave’ to the sin-nature! It sounds as if the “we” are those entrapped, in bondage, yes, behind, in prison walls! Can you ‘hear’ the chains dragging as they walk? I see prison bars with guards at each gate. I sense oppression and omission, and see lives who wanted no part of the Victorious Life in and through Christ Alone!
I sense emptiness with no clue of escape from the best efforts of fallen flesh. But ESCAPE? Escape from what? Try escaping from the darkness of a godless life, escape from superstitions that are so Satanic, escape from the law of sin and death, escape from the blunderings of the unbeliever’s life, escape from physical and spiritual poverty and life bankruptcy, escape from the feelings, fears, and fights aloneness produces void of Life and Spirit out of God Himself, or escape from aimlessness, from a life void of Divine Purpose, escape from the sad song of NO SALVATION, NO HEALING, NO DELIVERANCE, or, escape from self-centeredness, self-will, or self-rule that breeds eternal destruction!
Oh, but here’s the question of this moment: “Are YOU living in the Kingdom of Christ’s Eternal Rule In Eternal Light”? In the Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, I read a statement by Paul W. Harrison that so enlightens the present moment’s emphasis, saying, “Wherever God rules over the human heart as King, there is the kingdom of God established.” The Kingdom-Rule of Christ is unveiled as we hear Jesus ask in Luke 6:46 which I shared in a few chapters earlier, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?”
The Lord and Savior began His public ministry saying to His “chosen disciples”, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men;” in the Association Press of many years ago, Frederick W. Brink wrote: “Christianity is not an ‘idea in the air.’ It is feet on the ground going God’s way.” So true, while at the same time, I add, “It’s one ‘trusting and obeying’ God’s Holy Word, as he/she has seen and witnessed Him testifying to the heart and mind that willingness is not an option one holds but is committed to obey however and wherever and ‘why-ever’ He says! A philosopher may ‘educate’ you in his view of life, but only Christ Jesus GIVES YOU A “NEW LIFE” instructing you, yes, to “Go, and make disciples”! THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST’S ETERNAL RULE IN ETERNAL LIGHT?
I’ve always been a James Stewart fan, a Scottish disciple that touched many lives with his writing. Stewart authored a book entitled, “The Strong Name”,( published through Grand Rapids: Baker, 1972). His biblical text was Psalm 68:18, “He led captivity captive.” Stewart wrote: (p.55), It is a glorious phrase – “He led captivity captive.” The very triumphs of His foes, it means, He used it for their defeat. He compelled their dark achievements to subserve His ends, not theirs. They nailed Him to the tree, not knowing that by that very act they were bringing the world to its feet. They gave Him a cross, not guessing that He would make it a throne. They flung Him outside the gates to die, not knowing that in that very moment they were lifting up all the gates of the universe, to let the King come in. They thought to root out His doctrines, not understanding that they were implanting imperishably in the hearts of men the very name they intended to destroy. They thought they had God with His back to the wall, pinned and helpless and defeated: they did not know that it was God Himself who had tracked them down. He did not conquer “in spite of” the dark mystery of evil. He conquered through it.”
I’m coming close to closing this chapter, but sharing Romans 8:35-39 followed by an old hymn! Paul wrote: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And the Hymn by B.B. McKinney and Gene Routh? (It was copyrighted in 1924!). It is entitled: “Since His Love Came Shining Through”. It says: “I was drifting far from the “Beacon Star”, Clouds of sin had covered the blue; From His throne on high Jesus heard my cry, And His love came shining through.
Through the stormy night or the sunshine bright, I’ve a song triumphant and new; Jesus saved me from sin, gave me peace within, And His love came shining through.
Souls afar in sin I will help to win, And to Christ I’ll ever be true; Then when all is o’er I will reach that shore, Since His love came shining through.
Since His love came shining through, I’ve a joy that’s always new; All the clouds are rifted And my burdens lifted, Since His love came shining through.” Amen?
CHAPTER TWENTY
EVIDENCES OF THE “NEW BIRTH”
That all men “must be born again” is a strange statement to most men in the world environment regardless of their ‘natural’ corner of the globe where they were birthed – natural man is spiritually blinded needing the “New Birth”, but without Spirit conviction the majority settle for natural lives in love with their world, the demonic influences, and the strangle-hold of the ‘self-life’ without any need at all of God, His Son, or His Spirit, or His Holy Word! To be confronted with God’s view of fallen men will arouse within many anger and heavy resentment of God’s messengers!
For messengers of Christ to challenge the unredeemed with the message of grace, mercy, and love unveiled in the Holy Word is to arouse in many that “inner gall of bitterness” because they’re exposed, but, yes, in love with the soul that IS “dead in trespasses and sin” and has no open door, on their own, to try and enter Heaven in their after-life!
In John 6:35-40, Christ Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. (Believes in? “Trusts in, relies upon, adheres to” – not simply one’s intellectual awareness!). But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
IF there are Evidences of the “New Birth”, where, how, and by Whom does it take place? Is it because men sense something ‘missing’ in their lives, or does it relate to the compassion of God and His Sovereignty in setting those whom He chooses for His eternal purpose and plan on a firm foundation of True Faith? In 1 Peter 2:1-10 we read of those who’ve answered God’s knock at their door! It says: “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, IF INDEED you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Comin to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” And, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, TO WHICH THEY ALSO WERE APPOINTED.
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; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
EVIDENCES OF THE NEW BIRTH? Well, for one foundational stone of “true Faith”, you KNOW you’re one “chosen by God”! You heard the “knock” at your heart’s door, and you repented and “rested” in Him and His promises!
In Hebrews 12:25-29 we read: “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For “if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth,” much more shall we not escape who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” (Are YOU a part of the “eternal Kingdom of God” that is unshakable and eternal?)
EVIDENCES OF THE NEW BIRTH? Consider ‘contentment’ with, where, and with what, and why we rest in our Lord’s sovereign provisions and heavenly plan for our time on this earth! In Hebrews 13:1 we read, “Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”
Verse 3,“Remember the prisoners as if chained with them – (especially) those who are mistreated – since you yourselves are in the body also.” For many years as a pastor, I spent time visiting jails and prisons witnessing to the prisoners. Now, in our modern day, pastors or preachers are not allowed in most jails and prisons! That’s a public disgrace by your ‘elected’ officials!
At the same time, as a “new-born” son or daughter of God, were we “born again” to be a part of His “ministering kingdom”, considering the ‘slaves under Satan’s domination’, the disoriented who have no understanding of eternal purpose, the fearful, the ‘bored’, the wounded, and the spiritually needed, better known as ‘the desperate ones’?
Many read the Word of God occasionally yet read it not as Sacred instruction and its Biblical inspiration of the “fruit of being born-again”, but too often, if read, see it unfocused, and not relevant to their everyday life as a disciple of Christ!
It was Walker Percy, quoted in the book, “No Place For Truth”, (p.53), who said: “Why does man feel so sad in the twentieth century? Why does man feel so bad in the very age when, more than in any other age, he has succeeded in satisfying his needs and making the world over for his own use?” And, of course, that’s because the ‘unredeemed’ see no eternal intent in creation of the world at large! They see world creation ‘without God’ and with no significant purpose, becoming mostly a “benign civilization”!
In fact, would you say, or not say, that modern-day life has become days of moral indifference if it satisfies one’s ‘flesh-aims’? And, sadly, most see, as a result of natural order, a serious decay rather than as a divine opportunity to be the difference in the life of individuals, families, or nations, or, yes, God’s opportunity in them and through them to extend His everlasting, enduring, blessed Kingdom of Lordship-Rule all across their known world!
God’s redeemed, born-again, anointed and Spirit-filled family of faith should not settle in as ‘spiritual hiber-nationalists’ behind the closed doors of the gathered assemblies, but Living Witnesses touching the world around them with Holy Truth! Do you sense that the world’s population CAN and should be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, extending God’s Kingdom and enlarging “the family of Faith”? But, sadly, beginning with pastors and leaders, many never consider the “Book of Acts” and the church’s witnessing ministry!
You want to see your community changed, your state changed, your ‘world’ changed? It doesn’t come about because of the brilliance of a man’s philosophy, his ‘higher education’ degrees, or his faithful devotion to the church inside its four walls, but one’s mission of evangelism, missions, and compassionate concern for the spiritually needed anywhere and everywhere, yes, sharing the faith about how and by whom one is “born again.”
As a result of being “born again”, one becomes a citizen of the eternal Kingdom of Christ, receiving His mandate, His commissioning as “ambassadors of Christ”! There IS a “new world order”, but it is not political, but spiritual – we’re not now ‘modern socialists’ but ‘modern servants’, anointed by the Holy Spirit to be salt and light in our darkened world by the lawlessness of sin and death, assuring our world that Christ Jesus is the “Great Physician” able to heal what needs to be healed in you and around you! Sadly, many professing believers, even many church gatherings, have abolished, dissolved, even denied, that all believers are, yes, ‘mission-birthed, anointed, and instructed’ as the Lord’s “point men”, unveiling the way of salvation to unbelievers locally, statewide, nationwide, and worldwide!
Do believers today live in the faith, in the Spirit-world, in the Kingdom of God, through rationalization or Revelation? Notice what Paul said to Timothy and us when he wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Of course, because of immaturity in some believers that they “retire” into, some, sadly, are deficient in understanding the ‘equipping’ of all disciples in fighting the good fight of faith, not grasping or holding onto Biblical instruction that prepares them for what they will face! In 2 Peter 3, because of “the coming of the day of the Lord,” in Verses 11-18 we read: “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth IN WHICH RIGHTEOUSNESS DWELLS. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation – as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, has written to you, as also in his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
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.”
Question! Do you faithfully live in your own steadfastness to the glory of the Lord, or is devotion to Him a ‘take it or leave it thing’ without any consequences – or so you think? ARE THERE REMINDERS OF THE EVIDENCES OF THE NEW BIRTH? Let’s examine them again:
EVIDENCES OF THE NEW BIRTH?
- THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT IS OUR FORGIVENESS BY GOD! Ephesians 1:7 says: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of His grace.”
- THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT IS OUR STANDING! Romans 5:9 says, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be (being) saved from wrath through Him.”
- THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT IS OUR ACCESS! Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ,” with Hebrews 10:19 adding, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest (Place) by the blood of Jesus.”
- THE BLOOD OF CHRIST IS OUR VICTORY OVER THE POWERS OF DARKNESS! Revelation 12:11 says, (the accuser of the brethren 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.”
- THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT IS OUR EVERLASTING PROMISE! Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
- THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT OF OUR ETERNAL PEACE! Colossians 1:19-20 says: “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether tings on earth or things in heaven, HAVING MADE PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS.”
Question! Are YOU living in the peace that passes all understanding? Are YOU reconciled to God through Christ, the only way to be reconciled to God? Are YOU “rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ”? (Colossians 2:5b). Dare I tell you? Believe I will! “Be reconciled to God!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ACCELERATED FLESH OR ARMED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT?
There’s a quote from Edward George Bulwer-Lytton that I found in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, (edited by Frank S. Mead and published by Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, 1965), that says: “Fate! There is no fate. – Between the thought and the success God is the only agent.” Yet “accelerated flesh” brags about what ‘it’ did out of “the best effort of human flesh without any help from your God you claim to trust. Who needs God when I’m the master of my own destiny.” Really?
It was St. Augustine, in his writing, “The City of God”, who said: “If by fate anyone means the will or power of God, let him keep his meaning but mend his language; for fate commonly means a necessary process which will have its way apart from the will of God and of men.” So true!
It’s as if “I tried” suspects it doesn’t need God’s help, God’s governance, or God’s means since ‘accelerated flesh’ can move mountains! Really? Colossians 2:8-15 is a powerful unveiling of the futility of ‘accelerated flesh’ revealing the blessing of “ARMED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT”! Paul wrote: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, 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.
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, HAVING FORGIVEN YOU ALL TRESPASSES, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.
And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” THAT, my friends, IS A GLORY! HALLELUJAH MOMENT!
There are times, moments, days when the Tempter, Satan, is ‘heavy-duty’ in seeking to turn you away from “Armed In the Holy Spirit” to “try your best” in ‘accelerated flesh’! In James 1:12-20, the brother of Jesus wrote: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
BUT each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
Oh, but then look at James 1:21! “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Accelerated flesh is a man’s full surrender to satisfy his old sin-nature and turn deaf ears to the warning of God’s Holy Word! Holy God is not interested in any man “perishing” in his/her devotion to their old self, old sin-nature, or old ideas of “fitting in to a rebellious world’s opposition to God’s Truth”!
Accelerated flesh? I recently read Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poetry that I found in a bookstore in Waco, Texas, a number of years ago. It’s entitled “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, published sometime between 1826 to 1844! It’s entitled “Vanities” – underneath the title were words by Drummond: “From fading things, fond men, lift your desire.” Then Elizabeth gave us the following:
“Could you be blest in hearkening Youth’s often danced-to melodies – Hearing it piped, the midnight darkening Does come to show starry skies, – To freshen garden-flowers, the rain? It is in vain, it is in vain!
Could you be very blest in urging A captive nation’s strength to thunder Out into foam, and with its surging The Xerxean fetters break asunder? The storm is cruel as the chain! It is in vain, it is in vain!
Could you be very blest in patting Your brows with studious nights and days, When like your lamps your life is failing, And sighs, not breath, are wrought from praise; Your tombs, not you, that praise retain – It is in vain, it is in vain!
Yes! But you could be very blest, If some your nearest love were nearest! Must “they” not love when loved best? Must you not happiest love when dearest? Alas! – how hard to feel again, It is in vain, it is in vain.
For those you love are not unsighing, – They are unchanging least of all: And you the loved – ah! No denying, Will leave your lips beneath the pall, When passioned ones have over it said – “It is in vain, it is vain!”
There’s a really interesting, heart-touching, and mind-stirring word from Proverbs 15:13 where the wise man wrote: “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.” And ‘sorrow of the heart’ comes as one accelerates his/her ‘flesh nature’ and resists the Holy Spirit rather than yielding to the Spirit and, yes, dealing with what needs to be dealt with: “devotion to accelerated flesh” or “yieldedness armed in the Spirit”?
Accelerated flesh is armed with the help of strong world-influences and Satan himself who desires to take down in you any thought about surrendering to Holy God, but “armed in the Holy Spirit”, the true believer is ready to wage war and win against the world, the old sin-nature, and the devil himself!
“Armed in the Holy Spirit” IS the way that gives hope of victory over the law of sin and death! In Ephesians 1:7-14 we are introduced to the eternal redemption in Christ Jesus, transformed, and sealed by the Holy Spirit, with a guarantee!! It says: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which HE MADE TO ABOUND TOWARD US IN ALL WISDOM AND PRUDENCE, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ,
Both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also TRUSTED, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, WHO IS THE GUARANTEE of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Set apart WITH the Holy Spirit of promise! Armed in the Holy Spirit!
And look at 2 Corinthians 1:21-22!! It says: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and GIVEN US THE SPIRIT IN OUR HEARTS AS A GUARANTEE!” Glory! So you just live in quiet reverence? WHAT ABOUT EXPLOSIVE PRAISE BECAUSE OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD IN GIVING US HIS GUARANTEE – THE HOLY SPIRIT?
And, “Armed in the Spirit”, His soldiers of the Cross are enriched beyond measure by the “riches of His grace”, sealing us with the Holy Spirit of promise, and guaranteeing us of our inheritance! But then you know that Jude alerted us about “ungodly men” who say “harsh things against Christ Jesus.” Times and hearts of ungodly men seem never to change – except when Christ is Resurrected before their very eyes, knocks on their hearts’ doors, asking, “Let Me come in!” Some do – some don’t! But there is, in our awareness of “Armed in the Spirit” the reality of blessed in the Spirit as we just read in Ephesians 1:7-8 and Verse 11, re-emphasizing glorious Biblical Truth for the repentant, ‘new-born’ believer!
Ephesians 1:7-8, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence”, followed by Ephesians 1:11, “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance…!” Glory! But YOU don’t embrace His “treasures of grace”?
Does Jude alert us to, yes, even the importance of “contending for the faith” in our modern day? In Verses 3-4 Jude wrote: “I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to CONTEND EARNESTLY FOR THE FAITH, which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, WHO TURN THE GRACE OF GOD INTO LEWDNESS AND DENY THE ONLY LORD GOD AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.” (Are YOU “ARMED IN THE SPIRIT”?).
- ARMED IN THE SPIRIT YOU KNOW WHO GOD TRULY IS – not the figments of fallen men’s spiritual blindness, though determined, “they” can define God without yielding to Him in repentance and redemptive faith! But “YOU IN CHRIST” can not only define God, but CAN and MUST unveil Him daily!
- ARMED IN THE SPIRIT ONE BECOMES FULLY AWARE OF THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE, INSTRUCTED BY THE SPIRIT TO, YES, LIVE IN THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL, THE “GOOD NEWS” OF JESUS CHRIST IN YOU!
- ARMED IN THE SPIRIT ONE BECOMES FULLY AWARE THROUGH HIS HOLY WORD, as Spurgeon once said, OF “THE TREASURE OF GOD’S GRACE IS THE ‘MEASURE’ OF OUR FORGIVENESS; THIS FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE.”
- ARMED IN THE SPIRIT ONE LIVES RESTING IN AND PARTAKING IN THE FRUIT OF ONE’S ETERNAL SALVATION! There IS “peace that passes all understanding.” There is, by the blood of Christ, a purified conscience set free from demonic, Satanic frustrations! There is the promise of the open door to our Lord’s very Throne-Room! There IS for true believers no fear of the Devil’s crowd!
- ARMED IN THE SPIRIT ONE NEVER FEARS PHYSICAL DEATH BECAUSE HE/SHE KNOWS IT’S THE OPEN-DOOR TO OUR ETERNAL HEAVEN WITH CHRIST, WITH GOD THE FATHER, WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, WITH THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF REDEMPTIVE FAITH, WITH THE ANGELIC HOSTS!
In “The Broadman Hymnal” of 1940, published by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, is an old hymn entitled “The Wayfaring Stranger”. The song says: “I am a poor wayfaring stranger, While traveling through this world below; There is no sickness, toil, nor danger In that bright world to which I go. I’m going there to meet my father, I’m going there no more to roam’ I am just going over Jordan, I am just going over home.
I know the dark clouds will gather over me, I know my pathway’s rough and steep; But golden fields lie out before me, Where weary eyes no more shall weep. I’m going there to meet my mother, She said she’d meet me when I come; I am just going over Jordan, I am just going over home.
I want to sing salvation’s story In concert with the blood-washed band; I want to wear a crown of glory, When I get home to that good land. I’m going there to see my classmates, Who passed before me one by one; I am just going over Jordan, I am just going over home.
I’ll soon be free from every trial, This form will rest beneath the sod; I’ll drop the cross of self-denial, And enter in my home with God. I’m going there to see my Saviour, Who shed for me His precious blood; I am just going over Jordan, I am just going over home.”
Have YOU ever considered that Holy God did not create fleshly mankind to die, but to willfully choose to serve the God of their creation AND the God of their salvation in an eternal relationship? When you look at Israel, you can begin to examine yourself as to whether or not you look forward to eternal life, an eternal home in Heaven, and an eternal relationship with the family of faith under Christ’s Lordship, or, Consider, having chosen what you’re devoted to, when it is the world, the flesh, and Satan, your future is not “bright” but darkened! In Deuteronomy 32 we find the “Song of Moses” which is so frightening and enlightening! Follow Verses 3-22! Moses was inspired to write: “For I proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God. 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. They (Israel, the Jews) have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish; a perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob if 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.
He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock; curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the choicest wheat; and you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.
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 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, children in whom is no faith.
They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; it shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.”
ARE YOU ARMED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, HAVING BEEN “NEW-BORN” IN THE SPIRIT, LED BY THE SPIRIT, ENLIGHTENED BY THE SPIRIT, EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT, AND, YES, ELEVATED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO LIVE IN THE KINGDOM OF LIFE, LIGHT, AND LIBERTY IN AND THROUGH THE PRESENCE OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST?
Did YOU know? There is a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” but you’ve ‘settled your eternal residence’, and it’s in the place you’ve established for the satisfaction of the ‘flesh’ with no interest in the eternal Spiritual Realm of Heaven under the Lord’s omniscient, omnipotent Rule and Reign in the “fruit of the Holy Spirit”!
I remember writing years and years ago that “there are no atheists in foxholes”, considering a youth-conversation with an uncle who lived in the foxholes during the Second World War! “Oh, that one were wise, that he would consider his latter end!” Have you?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LIVING BY MAN’S DESIGN OR LIVING BY THE MASTER’S DEMANDS?
Highly interesting verses in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 laying a solid foundation to this chapter’s title! It says: “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up – if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. IF IN THIS LIFE ONLY WE HAVE HOPE IN CHRIST, WE ARE OF ALL MEN THE MOST PITIABLE.”
“Living by man’s design” is the automatic declaration of a sin-bound life, of a Satan-inspired, deceitful betrayal of all that is good, Godly, gracious, kind, and merciful, emptying one of eternal hope, bankrupting priceless faith, and opening the ‘wide-gate’ to darkness, not Light, to chains, not freedom, and to separation from the one True God but bound to the synagogue of Satan!
“Living by man’s design”? For some, it’s the dilemma of uncertainty about Biblical Truth, about historical records, or the lack of understanding about why God placed us where He did! Some cannot even envision the ‘finite’ and the ‘infinite’ – for certain, those guys don’t know why they are where they are! Some have viewed mankind as simply “earthly animals” with a short, meaningless existence! Others look upon ‘mankind’, like St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his writing, “Meditationes piissimae”, “Man is nothing else than…a sack of dung, the food of worms.” How drastic is that estimation of manhood?
“Living by man’s design?” In Philippians 3:18-19 Paul wrote: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their minds on earthly things.” In “living by man’s design” you’ll find in 1 Corinthians 15:42-56, a number of descriptions of “unredeemed men” who live to satisfy their ‘flesh sin natures’. The ‘natural man’ is seen as ruled, controlled, and directed by their sin natures. They ‘have borne the image of the man of dust,’ Paul incisively saying in Verses 50 that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption,” saying in Verse 56, “The sting of death is sin…”, but most see no ‘sting’ but satisfaction with their sin and sin natures, which is deadly and eternal if repentance and faith are refused as “gifts” from the Holy Spirit!
“Living by man’s design?” Men alienated from God having been ‘birthed’ in sin and the sin nature, grow up strongly ‘self-centered’, living to satisfy the ‘flesh’ nature, living their daily lives in the flesh for the lusts of men, not for the will of God, with Peter telling us in 1 Peter 4:3-5, “For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles – when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
“Living by man’s design” is living aligned with, submerged in, yes, willfully ‘drowning’ in the sea of sin-consequences! And Romans 6:23 shocks some when Paul said, “For the wages of sin is death…”! That’s ‘spiritual death’ though sinners continue to live in the natural state, but alienated and separated from Holy God! Natural man ‘lives’ under the law of sin and death; living according to the flesh fallen mankind sets their minds on the things of the flesh, resulting in a ‘death cycle’ of carnal mindedness; and living under the law of sin and death, there is another law that wars against the natural mind and, yes, brings “sinners” into the captivity to the law of sin – and the chains can be painful, the consequences heavily burdensome, and the exposed mental awareness to it horrific, though some bask ‘happily’ in their state of sinfulness unaware of their spiritual death!
“Living by man’s design”? Some are truly shocked when they hear the Word of God saying in Romans 6:6 that apart from Christ as Savior and Lord, ‘fallen men’ live as “slaves of sin”, but because of being “crucified with Christ”, “that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should No Longer be slaves of sin”! As a result of Christ’s death and resurrection and our reception of the gift of faith by God’s graciousness, in Romans 6:10-14, Paul enlightens us to our “Victorious Walk ‘in Christ’ Over Sin and Death”:
“For the death that Christ 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.”
Romans 6:18 then says: “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” AND ‘the “fruit” of a righteous life? “REST” in Romans 6:22! “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.” GLORY!!!
In the very old “Broadman Hymnal”, (copyrighted in 1940 by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn.), the hymn, “By Grace Are You Saved”, says: “In grace the holy God Did full salvation plan, Electing in His sovereign grace To save rebellious man.
This grace of God appears In Jesus Christ His Son; He, lifted on the cross of shame, The grace of God makes known.
To all who do believe In God, thro’ Christ revealed By grace, they full salvation have, And “Sons of God” are sealed.”
Didn’t Paul enlighten us? “For BY GRACE are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it IS the gift of God”? Amen?
“Living by man’s design”? If you examine and reflect upon what you read about in Exodus 11:6-7, Moses heard from God about the “difference” between the Egyptians and God’s chosen people, Israel. It says: Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between Egyptians and Israel.”
Man’s ‘design’ for himself IS “without God”, “without faith, trust, and obedience”, “without allegiance to the Kingdom of God but ‘life investment in his own ‘flesh’ kingdom’”, “no need of a Savior – I’m OK, you’re OK – don’t waste your time on a church’s mission of ‘God-obedience’, be yourself, indulge your flesh, and enjoy ‘world’ pleasures”! There IS a distinct difference between men of “flesh allegiance” and men of “faithfulness to, yes, the demands of the Master, Savior, Redeemer, and Lord”!
Do you understand fallen mankind ‘living’ as best he/she can seeking to ‘satisfy’ the old sin nature, yes, being ‘guarded’ by the powers of darkness to ‘protect’ their ‘slaves’ to the devilish, satanic, world spirit? They are adamant, deceptive, enticing, alluring, darkening more and more, shocking any ‘spiritual sight’ one of the world, the flesh, and Satan deceives him/her with, and especially condemning of those who say with Christ Jesus, “You MUST be born again? HOW STUPID THE CHURCH AND ITS BELIEVERS REALLY ARE!!” Finely dressed in what the world offers is “nakedness” before Holy God!
“Living by man’s design?” Is it possible or imaginable that some really think that “outward appearances radicalize how one feels about herself or himself”? They’re convinced it makes a huge difference in their essence, their appearance, their nature, and their attitudes! But a person living for himself or for herself, void of God’s grace and mercy and love, IS, by nature, a sinner, a stranger to God, and a ‘fleshly foreigner’ needing to be “reconciled to God”, “re-born”, and “resting” in and through, and for Christ alone!
Consider “kingdom living”! And there IS more than one kingdom in and around this earth where we all dwell! Gracious God has said: “You choose the kingdom you want to serve!” And from Adam onward, men have willfully chosen the “kingdom-rule of their sin natures” with only one, Christ Jesus, choosing moment by moment, day by day, year by year, three years in His earthly residence, to be willfully surrendered to Kingdom allegiance for the glory and honor of God Only, even the Cross! “In Christ” you and I are called of God to be a ‘kingdom of priests’! What did Jesus say in John 3:6? “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Are YOU a ‘spiritual priest’ to the glory of God only?
“LIVING BY MAN’S DESIGN OR LIVING BY THE MASTER’S DEMANDS”? Hear me! Even if one has chosen to “live by his/her own design”, always ending up ‘crippled’, even BOUND to the old sin nature, there is hope, healing, and help from the Great Physician! In Luke 13:10-16 we read about Christ Jesus teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. The Word says, “And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and in no way could raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound – think of it – for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” And, Living By The Master’s Design, true disciples “reach out”, and in Jesus’ Name, speak healing, salvation, and deliverance to the needy – or at least they should; and, if they don’t, I would think it’s best to let Jesus tell us to whom or to what one rests in or to Whom or what world he invests his life in!
“LIVING BY THE MASTER’S DEMANDS”? Luke 6:46 says, Jesus speaking, “But WHY do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?” You are aware of how easy it is to “profess” and yet “not to possess”! Being able to say, “Yes, I am a believer in Christ”, does not necessarily mean, “I am the servant of the Lord, readily available to extend His Life, express His love, and prove His power.” Profession alone is not “possession of” His abiding Presence within! Oh, and here before you is a strong Word for awakening as to whether or not, repenting comes from God or just from a disappointing awakening of what one is capable of! In 2 Corinthians 7:10 Paul wrote wisely in exposing ‘fleshly sorrow’ or “godly sorrow”, saying, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
Would you think there is a clear distinction between a worldly one ‘feeling sorry’ for a ‘wrong’ or a ‘sin’ or a ‘betrayal’ of the Lord when He called but you refused, and another one, a true disciple, ‘failing’ in his early days of following Christ? In Matthew 26:59-61 we read: Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’”
The high priest arose, saying to Jesus, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” But Jesus kept silent. Again the high priest arose, speaking to Jesus, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” And Jesus responded, “It is as you say!” Oh, and when the high priest heard that, he tore his clothes, accusing Jesus of blasphemy and said to the crowd, ‘You’ve heard it’, he said, and, “what do you think?” And the crowd said, “He is deserving of death,” not knowing they were about to fulfill the will of God for the crucifixion of Christ and by His shed blood to wash away the guilt of their sin! They crucified Christ – and kept their guilt!
But to His faithful disciples then and His faithful disciples now, Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-28, “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? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
“Living by the Master’s Demands”? It’s shocking, sad, and seriously awakening when one looks around the ‘church setting’, and sees, senses, and is seriously stirred to, yes, pray, minister, and seek to “rescue” true believers that have ‘drifted’ like a motor-less ship driven on the stormy waters of temptation! Examine 2 Corinthians 6:11-7:1 when Paul wrote these passionate words: “O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For YOU (in Christ) are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell IN THEM and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Therefore
“Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord.”
7:1, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
Do you think it just may be the time across America that we need to see erupting another Great Awakening of reconciliation, renewal, and resting in the fullness of the Resurrection Life and Reign of Christ across our nation, whether personally, churches, businesses, governments, schools and universities, even hospitals and clinics? Could YOU say, “Amen! So be it, Lord!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
NUTTY NATURES OR NEW MINDS?
Reading Elizabeth Barrett Browning recently, I came to her writing on “Grief” in her book, “The Poetical Works”, (p.184), and couldn’t help but wonder, “Are ‘nutty natures’ the reason for God’s grief about fallen mankind” and, yes, the grief that true sons and daughters, “blood-bought” by Him, fail to sense and sorrow about those as they consider the masses outside, separated from God, and even some within the ‘professing family’ who don’t have a ‘clue’ about the true condition and future of the godless?!? She wrote:
“I TELL you, hopeless grief is passionless – that only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach.
Full desertness In souls, as countries, lieth silent-bare Under the blenching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express Grief for your Dead in silence like to death;
Most like a monumental statue set In everlasting watch and moveless woe, Till itself crumble to the dust beneath! Touch it! The marble eyelids are not wet – If it could weep, it could arise and go.”
And ‘Nutty Natures’? They don’t weep, and they don’t arise and go! ‘Nutty’? My dictionary says of ‘nutty’: “…informal, silly or ridiculous, insane”, which tells me that in the ‘spiritual world of church-life today’, far too many leaders and followers could care less about the “lost” as long as they live “mesmerized” by their own identity with no compassion for our unredeemed – large numbers, locally, nationally, or internationally! “It’s just not our concern, our calling, or our commissioning – we’re just ‘locked in’ to Jesus!” Really? When Jesus said: “I came to seek and to save that which is lost”? In Matthew 13 the Parable of the Sower is explained by the Lord Jesus:
“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, n he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces; some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
Should I dare say – believe I will, “True disciples of Christ Jesus ARE “fruit-producers” of the witnessed to, the prayed for, and the transformed lives, now available to Him as a part of His witnessing army!
In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul wrote: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 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.” That’s NOT “nutty natures”!
It was Sir John Bowring of England quite a while ago who wrote: “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time; All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime.”
No doubt this is why earlier in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 that Paul also wrote: “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. BUT of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Nutty natures? According to God Himself, that’s the wise according to the flesh! That’s the ‘mighty’, according to the flesh, who want to keep mankind enslaved to their very sin-natures that they sense “unveils men at their fleshly best”!
Nutty natures? According to Jesus, in Matthew 13, which is the parable of the wheat and the tares, in Verses 18-23, and I’m sure you’ll understand the difference between “wheat and tares” as representing the ‘wheat of birthed disciples’ and ‘tares as the sons of darkness’! The Word tells us, Jesus speaking: “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces; some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
Nutty natures? That’s ‘tare producers’, lives with No True Seed of eternal life! That’s ‘thorn lovers’ embracing the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the ‘thorns’ that choke what little word he/she has even paid attention to, for awhile, but then the ‘nutty natures’ choke on their own ‘trying’ but not trusting God’s good seed to bring forth life in them. They wilt, wander, and continue falling in love with themselves!
Are you aware of how many people around you have determined for themselves that THEY ARE THEIR OWN STAR with no need of any outside influences and especially for them, NOT THE GOD OF CREATION, THE GOD OF THE CROSS, OR THE GOD OF THE EMPTY TOMB, ESPECIALLY THE ONE WHO SAID: “I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD!” Men who deny Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope, and Christ’s gift of reconciliation with Holy God, is like a lost, poor-fed, wandering little sheep who doesn’t know where he belongs or to whom if sheep have shepherds! But unbelieving men also are “the fallen-away-from-God wanderers who’ve lost the way home”! And, in his lost estate, most become either acceptable saviors or devilish demons – both godless and indifferent to the grace, mercy, and love of God!
It was Joseph Butler, in his writing, “The Analogy of Religion”, who wrote: “Mankind is an inferior part of the creation of God. There are natural appearances of our being in a state of degradation.” Without Christ as Lord and Savior, SO TRUE!! How many sad folk do you know who inherited a heritage of woefulness? I’m sure it’s why George Gordon, Lord Byron: in “Manfred, 1” wrote: “Half dust, half deity; alike unfit to sink or soar.”
Be assured! “Self-made men” are void of God’s promise of His abiding presence in them through their repentance and faith as they rest in “self at its best”, rather than, yes, His “GIFT” of repentance and faith flowing out of His heart and His mind!
I was so impressed when I found Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s words in his writing entitled “Table-Talk”! He wrote: “If man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downward to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are worse, a great deal worse.”
Did you ever hear Peter Marshall preach, or read his book, “Mr. Jones, Meet the Master”? In that book he wrote: “We are, after all, like lumps of clay. There are brittle pieces, hard pieces. We have little shape or beauty. But we need not despair. If we are clay, let us remember there is a Potter, and His wheel.” Glory!! I tell you, a ‘wise man’, without God as Savior and Lord, is not made wiser in eternal Truth, but, sadly, reveals unashamedly his brainless and heartless trust in the God, who if that unbelieving man was the only man to have ever lived, God would still have shed His Precious Son’s blood for that one man in need of the Savior!
I think it’s vitally important that I include here Peter’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, in 1 Peter 5:1-11! Peter wrote: “The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” THEREFORE humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. RESIST HIM, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
“NUTTY NATURES OR NEW MINDS?” How do YOU respond when you read Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49? He said: And so it is written: “The first Adam became a living being.” The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”
If you, as a true believer, were asked by “a man of dust”, “What do you see true manhood to be?”, how would you answer? It is the presence of the Resurrected, Reigning Christ living IN the life of a truly repentant man who has acknowledged for himself, “Christ is My way, My Truth, and My Life – enough of Adam! Give me King Jesus!”
That, my friend, IS the “New Mind”, the “New Heart”, the “New Spirit”, living to see God glorified in and through the Resurrection Presence of Christ in, yes, a transformed life! Frederick William Robertson long ago wrote: “In these two things the greatness of man exists, to have God so dwelling in us as to impart His character to us, and to have Him dwelling in us, that we recognize His presence, and know that we are His, and He is ours – The one is salvation; the other, the assurance of it.”
Yet “nutty natures” will hold on tight to “human aspirations” and abandon Divine Intent! To them, if they ever had an immortal thought, it was because, in their sinful state, they only saw their ‘goodness’ in no need at all of the grace of God! But the “New Minds”? Here’s how Paul addresses it in Romans 5:8-11! It says: “But when we were still without strength, (“helpless”0, 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 (being) 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! Glory be to God for His love, grace, and mercy extended to us in and through Christ Jesus the Savior and Lord!
“New Minds”? Charles Wesley, in his writing, “Free Grace”, wrote: “He left His Father’s throne above, (So free, so infinite His grace!), Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam’s helpless race.” The natural mind? It ‘flows’ in a constant unawareness that, without God’s love, mercy, and grace, in and through Christ alone, its natural unveiling is THE appearance of “man at his best” as he lives in “despair” because apart from Christ he has no hope, but he ‘wishes for the best’!
It was Fanny J. Crosby and Robert Lowry who gave us the old Hymn “All the Way My Saviour Leads Me,” found in the old Broadman Hymnal. It says: “All the way my Saviour leads me; What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my Guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know, what-e’er befall me, Jesus does all things well.
All the way my Saviour leads me, Cheers each winding path I tread, Gives me grace for every trial, Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter, And my soul athirst may be, Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see.
All the way my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised In my Father’s house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless ages, Jesus led me all the way.”
Are YOU traveling His “Highway of Holiness”, or do you still falter as you “try my best”? “Best” is not blessed, but still living in and under the “curse”! It’s time to let go and let God have His gracious, merciful, blessed Way in and through you!
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
LIVING ON THE CUSP OF CHANGE?
In Deuteronomy 6:10-19 there are powerful words of warning to challenge Israel as they journeyed with God from bondage in Egypt to their new adventure of “The Promised Land.” But the All-Wise Holy-God knows, that though they’ve followed obediently ‘thus far’, there is the danger of willfully turning or falling away from their devotion to Him. Follow the Word reflecting on your own journey ‘thus far’!
“So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not did, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant – when you have eaten and are full – then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.
You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you.
And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.”
I’m sure that you are aware that, though Holy God had ‘eternal intent’ for Israel, and blessed them, yes, even beyond what they expected, some felt ‘justified’ in ignoring Holy Intent and ‘living’ strictly as they determined for themselves, and ignored ‘what is right in the sight of the Lord’, ‘living on the cusp of change’ but ‘bankrupt’ concerning what is ‘right and good in the sight of the Lord’, and never sensed or saw or settled into the perfect rightness of reconciliation with Holy God, but enjoyed ‘religious performance’ apart from “born of His Spirit”!
In Exodus 17:1 we read about “the congregation of the children of Israel” who had “set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord,” followed by Verse 2 with Israel ‘camping’, but they had ‘no water’ to drink! In Verse 4 Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!”
Living on the cusp of change? Oh yes, Israel, ‘stranded on the journey’, are like many today who are at least pursuing the Lord ‘religiously’ but, sadly, have never drank from “the Well of Living Water”, still searching, still thirsty, because they ‘think’ their definition of “quenched thirst” is by their “best efforts” and not God’s “Amazing Grace” of “the Water of Life”! (REFLECT ON CHAPTER TWO BEFORE CONTINUING!).
Then, come with me to John 4:7-26, where we find the story of the “thirsty woman” encountering Jesus and His gift of “living water”! A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink of water from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew “the gift of God”, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that LIVING WATER? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this (well) water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
The woman said to Jesus, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 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.”
How amazing, how astounding, how alerting, and how atoning does it get for YOU, when you hear Jesus say to YOU: “I WHO SPEAK TO YOU AM YOUR SAVIOR, YOUR LORD, YOUR MASTER, AND THE OVERSEER, PROTECTOR, PROVIDER, AND PROVISION OF EVERLASTING LIFE?”
Is ‘seeing’ the Word in the Truth of Scripture repenting and receiving and resting in the Word? Is ‘acknowledgement’ the acceptance of blood Atonement? Is ‘belief about’ the same as “resting in” saving grace and mercy and the love of God? Are you familiar with “the parable of the wedding feast”? It’s found in Matthew 22:1-14! Christ Jesus is speaking!
“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.’
But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up the city.
Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready; but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go onto the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to his servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ FOR MANY ARE CALLED, but FEW ARE CHOSEN.”
Consider it!! A Kingdom of Light – or a kingdom of darkness? A Kingdom of great Faith – or a kingdom of ‘pretending’? A Kingdom of Rule and Reign – or a kingdom of “do as one pleases”? A Kingdom of Obedience to the Master’s Every Word – OR a kingdom of “self-rule-at-its-best”? A Kingdom of Angelic Oversight – or “a kingdom of demonic distress”? The Kingdom of Surrender to the Divine Will – or “a kingdom of bondage to what I sense is reasonable to me and my flesh-rule”? The Kingdom of Blood Atonement – or “a kingdom “best attainments”? The Kingdom of Giving, Laying Down One’s Life – or a kingdom of ‘saving one’s self’ for himself?
The eternal ‘war of the soul’, without God’s merciful intervention, is the result of one’s total disregard of the mercy and love of God, sweeping men away from Him in an irresistible tide of untruth, unawareness of one’s lost estate, and, yes, a prisoner of Satan’s intention to deceive the whole world by deceiving them in their minds, hearts, and wills, convincing and deceiving them they can be ‘valuable to themselves’ by their strides in human wisdom – ‘the knowledge of God is unimportant and unnecessary to you – don’t you know who you are?’ And God both laughs and cries! Examine what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:18-23!! “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”, and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come – all are yours. AND you ARE Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 1:17-25, Paul unveiled “the foolishness of men” who live apart from “the power of God”! He said: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
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 the 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, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Are YOU “living on the cusp of change” or have you taken in “the Living Water”? In Revelation 7:9-17 is a powerful, life-changing revelation! It says: After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying:
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to them, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
James Montgomery and Thomas Koschat wrote the old hymn “The Lord Is My Shepherd”, published in The Broadman Hymnal in 1940. It says: “The Lord is my Shepherd, no want shall I know; I feed in green pastures, safefolded I rest; He leads my soul where the still waters flow, Restores me when wandering, redeems when oppressed; Restores me when wandering, redeems when oppressed.
Through the valley and shadow of death though I stray, Since You are my Guardian, no evil I fear; Your rod shall defend me, Your staff shall be my stay; No harm can befall, With my comforter near; No harm can befall me, with my Comforter near.
In the midst of affliction my table is spread; With blessings unmeasured my cup runs over; With perfume and oil You anoint my head; O what shall I ask of Your providence more? O what shall I ask of Your providence more?
Let goodness and mercy, my bountiful God, Still follow my steps till I meet You above; I seek by the path which my forefathers trod, Through the land of their sojourn, Your kingdom of love; Through the land of their sojourn, Your kingdom of love.”
“Living on the cusp of change?” Or, are YOU “Drinking from the fountain of Living Water?” It was Paul W. Harrison who once said: “Wherever God rules over the human heart as King, there is the kingdom of God established.”
God’s Kingdom has come, still comes, and forever is established on earth as it is in heaven, because there are those who bow before Him, confess to Him, are washed by His blood from Him, are raised up by Him to be sons and daughters of Hid redemptive faith and everlasting Kingdom, day and night expressing their love for Him, and exalting Him for all to see through them His ever-abiding-resurrection Presence and Power! They don’t ‘lick’ the cup of change – they are immersed in the flow of His “Living Water”!
In the “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, William Cullen Bryant is listed as writer of the following words: “So live that when your summons comes to join, The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death,
You go not, like the quarry-slaves at night, Scourged to their dungeon, but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach your grave Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”
Dare I tell you? Believe I will! To die without Christ as Lord and Savior is not to die expecting “pleasant dreams” but “hellish disappointments” with all unbelievers and pretenders! Your grave should not be your goal, but because of repentance and faith in Christ alone, you look forward to Heaven’s blessing and magnification of the Christ-life beyond anything we can imagine. If “Heaven came down and flooded your soul in this earthly pilgrimage”, do you imagine, at all, what the Eternal Heaven will be like in the absence of unbelief, pretenders, demons and Satan?
True redemptive faith isn’t an “on-the-edge enticement”, but a plunge into the deep waters of the “Fountain of Living Water” where the Christ-Life easily flows, moving us onward in the Great Flood of Eternal Truth named Jesus, Promised Messiah, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father – and THIS Father will not let His Son remain in life’s grave – He’s the Resurrectionist!
Before moving on to the next chapter, please consider John 5:28-29! Jesus said: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” Has the Lord Jesus called YOU to share in “the resurrection of His Indwelling Presence” in your life, yes, extending His eternal reign through another available vessel?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
THE COMMON-BONDED CROWD OR THE BLESSED FEW OF FAITH?
In Luke 13:22-35 we find highly interesting and, yes, heart-stirring and mind-challenging words as Jesus journeyed all around Israel, and especially came toward Jerusalem with one of His followers asking Him, Verse 23, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” The Lord Jesus responded:
“Strive to enter THROUGH THE NARROW GATE, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, “I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’
There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, “Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.” And Jesus said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to him. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
“THE COMMON-BONDED CROWD”? How easy it is for some to say, “Well, that may have happened to Jesus in His day, but it would be foolish to say that it still happens today – that was Jerusalem, but it’s not my city!” But as an 81 year old man, nearing 82 soon, having traveled all over the world – not a continent I haven’t been on to preach the Gospel, where I have been threatened if I continued to preach there – and all I can say is, though threatened, I always continued, even seeing some of the enemy born again on the streets where they threatened my life! India, Africa, Brazil, just to mention a few!
In John 15:18-25 our Lord and Savior shares about the world’s hatred for you if you share the Gospel! He said: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also.
If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, “They hated Me without a cause.”
“THE COMMON-BONDED CROWD” know nothing about what Paul spoke about in Philippians 2:12-13 when he wrote: “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.”
The unsaved, the unredeemed, the ‘loners’ who see no need of God making the difference in someone’s life, ‘truly resent God who works out one’s salvation in fear and trembling’ in the minds and hearts of those who unwittingly shook their fists in the face of God UNTIL He convicted them of sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come, and, yes, ‘holy fear of God’ is a good and gracious thing! I read in the footnotes of my Bible where an editor had written: “’Work Out’ means to apply salvation, not to earn it. Fear and trembling means to have proper respect in response to God’s blessing. True obedience comes from reverence, not fright.” So true!
But for the “Common-Bonded Crowd”, hearing the Word of God and reacting, some, with rage, anger, disrespect of the message and the messenger, they sense insult, not conviction of the divine Truth! They don’t see salvation as ‘deliverance from the guilt of their past sins’, because, “We’re humans trying our best – and that should be acceptable by your God!”
The “Common-Bonded Crowd”? They sense no guilt, thus they need no deliverance! They react, some violently, to the truth that they need deliverance from the power of sin, because they’re engaged with a fleshly love affair with their sin natures – “and if I choose my sin-partner, what does your God think I need Him for?” The imaginations of their worldly minds capture their hearts and minds! They need no freedom from their sin natures, they need no freedom from the thoughts, actions, words, or deeds, of their corrupt minds and hearts! They deny guilt of sin, they deny being ‘children of God’s wrath and judgment’, so they spout that they have no need of emancipation from an unclean heart or a debased mind or a warped will – “It’s normal, natural, and we love ourselves, and plan on indulging that flesh nature for all it’s worth!” Really!
The “Common-Bonded Crowd”? Do you sense at times how utterly ridiculous those who ignore Holy God can be when they insist on “respectability” as they immerse themselves in “devilish” activities, certain they are OK, or should be, even in God’s sight or His realm of Rule? How utterly ridiculous do you find folks whose GPA’s estimate ranks them among the highest in intellectual achievements, but morally, spiritually, and biblically, they expose themselves as “superficial thinkers” as they “pump” their “flesh achievements”?
It was Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher who is recorded in “The Enclycopedia of Religious Quotations”, (p.457), saying: “Unbelief does nothing but darken and destroy. It makes the world a moral desert, where no divine footsteps are heard, where no angels ascend or descend, where no living hand adorns the fields, feeds the birds of heaven, or regulates events.”
Spurgeon wrote in his ninth publication of “Spurgeon’s Sermons”, (p.41), “A golden coffin will be a poor compensation for a damned soul. To be cast away from God’s presence, can that misery be assuaged by mountains of treasure? Can the bitterness of the second death be sweetened by the thought that the wretch was once a millionaire, and that his wealth could affect the policies of nations?” Spurgeon was SO ON TARGET!
The “Common-Bonded Crowd”? Is there an inheritance every born physical being receives? Do you understand? In Galatians 4: 3-4 the Holy Word says: “Even so we, when we were children (not in age but spiritual immaturity!), WERE IN BONDAGE under the elements of the world. BUT when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
But apart from the grace of God and the mercy and love of Christ, the unbeliever, the “common-bonded crowd”, yes, are in bondage under the elements of the world! And, what a tragedy, when we see folks “gaining the whole world yet losing their souls!” In Romans 5:12 we read: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”, how many do you know in the “Common-Bonded Crowd” who resent the Truth that “they” are separated from God because of their sin nature and their open or hidden acts of, yes, sin, rebellion, disobedience, and unbelief in Scriptural Truth?
“Common-Bonded Crowd”? In Matthew 17:17 Jesus spoke in Jerusalem to thousands upon thousands of religious devotees to Judaism, but also the “street folks” who walked alienated and separated from God with no religious affiliation at all. He said: “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” Have you ever wondered what Jesus would say today in New York City, or Los Angeles, or Dallas, or Orlando? The faithless and perverse generations are all around, and need to hear the call to repentance and faith! Oh, but blessed be merciful, holy, caring God who still reaches out with the “good news” of blood redemption through His Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ!
The “Common-Bonded Crowd” OR The “Blessed Few of Faith”? Again, look at Luke 13:23-24! Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”, no doubt asking about the Jewish population, but certainly, one has to ask about the world population as well, and as we gather around the Throne of the King of kings and Lord of lords, we’ll know whether for us it was the few like Israel or the many that were the result of, yes, world missions in obedience to the King! Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Why?
Verses 25-30 the Lord Jesus explains: “When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.
They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
As Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians, the first chapter, Verses 1-24, is so vitally important in grasping and holding onto the grace of God which true believers “rest in”! Paul said: Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
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 the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation (or “unveiling”) of Jesus Christ.
For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
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, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)
Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they were hearing only, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God in me.”
“THE COMMON-BONDED CROWD” OR “THE BLESSED FEW OF FAITH”? Worldly men and worldly women, unless convicted and convinced by the Holy Spirit, never come into eternal awareness of the need to be “born again,” “born of the Spirit”, “reconciled TO God”, through the best efforts of passionate preachers, but through the answered prayers of the godly who call upon the Father to, yes, “send the Spirit” to do His marvelous work! In John 14:15-17 the Lord Jesus said: “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.”
But isn’t it sad that some in all denominations have no appreciation for or understanding of the Spirit’s ministry in and through their walks as disciples and church members! Yet Jesus said: “The Spirit comes to you! The Spirit guides you into all truth! The Spirit empowers you to be a faithful witness! The Spirit gifts you as a, yes, distinct, Spirit-anointed servant, doing the Lord’s bidding! We, in Christ, are “to walk according to the Spirit, never yielding to a ‘quenching of the Spirit’, but a rabid reliance upon the Holy Spirit!” Oh, and according to 1 John 5:6, we read with confidence and assurance, “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 who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.” Glory! “Lean not to your own understanding, BUT give the Holy Spirit His rightful place in and through your life, allowing Him to testify of Christ in His anointing as the Father’s Messenger to the heart and mind of those the Father wants to draw to the Son!
“The Blessed Few of Faith”? I close this chapter with words from 1 John 5:9-13! It says: “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 (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) the Son of God HAS THE WITNESS IN HIMSELF (“Christ in ME, my hope of glory!”); 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. 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.” AMEN?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
FLESHLY GRIT OR THE GRACE OF GOD?
In Proverbs 25:28 we read: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” Earlier, in Proverbs 10:11, the wise man wrote: “The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.”
If you’re familiar with God’s Word at all, you KNOW there is, without hesitation, a huge difference between a “redeemed by the blood of Christ man” and one ruled by the “best” of “fleshly grit”, or a life of one that “tries” or one that “TRUSTS” in the “finished work of the Lamb of God”! I have no doubt that it is why the “wise man” also wrote in Proverbs 25:19, “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint,” or Verse 20, “Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather, and like vinegar on soda, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.”
Dare I tell you that “fleshly grit” IS ‘vinegar on soda’ or trying to live with ‘bad teeth’ and a ‘broken foot’? Do you remember the Lord’s words to Jerusalem in His earthly visitation? In Luke 13:34-35 we read: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I WANTED TO GATHER your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Fleshly grit IS unwillingness to hear God! It is unwillingness to examine eternal purpose, having determined, ‘what I desire is more important than what your Holy God demands’! Fleshly grit is described by God to Isaiah as, Isaiah 40:6b-8a, “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field, the grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people (without God!) are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”
A little later, in Isaiah 40:21-24, the question is asked and answered: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them and they will wither, and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.” (That, my friends, IS prophetic judgment!)
Fleshly grit IS “living by the law of sin and death”, inspired by Satan who so desires to keep the “flesh folk” under his control! Paul said in Romans 8:5a, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh”, for most, unknowingly, setting themselves up as “the enemies of God”!” The “flesh” IS the enemy of the Spirit of God! Paul, again, stated in Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Paul later said in Galatians 6:7-8a, “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…!” And, were you shocked when you first read 1 Corinthians 3:17? “If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.” Sadly, most don’t even know man’s ‘creation’ was to be, through his/her repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross, the Son’s earthly habitation, His holy temple of residence!
Are you familiar with the Book of Daniel? One interesting Verse you’ll find in Daniel 1:8 that “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank,” because he was committed early in his youthful life to honor the Living God! Much of what he was offered had been what idol worshippers offered regularly to their gods – and Daniel was not a ‘god-indulger’ to please unbelievers, idol worshippers, or Satan himself!
Daniel then and true Kingdom of God disciples now know the difference between ‘fleshly kingdoms’ and the true, eternal, life-changing, eternal rule of the King of kings and the Lord of lords whose name is Christ Jesus! In John 18 Jesus had been brought before Pilate by a number of Jews who wanted Jesus dead. In Verses 33-37 we read:
Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered,
“You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
There are ‘fleshly kingdoms’ established in the hearts and minds of all men in all times from Adam and Eve to the present day 21st Century, but Holy God also has not, will not, be deterred from seeing His eternal Kingdom established in the hearts and minds of repentant souls touched and taken over by the Holy Spirit testifying of Christ Jesus! In 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Paul wrote: “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. FOR there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle – I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying – a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”
Have YOU heard the truth, responded to the truth, repented because of the truth, resting in the truth, and reaching out to those around you with the truth that saves their souls? In John 18:37 again! “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Oh, but what have we learned in life experience as to testifying to others about “the Christ” through ‘the mystery of lawlessness’? In 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 we learn about “the condemned”! Paul wrote: “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 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.”
Does it ever enter your mind, as a true believer, that you and your journey with Jesus is to be overshadowed with a great concern for the salvation of the world? If He said, “Go, and make disciples of all nations”, tell me: “What nations of the world did He establish in your mind, heart, and spirit concerning ‘it’ or ‘their salvation”?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote in the book of poetry, (p.101), on “The Weeping Saviour”. She wrote: “When Jesus’ friend had ceased to be, Still Jesus’ heart its friendship kept –“Where have you laid him?” – “Come and see!” But ere His eyes could see, they wept. Lord! Not in sepulchers alone, Corruption’s worm is rank and free; The shroud of death our bosoms own – The shades of sorrow! Come, and see!
Come, Lord, God’s image cannot shine Where sin’s funereal darkness lowers – Come! Turn those weeping eyes of Yours Upon these sinning souls of ours!
And let those eyes, with shepherd care, Their moving watch above us keep; Till love the strength of sorrow wear, And as You weepedst, we may weep! For surely we may weep to know, So dark and deep our spirit’s stain; That had Your blood refused to flow, The very tears had flowed in vain.”
Oh, but Christ Jesus’s tears didn’t “flow in vain”, but captured YOUR hearts and God the Father’s! And though Holy God didn’t look upon the crucifixion, He wept; then, after three days, raised the Son in the fullness, blessing, and miracle of Resurrection Life! But, I do have to ask YOU: “Have YOU taken up the Cross to yourself to “follow Christ” wherever and through-ever whatever highway He has appointed for you? Be assured, His appointment IS TO “The Highway of Holiness” and whatever it unfolds in you to honor Him through you! I have no doubts this is why Henry F. Lyte was inspired to write the hymn, “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken”, found in the old “Broadman Hymnal” of 1940! It says:
“Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow You; Destitute, despised, forsaken, You, from hence, my all shall be: Perish every fond ambition, All I’ve sought, and hoped, and known; Yet how rich is my condition, God and heaven are still my own!
Let the world despise and leave me, They have left my Savior, too; Human hearts and looks deceive me; You are not, like man, untrue; And, while You smile upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might, Foes may hate, and friends may shun me; Show Your face, and all is bright!
Man may trouble and distress me, It will but drive me to Your breast; Life with trials hard may press me, Heaven will bring me sweeter rest. O it’s not in grief to harm me, While Your love is left to me; O were it not in joy to charm me, Were that joy unmixed with Thee.
Haste You on from grace to glory, Armed by faith, and winged by prayer; Heaven’s eternal days before you, God’s own hand shall guide you there. Soon shall cease your earthly mission, Swift shall pass your pilgrim days, Hope shall change to glad fruition, Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.” AMEN?
“THANK GOD FOR HIS LOVING GRACE AND MERCY CLEARLY SEEN IN CHRIST!”
CONCLUSION: What a joy, what a privilege, what an absolute eternal delight to “flow on the River of Life in Christ”, led by the Holy Spirit, and, yes, illumined in mind and heart to write what you’ve just finished reading in this book.
I’ve finished this book at 81 years of age, soon to be 82 years old as of June 12, 2018! I’m not sure if the “Abiding Lord” will have me to write another book, but, if He does, with His help, I will be available!
It’s so amazing to me that He gifted me athletically to play high school and collegiate football for Baylor University, plus He graced me before my sophomore year in college to, yes, give me my bride, Susan Gail McNabb, who walked with me through college, seminary at Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, while living a hundred miles south in Hewitt, Texas, where I pastored First Baptist Church for several years, commuting four days a week to class with four other brothers from that area!
I pastored for about twenty years (?), but Merciful, Loving God called me into “mission ministry”, Brazil originally, and then mostly India for 25 years, although He also led me to teach, preach, and encourage young pastors in Africa and Asia!
I’m thankful so much that Holy God blessed Sue and I with four children, first a son, Scott, then, a daughter, Susan, then a son, Stan, and years later, our fourth, a son, Steve! Sue and I KNOW we were ‘graced’ by Holy God with four strong “children of faith” who’ve been faithful witnesses to the glory and honor of the King of kings and Lord of lords!
My “bride”, Sue, will observe her 81st birthday April 14, 2018! She’s still “a young chick” as beautiful as ever, and deeply in love with her Lord and Savior, and, yes, even appreciative of her husband, (just kidding! She does truly love me and ‘lives’ to keep me on the straight and narrow Way)!
My only regret? I know after pastoring, then serving others across Asia and Africa, that where I served was by divine appointment! My only regret? I didn’t stay ‘young enough’ to travel back and forth for all those years – and, now, approaching 82 years of age in a few months, and handling a deteriorating body, I’ll just use the modern-day computer to communicate His Living Word with my loving brothers around the world!
Again, it was Elizabeth Barrett Browning who wrote in her “Rhyme of the Duchess May”, (Conclusion, st. 11), “And I smiled to think God’s greatness flowed around our incompleteness, – Round our restlessness, His rest.” So true!
It was Matthew Henry who once shared about “nothing can make a man truly great but being good, and partaking of God’s holiness.” Where are you in your journey? Is it “the grace of God, and partaking of His holiness?”
I encourage YOU! “BE A PARTAKER OF THE GRACE OF GOD AND HIS HOLINESS THROUGH THE INDWELLING LIFE OF THE RESURRECTED, REIGNING CHRIST”!