By J. Farrell Fisher – August 18, 2014

I’ll never forget a “dark night” event in my home when I was about eleven to twelve years of age. I HAD GONE TO BED EARLY BECAUSE MY MOTHER AND STEP-FATHER WERE HAVING A PARTY. It was late, late, past midnight, maybe 3-4 a.m., when I was awakened by loud noises of things breaking, people screaming, as a drunken brawl occurred in the home. I was so frightened I just hid under the covers of my bed until about 5 a.m. and after I braved getting out of the covers, I looked around to see devastation; all were gone including my mother, but my step-father was passed out on the bed in the guest room.

It was pitch-black night as I made my way to my grandparents’ home, so afraid, plus I had to go down an unlit road to get to their home. I felt so safe when the lights came on and they opened their door to me. Needless to say, I never again experienced that dark-night of the soul! [And you should know that, finally, within a few weeks of his eighty-ninth birthday, my step-father asked me to explain the Gospel of Christ to him once more – and he prayed to receive Christ. Weeks later he died!]

Jeremy Taylor, in his “Holy Living” writing, [p.259], said: “A man may be damned for despairing to be saved.” Thank God, my step-father finally saw, not “dark nights” but “bright lights.”

Dark nights? Leo Tolstoy, in his writing entitled “The Kingdom of God,” [ch.12], said: “The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God; and this can be done only by means of the acknowledgement and profession of the truth by each one of us.” But you do realize that darkened hearts, minds, and free wills delight in the fallen nature of men alienated and separated from Holy God! Their fleshly pleasures become deadly poison – and they’re so unaware of that dark night of the soul.

I love what Spurgeon wrote in “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” [Memorial Library, Vol.9, pps. 176-177]: “He [God] makes not the child of God to be a serf, a slave, in fear of punishment, but he so changes the nature of men that they turn away with loathing from the things they once delighted in, and can no more indulge in the sins which were once sweet to them, than an angel could wallow in the mire with the swine. Oh! This is a gracious work, and this is a blessed covenant in which it is promised that we shall be taught to know and love and do the right thing with a willing mind.”

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines ‘darkness’ like this: “Absence of light; a state of being intellectually clouded; great trouble and distress; calamities; perplexities; empire of Satan; land of darkness – the grave.”

In John 3:19 we read: “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.” And even though Joel wrote prophetically to alert the people of Israel in his day, the prophetic word has relevance for today just as it did then! Joel 2:1-2 says, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains…”

Later, in Joel 2:25, God speaks about a land or a life that experiences “swarming, crawling, chewing locust.” God said, “So I will restore to you the years the swarming locust has eaten…My great army which I sent among you.” Why? Because His created people chose ‘self’ over God’s saving grace! They chose the fallen spirit over the Holy Spirit! They chose futile flesh over divine will, purpose, and power! They chose fleshly pleasure over the Holy Spirit! AND GOD SENDS THE LOCUST!

DARK DAYS? LET’S LOOK FIRST AT THE ‘LOCUST’ OF PERSONAL DESOLATION. Matthew 23:37-38 tells us, Jesus speaking, “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 chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you DESOLATE…”

Men actually, personally, choose to live an uninhabited life without God’s Presence. They choose ruin over His royal throne to bow before. They choose a ravaged, ruined, neglectful life of yieldedness to the Lord who loved them, laid His life down for them, and only desired to bless and fulfill their existence with divine presence! And the result? Micah 6:13-14 says, God speaking, “Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, by making you desolate because of your sins. You shall eat, but not be satisfied; hunger shall be in your midst. You may carry some away, but shall not save them; and what you do rescue I will give over to the sword.”

How do you feel when you read a word like Isaiah 1:7 where it says: “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.”

DARK DAYS? SECOND, LET’S CONSIDER JOB 38:2 when God confronted Job and said: “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Hear me: “If man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” then how truly wise are those who “darken counsel by words without knowledge”?

Oh, there are those who seek counsel because they want to hear what they want to hear apart from the Word of God! Proverbs 12:5 clearly says, “…the counsels of the wicked are deceitful…”! But in Jeremiah 7:23-24 we read, God speaking, the Lord of hosts: “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be Your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.”

You’re either pressing in to the Lord or you’re falling away! You’re either found in the Light or bound in the darkness! You’re either made well in His Light or bound in the darkness! You’re either made well in His Light or sickened by the devil’s darkness, being made ready with his demons for an eternal Hell of Light-absence!

THIRD, DARK DAYS? SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT OBLITERATED BY DISTRESSES! I love Psalm 107 because it is so informative and illustrative of a life with God or a life without Him. Psalm 107 challenges us to see life’s “troubles” as a “door-closer” to God or a “ door-opener” to Him.

Four times in Psalm 107 the Word tells us: [Verses 6,13,19,and 28], “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.” And some choose, yes, choose to live in their ‘distresses’ without ever crying out to the Lord! But for the true believer, he/she understands “in the world you will have tribulation.” Consider Paul. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:4-10, “But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” Can you say: “Yes! Amen!!”

FOURTH, DARK DAYS? WHAT ABOUT EXCESSIVE AND BURDENING DISCOURAGEMENT OR DISAPPOINTMENT? As we consider the matter of discouragement or disappointment, is it possible that regardless of circumstances some would be unhappy if God gave them an unlimited inheritance or share of His abundant blessings?

But be assured, in this very historic moment of your life, if you have not yielded in repentance and faith in Christ, you have one choice to make of two opportunities: 1) You may find yourself under the dark shadows of judgment, separation from God forever, and a Hell with your “guilty” pass or 2) you’ve chosen to walk in the Light of God’s love, grace, and mercy, with an eternal residence in our Lord’s Holy Presence!

The children of Joseph said to Joshua, in Joshua 17:14, that they were those whom “the Lord has blessed us until now”! Walking in our walk with the Lord is not a walk of discouragement but of blessing! Have you forgotten or overlooked Romans 8:16-17? “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of god, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Some have come to the faith and then experienced the reality of persecution and isolation and are disenfranchised by family and friends, and were never a disciple of, yes, it’s pain and suffering at times. In Philippians 1:27-30 Paul wrote the Philippians and us!!, the following: “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not be terrified in any way by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you, it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear in me.”FIFTH, WHAT ABOUT THE DARK DAYS OF DISILLUSIONMENT OR DISPLEASURE OR DISAPPOINTMENT?

My prayer for all of God’s people is for a true spirit of discernment as they engage a world of needy people around them. It’s so true that the God we serve is the One True and Living God who is moved with compassion for the wounded, the grief-stricken, the man or the woman overwhelmed by the awareness of their guilt and separation from God and that their sin nailed Jesus to the Cross!

Psalm 147:3 is so very clear: “He [the Lord God] heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [or sorrows].”

What a magnificent and beautiful world our God has created – and yet beyond our small little world are universes of omnipotence, galaxies of divine glories, habitations of Holy Presence – yet He has time for the bleeding, wounded heart, the broken marriage, the lost and wandering son or daughter of faith – and especially does the Lord God Almighty sense the suffering, serious wounds of open rebellion, scarred hearts, and captive wills – and “the Great Physician” reaches out to touch those wounded hearts and sin-stricken souls, speaking “Peace” and healing grace and abundant mercy!

There’s an old U.S. African-American spiritual that says: “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; There’s power enough in heaven, to cure a sin-sick soul.

Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work’s in vain, But then the Holy Spirit Revives my soul again.

If you cannot sing like angels, If you can’t preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus and say He died for all.”

In Luke 12:8-9 Jesus said: “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”

From “Dark Days”, let’s look joyfully at the “BRIGHT LIGHTS”! In John 3:18-21, 35-36, Jesus said: “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.” Verses 35-36, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.”

It’s so interesting, convicting, and illuminating that James 1:17 tells us that, “Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

God the Father is the Father of lights without a doubt, and Jesus the Son IS the true light of the world. And in John 8:12 Jesus spoke saying: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” He’s not a liar, He’s not a lunatic, He’s not a deceiver, He’s not an evil spirit masquerading as Truth – HE IS THE TRUTH! He is the Way! He is the Author of Resurrection Life, Power, and Hope!

If you are an unbeliever, a doubter, a denouncer of Christ, if you’re so sure and certain, then stand openly before the Cross of Jesus Christ and tell Him you’re an atheist, an unbeliever, an agnostic, a doubter – and you refuse to bow before God’s sacrificial Lamb who DIED FOR YOU, that you’re willing to live without Him because you choose to not live for Him so you can revel and rebel in your fallen state – and then just go to Hell forever with the devil and his demons and all your atheistic, agnostic, unbelieving ‘sinners’!!

Yes, Jesus IS “THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”! But beyond the reality of His eternal resurrection life, is the story of true believers! In Ephesians 5:8-14 we see unfold the historical truth of “children of light”! The Word says: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”

How did that happen? In I Peter 2:9-10 Peter tells us, “But you [in Christ] 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.”

Jesus always had a passion for the true disciples to understand their role of oneness in Him. In John 12:35-36 He said, Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

Did you see it? Repentant, faith believers BECOME “SONS OF LIGHT”!! It was John, later, who wrote I John 1:5-7, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” GLORY!

Are you familiar with the “New Jerusalem” which I truly believe to be present – not a future possibility, not a geographical location, but “Holy Presence” in and through the Resurrected Christ? Revelation 21:22-27 tells us, “But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of life.”

We’ve seen “the Father of lights, the Savior of Light”, the “sons of light” – let’s look now at His Holy Word, the Bible, God’s revelation or unveiling of Himself and us! Let’s examine Psalm 119!!

Psalm 119:9 says, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.”

Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

Psalm 119:14 says, “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.”

Psalm 119:18 says, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”

Psalm 119:24 says, “Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.”

Psalm 119:25 says, “My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word.”

Psalm 119:28, “Strengthen me according to Your word.”

Psalm 119:37, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.”

Psalm 119:54, “Your statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage.”

Psalm 119:67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.”

Psalm 119:72, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.”

Psalm 119:92, “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.”

Psalm 119:101, “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word.”

Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Psalm 119:111, “Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.”

Psalm 119:120, “My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments.”

Psalm 119:130, “The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”

Psalm 119:133, “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.”Psalm 119:140, “Your word is very pure; therefore Your servant loves it.”

What did Jesus say in John 8:31-32? “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” So that leads me to:

“The church,” the local “assembly of believers,” “the functioning body of Christ visibly”, is to be a “Bright Light”! In Ephesians 5:22-32 Paul compares the husband and wife relationship as a picture of the church both universal and the local body of believers where one lives out his/her spiritual marriage to Christ! It says: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and bones. ‘

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

There is no doubt that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the Great Shepherd of the sheep, the flocks of God. But there are ‘under-shepherds’ assigned by God in caring for the local flocks of His sheep. In Christ, we are ‘gathered sheep’ under the oversight of a Christ-like, caring, under-shepherd who knows how to feed sheep, shear sheep, and guide them by the Word and Spirit to grow and mature and, yes, reproduce themselves to the honor of Christ!

Jesus Himself said in John 6:37-40, giving each repentant follower true hope: “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.”

But I pray you remember that Jesus also said, “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve and to give My life a ransom for many.”

In the same chapter of John 6, verses 47-58, Jesus also said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man gives us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven – not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

To be a part of a local church fellowship is both an honor and a calling – representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ looking out for others more than we look out for ourselves! The local assembly is “mutual submission”, yes, in the fear of the Lord, because it is to Him we each are held accountable as to our devotion or lack of it.

After 78 years of my life affiliated with a local church, I can say, even with a few “horror” stories, that I’ve been eternally blessed and seen birthed all around a sense of true brotherhood.

In John 17:20-23 Jesus prayed to Father-God: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one; I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

Hear Charles Haddon Spurgeon in his “Spurgeon’s Sermons”: [Memorial Library, Vol.18, po.64], “Christians are not a miserable company of restless spirits; they are not a pack of dogs howling at one another, and smarting under the keeper’s leash; but they are a flock feeding in happy communion, while Jesus in their midst finds for them a place where they may rest at noon. He so loves His own, and so reveals Himself to His own, that they are a happy [blessed] people highly favored, and greatly honored. God has blessed them, and they shall be blessed, let the world say what it will concerning them.”

Timothy Dwight and Aaron Williams wrote the old hymn that needs a resurrection! It says: “I love Your kingdom, Lord, The house of Your abode, The Church our blest Redeemer saved With His own precious blood.

I love Your Church, O God! Her walls before You stand, Dear as the apple of Your eye, And graven on Your hand.

For her my tears shall fall; for her my prayers ascend; To her my cares and toils be given, Till toils and cares shall end.

Beyond my highest joy I prize her heavenly ways, Her sweet communion, solemn vows, Her hymns of love and praise.

Sure as Your truth shall last, To Zion shall be given The brightest glories earth can yield, And highest bliss of heaven.” Amen?

Henry Ward Beecher made the following statement about the church: “The church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.” Why not join the training and equipping as a “soldier” of the Cross?

Do you remember Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane? Matthew 26:39 says: He [Jesus] went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “Oh, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” And He went to the Cross – not sure momentarily it was where He wanted to be but where He needed to be, laying His life down in behalf of us!! Is that your prayer, your decision, your commitment to honor Christ through your “laid-down life”?

PART 2 (by J.Farrell Fisher) Nov.14-15, 2016

It’s so vitally interesting and important to me to read what Leo Tolstoy, in his writing, “The Kingdom of God is Within You,” had to say: First statement? “The Christian cannot promise to do or not do a given thing at a given time, for he cannot know what the law of love, which is the commanding principle of his life, will demand of him at that time.” But one thing is certain: Holy God, King Jesus, the Holy Spirit will not ask you to say or do anything that would violate His Word, His Will, His character, His eternal truths!

The second statement of Leo Tolstoy? “Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishments, its wars.” But it’s for certain, as followers of Christ Jesus, as He warned, we warn; as He confronted “religious pretense” or “political inconsistencies with Divine Truth” or “flesh at its worst or best”, so true disciples are silent when He’s silent or vocal as He was vocal; as followers of Christ Jesus, we don’t lean on fleshly instincts of one’s own mind apart from Christ or one’s fleshly instincts of fallen mankind’s mind, will, or emotion but rests upon the Christ within guiding, yes, even one’s investment of his/her life in the midst of a lost, needy, separated-from-God world!

And, I certainly don’t stress ‘religion’s pride’ or the ‘pomp’ and ‘showiness’ of self-indulgent performance, or ‘worldly’, or Hollywood’s interpretations of the ‘good life’ or ‘evil life’ or ‘religious activity’ at its best, when “Christ IN YOU IS the hope of eternal glory” and Him alone! Don’t you think this just might be why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:9, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”? In fact, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I DIE DAILY.” Later, in 2 Corinthians 4:11, Paul stated, “For we who live (in Christ!) ARE ALWAYS delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

It’s SO VITAL that every “professing believer”, not only acknowledge, receive and act upon what the Word of God says about every single person convicted and convinced by the Holy Spirit, but affirming the Truth about Holy God’s justification of taking the sin and sin nature of all mankind on the Cross in and through His Son and our Savior and nailing it to the Cross!

Paul acknowledged and affirmed this truth when in Colossians 3:3 he wrote: “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God,” then challenging us 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. 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.” But you don’t “live” there any longer if YOU ARE IN CHRIST!

I don’t know if YOU are fully aware of what Holy God declares about the “new creation” family of faith, but it is so important that You receive, understand, appropriate, and stand upon 2 Corinthians 13:5-8! “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. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Now I pray that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.”

So the Apostle unveils the “true path”, the “new identity”, and the “everlasting unveiling of the Biblical Truth of God’s redeemed, blood-bought sons and daughters of saving grace, mercy, and love in and through Christ alone”!

FIRST, NEW CREATION SONS AND DAUGHTERS HAVE ACCEPTED THEIR CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST AND HIS RESURRECTION TO, IN, AND THROUGH THE ETERNAL LIFE OF HOLY GOD! What did Paul tell us in Galatians 2:20-21a? “I have been CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith IN the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…!”

Even King David learned the vital, eternal necessity of “new life” in and through the “Promised Messiah” when in Psalm 87: 5-7 he wrote: “And of Zion it will be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her; and the Most High Himself shall establish her.” The Lord will record, when He registers the peoples: ‘This one was born there.’ Both the singers and the players on instruments say, “All my springs (fresh springs!) are in you.”

Oswald Chambers wrote, in “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.271), “Our Lord never patches up our natural virtues, He re-makes the whole man on the inside. ‘Put on the new man…’”! That’s “new creations”, “the new man,” accepting, resting in, relying upon the “new covenant,” and rejoicing daily in the celebration of Kingdom living in the “new heaven and the new earth”!

Yes, even in Old Testament times there were those, like Abraham, about whom Jesus said, John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad,” Jeremiah even hearing the Lord say in his day, Jeremiah 29:11-14, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity!” [For instance, ‘are you still a slave to your old sin nature, maintaining allegiance, even appreciation, of the ‘old man’ nature and character’?].

What does Romans 8:13-14 says: “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.”

As YOU read the Holy Word, do you find it so illuminating in learning to be “through with the old man of sin” and LEANING ON CHRIST’S DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION? In Hebrews 3:12-19 there is a dramatic unveiling of “professors of faith” who fell short of entering “God’s Promised Land Through Christ”! It says: “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. FOR WE HAVE BECOME PARTAKERS OF CHRIST “IF” we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, BUT TO THOSE WHO DID NOT OBEY? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Do you see it? “Followers? But limited by their unbiblical ‘faith’, dying in their ‘obedience’(which was so limited!) BEFORE entering the Promised Land”? SO YOU discern that’s “salvation by works”, or truly is it not THE EVIDENCE THAT TRUE SALVATION HAS BEEN BIRTHED? I’ve said it often, I’ll say it again: “Obedience is not an option in the age of grace, but the evidence grace is honoring Christ by doing what He says!” Dare I ask you again? “Have YOU “mortified the deeds of your flesh and “rested” in Christ alone?”

SECOND, NEW CREATION SONS AND DAUGHTERS, ARE, YES, LEGITIMATE FAMILY OF GOD OFF-SPRING BY THE BORN-AGAIN REALITY IN AND THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT! In John 3:5-6 the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus and us; ‘MOST assuredly, I say to you’, “unless one is born of water (the ‘water of the Word’!) 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.”

In Romans 8:16 Paul tells us: “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”

In 2 Corinthians 5:17-18a we read: “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, not imputing their trespasses to them…”; and, as “new creations IN CHRIST”, we don’t ‘rest’, rely upon what we think, or ‘try’ to be better – we “TRUST” God’s testimony about us “in Him”!

“In Christ” Holy God “reconciled us to Himself through Christ Only”! “In Christ” divine forgiveness rules and restoration to God’s eternal intent begins – we are the “tent,” the “tabernacle”, the “temple” of Christ’s Resurrection Presence! “Christ IN YOU the hope of glory”!

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul added, “For He (God the Father) made Him (God the Son, Emmanuel) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God In Him (in Christ Jesus).” Worldly religions promote personal redemption by determined, best efforts, believing it “rests” in one’s confidence in himself/herself to overcome, faithfulness to an ‘assembly’, whether Christ is there or not! Worldly religions, agnostics, atheists, even, sad to say, some ‘church folk’, believe Christ Jesus went too far saying, “Come to Me, and I will give you rest,” when often the “worldly” discern ‘salvation’ in themselves!

Again, “God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin FOR US, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” In Romans 6:10-14 Paul illumines one’s lack of salvation knowledge, laying out our true journey! He said: “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.”

Only through the “Blood Atonement” of Christ in and through His sacrificial death on the Cross is there liberty and freedom and eternal blessing in a life re-born by the grace of God to His honor alone! And that miracle of redemption, reconciliation with God, through Christ alone, is the “open door” of eternal opportunity to unveil His Son through the “redeemed”! Galatians 1:15-16 says, “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…”, but you’re unsure if that’s God’s purpose through you? [You might need to “be born again”!].

THIRD, REDEEMED CHILDREN OF FAITH ARE CALLED BY THE LORD TO BE HIS WITNESSES, HIS AMBASSADORS, HIS MESSENGERS TO A NEEDY WORLD! And, of course, WHO determines what a needy world is? Fallen men or Holy God? Also, when it comes to an individual’s determination what his ‘religious profession’ is all about, is it ‘self-determination’ or Sovereign Calling and ordination and equipping for His eternal plan?

It’s true that the unbelieving world has no awareness of or commitment to being ‘reconciled to God’ because they’ve chosen to be “at peace” with their godlessness and unbelief. But for the “church,” for individual believers, there is the reality, for some, that their ‘intellectual superiority’ sets them apart from a disciple’s or church’s mandate and commissioning of “being His witnesses” – that to them is impractical, unadvisable, degrading to their “biblical brilliance”! Really? Yes, really!

Or, like the Dallas pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church, “The Gospel is opened to all and closed to none,” welcoming homosexuals as ‘true disciples’! Where do you find that in the Word of God! The True Gospel of Christ and the Word liberates from, not opens the door to continue in sin, in debauchery, in rebellion and disobedience to the Holy Word!

I believe the Holy Word when it says in Revelation 21:5-8, Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things NEW.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. BUT the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” And, if you believe ‘sexually immoral’ doesn’t include homosexuality or lesbianism, I’d go into the Word, before the Throne of God, before the community of true “born-again believers” asking them: “Is a homosexual lifestyle acceptable here, in you, and in your church?” And if they said, “Yes”, I’d run as fast as I could AWAY from a compromising, godless, collectively-deceived-mind-set unredeemed by the “Blood of the Lamb”!

In Matthew 28:16 the new disciples went to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. This is after His resurrection and before His ascension. In Verses 18-20 Jesus issued His “Great Commission”! He said: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (or “So be it!”).

IF: “I am not my own, but I was bought with a price, the blood of the Lamb of God, and I am under His authority”, and He then tells me, “You shall be My witnesses, My messengers, My earthly representatives to a lost and perishing world of unbelievers,” do I, do we, just turn deaf ears and blinded eyes to a perishing people, or do I share the “Life-Raft” to ‘drowning people’ with no sense at all of personal accountability for my indifference to their eternal need?

I tell you, I truly understand why the ‘modern church’ and ‘modern music leaders’ avoid old hymns that convict, convince, and open uncaring ‘church members’ to a lost world around them – they want no reminders of spiritual responsibility to touch their world with grace, mercy, and love – they are so enamored with their own spiritual concerns that ‘witnessing, evangelizing, touching my world with mercy and grace is just too heavy a responsibility to bear’!

Fanny J. Crosby and William H. Doane, in the old “The American Hymnal,” (compiled and edited by Robert H. Coleman, in cooperation with The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, copyright, 1933), wrote the hymn “Rescue the Perishing.” It says:

“Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, Lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.

Tho’ they are slighting Him, Still He is waiting, Waiting the penitent child to receive; Plead with them earnestly, Plead with them gently, He will forgive if they only believe.

Down in the human heart, Crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving heart, Wakened by kindness, Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.

Rescue the perishing, Duty demands it; Strength for your labor the Lord will provide; Back to the narrow way Patiently win them; Tell the poor wanderer a Savior has died. Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying; Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.”

FOURTH, TRUE CHILDREN OF SAVING FAITH ARE NOT ONLY WITNESSES, MESSENGERS, AND AMBASSADORS, THEY ARE ‘FOOT-WASHERS’ AND “TRUE SERVANTS”! In John 13:1-17 there is an amazing revelation of true, heavenly, God-interpreting living, ministry, and service of the true disciples of Christ Jesus! It says: Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”

So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, FOR SO I AM. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. FOR I HAVE GIVEN YOU AN EXAMPLE, that you should do as I have done to you.

Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, BLESSED ARE YOU IF YOU DO THEM.”

Dare I give you a hint to successful, Christ-honoring servants? In Philippians 3:10-11 Paul wrote: “…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.” THE DEAD WITHOUT CHRIST ARE NOT ABOUT TO BOW BEFORE OTHERS TO WASH THEIR FEET! They’d SAY, “How disgraceful, how demeaning, how foolish,” yet Christ directs His disciples to be “foot-washers”!

“Foot-washers” ARE “true servants” of the Lord Jesus Christ! They understand humbling one’s self to be exalted in and with Christ Jesus, the “Eternal, God-given foot-washer”! Doesn’t 1 Corinthians 10:31 tell us, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”? Whatever YOU do – do YOU sense the Christ in you saying, “Live with the ‘foot-washing’ spirit and attitude of the Christ in you! You’re the “vessel” – I’m the content”! And the Christ in you desires to wash fallen mankind’s feet AND the saved, and as you humble yourself before Him and allow Him to be the foot-washer through you, He’ll humble more and more souls before His Father, Holy God!

Are YOU aware, even as pastors and teachers, of “the calling, the instruction, the EXAMPLE of Christ Himself” as He said in John 12:23-27,But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

IF anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for THIS PURPOSE I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name,” (through you and me?)!

I close this message with John’s challenging illumination for true disciples in 1 John 3:16-19! “By this we know love (agape love), because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.”

“Identifying True Disciples of Christ?” I don’t know who wrote it, but his/her challenge is so on target! “My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace, Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.” THAT’S “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY”!!!