November 22, 2016

Titus 2:1-14 Paul highlights both “fleshly adornment and/or Christ’s atonement”, with, of course, a powerful presentation of what it means to be both Christ-honoring disciples AND pure, sound, well-trained churches touching our world with His saving grace! It says:

“But as for you, speak the things which are proper for SOUND DOCTRINE: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things – that they may admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say to you. Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” [We’ll meditate on these previous verses soon, but I want you to also examine 1 John 3:1-9!].

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now are we children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

It’s also interesting, having read these two powerful texts from Paul and John to see Paul also saying in Galatians 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” And, if Christ has made you free, why under God’s beautiful blue heavens would you want, even for a moment, to indulge yourself in the “sins of the flesh” when you’ve been made “one in the Spirit with the Son of God, even God Himself”?

It may be because one or someone has bought into the devil’s lie that “you can sin and not die”! The Lord Jesus even had to condemn the “religious Pharisees” when in John 5:39-40 He said of them (and some of us?), “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. BUT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO COME TO ME (the PROMISED MESSIAH, SAVIOR, REDEEMER, AND LORD!) that you may have life.”

Did Paul say, “Stand fast IN THE LIBERTY BY WHICH CHRIST HAS MADE US FREE”? It’s Christ alone, in His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope, that sets the captives free to be vessels in and through which the Life of Christ continues to be Himself, in us, as we take daily the sentence of death to our old selves that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in our mortal flesh! Oswald Chambers put it like this in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,”, (p.92), “There is only one liberty, the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.” Chambers said on the same page, “These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for “HIS” enterprises, “His” building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put (or what he/she thinks he/she shall do!).”

John the Baptist made a bold, profound, convicting statement when in John 3:30 he said: “He, the Messiah, the Savior and Lord, the coming King of kings and Lord of lords, MUST INCREASE, but I must decrease,” and some “professors of faith” resent that because they believe they are more than able to live out their faith apart from His presence in them! How phony is that since “Christ in you IS the hope of glory”?!

But “fleshly adornment” is also seen vividly in “religious pretenders” who know nothing about “born again”! God is not up to promoting a man’s sense and pride in his/her natural virtues, the pumping of their ‘flesh-devotion’, or their corrupt confidence in their ‘fleshly abilities’!

It was Eliphaz who told Job in Job 4:6, “Is not your reverence your confidence? And the integrity of your ways your hope?” He went on, in Verse 17, to ask Job, “Can a mortal be more righteous then God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?” And then in Verse 21 he asked, “Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.” And I’m sure, without a doubt, that that is true of some, but not all of the disciples of Christ!

In “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, one of her writings is entitled “The Soul’s Traveling,” but I only desire to take line quotes from a very long poem. 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 dwell amid the city, and hear the flow of souls! I do not hear the several contraries – I do not hear the separate tones that rolls in acts or speech, for pomp or trade, for merrymake or folly – I hear the confluence and sum of each, And that is melancholy! – The voice is a complaint, O crowned city, The blue sky covering you, like God’s great pity! –

And as they touch your soul, they borrow as of its grandeur, of its sorrow, That deathly odour which the clay leaves on its deathlessness always. Always! Always! Must this be? Rapid Soul from city gone, Do you carry inwardly what does make the city’s moan? Must this sigh of your own haunt you with humanity?

O fair, fair Nature! Are we thus impotent and querulous among thy workings glorious, – among thy fulnesses that still leave us vacant and defiled, and wailing like a kissed child, kissed soft against his will?”

And as Elizabeth Barrett Browning was ending this dramatic poetic reality of ‘fallen mankind’, she spoke of ‘human vainness ‘unless they travel upward to God’s Throne!’ And then she wrote ,”There sittest THOU, the satisfying ONE, With blood for sins, and holy perfectings for all requirements – while th’ archangel, raising toward Your face his full ecstatic gazing, Forgets the rush and rapture of his wings!”

But “fleshly adornment” is vain! The ONLY supernatural life, again, is “Christ in you the hope of glory”! Conscious holiness in a fleshly mind is “deception” and truly “grieves” the Holy Spirit! Conscious holiness in a fleshly mind resents and reacts adversely to Jesus Himself even saying, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, but you do not do what I say?” “Self-conscious” holiness resents the Cross and celebrates “self-intelligence” and operates on the basis of religious “self-effort”!

But Romans 5:10-11 declares: “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.”

As the author of Hebrews closed out his amazing revelation, he said, in Hebrews 13:20-21, “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.”

And if we’re redeemed, reconciled, re-born in and through the blood of the Lamb of God, if we’re “pardoned, forgiven, made new through His blood”, if we’re “delivered from the penalty of sin, blessed with a new identity ‘in Christ’”, why or how even does one consistently look inward to himself rather than upward to the God of eternal forgiveness with the old sin nature obliterated and the new divine nature freely given? 1 John 1:7 clearly says, “…and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” Human power, fleshly will, self-pardon never erases sin’s debt before Holy God, only the blood of the Lamb! There is nothing so disadvantageous as a haughty and proud spirit that rebuffs the shed blood of the Lamb of God and wilts before the mercy and grace of God, proud of his/her ‘self-sacrifice’ that is ghostly, godless, governed by the unnatural, and guaranteed by the Word of eternal death and separation from Holy God and the Loving Savior!

It was James Milner who once wrote: “While a man rests on his own merits for acceptance with God, it is of little consequence whether he be a pagan idolater, or a proud, ignorant Pharisee. – I know not which of the two is most distant from the kingdom of God.” [The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, p.401]. But by His grace and mercy and love, through repentance toward God and faith alone in Christ’s finished work at the Cross, the true foundation of the born-again believer’s life is not to the ‘athletic principle of ‘best effort’ but to the Person, power, and presence of Christ as the only explanation in you of Divine Life!

And ‘resting on one’s own merits’ for acceptance with God is becoming aware of vacant seat assignments at His banqueting table because invited guests refused to show up! “Fleshly adornment” for a religious ritual on a “fleshly altar” become easily adaptable by many in place of true repentance, true faith, and the true calling for one’s ‘religious accommodations’ and, on their terms, void of the never-fading clear picture of true disciples who DO FORSAKE ALL AND FOLLOW JESUS ONLY!

In Joshua 24:14-15 Joshua spoke then, and he still speaks now! “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served…Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether strange gods…or the gods ‘fallen men’ bow down to around you! But as for me and my house, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”

In some way, or even many ways, Christ Jesus stands at the door of every man or woman’s heart and He knocks, when in Truth, HE IS THE DOOR by which we enter into oneness with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, “the three-in-one”! In John 10:1-5, listen to King Jesus! “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

In Verse 7 Jesus said, “I AM the door of the sheep!” In Verse 9 He said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture…Verse 10b, “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Glory! But… if Jesus knocks, do all answer and enter in? Do you understand, witness, or grasp the reality of fleshly obstinacy in some minds and hearts?

And what began in Genesis continued on even to the end of Revelation and all across human history even to this very hour! And “the choice” is always there! In our day, it’s Hollywood movies or the revealed Word of God, messages and basic principles of Godly living or the godless living spouted by godless professors in their curriculums and teachings of godless living, or godless world leaders with the ‘expositions’ of godless men, OR the profound, prophetic teachings of Redeemed men, re-born servants of God and available vessels of ALL the Redeemer desires to reveal, unveil, and do through repentant, faithful hearts!

It’s not “astute minds” that reveals the grace, mercy, and love of God, but “new-born lives” redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, anointed and overflowing with “rivers of living water”, and bathed in the assurance of His words of hope, of heavenly glory, and of the will to live to the honor, glory, and blessing of Christ alone through us! Is Jesus ‘prominent’ in you or is He “preeminent in you”?

In 1 Corinthians 2:4 Paul stated: “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.” True disciples yielding daily to the anointing of the Holy Spirit that Christ Jesus WILL BE ILLUMINATED THROUGH THEM? What did Jesus say about Himself as He walked out His eternal earthly calling, ministry, and purpose? In John 17:13-19 we are challenged, convicted, and consecrated by the very words of Christ Himself as He sees us, even now, His ambassadors in a needy world, amply equipped by the Spirit of Truth! Jesus said:

“But now I come to You (Father-God), and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word (Have YOU truly received the Word?); and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. SANCTIFY THEM (or “set them apart”) by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. AND FOR THEIR SAKES I SANCTIFY (or willfully set apart!) Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” Do YOU see “yourself” SET APART TO THE GLORY AND HONOR OF GOD?

Hear me! It’s God’s desire for you and me to be His royal, faithful ambassadors of the true faith with vibrant testimonies, verbal declarations, of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God – or even as some believers did in Jesus’ day or our own day, they yield to warped, maligned, shamed images and opened-unveilings of sin’s captives, deceived by the world, the flesh, and the devil, and drift, or fall away, and, yes, shame the Name they profess to be aligned with. God, help us!

It was Thomas Watson who once said: “A true saint is a divine landscape or picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth. He has the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will with Christ.”

In the old “American Hymnal” of 1933, there is a classic hymn written by John Bakewell and Louis von Esch which says: (“Hail, CHRIST Once Despised”):

‘Hail, You once despised Jesus! Hail, You Galilean King! You did suffer to release us; You did free salvation bring. Hail, You agonizing Savior, Bearer of our sin and shame! By Your mercies we find favor; Life is given through Your name.

Paschal Lamb, by God appointed, All our sins on You were laid; By almighty love anointed, You have full atonement made. All Your people are forgiven, Through the virtue of Your blood; Opened is the gate of Heaven; Peace is made between man and God.

Jesus, hail! Enthroned in glory, There forever to abide; All the heavenly hosts adore You, Seated at Your Father’s side; There for sinners You are pleading; there You do our place prepare; Ever for us interceding, Till in glory we appear.

Worship, honor, power, and blessing, You are worthy to receive; Loudest praises, without ceasing, Meet it is for us to give. Help, you bright angelic spirits, Bring your sweetest, noblest lays; Help to sing our Savior’s merits; Help to chant Immanuel’s praise!”

What is YOUR ‘angelic song of the redeemed’ or do you even have one? Hebrews 10:14 declares: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” As a result of God’s mercy for us in Christ, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:29-30, “…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.’”! AMEN? That’s “unholy men made holy”, that’s “unrighteous men declared righteous”, that’s “ indicted men forgiven, freed, and filled with the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” that’s “the ‘incomplete’ declared complete in Christ our Lord and Savior”!

Another old hymn in closing this message entitled “Glory to His Name” written by Rev. E.A.Hoffman and Rev. J.H. Stockton out of the same old “The American Hymnal! It says:

“Down at the cross where my Savior 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 so sweet; Cast your poor soul at the Savior’s feet; Plunge in today, and be made complete; Glory to His name.

Glory to His name,…Glory to His name;…There to my heart was the blood applied; Glory to His name.” Amen? Will YOU bow and sing: “Glory to His name ONLY”?

BY J.FARRELL FISHER, September 29, 2014

I found it so interesting as I was reading in Proverbs recently, chapter 15 and verse 9, when the wise man wrote: “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but He loves him who follows righteousness.” The absence of Biblical faith is the way of the wicked, yes, even an abomination to God, but the present walk of the man of redemptive faith is a delight to God because He sees a man following divine righteousness – “self-righteousness” is as filthy rags! And then I came to Proverbs 15:11 that tells us: “Hell and Destruction are before the Lord; so much more the hearts of the sons of men.”

In Job 26:6 Job told his friends, “Sheol is naked before Him, and Destruction has no covering.” No doubt this is why the author of Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 13, wrote: “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but ALL THINGS ARE NAKED AND OPEN TO THE EYES OF HIM to whom we must give account.” David made it even plainer when in Psalm 33:13-14 he wrote: “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth.” God knows us all by name!

If “Hell and Destruction” are before God’s eyes and He reads the heart of every man, does He sense in you a heart for “My Way” or a heart for “God’s Way”? It is so vital that you examine your own heart in Light of God’s mercy or in Light of God’s wrath because a Day is coming in which EVERY MAN will stand before Holy God at the judgment seat as He renders to you “Hell” or “Heaven”, determining whether you chose your way or God’s way!

Oswald Chambers, in his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.131], quoted Matthew 5:30. It says: “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” Chambers then said, “There never has been a saint yet who did not have to live a maimed life to start with. But it is better to enter into life maimed and lovely in God’s sight than to be lovely in man’s sight and lame in God’s.” If you didn’t know, “self-righteousness” is the picture of a “maimed life” needing the eternal redemption only God can give. But, it’s true, some men choose a “hellish” life apart from the Blood Atonement!

Three times in Mark 9:42-48 Jesus spoke of those who offended God by their refusing to accept His healing grace with the result that God, yes, casts them into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where “Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” It burns and burns and burns, and never dies out, with the recipients of hell forever experiencing the fire! Spurgeon made an eye-opening statement when he preached long ago: “Many of you are hanging over the mouth of hell by a solitary plank, and that plank is rotten!” If I were you I’d consider WHO I’m standing on, examining whether Jesus is your Solid plank or you’ve wandered to rotten planks!

Do you think John Milton in his “Paradise Lost”, [Bk.1,1.61], was writing about Hell? “A dungeon horrible on all side round As one great furnace flamed yet from those flames…

No light, but rather darkness visible, Served only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all, but torture without end.”

If you deny God, refuse His saving grace through the blood of the Lamb, and go your own crippled and cursed way, void of the Savior and Lord of life, Jonathan Edwards wrote about you in his “Men Naturally God’s Enemies,” [Works,VII,168], “The devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them…When you come to be a firebrand of hell…you will appear as you are, a viper indeed…Then will you as a serpent spit poison at God and vent your rage and malice in fearful blasphemies.”

Let me point you to “TRUTH MANIFESTED”! There are two passages from Revelation I want to share with you. In Revelation 21:8 John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives ALL a warning: “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 the “second death” is the death that will not die!!].

In Revelation 20:15 we read, “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Oh, but then Revelation 21:27 informs us that this Book of Life is “the Lamb’s Book of Life”! “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, [can a person ‘defile’ Truth because they don’t accept God’s revelation?], or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Are you unaware that every single person on earth has their own “book of life” as they see it with some personally rejecting God’s Word of Truth? Truth defiled, but also there are those who see Biblical Truth as ‘abominable’ – The Random House Collegiate Dictionary defines ‘abominable’ as that which is “repugnantly hateful; detestable; loathsome; very unpleasant, disagreeable” – oh, and then Revelation 21:27 tells us there an those interpreting “TRUTH” as a lie! AND, THEY HAVE NO PART IN THE REDEMPTIVE WORK OF GOD EVEN IF THEY’RE CHURCH ATTENDERS!

My heart is absolutely broken, shattered, and I find myself in a grieving state for a long time when I hear those who, yes, denounce the God-inspired Holy Word! But I grieve also because Jesus speaks in Matthew 10:28 and tells us: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The Greek word for ‘hell’ is Gehenna – I’d define that as ‘good intentions,’ or ‘gross’, ‘godless’, ‘guilt-ridden’, a ‘gad-a-bout’ who wanders away from the God of Truth aimlessly with no God-given purpose, plan, or life in the Spirit!

“Truth-Manifested”? Do you have any idea at all about “eternal remorse”? Again, the Collegiate Dictionary defines “remorse” as “deep and painful regret for wrong-doing…regretful, pitiful, sad”, because one has ignored God’s calling to him/her, His personal calling, through His Word to YOU!!

Follow carefully Jesus’ words in Luke 16:19-31! “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at the gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores…

So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man died also and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’

But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’

And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

“TRUTH MANIFESTED?” What did Jesus say in Matthew 16:25? But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember…” Can you even begin to comprehend the thoughts of a man who thought by his earthly prominence he was assured of a place in heaven but all he ‘inherited’ was “pictures of the past” with no film of saving grace and mercy?

Memory? Thoughts of his past existence because it certainly was not heavenly living on earth – a life that never gave Jesus a silly inch of consideration but only miles of “fleshly, sinful, shameful” unbelief, rebellion, and denial as he wasted his living on indulging himself in Christ-less living!

Thoughts? Do you comprehend “torment” when the purity of Christ could have been yours through His shed blood, broken body, and eternal sacrifice, but you stood on your “intellectually prowess”, never understanding “raised with Christ, seeking the things above” settling in where Christ IS, seated at the right hand of God! So, you become a part of those who “set their minds on things above, not on the things of the earth,” because you “died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God!”

Horrifying considerations of ‘torment in the flames’? Do you ever read Holy Scripture and sense the depth, breadth and height of God’s love for you as He alerts you to an eternity of an absence of His love, grace, and mercy, and experiencing only the Devil’s hell with all his demons and, yes, the godless who deny Christ as the Savior and Lord of all of life?

Can you even begin to comprehend every man, woman, boy, or girl, who heard of the saving grace of God, of Calvary’s great love, of the suffering and death on innocent Jesus who knew no sin, but took their sin upon Himself and died a cruel death, hearing Him say, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity!” What tormenting shame for the rejecters of Christ!

Eternity in Hell with unbelievers, sordid companions, sick sinners of body, mind, heart, and soul? Revelation 22:15 Jesus Himself testified of those who weren’t allowed to enter the Holy City! “But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and WHOEVER LOVES AND PRACTICES A LIE!” Loves a lie, practices a lie? “Jesus isn’t divine, Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin, Jesus was not Emmanuel, Jesus wasn’t the Sinless Son of God, Jesus doesn’t save, Jesus doesn’t give us Resurrection Life, Power, and Hope for Eternity – he was just a man!” So they GO TO HELL!!

Oh, hear the Word of God!! John 3:36!! “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 on him.” Wrath? Hell? Punishment? From God? You do understand that there are some who believe it to be impolite to even speak of Hell and who goes there, but if Jesus does, so should all born-again believers! There are those without grace and mercy in their hearts, living hopeless of hope and heaven without Jesus as Master, Savior, and Lord of their lives.

Have you read 2 Thessalonians lately? Verses 7-10 “…the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who DO NOT OBEY THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe [trust in, rely upon, rest in], because our testimony among you was believed.” Tell me what YOU believe?

Would you be surprised if you discovered that Jesus had more to say about Hell than He did Heaven? Why don’t you “use” the Word and see the difference between Hell and Heaven! I don’t know what you’ve discerned about Hell in God’s Word, but more importantly you need to truly know the heart of God! 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” [And especially related to the “church”, how does the last verse apply when “repentance” is a word missing from the church’s daily dictionary? Too many pastors have no desire to “offend” regular attenders and especially those who are big tithers!]

Let’s examine “Truth Manifested” as it relates to Heaven! In John 14:1-4 Jesus speaks to our hearts today: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you…

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Jesus talked clearly, plainly, passionately about those who believed in, trusted fully, and followed Him faithfully, that He had gone after His death and resurrection to “prepare a place for you”! But one doesn’t merit Heaven as he/she mixes, messes, or mangles the profession of faith in Christ while daily dancing the devil’s or fallen flesh’s tunes! It’s “I surrender all” or one is not His “at all”!

But in 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9 Paul encourages true believers with the hope of our eternal Heaven: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day…

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal…

5:1-9, For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked…

For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee…

So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.” Heaven? Paul said later in 2 Corinthians 5:18 that “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ…” If you’re not experiencing Heaven now, in Christ, what do you think will make His Presence more pleasing when you’re with Him there?

Do you understand “joy in Heaven”? Luke 15:7,10 says, Verse 7, Jesus speaking, “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” Then Verse 10 says, “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Heaven? The Holy Presence of God, the Presence of Jesus who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Holy Spirit bathing the redeemed in eternal, heavenly fruit of the Spirit, and multitudes after multitudes of Heaven’s angels singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” along with the born-again Family of God!

R.A. Torrey wrote the book entitled “Heaven or Hell?” In it, [p.72] he wrote: “There will be no unpleasant or degrading companions in heaven. The devil will not be there. The lewd, the vulgar, and the obscene will not be there. The greedy and the scheming and selfish will not be there. The liar, the slanderer, the backbiter, the meddler, and the gossip will not be there. The mean, the contemptible, and the hypocrite will not be there. The profane, the blasphemer, and the scoffer will not be there. No money, influence, or cunning will get them in. ‘And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie. [Revelation 21:27]”

And YOU don’t know, refuse to believe, yes, doubt and try to refute daily that you have a great High Priest in Heaven whose name is Jesus? Hebrews 4:14 tells me, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” Beyond this eternal truth the author then tells us in verses 15-16, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

[But how many do you know who deny Jesus as our great High Priest, have no confession, certainly recognize in themselves no weaknesses, void of temptation and sin, and vow they don’t need mercy or grace because their “flesh” and “sin” is of no consequence to God!]

“Heaven”? Can you even begin to fathom the fullness of perfect love, perfect peace, perfect identity, as the son/daughter of God Almighty? What did John write? I John 3:1-3 says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” [Would you call that “preparation for Heaven”? But there is no purity of heart and mind apart from “the blood of the Lamb of God” WHO IS JESUS ONLY!]

“Heaven”? You just read R.A. Torrey’s summation of “absence”, but consider the absence of all of God’s enemies of true faith, your enemies of saving grace! Can you rejoice because you understand there’s the eternal absence of that which sought to mar your life and journey of faith? Life’s pains become His perfect peace, life’s troubles become His triumphant spirit, life’s poverties become His eternal riches, life’s laborious conflicts become His eternal “rest” of faith, life’s fleshly questions become His heavenly answers, life’s “sleepless nights” become the dawn of His bright days, life’s baffling questions become our Lord’s clear answers, life’s tears will be transformed into His rivers of sweet memories, life’s bitter and hateful seconds will become His eternal moments of blessed peace that passes all understanding!

I’m telling you: As true children of redemptive faith, we inherit an eternity of perfect praise, perfect love, and perfect “on key” rejoicing! What does Revelation 7:9-12 tell us? “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!!”

“WHAT ABOUT HEAVEN’S DOOR”? I know you’re not unfamiliar with what Jesus said about Himself – reject Him if you choose, but Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Promised Messiah, Emmanuel, King of kings and Lord of lords, IS HEAVEN’S DOOR, and there is no other way to enter! In John 10:9 Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture.”

“WHAT ABOUT HEAVEN’S HOUSE”? In Hebrews 3:1-6 we read: “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house…

For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God…

And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, BUT CHRIST AS A SON OVER HIS OWN HOUSE, whose house WE ARE “IF” we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end!!”

Once more, consider R.A. Torrey’s comments in his book, “Heaven or Hell?”, [p.86], “Do you know the difference between a hog and a sheep? A hog will fall into the mud, and he will stay there. A sheep may fall into the mud, but he gets up as quickly as he can. Many people that we think are Christ’s sheep are only washed hogs. A hog that is washed will return to the mire, but a sheep will not stay in the mud.” [2 Peter 2:22 says, “But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”

And also if a “Heaven-bound saint”, one truly ‘set apart’ for the glory of God alone, what gives with the man as an unbeliever whose goal is self-actualization?

Read Oswald Chambers’ comments on Philippians 3:10 where Paul said, “That I may know Him..,” [Jesus Christ!!]. [“My Utmost For His Highest,” pps.140-141], “The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Jesus Christ. The spiritual saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred; he sees everything as dumped down in as the means of securing the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is a reckless abandonment about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we shall realize Jesus Christ in every domain of life, and He will bring us back to the same point again and again until we do. Self-realization leads to enthronement of work; whereas the saint enthrones Jesus Christ in his work. Whether it be eating or drinking or washing disciples’ feet, whatever it is, we have to take the initiative of realizing Jesus Christ in it. Every phase of our actual life has its counterpart in the life of Jesus. Our Lord realized His relationship to the Father in the most menial work. “JESUS KNOWING…that He was come from God, and went to God…took a towel…and began to wash the disciples’ feet.”

If you didn’t know it, Jesus was ‘Heaven’ come to earth, and ‘Heaven’ for the true saint is, “that I may know Him’!! And Heaven’s goal in each true believer? Ephesians 4:13, “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The “FRIEND OF HEAVEN” is Jesus – the “friends of earth” are those, yes, who bring “heaven” to earth! What did John say in I John 3:14? “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren,” and our Lord even tells us, “Love your enemies”! THAT’S HEAVEN!

No doubt this is why Peter wrote: I Peter 1:8, “whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory..”

What did Jesus tell us in John 15:13? “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” AWESOME!! I love what Jeremy Taylor said long ago: “By friendship you mean the greatest love, the greatest usefulness, the most open communication, the noblest sufferings, the severest truth, the heartiest counsel, and the greatest union of minds of which brave men and women are capable.” JUST HOW BRAVE WAS JESUS? HOW BRAVE ARE YOU? DO YOU STAND FOR THE ETERNAL TRUTH OF HEAVEN AND, YES, HELL?

BY THE MASTER’S DEMANDS?”

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

How awesome do you find the Holy Word of God ,or, are you, yes, deceived by “living according to a man’s design void of the Eternal Intent of Holy God for, yes, all men”?

Come with me to James 2:14-24, receiving the anointed words of James, the brother of Jesus! He wrote: “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 you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but 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 (trusted, relied upon, adhered to) 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 alone.”

Have you ever heard ,“I believe”, and yet one’s behavior drowned out the call to “deny yourself, take up YOUR cross ,follow Me, and die daily”? In fact, Christ Jesus spoke in Matthew 7:20-23, saying: “Therefore by their “fruits” (or “fruits of the Spirit”?) you will know them.

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to Me, “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!’”

Interesting verse in Psalm 6:8 as David, singing about his sorrow as the unbelieving world around him came against him, said, “Depart from me, all you WORKERS OF INIQUITY”! “Workers of iniquity”? “Workers of iniquity in the ‘professing’ Christian community who “choose” to walk with God as long as He understands they want to walk “their way” at times, and “Your Way”, but on their terms and chosen turfs”??

It’s a sad, sad day every time you’re witnessing “professors of faith” who deny His Holy Word and, yes, willfully ‘choose’ to ‘walk in darkness’ and refuse to “Let His Light Shine Through Them”!! Are you aware of “disobedient lifestyles” of professing believers who indeed think it’s “A-OK” to walk, at times, in darkness, even willfully shutting out the “Light” they profess to live by in their “religious moments”?

What an awesome, inspiring Word in Matthew 8:1-4 when “Jesus came down from the mountain, with great multitudes following Him. And, behold, a leper came and worshipped Him, saying, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, AS A TESTIMONY TO THEM.” Dare I tell you? Believe I will! “There IS the ‘testimony’ of “blood-bought lives” living under, in, and by the Presence of The Resurrected Christ! Are YOU aware of “divine cleanness”?

In Dallas Willard’s book, “Can A Man Live Without God?”, (on page 194) he quoted the skeptic, David Hume, who said: “The most natural sentiment, which a well-disposed mind will feel on this occasion, is a longing desire and expectation that heaven would be pleased to dissipate, at least alleviate, this profound ignorance, by affording some more particular revelation to mankind, and making discoveries of the nature, attributes, and operations of the divine object of our faith.”

AND, what is the ‘divine object of your faith’ that governs your life? There IS one’s self-obsession with ‘flesh’, the ‘old man’, the Adam-nature, OR, the “new Spirit of Life in and through Jesus Only”!! HE is “the divine object of our faith” – not ‘flesh effort’, not ‘do the best you can’, but living fully aware that you were “crucified with Christ”, and now you live in and through Him who “makes all things new”! It’s all determined by whether it’s “you at your best”, or, “crucified with Christ”, allowing the “Resurrection Life of Christ” TO BE the explanation of who you are and why you’re here!

Again, thoroughly examine James 2:23-24 which says: And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God (trusted God, relied upon God, or adhered to Him only!’). And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”

I would ask you, “Is your ‘faith walk’ one that clearly reveals that it is a life that walks in His “righteousness”, and not your best efforts?” Is it the “Life in Christ” or a life that tries its best to ‘resemble Jesus’? Is it a ‘believing life’ without the Holy Spirit glorifying Christ in you and through you, but sadly ‘dimming’ His abiding Presence in the “new creations”?

In Philippians 2:14-15 the Apostle Paul wrote to a church then and the church now the following: “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.” “Children of God? “Blameless and Harmless, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, shining as lights in the world, HOLDING FAST THE WORD OF LIFE”?

The Lord Jesus Christ is not a “silent occupier” – Jesus IS, by His Spirit, the Sovereign Administrator of the Holy Life of Eternal God! He’s not a ‘religious idea’ or a ‘religious thought or precept’, but the “Resident, Resurrected Christ and Lord of Abiding, Eternal, and Life-changing Truth”!

To walk with Jesus is not a ‘flesh, religious game,’ but THE Sovereign Presence of Him who IS Revelation-Truth! He’s not a ‘casual friend’, but Holy Lord over all! He’s not a divine-nature proponent but the Living Presence of the divine nature, resident, ruling in the repentant heart, and regulating the life submissive to His Lordship! “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I say’?”

For you, in your ‘supposed faith-walk’, is it “trying” apart from TRUSTING, attempting apart from “Blood Atonement”, or your ‘religious best’ apart from “born again, born a second time, born from above”?

There’s only one “Life” available to make the eternal difference in the ‘natural man’, in the Satanically deceived, in the ‘world system’ that seriously indoctrinates a man void of the “wisdom of God” – and that IS “The King” who took ourselves and our sins and sinful nature, and was crucified with Him that we might be forgiven, freed, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, and filled in all the fullness of the God-head bodily, submerged in death, but raised up in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Don’t you find it strange that the old hymn, “Rock of Ages”, is seldom sung in churches across the modern world today? It says: “Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, From Your wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labor of my hands Can fulfill Your laws’ demands; These for sin could not atone; Christ must save, and Christ alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Your cross I cling; Naked, I come to You for dress; Helpless, I look to You for grace; Vile, I to the fountain fly, Wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath, When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown, And behold You on Your throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.” Tell me about where today YOU are ‘hiding the real you’ – what you are in the best efforts of your ‘flesh nature’ or what you are in your “new-born Life in and through the Resurrected, Reigning, Richly Blessed Christ Jesus”?

What am I talking about? “Living By Man’s Design?” Or are you, “Living By The Master’s Demands”? Just about thirty minutes ago I had to take my “break” from sitting at my computer. Having turned the TV on, I came across a presentation of “sharks”, whether in the Gulf or along the Eastern coastal-line of the U.S.A.! They were showing a number of lives that survived the attacks, but sadly had to tell about those who lost their lives in the murky sea-waters where “sharks” will venture to find their “meals”!

On “the sea of life” there are “sharks” highly offended by “believers” who know nothing about ‘demonic or Satanic personal space issues’!! And, sadly, many do not know about “divine protection” against ‘the world around them, the flesh-nature in them, or the Satanic onslaught around them’! Christ Jesus said, in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

“Sharks”? “Satan”? “Demonic activity”? And Christ Jesus? Mark 1:11 tells me about Christ Jesus, in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, along with the “wild beasts”! But Mark 1:14 follows saying, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in(or Trust in) the gospel.” Revelation 12:9 tells me that “the Devil or Satan deceives the whole world”, followed by Verses 10-11 which says:

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of God (awareness in me!), and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

And if you haven’t overcome Satan, it’s because you live in a false hope of a love for yourself rather than “crucified with Christ”! In Titus 3:4-8 Paul said: “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH WE HAVE DONE, but according to His mercy He saved us, THROUGH the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

But you’re a “try-er” not a “trust-er”, you’re a “believer” but not a recipient of the gift of eternal life in Christ alone; you now see yourself as spiritually handsome because you ‘believe’ in Jesus apart from receiving His gift of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope, void of true repentance and void of God’s offer of “Christ in you the hope of glory”!!

Again, what did Jesus say in Matthew 11:28-30? “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Are you aware of the reality of “Church imperialism” that shuns the “Incarnation” of His life as void in believers’ lives, totally blind to the truth, “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY”?

In 2 Corinthians 6:11-18 we read: GET READY – IT’S A SHOCKER!! “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. [Does that relate to “examine yourselves”?]. Verses 14-18

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 the wicked or the ungodly!). Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? You 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 Almighty.”

Oh, don’t stop there! Look at 2 Corinthians 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.”

And you don’t understand why a large number of church attenders will burst Hell wide open, even celebrating in their compromised, confused, conformed life of both ‘flesh’ and ‘a little bit of the spirit’, ignoring “Christ in them the hope of glory”?

ARE YOU “LIVING BY ‘FLESH’ DEMANDS, COMFORTABLE, AS FRIENDS OF A PERISHING WORLD, BLINDLY ‘ENLIGHTENED’ BY GODLESS PROFESSORS, THE ‘FLESHLY’ RICH, AND BY SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY OF SATAN AND HIS DEMON HORDES? OR, “ARE YOU LIVING IN THE MASTER’S DEMANDS?”

In Matthew 16:24-27, hear King Jesus, the only Lord and Savior commissioned by God the Father Himself!! He said: “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 angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”

The Master’s Demands? Really, really interesting that in John 5:23 King Jesus said: “that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” And, of course, I have to ask, “Are you at all familiar with what King Jesus said in Luke 6:46?” “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, AND NOT DO THE THINGS WHICH I SAY?” A ‘professing life’ without the testimony of being obedient to the Lord Jesus is a ‘house’ with no solid foundation (Christ IS the “Rock-Foundation!”), and when the “storm-winds” blow, the foundational-absent life is swept away by the powers of darkness, celebrating in the dark dungeon of godless living under the eternal spell and punishment of Satan and his demon hordes!!

The Master’s Demands? “Come to Me, and I’ll give you heavenly, eternal “Rest”; take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

The Master’s Demands? Matthew 4:17, “REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Luke 5:10b-11, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.”

The Master’s Demands? Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, (In true repentance!), and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

The Master’s Demands? Matthew 4:4, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

The Master’s Demands? John 6:63-64, and Verse 66! “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe (or void of “trusting Him!”). Verse 66, From that time many of His disciples WENT BACK AND WALKED WITH HIM NO MORE.”

The Jesus turned to His twelve disciples, asking them, “Do you also want to go away?” Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life Verse 69, Also, we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And of the twelve, only Judas betrayed King Jesus – the rest ended up martyred for the True Faith!!

True discipleship is daily “taking the sentence of death to “self” that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested, unveiled as the “Light, Life, and Liberty” of Christ in the midst of ,yes, your darkened, sin-blinded world!

Do you receive, understand, appropriate, and share with others the blessing of His “unending Life”, that through repentance and faith you share with others in His Resurrection, His abiding Presence in a never-ending life, blessed with eternal, never-ending, everlastingly lasting, and totally ‘complete’ in Christ, blessed with the endlessness relationship of true disciple One with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, imperishable, constant oneness with each, and celebrating with all the saints who heard, listened, examined, repented, and rested in His “precious promises!!

True disciples understand holiness, or “set apart” to and for the glory of God! True disciples choose “death” daily that His Resurrection Life may be manifested through mortal flesh! True disciples refuse to be ‘led astray’, falling away from their own steadfastness!

True disciples GROW in grace and continually expand their understanding of the knowledge of the Lord, of His ministry through available vessels, and in His eternal promises of repentant lives living in “the new heavens and the new earth”, yes, the present Kingdom of God for which He calls us, “ambassadors of Christ”, “royal ambassadors”, not allowing sin in our mortal bodies, but reigning with Him to the glory of His eternal Kingdom on earth, as it always is in Heaven!! Amen?

UNLIMITED SURRENDER?”

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, Oct. 9-11, 2017

It’s without hesitation that I sense and say that our ‘modern-day’ religious philosophies have very little, if any, to do with Biblical Revelation! In fact many deny the validity of the Holy Word of God birthed in the minds and hearts of men and women, convicted by the Holy Spirit, converted by the inspired Word, and anointed as His messengers of Divine Truth!

In the inspired word of Hebrews 11:1-3 we read: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

Verse 6 of Hebrews 11 then tells us, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Are YOU a diligent seeker?). Not only Abel and Enoch, but we read of Noah, Abraham, and Sarah, with Hebrews 11:13 telling us: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Tell me about “what YOU are assured of,” tell me, have YOU embraced Christ or is your belief in Him one of ‘measured devotion’, AND have YOU “confessed” that you also are now a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, because your ‘faith’ is not measured but IS “unlimited full surrender” to the King of kings and Lord of lords? And that does declare you “a stranger and pilgrim on the earth”!

In Matthew 5:48 Jesus said about the “truly blessed disciples”, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In Christ we’re not called to be “children in understanding” but from birth on BY THE SPIRIT, we are to be disciples of Christ who understand and commit to and follow Him in “Unlimited Surrender”!

In the ‘flesh’ there is a ‘maimed existence’ void of God’s presence, but in the “Spirit” we are birthed into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ! That’s “new creations”, “new men and new women”, truly living under, in, and by, to us, the “new Spirit” who “guides us into all truth”!

Are you a possessor of ‘measured devotion’ or do you live in and by the power of unlimited surrender? Follow carefully Psalm 33:1-11 and verses 13-14 and verses 18-22!

Psalm 33:1-11 says: “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! (Righteous because of what you do or what Christ did on the Cross?). For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the Lord with the harp; make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.

For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the people of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.”

Verses 13-14 tells us: “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth;

Verses 18-22 then says: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You.”

“Unlimited surrender” actually, effectively, and ultimately continues to, day by day, bless beyond measure because true disciples have birthed within them by the Holy Spirit an unflinching loyalty to the Word of God in Christ, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest”! And didn’t the psalmist say, “Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You”? Where and in whom does your hope lie, if you have any hope?

But, for some, there IS the reality of “measured devotion”! Yes, there are limited limits of one’s ‘discipleship-loyalty’ because, for them, “Jesus asks too much”, which He never did – He just took your old life and old sin nature to the Cross and, yes, it WAS “crucified with Christ”, and seeking to resurrect what He carried to the Cross unveils one’s faith in himself and a lack of trust in what Christ did to give one new life, new hope, and a new eternal destiny!

In Philippians 3:10-14 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. 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.”

Hear me! There IS a maturing process in one’s relationship to Christ! “Babies” in Christ sometimes ‘mess up’, ‘children in the faith’ also will ‘mess up’, ‘youngsters in the faith’ will ‘mess up’, and, dare I say it? Even Mature followers of Christ will, at times, yes, tragically ‘mess up’! But in 1 Corinthians 1:9 we read of God’s faithfulness! Paul wrote: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 Paul added: “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 have 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.”

“Measured devotion” is revealed in “professing folks” who are, yes, always looking inward to themselves as an explanation of whether or not they are ‘maturing’. Yet Paul said: “I take the sentence of death daily to the ‘old man’ that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in my mortal flesh!” So, in 1 Corinthians 2:9-12, Paul illumines true spiritual witness and spiritual understanding, saying, But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us THROUGH His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things THAT HAVE BEEN FREELY GIVEN TO US BY GOD.” Glory! In fact, that’s a “GLORY! HALLELUJAH! PRAISE BE TO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFTS!” And, did Paul say, “freely given to us by God”? Yes, he did!

But, “measured devotion” in place of or a substitute for “unlimited surrender”? In 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 the Apostle Paul writes a “game winning, historic, world series competition ‘heart-run’ between flesh and Spirit”, between the natural at its best and the spiritual rallying in “unlimited surrender”, and ‘religious do-gooders’ against the “new-born” sons and daughters of Christ’s eternal family! 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,” (Holy God defines fallen, self-inspired men as “those who are perishing” from those “who are being saved” because those who ‘are being saved’ rest in God’s wisdom and God’s redemptive power, not in their fleshly intellect!). Paul continued, Verses 20-25,

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.”

In which community have YOU chosen to live? The community of unbelievers, the community of “measured devotion” which is the one with self-limitations, OR the community, the family of God, the Bride of Christ who live in “unlimited surrender” to His sovereign rule? There’s an amazing word in 2 Corinthians 6:1-7:1 – don’t miss this!! It says:

“We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you NOT TO RECEIVE THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN. [Are there those who do?]. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. 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, 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.

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. (Question! WHAT REALLY HAS YOUR HEART AND MIND?). 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? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you 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 (the world, flesh, and Satan-devotees!) 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 Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 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.” “Measured devotion” OR “Unlimited Surrender”? Have YOU received “the grace of God in vain”? Measured devotion is ‘the treasure of self-effort at its best, leading to nothing’, but unlimited surrender is the eternal riches of being dead to the old man and living day by day in the fullness, the blessing, the ‘finished work’ of the Resurrected Christ!

In Jeremiah 1:8, as God called Jeremiah to ministry and service, He said to him and to every true child of faith in Christ, “…I am with you to deliver you!” Do YOU give the Lord Jesus His rightful place “in you” as your Lord and Savior, as the Master of your life, as, yes, Sovereign Administrator of your every- day step? Is Jesus King of your heart and mind? Is Christ Jesus “in you” as your Deliverer from your old sin-nature, your bondage to ‘devilish’ activity, and your fleshly allegiance to the world-influence around you that desires to maintain your allegiance to a “less than God devotion” but satisfying ‘personal desires’ without God interfering? Godless living is maniacal, manipulated by Satan, and spiritual insaneness! “God, move on the spiritual brainlessness by the Holy Spirit!”

CLOTHED IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST?”

July 25-26, 2017

Do you believe, at least, that Pharoah, leader of Egypt in the time of Moses, was a ‘religious man’? I have no doubts! BUT, when Moses and Aaron went in to Pharoah, with a “Thus says the Lord,” in Exodus 5:1, Pharoah responded, in Verse 2, “Who is the Lord, that I should let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” Pharoah’s “sweet waters” of unbelief became “bitter waters” opening up the floodgates of divine judgment and washing Pharoah’s life of unbelief, rejection, and fleshly independence away!

In James 1:26 the brother of Jesus wrote: “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, this one’s religion is useless.” Without a doubt, there are large numbers of men and women who live religiously with the robes of ‘best efforts’ yet know nothing about “clothed in the righteousness of Christ Jesus”, basically ‘serving’ a useless, ‘best effort faith’ of fallen men!

Is there a biblical truth about “clothed in the robes of true salvation” or are there those who ‘imitate’, choose ‘religious garments’ (?), while “clothed in the righteousness of Christ Jesus” is to them unknown grounds they don’t prefer to walk on, “Just give us our religious robes, and we’re happy!” But is there such a thing as “clothed with desperation” rather than “clothed in deliverance”? The “strange apparels” of religious pretense do not transform sinful hearts and minds into the residences of Christ Jesus!

In Psalm 109 David talked about his “accusers” who were clothed in shame and opposed him in false judgments and accusations. [Is fallen mankind the same regardless of location or historic time periods? I certainly think so!]. What happened to King David does happen today, yes, even when there are those who wear the “religious robes” of ‘best efforts’ while they seek to assassinate true disciples of Christ Jesus! Psalm 109:17-20 tells us David spoke these words concerning ‘religiously-robed, best effort folks’ he considered false testifiers of religious devotion: “As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; as he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, so let it enter his body like water, and like oil in his bones. Let it be to him like the garment which covers him, and for a belt with which he girds himself continually. Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers, and to those who speak evil against my person.”

Holy God, yes, sovereignly provides for His faithful followers His divine covering and unending watchcare, but to the ‘religiously robed, best-effort’ folks, Holy God allows their own cursings, their own adversarial leanings to God’s truth, to become the power and influence as their ‘reward’ – they end up rewarded with their own bitterness, their own indictment of the faithful, exercising for themselves the button releasing God’s judgment! They ‘presume’ in their hearts and minds to know more than God about spiritual matters.

And, Holy God WILL reserve punishment for the day of judgment as the “self-robed crowd” lives on thinking they’ve overcome ‘warped beliefs’ to live religiously independent of eternal truth! In 2 Peter 2:1-11 Peter wrote: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom THE WAY OF TRUTH WILL BE BLASPHEMED. By covetousness they will EXPLOIT YOU with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness; 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 before the Lord.”

The thing I want you so aware of is that what we’ve just read is about ‘people’ assuming leadership roles in local churches when their intent is to promote ‘fallen flesh’, not honor King Jesus! They USE ‘great swelling words of emptiness,’ they ‘allure people in the church’ through the lusts of the flesh, they’ll despise faithful preachers who faithfully preach the truth, they’ll walk excusing their worldly ways as they ‘walk according to their sin natures in the lust of uncleanness’, easily recognizable because they “despise authority.”

Their outward character is “show-off-ish”, solidly presumptuous, strongly self-willed, spiritually brute-beasts, and more likely than not strongly opposing what they can’t explain biblically, because they are in the perishing process of their own corruption, their own unrighteousness, and covered inwardly with spots and blemishes they can’t explain, eyes full of adultery, wills unceasingly yielded to the sin nature, covetous, accursed, loving their sinful ways!

Are you aware of empty hearts, empty minds, empty words, as they seek to lure the ‘border-line’ disciple into their world of error? Are you truly aware of those around you, yes, in some church fellowships, who are living in ‘error’, slaves of corruption, in bondage but they don’t even know it, though they are just like ‘sick dogs’ who go back to feast on their vomit? It’s a shame that many in the church are unaware of the “perdition of ungodly men” who too often, in some churches, promote what Satan stands for and approves of!

The beloved John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write his gospel and his letters, and in 1 John 3:7 he wrote: “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, JUST AS JESUS IS RIGHTEOUS.” If so, in Christ are you walking “righteously” before the Lord? And, in your world of daily living are you releasing the Indwelling Christ or the “best religious devotion a man can muster up”?

“Religious robes of best efforts”? Have you any awareness and awakenings of the “do-gooders”, the “try-your-best-crowd”, the “strong debaters of self-justification in their ‘spiritual assemblies’(?)”, the “church attender who thrives on “self-justification” as he/she tries his/her best”, or the “religious elite”, like in Jesus’day when He confronted the religious ‘elite’ of Pharisaism or Judaism, experts at strict observance of temple practices, never understanding Christ’s desire to BE the Holy Presence within their personal temples, when in John 8 upon their response that they were Abraham’s children, Jesus said, in Verses 39-47, “IF you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.

Then they said to Him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, AND THE DESIRES OF YOUR FATHER YOU WANT TO DO.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

“Religious robes of best efforts” OR “Clothed in the righteousness of Christ”? In 2 Peter 1:1-4 Peter wrote: “To those who have obtained LIKE PRECIOUS FAITH with us BY the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, AS HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN TO US ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO LIFE AND GODLINESS, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue (manmade glory, manmade virtue?), by which HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO US exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Walking in God’s presence one becomes a “partaker of His divine nature”! Walking in God’s presence in Christ one escapes the corruption that is in the world through lust! Walking in God’s presence in and through the Indwelling Christ who is our ‘hope of glory’, we ARE BEING TRANSFORMED BY THE HOLY WORD AND HOLY SPIRIT, as the Word and the Spirit always has and always will honor Christ Jesus, the Sovereignly-appointed Savior and Lord of Holy God’s eternal Kingdom!

But are you aware or alerted to the sad fact that one, religiously, can live with inclinations without ever appropriating the promises of God through Christ? Are you aware there can be ‘religious thoughts’ without Spirit-transformation? Has it dawned on you yet that there can be argumentation with God without acceptance by God? Are you aware of “professional theories” without accepting His perfecting Truth? How many have you witnessed in your own spiritual journey who walk with you having a ‘spiritual thirst’ but no desire for the “Living Water”? I heard Senator John McCain speaking after his surgery encouraging U.S. senators to leave “Tribal politics and get back to the U.S. Constitution”, and I said to myself, “When will ‘professional religionists’ get back to Christ, the only hope of the manifestation of the glory of God in our needy world?”

Is this why Peter continued his anointed word in 2 Peter, saying in 2 Peter 3:17-18, “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, BEWARE lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, BEING LED AWAY WITH THE ERROR OF THE WICKED; but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

In Matthew 13 Christ Jesus had spoken to “great multitudes who were gathered to Him”, explaining “The Parable of the Sower”, and in Verse 10 the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Verses 11-16 tells us Christ Jesus’ explanation of speaking with parables! Jesus said: “Because it has BEEN GIVEN TO YOU (TRUE DISCIPLES!) to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them (the crowd out and up for its own religious leanings!) it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have an abundance; (Does your heart overflow with joy for what has so far been revealed, but you long for, hold onto, and press in for more and more unveiling of eternal Truths?); but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.(Are there those who ‘limit’ what they want to know about God’s plan and purpose for their lives, yes, limitations as to how far they are willing to go with Him?).

Therefore, Jesus says, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: (BECAUSE they possess no desire for LIVING TRUTH because of eyes willfully closed and cold, dull hearts to “Amazing Grace” since “grit” fits them better than Christ Jesus and His grace!),

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, SO THAT I (The Living, Merciful God) should heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes (repentant, broken, needy disciples!) for THEY SEE, and your ears FOR THEY HEAR; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

Are YOU a ‘hearer who hears but does not obey’ or a hearer who says: “Yes, Lord, what would YOU have me to do?” Are you living as a “professing disciple” who “does the ‘best’ I can”, blocking God’s flow of the River of Life in Christ, or a repentant, trusting, surrendered, yielded life to Christ alone, His Resurrection Life, His Resurrection Hope, and His Resurrection Power? “Christ alone, my hope of glory”!! The path of radical change is the life that rests in the radical life of Christ who embraced the Cross as God’s will for His life! Have you truly chosen “this day” WHOM you will serve?

WITH “THE SAVIOR”?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, JUNE 5-6, 2019

IT MIGHT BE EASIER TO SAY, ‘DANCING WITH SIN’ WHICH ALL MEN HAVE DONE & SOME STILL DO, “OR”, A “DALLIANCE WITH SIN” WHICH SOME ‘CHOOSE’ TO CALL IT WITH THE WORD ‘DALLIANCE’ IN “THE RANDOM HOUSE COLLEGE DICTIONARY” OF 1973 DEFINING ‘DALLIANCE’ AS “A TRIFLING AWAY OF TIME;DAWDLING, AMOROUS TOYING, FLIRTATION.” THAT WORD MAY NOT FULLY DESCRIBE THE SERIOUSNESS OF A ‘SIN-INDULGER’, BUT SADLY THE WORD IS ENOUGH TO DESCRIBE HOW EASILY THE ‘SIN-NATURE’ HIDES ITSELF IN ITS OWNER!

SOME SEE IT AS A ‘SPORT’ RATHER THAN WHO OR WHAT THEY INDULGE IN REGULARLY; OTHERS DECEIVE THEMSELVES IN DEFIANCE TO THE “LAWS OF GOD”, LIKE “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY”; BUT IF ONE DOESN’T CARE WHAT GOD SAYS, HE/SHE CONTINUES IN “SELF-WORSHIP” & “SELF-PLEASURE” CONSIDERING, “I AM WHO I AM, DOING AS I PLEASE!” A ‘DALLIANCER’ STRUTS PROUDLY BEFORE HOLY GOD UNASHAMED OF HIS WORLDLY, FLESHLY, SATAN-INSPIRED RENDEVOUS WITH ‘DEADLY INDULGENCE’!

‘A DALLIANCE WITH SIN’? DOES IT HAVE CONSEQUENCES? FOLLOW PETER IN THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD IN 2 PETER 2:9-22!! IT’S SERIOUS & SOVEREIGNLY UNVEILING BY HOLY GOD WHO INSPIRED PETER TO WRITE IT!!! “THE LORD KNOWS HOW TO DELIVER THE GODLY OUT OF TEMPTATIONS, & TO RESERVE THE UNJUST UNTO THE DAY OF JUDGMENT TO BE PUNISHED; BUT CHIEFLY THEM THAT ‘WALK AFTER THE FLESH’ (OR OLD SIN-NATURE!) IN THE LUST OF UNCLEANNESS, & DESPISE GOVERNMENT. PRESUMPTUOUS ARE THEY, SELF-WILLED; THEY ARE NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK EVIL OF DIGNATARIES. WHEREAS ANGELS, WHICH ARE GREATER IN POWER & MIGHT, BRING NOT RAILING ACCUSATION AGAINST THEM BEFORE THE LORD.

BUT THESE, AS NATURAL BRUTE BEASTS, MADE TO BE TAKEN & DESTROYED, SPEAK EVIL OF THE THINGS THAT THEY UNDERSTAND NOT; & SHALL UTTERLY PERISH IN THEIR OWN CORRUPTION; & SHALL “RECEIVE THE WAGES OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS”,AS THEY THAT COUNT IT PLEASURE TO RIOT IN THE DAY TIME. SPOTS THEY ARE & BLEMISHES, SPORTING THEMSELVES WITH THEIR OWN DECEIVINGS, WHILE THEY FEST WITH YOU: HAVING EYES FULL OF ADULTERY, & THAT CANNOT CEASE FROM SIN; BEGUILING,UNSTABLE SOULS:AN HEART THEY HAVE EXERCISED WITH COVETOUS PRACTICES; CURSED CHILDREN; WHICH HAVE FORSAKEN THE RIGHT WAY, & ARE GONE ASTRAY, FOLLOWING THE WAY OF BALAAM THE SON OF BOSOR, WHO LOVED THE WAGES OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS;

BUT WAS REBUKED FOR HIS INIQUITY; THE DUMB ASS SPEAKING WITH MAN’S VOICE FORBAD THE MADNESS OF THE PROPHET. THESE ARE WELLS WITHOUT WATER, CLOUDS THAT ARE CARRIED WITH A TEMPEST; TO WHOM THE MIST OF DARKNESS IS RESERVED FOR EVER. FOR WHEN THEY SPEAK GREAT SWELLING WORDS OF VANITY, THEY ALLURE THROUGH THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH, THROUGH MUCH WANTONNESS, THOSE THAT WERE CLEAN ESCAPED FROM THEM WHO LIVE IN ERROR. WHILE THEY PROMISE THEM LIBERTY, THEY THEMSELVES ARE THE SERVANTS OF CORRUPTION; FOR OF WHOM A MAN IS OVERCOME, OF THE SAME IS HE BROUGHT INTO BONDAGE.

FOR IF AFTER THEY HAVE ESCAPED THE POLLUTIONS OF THE WORLD THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD & SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, THEY ARE AGAIN ENTANGLED THEREIN, & OVERCOME, THE LATTER END IS WORSE WITH THEM THAN THE BEGINNING. FOR IT HAD BEEN BETTER FOR THEM NOT TO HAVE KNOWN THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, THAN, AFTER THEY HAVE KNOWN IT, TO TURN FROM THE HOLY COMMANDMENT DELIVERED UNTO THEM. BUT IT IS HAPPENED UNTO THEM ACCORDING TO THE TRUE PROVERB, THE ‘DOG’ IS TURNED TO HIS OWN VOMIT AGAIN; & THE SOW THAT WAS WASHED TO HER WALLOWING IN THE MIRE.” HOW SERIOUS, HOW SAD, HOW SCARY DO YOU FIND THOSE WORDS? “A DALLIANCE WITH SIN?”

IN LUKE 11:34 JESUS SAID, “THE LIGHT OF THE BODY IS THE EYE; THEREFORE WHEN YOUR EYE IS SINGLE, YOUR WHOLE BODY IS FULL OF LIGHT; BUT WHEN YOUR EYE IS EVIL, YOUR WHOLE BODY ALSO IS FULL OF DARKNESS.” ARE ‘YOU’ DOUBLE-EYED OR SINGLE-EYED? DO YOU SEE YOUR VIEW OF SELF & YOUR WORLD FROM ONLY YOUR POINT OF VIEW OR HAVE YOU ALLOWED HOLY GOD TO SOLVE THE ‘DOUBLE-EYED SPIRITUAL STUPIDITY’? IS YOUR ‘LIFE’ THE “DEW-NITED-STATES OF THE USA” SOAKEN ‘WET’ WITH THE SATANIC MOISTURE OF ‘SELF-INDULGENCE’? HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW WHO ARE “ANCIENT IN UNBELIEF” OR “AGED IN BONDAGE TO SIN” LIKE THE WORLD, THE FLESH-NATURE, OR SATAN HIMSELF?

‘FLESH-AMBITION’, ‘SIN-NATURE ENSLAVED’, ‘WORLDLY DECEIVED’, OR ‘SATANICALLY BLINDED’ TO THE WORD, THE WILL, THE WAY OF HOLY GOD IN & THROUGH CHRIST ALONE THROUGH HIS SHED BLOOD, THE CRUEL CROSS, & THE HISTORIC BURIAL,THEN RESURRECTION AFTER THREE DAYS IN THE BORROWED TOMB, PRESENTLY RULING & REIGNING AT THE RIGHT-HAND-THRONE OF ALMIGHTY GOD, &, YES, STILL KNOCKING ON THE HEARTS’ DOORS OF ALL MEN IN ALL THE WORLD, YES, ASKING, “OPEN TO ME & I’LL COME IN” – & IF “YOU” DO, YOU’RE INVOLVED IN ETERNAL BLESSINGS BY MERCIFUL GOD WHO “GAVE HIS OWN SON FOR THE CRUEL CRUCIFIXION” IN ORDER TO DELIVER US FROM THE BONDAGE OF SIN & DEATH & SLAVERY TO SATANIC CONTROL & BLINDED WITH A FALLEN WORLD’S MISCONCEPTION OF WHAT “LIFE” HERE IS ALL ABOUT!!! THERE ARE THOSE WHO WANT “MY WORLD, FOR MY SELF, ACCORDING TO MY MIND, HEART, & FLESHLY AMBITION – NOT THE WILL OF SOME FOREIGN GOD!” THAT IS “FALLEN AWAY”!! THAT IS “BLINDED TO THE LOVE OF GOD”!! THAT IS “DECEIVED BY THE POWERS OF DARKNESS” & “LURED INTO THE WORLD OF UNBELIEF, THE WORLD OF SELF-INDULGENCE, & THE WORLD OF SATAN’S CONTROL”!! WHERE & WITH WHOM ARE YOU LIVING & WHAT IS YOUR STYLE OF WORSHIP & BELIEF?

IN THE “AMAC MAGAZINE” (MAY/JUNE 2019) IS AN ADVERTISEMENT ABOUT DAVID HOROWITZ’S BOOK, “DARK AGENDA: THE WAR TO DESTROY CHRISTIAN AMERICA.” THOUGH JEWISH, HOROWITZ EXPOSES, YES, A WAR AGAINST CHRISTIANS WITH THE AIM OF ELIMINATING ANYTHING ‘CHRISTIAN’ IN AMERICA! (EXCUSE ME, BUT I THINK AMAC’S INTRODUCTION OF HOROWITZ IS VITALLY IMPORTANT!). HERE GOES: “DARK AGENDA:THE WAR TO DESTROY CHRISTIAN AMERICA,” IS DAVID HOROWITZ’S EXTRRAORDINARY LOOK INTO THE LEFT’S CALCULATED EFFORTS TO CREATE A GODLESS, HEATHEN AMERICAN SOCIETY. HE ARGUES THAT EVEN JEWS – & ANYONE WHO BELIEVES IN GOD-WILL BE IN DANGER IF CHRISTIANS ARE NOT PROTECTED. HOROWITZ IS A “NEW YORK TIMES” BESTSELLING AUTHOR & LEADING CONSERVATIVE THINKER. HOROWITZ ARGUES THAT JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES ARE AT THE VERY ROOT OF AMERICA’S DEMOCRACY & SUCCESS. KILL OFF SUCH VALUES & ALL OUR FREEDOMS COULD PERISH. EVERYBODY COULD BE IN DANGER….!!.”DARK AGENDA” BRINGS VITAL INSIGHTS INTO THE WAR AGAINST CHRISTIANITY & NAMES THE GLOBAL RADICALS, LEFTISTS DEMOCRATES, & FAT CATS OF HOLLYWOOD & WALL STREET RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. FINALLY, A CLEAR & SENSIBLE AMERICAN VOICE –ONE THAT IS JEWISH, THAT MAKES AN IMPASSIONED PLEA WARNING OF THE GRAVE DANGER TO OUR FREEDOMS & OUR VERY LIVES IF WE LET THE SECULARISTS WIN & CHRISTIANITY IS DESTROYED.” “A DALLIANCE WITH SIN”?

IN MARK 13 YOU’LL FIND AN AMAZING, ASTONISHING, ACCURATE UNVEILING OF THIS “DALLIANCE WITH SIN OR ONE’S DESTINY IN & THROUGH CHRIST JESUS”!!! IN VERSES 5-26 YOU’LL FIND MULTIPLE ENLIGHTMENTS BOTH TRAGIC & TRUTHFULLY TRIUMPHANT! JESUS SPOKE FIRST OF FALSE CHRISTS IN VERSES 5-6, SECONDLY HE ENLIGHTENS ABOUT ‘WARS’ IN VERSES 7-8, THIRDLY, HE SPEAKS ABOUT PERSECUTIONS, VERSES 9-13, FOURTHLY, HE HEIGHTENS UNDERSTANDING OF CONTINUING DANGEROUS TIMES, VERSES 14-23, IN THE FIFTH PLACE, VERSES 24-37, HE UNVEILS A CLIMAX TO THE WORLD’S STRUGGLES & THE CLIMACTIC VICTORY OF THE SON OF GOD!!

IN “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL” (PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN.), PAGE 364, IS A HYMN WRITTEN BY WM.F.SHERWIN ENTITLED “SOUND THE BATTLE CRY”. IT SAYS: “SOUND THE BATTLE CRY! SEE, THE FOE IS NIGH; RAISE THE STANDARD HIGH FOR THE LORD; GIRD YOUR ARMOR ON, STAND FIRM, EVERY ONE; REST YOUR CAUSE UPON HIS HOLY WORD.

STRONG TO MEET THE FOE, MARCHING ON WE GO, WHILE OUR CAUSE WE KNOW, MUST PREVAIL; SHIELD & BANNER BRIGHT, GLEAMING IN THE LIGHT; BATTLING FOR THE RIGHT WE NE’ER CAN FAIL.

O! YOU GOD OF ALL, HEAR US WHEN WE CALL, HELP US ONE & ALL BY YOUR GRACE; WHEN THE BATTLE’S DONE, & THE VICTORY’S WON, MAY WE WEAR THE CROWN BEFORE YOUR FACE.

ROUSE,THEN,SOLDIERS, RALLY ROUND THE BANNER, READY, STEADY, PASS THE WORD ALONG; ONWARD, FORWARD, SHOUT A LOUD HOSANNA! CHRIST IS CAPTAIN OF THIS MIGHTY THRONG.”

GRACE IS NOT GREASE, MY FRIENDS, YOU ‘TRYING YOUR BEST TO OVERCOME’ – GRACE IS GOD IN ACTION THROUGH YOU!! GRACE IS NOT GREASE, BUT THE GLORIOUS CONQUEST OF CHRIST OVER YES THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN NATURE, & SATAN HIMSELF! GRACE IS NOT “GUTTING IT UP” BUT LEARNING TO BE FINISHED WITH YOUR OLD SELF ALLOWING CHRIST IN YOU TO BE YOUR HOPE OF GLORY! IN ROMANS 8:24-39 PAUL ENLIGHTENS US & INSPIRES US!! HE SAID: “WE ARE SAVED BY HOPE; BUT HOPE THAT IS SEEN IS NOT HOPE (IT’S BEYOND PHYSICAL VISION – IT’S SPIRITUAL REALITY!). FOR WHAT A MAN SEES, WHY DOES HE YET HOPE FOR? BUT IF WE HAVE HOPE FOR THAT WE SEE NOT, THEN DO WE WITH PATIENCE (STEDFASTNESS) WAIT FOR IT.

LIKEWISE THE SPIRIT ALSO HELPS OUR INFIRMITIES; FOR WE KNOW NOT WHAT WE SHOULD PRAY FOR AS WE OUGHT; BUT THE SPIRIT ITSELF MAKES INTERCESSION FOR US WITH GROANINGS WHICH CANNOT BE UTTERED. & HE THAT SEARCHES THE HEART KNOWS WHAT IS THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT, BECAUSE HE MAKES INTERCESSION FOR THE SAINTS ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD. & WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD, TO THEM WHO ARE THE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. FOR WHOM HE DID FOREKNOW, HE ALSO DID PREDESTINATE TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON THAT HE MIGHT BE THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN.

MOREOVER WHOM HE ALSO DID PREDESTINATE TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON THAT HE MIGHT BE THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN. MOREOVER WHOM HE DID PREDESTINATE, THEM HE ALSO CALLED: & WHOM HE CALLED, THEM HE ALSO JUSTIFIED; & WHOM HE JUSTIFIED, THEM HE ALSO GLORIFIED. WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN TO THESE THINGS? IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? HE THAT SPARED NOT HIS OWN SON, BUT DELIVERED HIM UP FOR US ALL, HOW SHALL HE NOT WITH HIM ALSO FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS? WHO SHALL LAY ANY THING TO THE CHARGE OF GOD’S ELECT? IT IS GOD THAT JUSTIFIES. WHO IS HE THAT CONDEMNS? IT IS CHRIST THAT DIED, YES, RATHER, THAT IS RISEN AGAIN, WHO IS EVEN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, WHO ALSO MAKES INTERCESSION FOR US. 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 THE DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER. BUT NO, IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM THAT 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 CREATURE, SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.”

BUT, SADLY, ROMANS 8, THOUGH CLEAR ABOUT THE “SECURITY IN REPENTANT, FAITH-GRIPPED LIVES”, ROMANS 1 ALSO REVEALED ‘THE DALLIANCE DANCERS WITH SIN THAT DECEIVES’ & LEADS TO CONTINUED ALIENATION & A FOREVER SEPARATION FROM HOLY GOD, FROM THE SON, & FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT! REFLECT SERIOUSLY UPON ROMANS 1:18-32!! “FOR THE WRATH OF GOD IS REVEALED FROM HEAVEN AGAINST ALL UNGODLINESS & UNRIGHTEOUSNESS OF MEN, WHO HOLD (OR SUPPRESS) THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS; BECAUSE THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD IS MANIFEST IN THEM; FOR GOD REVEALED IT UNTO THEM (1 TIMOTHY 6!).

FOR THE INVISIBLE THINGS OF HIM FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD ARE CLEARLY SEEN, BEING UNDERSTOOD BY THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE, EVEN HIS ETERNAL POWER & GODHEAD; SO THAT THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE: BECAUSE THAT, WHEN THEY KNEW GOD, THEY GLORIFIED HIM NOT AS GOD, NEITHER WERE THANKFUL; BUT BECAME VAIN IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS (SPECULATIONS), & THEIR FOOLISH HEART WAS DARKENED. PROFESSING TO BE WISE, THEY BECAME FOOLS, & CHANGED THE GLORY OF THE INCORRUPTIBLE GOD INTO AN IMAGE MADE LIKE TO CORRUPTIBLE MAN, & TO BIRDS, & FOUR-FOOTED BEASTS,& CREEPING THINGS. WHEREFORE GOD ALSO GAVE THEM UP TO UNCLEANNESS THROUGH THE LUSTS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS, TO DISHONOR THEIR OWN BODIES BETWEEN THEMSELVES: WHO CHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD INTO A LIE (‘YOU CAN SIN & NOT DIE’!), & WORSHIPPED & SERVED THE CREATURE MORE THAN THE CREATOR, WHO IS BLESSED FOREVER. AMEN.

FOR THIS CAUSE GOD GAVE THEM UP UNTO VILE AFFECTIONS: FOR EVEN THEIR WOMEN DID CHANGE THE NATURAL USE INTO THAT WHICH IS AGAINST NATURE: & LIKEWISE ALSO THE MEN, LEAVING THE NATURAL USE OF THE WOMAN, BURNED IN THEIR LUST ONE TOWARD ANOTHER; MEN WITH MEN WORKING THAT WHICH IS UNSEEMLY, & RECEIVING IN THEMSELVES THAT RECOMPENCE OF THEIR ERROR WHICH WAS MEET (‘SIN PLANTED PRODUCES A SIN-HARVEST’!!).& EVEN AS THEY DID NOT LIKE TO RETAIN GOD IN THEIR KNOWLEDGE, GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A REPROBATE MIND TO DO THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT CONVENEIENT;

BEING FILLED WITH ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, FORNICATION, WICKEDNESS, COVETOUSNESS, MALICIOUSNESS; FULL OF ENVY, MURDER, DEBATE, DECEIT, MALIGNITY; WHISPERERS, BACKBITERS,HATERS OF GOD,DESPITEFUL,PROUD, BOASTERS, INVENTORS OF EVIL THINGS, DISOBEDIENT TO PARENTS, WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING, COVENANTBREAKERS, WITHOUT NATURAL AFFECTION, IMPLACABLE, UNMERCIFUL: WHO KNOWING THE JUDGMENT OF GOD, THAT THEY WHICH COMMIT SUCH THINGS ARE WORTHY OF DEATH, NOT ONLY DO THE SAME, BUT HAVE PLEASURE IN THEM THAT DO THEM.”

“A DALLIANCE WITH SIN”? OR: “ONE’S DESTINY IN & THROUGH CHRIST JESUS & GOD’S SAVING GRACE, MERCY, & LOVE?” HOW VERY CLEAR, ETERNALLY CLEAR, WAS PAUL WHEN IN GALATIANS 5:16-17 THE APOSTLE WROTE, “THIS I SAY THEN, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, & YOU SHALL NOT FULFILL THE LUST OF THE FLESH (OR OLD SIN NATURE). FOR THE FLESH LUSTS AGAINST THE SPIRIT, & THE SPIRIT AGAINST THE FLESH: & THESE ARE CONTRARY THE ONE TO THE OTHER: SO THAT YOU CANNOT DO THE THINGS THAT YOU WOULD”,THEN IDENTIFYING “THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT” IN VERSES 22-25 SAYING, “BUT THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, GENTLENESS, GOODNESS, FAITH, MEEKNESS, TEMPERANCE: AGAINST SUCH THERE IS NO LAW. & THEY THAT ARE CHRIST’S HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH (DAILY!) WITH THE AFFECTIONS & LUSTS. IF WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, LET US ALSO WALK IN THE SPIRIT.”

IN “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL” (P.211) IS A SONG BY P.P.BLISS ENTITLED “ALMOST PERSUADED”. 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!”

IT WAS THOMAS a’KEMPIS WHO LONG AGO SAID, “WERE THE WORKS OF GOD READILY UNDERSTANDABLE BY HUMAN REASON, THEY WOULD BE NEITHER WONDERFUL NOR UNSPEAKABLE,” AND BECAUSE, YES, THEY ARE BEYOND ‘HUMAN REASONING’, WE MUST “REST” IN GOD’S DIVINE REVELATION OR UNVEILING OF TRUE SALVATION IN & THROUGH CHRIST’S BLOOD ATONEMENT & NOTHING ELSE, EXCEPT A REPENTANT, TRUSTING, FAITHFUL LIFE COMMITTED TO HONOR THE KING OF KINGS & THE LORD OF LORDS! IS THAT “YOU”?

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“SPIRITUAL INSANITY OR SPIRITUAL REALITY?”

In Proverbs 16:9 we find man’s deceptive insanity and God’s eternal Truth. It says: “A man’s heart devises his way; but the Lord directs his steps.”

You do understand that there is eternal difference between self-educated men and men who “rest” in the revelation of the Word of God!?!

In Jeremiah 9:23-24 we read, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord.” Is Holy God “delighted” in your ‘self-allegiance’ over “trusting and resting in the finished work of Christ at Calvary’s Cross and the Empty Tomb”, more delighted in self-determination than the Savior’s declaration and Heaven’s determination of Christ’s “blood sacrifice” over fallen humanity’s “best effort”??

Are you aware of how deep, wide, and broad spiritual insanity is in a large number of mankind’s deceived minds and hearts as to Biblical Truth? The wise man, again in Proverbs 9:10, wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Really? ‘The fear of the Lord?’ Many say without embarrassment, “I don’t fear God – I adore Him”, while they live in spiritual insanity doing as they ‘fleshly please’, unaware of spiritual consequences for their ‘religious, fleshly, worldly indulgences with no guilt, embarrassment, or conviction’ about the “holy life within” as they profess to follow while recklessly hold on to their ‘spiritual profession’, with no “fear of the Lord in hating evil”! (Proverbs 8:13).

I absolutely love the words of Proverbs 10:30 where the “wise man” wrote, “The righteous shall never be removed; but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.” Are you truly aware that God has an eternal plan of His Kingdom on earth being eternally established? I grew up in a church who sang regularly, faithfully, and in full conviction, “As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen!” Righteous never removed, but the wicked not inhabiting? The righteous never removed from the earth, (because Christ’s Kingdom is established in their hearts, while unbelievers ‘choose’ the world’s, the flesh’s, the devil’s eternal kingdom of separation from God and His chosen people?).

Joseph Parker once wrote (The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Fleming H. Revell Company, p.183), “Have no fear for the unsettlement or the disturbance of the Kingdom of heaven. It began in eternity, it will go on through everlasting; there is no panic in the divine personality. God IS peace, God gives peace, God gives rest.”

You do understand that there are kingdoms of self-centered men and self-centered, worldly establishments, that want a “fleshly paradise”, but only God’s Kingdom on earth becomes faithfully His “Paradise”!

I don’t know who wrote it, but I remember growing up singing in my “home church” the hymn that says: “His kingdom is coming: Oh, tell me the story! God’s banner exalted shall be; The earth shall be filled with His wonder and glory, As waters that cover the sea.”

The heart, mind, will, purpose of God is that your earthly life would become, by repentance and by redemptive faith, God’s eternal Paradise on earth, yes, eternally! Your eternal life “in Christ” is His eternal Kingdom being established on, in earth, as it is in Heaven? “In Christ” one is through Him bringing Heaven to earth with His ever, abiding Presence??!!

It was Phillips Brooks who once wrote: “Be such a man, and live such a life, That if every man were such as you, And every man a life like yours, This earth would be God’s Paradise.” Is your life an extension, expression, an interpretation of God’s Paradise?

Do you remember the Lord teaching His new disciples to pray in Matthew 6:7-13? Christ Jesus said: “But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not you therefore like unto them: for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him.

After this manner therefore pray: ‘Our Father Who Is In Heaven, Hallowed be 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 lead us not into temptations, but deliver us from evil; for Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” The kingdom, the power, the glory forever? On earth? Several Truths You Must “Rest in”!!

FIRST, CHRIST ONLY IS YOUR EVERLASTING PROMISE OF A BLESSED LIFE! How necessary is the prophetic Word to your life in Christ?!? In Jeremiah 17:5-7 we read, “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.”

In the old “Broadman Hymnal” of 1940, is a hymn written by Edward Mote and William Bradbury that says: “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 on 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 His throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.” Your life on the Solid Rock of Christ or is it on ‘sinking sand’?

SECOND, CHRIST ONLY IS YOUR SOVEREIGN HEAD! In Colossians 2:9-10 the Holy Word tells us: “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are COMPLETE IN HIM, which is the head of all principality and power…”!.

But YOU are simply satisfied with God’s forgiveness through Christ, but unavailable to prove His love, express His power, and extend HIS KINGDOM, because, forgiven, you’re now thankful you can continue in the life of yours that He carried with Him to the Cross, so you hold onto ‘self’ as your sovereign ruler? Where is that in the Word of God?

Is your spiritual walk paths you interpret for yourself or do you “live” by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God? In Matthew 4:4 we read, “But Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not LIVE by physical bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

THIRD, CHRIST ONLY IS YOUR ETERNAL HEART! In Proverbs 28:26 we read, “He that trusts in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walks wisely, he shall be delivered.” We know the Word is so clear and convicting and convincing when we read in Verse 13, “He that covers his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.”

Merit-minded men, intent on doing their own thing, even religiously, while still thinking they can’t do anything but sin even as a disciple of Christ, are men void of understanding of “Christ in you your only hope of glory.” In Romans 5 and 6 we learn that the grace of God is not fleshly grease allowing men to slide into heaven in their earthly, fleshly, demonic and satanic leanings, but the grace of God birthing “new lives” in and through the eternal heart of the crucified but resurrected Christ reigning NOW in His eternal spiritual Kingdom! Romans 5:1 2 tells us, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God THROUGH our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, AND REJOICE IN HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD.” And Romans 5:10? “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be (being) saved by His (resurrected, reigning) life.” GLORY!!

Oh, but glory in God even more because in Romans 6:17-18 we also are trained, informed, inspired, and, yes, amazed at our calling! “But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was (and presently IS) delivered to you. Being then MADE FREE FROM SIN, YOU BECAME THE SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

And understanding that “Christ only IS your eternal heart”, you daily take the sentence of death to the “old self” that the resurrection life of Christ may literally, daily, be yielded to His Indwelling Presence!

FOURTH, CHRIST ONLY IS OUR STRONG HELP! I don’t know how any ‘believer’ can read Psalm 42 and not rejoice in continual Hallelujahs! David wrote, Psalm 42:5, 8, and 11, the following words: Psalm 42:5, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

Verse 8, Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

Verse 11, Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” Dare I ask? “How is the health of your countenance?” “IS CHRIST ONLY YOUR STRONG HELP?”

FIFTH, CHRIST ONLY IS THE HERALD OF LIFE’S BLESSING! Christ-less-ness is a curse, but “in Christ” is eternal blessing. Didn’t Jesus say, John 10:10, “I am come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly”?

How about “the river of God’s abundant pleasures”, Psalm 36:8? Or, beyond abundant life and pleasure, how about “the bank of God’s abundant grace”, 2 Corinthians 2:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that YOU, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work,” OR, “the reservoir of God’s abundant power, His ample supply, and His amazing entrance into His eternal Kingdom?

Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us”? OR,

The open door to amazing supplies that never run dry? Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all you need according to His riches in glory by or in Christ Jesus”?

OR, His abundant entrance? 2 Peter 1:11, “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

SIXTH, CHRIST ONLY IS OUR PERPETUAL HAPPINESS AND JOY! Oh, how clear is Nehemiah 8:10? “The joy of the Lord is your strength”? Or Psalm 16:11? “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures for evermore.”

Do YOU walk in perpetual happiness and joy? Do YOU walk in a state of ‘fleshly bliss’ or “Sovereign Blessing”? Is it ‘happiness attained in the best of human effort’ or is it the “Holy Estate of Heavenly Presence in the repentant rest of true Biblical Faith” that reveals Christ in you as your hope of glory?

Examine carefully Romans 4:1-5! “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh has found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he has whereof to glory: BUT NOT BEFORE GOD. For what does the Holy Scriptures tell us?

Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto Him for righteousness. Now to him that works at it is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt? But to him that works not, but believes in, trusts in, relies upon, Him that JUSTIFIES the ungodly, that one’s faith is counted for righteousness.” That, my friend, is “Amazing Grace”!!

SEVENTH, CHRIST IN YOU IS THE ONLY DOOR INTO LIVING IN, BY, FOR THE GLORY OF GOD’S ABIDING PRESENCE! Follow carefully Colossians 2:6-10 and then Colossians 1:19-29!

Colossians 2:6-10 says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.: Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are COMPLETE IN CHRIST.” What IS that “completeness in Christ”? Colossians 1:19-29 is so inspired, so informative, so liberating. It says:

“For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell; And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight:

If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not removed from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God;

Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; WHICH IS ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily.” IS JESUS AT WORK IN YOU MIGHTILY?

EIGHTH, BECAUSE OF THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATION OF YOUR ONENESS IN CHRIST, IS THE HISTORY OF YOUR ONENESS IN CHRIST THE RECOGNITION OF HISTORICALLY, PERSONALLY, INSPIRATIONALLY, DAILY CHOOSING DEATH TO YOUR OLD SELF SO THAT CHRIST IN YOUR NEW-BORN HEART IS ABLE TO EXTEND HIS LIFE, EXPRESS HIS LOVE, AND THROUGH YOU PROVE HIS POWER, TOUCHING THE WORLD THROUGH YOU WITH HIS NEVER-ENDING PRESENCE?

This walk in redemptive faith is not ‘trying’ but “trusting”, not ‘attempting’ but “allowing Him to be Himself in you and through you”, not ‘determining’ rationally what you choose to do as a disciple of Christ, but “depending upon Christ in you, Christ through you, Christ for you touching your world around you with His atoning power and amazing purpose!

For YOU, what is it? Spiritual insanity in “the best of human effort”, or is it the “spiritual reality of the new-born Life in Christ”? You do have a choice! “Choose you this day whom you will serve”, making yourself available to His Resurrected Presence! Amen?

I’ve paraphrased the old hymn “Saviour, Again” found in the old hymnal of Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, (1940). It says: “Savior, again to Your dear name we raise With one accord our parting hymn of praise; Once more we bless You ere our worship cease, Then, lowly kneeling, wait Your word of peace. (Is that “welcome to the Throne of Christ as your, truly, Lord and Savior”?).

A cloud of witnesses around Hold you in full survey; Forget the steps already trod, And onward urge God’s way, And onward urge God’s way.

It’s God’s all animating voice That calls you from on high; It’s His own hand 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, (eternally!), at Your feet I’ll lay my honors down, I’ll lay my honors down.”

Examine Matthew 25:31-46! The day is coming when the King of glory, the Son of man, shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit upon the throne of His glory:

And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, (That’s the King of Heaven AND Earth!!): Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was hungered, and you gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came unto me.

Then shall the righteous (the sheep but not the goats!) answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you hungry, and fed you? Or thirsty, and gave you drink? When saw we you a stranger, and took you in? or naked, and clothed you? Or when saw we you sick, or in prison, and came unto you? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these me brethren, you have done it unto me.

Then shall he say unto them on the left hand (the goats), Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; For I was hungry, and you gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and you took me not in; naked, and you clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and you visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto you? Then Jesus answered them, saying, Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.”

Dare I ask? “Where are YOU headed? In whom or what have YOU “rested”? Finished with your old sin nature or finalized forever through repentance and faith in Him alone, “complete in Christ lacking nothing”?

J.FARRELL FISHER, MAY 31,2019

HOW AWARE ARE YOU OF, YES, THE DANGER OF “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”? THOSE SATAN-INSPIRED & FALLEN-NATURE ‘DISEASES’ HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COMMON & ACCEPTABLE, EVEN BY ADAM & EVE THO’ EMBARASSED WHEN THEY REALIZED THEIR ‘NAKEDNESS’; GENESIS 3:7 SAYS, “AND THE EYES OF THEM BOTH WERE OPENED, & THEY KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED; & THEY SEWED FIG LEAVES TOGETHER, & MADE THEMSELVES APRONS.”

IN HUMAN NATURE, VOID OF SOVEREIGN PRESENCE THROUGH THE “BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD, THE RESURRECTED SAVIOR”, THERE IS NO HOPE OR TRUE ACCEPTANCE OF THE ETERNAL SALVATION THAT PROPERLY “DRESSES THE SPIRITUALLY NAKEDNESS IN UNREGENERATE LIVES” APART FROM GOD’S KNOCK ON A NAKED ONE’S HEART, HIS KNOCK TO ALERT THE NAKED ONE’S MIND, & BY HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION TO UNVEIL THE WILL OF FALLEN MAN OF HIS/HER NEED TO “REPENT, REST IN, REACH FOR THE FREE GIFT OF AMAZING GRACE” & BE WRAPPED IN THE “FREE GIFT OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST” SINCE “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRE” IS DESCRIBED BY HOLY GOD IN ISAIAH 64:6 AS: (LET ME SHARE THE WHOLE VERSE!),

“BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING, & ALL ‘OUR’ RIGHTEOUSNESSES ARE AS FILTHY RAGS (THAT’S MENSTRUAL RAGS!); & WE ALL DO FADE AS A LEAF; & OUR INIQUITIES, LIKE THE WIND, HAVE TAKEN US AWAY.” ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES IS A “NEVER LOOSING TIME EFFORT” & A“BINDING,BLINDING,BELITTLING, AND SAD BESMEARMENT OF THE SOVEREIGN PRICELESSNESS OF GOD’S GRACE”!

CERTAINLY HOLY GOD, IN HIS OMNISCIENCE, “KNEW” WHEN HE CREATED MANKIND WITH FREEDOM OF CHOICE OF ALLEGIANCE TO “HIM” OR ALLEGIANCE TO “SELF” THAT “SELF” WOULD HAVE A CRUDE CROSS TO WALK OVER THAT LED TO HELL ITSELF, BUT GOD WANTED THEM ON THE “BRIDGE OF AMAZING LOVE, GRACE, & MERCY, TO BE BEFORE THEM WITH A CHOICE: FAULTY BRIDGE OR THE FAITHFUL BRIDGE OF THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST HIS SON”! “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”? IT WAS ALEXANDER MACLAREN WHO LONG AGO TOOK THE STRONG, RIGHT, CONVICTING STAND SAYING,”THAT WHICH OF ALL THINGS UNFITS MAN FOR THE RECEPTION OF CHRIST AS A SAVIOR, IS NOT GROSS PROFLIGACY & OUTWARD,VEHEMENT TRANSGRESSION, BUT IT IS SELF-COMPLACENCY, FATAL SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, & SELF-SUFFICIENCY.” WOW! OH, HOW TRUE!

“ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES” ARE ALSO CONSTRUCTED ON THE ‘FAULTY FOUNDATION’ OF ‘FLESHLY INFIDELITY’! RICHARD CECIL ONCE SAID, “THE NURSE OF INFIDELITY IS SENSUALITY.” AGAIN, SO TRUE! AND IF THAT’S ‘BLIND REASONING’ TO YOU, BE ASSURED THERE IS THE “GREAT PHYSICIAN”, CHRIST JESUS WHO DOES “OPEN BLIND SPIRITUAL EYES”! IN MATTHEW 9:1-13 THE WORD DECLARES: AND JESUS ENTERED INTO A SHIP, & PASSED OVER, & CAME INTO HIS OWN CITY. & BEHOLD, THEY BROUGHT TO HIM A MAN SICK OF PALSY, LYING ON A BED; & JESUS SEEING THEIR FAITH SAID UNTO THE SICK OF PALSY: “SON, BE OF GOOD CHEER; YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN YOU.”

AND, BEHOLD, CERTAIN OF THE SCRIBES SAID WITHIN THEMSELVES, THIS MAN BLASPHEMES. & JESUS KNOWING THEIR THOUGHTS SAID, “WHEREFORE THINK YOU EVIL IN YOUR HEARTS? FOR WHETHER IS EASIER, TO SAY, ‘YOUR SINS BE FORGIVEN YOU; OR TO SAY, ARISE, & WALK? BUT THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT THE SON OF MAN HAS POWER ON EARTH TO FORGIVE SINS, (THENSAID HE TO THE SICK OF THE PALSY), ARISE, TAKE UP YOUR BED, & GO INTO YOUR HOUSE.” AND HE AROSE, & DEPARTED TO HIS HOUSE.

BUT WHEN THE MULTITUDES SAW IT, THEY MARVELED, & GLORIFIED GOD, WHICH HAD GIVEN SUCH POWER UNTO MEN. & AS JESUS PASSED FORTH FROM THERE, THEY MARVELLED, & GLORIFIED GOD, WHICH HAD GIVEN SUCH POWER UNTO MEN. & AS JESUS PASSED FROM THERE, HE SAW A MAN NAMED MATTHEW, SITTING AT THE SEAT OF CUSTOM: & HE SAID UNTO HIM, “FOLLOW ME.” AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS JESUS SAT AT MEAT IN THE HOUSE, BEHOLD, MANY PUBLICANS & SINNERS CAME & SAT DOWN WITH JESUS & HIS DISCIPLES. & WHEN THE PHARISEES SAW IT, THEY SAID UNTO HIS DISCIPLES, WHY DOES YOUR MASTER EAT WITH PUBLICANS & SINNERS? BUT WHEN JESUS HEARD IT, HE SAID UNTO THEM, “THEY THAT BE WHOLE NEED NOT A PHYSICIAN, BUT THEY THAT ARE SICK. BUT YOU GO & LEARN WHAT THAT MEANS, I WILL HAVE MERCY, & NOT SACRIFICE; FOR I AM NOT COME TO CALL THE RIGHTEOUS, BUT SINNERS TO REPENTANCE.”

“ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES?” COULD IT BE, THAT EVEN IN ‘TOUGH TIMES’, ‘SERIOUS,PERSONAL WARFARES’, ‘QUESTIONS ABOUT VICES,IMMORAL HABITS, OR A ‘FAULT’, A ‘SLIGHT DEFECT’, OR ‘A LITTLE BIT OF DEGRADING BEHAVIOR’,THAT MEN & WOMEN, & YOUTH & KIDS TODAY, SEE THEIR EXPERIENCE AS ‘LEARNING TO GROW UP & MATURE’, RATHER THAN ROBERT BURNS’ FAMOUS STATEMENT, “PERHAPS THE CHRISTIAN VOLUME IS THE THEME, HOW GUILTLESS BLOOD FOR GUILTY MAN WAS SHED, HOW HE WHO BORE IN HEAVEN THE SECOND NAME HAD NOT ON EARTH WHEREON TO LAY HIS HEAD.” ROBERT BURNS WAS SPEAKING OF KING JESUS WHO “LIVED & DIED, NOT “IN” SIN, BUT HE LIVED, THEN DIED “FOR SIN” TO WASH AWAY ITS PENALTY IN THE ROYAL BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD WHO’D NEVER SINNED!

IN PHILIPPIANS 2:5-13 PAUL WROTE, “LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU, WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS: WHO,BEING IN THE FORM OF GOD, THOUGHT IT NOT ROBBERY TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD…(I MUST INSERT AN AWAKENING WORD FROM GOD IN JEREMIAH 17:5, “THUS SAYS THE LORD: CURSED BE THE MAN THAT TRUSTS IN MAN, & MAKES FLESH HIS ARM, & WHOSE HEART DEPARTED FROM THE LORD.” WELL, CONSIDER THIS: CHRIST JESUS NEVER DEPARTED FROM GOD THE FATHER,NEVER! HE WAS & IS GOD IN HUMAN FORM! THERE “IS” THE HOLY TRINITY: GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, & GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ETERNAL “THREE IN ONE”!!), NOW, BACK TO PHILIPPIANS 2:7-13, BUT MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, & TOOK UPON HIM THE FORM OF A SERVANT, & WAS MADE IN THE LIKENESS OF MEN;

AND BEING FOUND IN FASHION AS A MAN, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF, & BECAME OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH, EVEN THE DEATH OF THE CROSS.WHEREFORE GOD ALSO HAS HIGHLY EXALTED HIM, & GIVEN HIM A NAME WHICH IS ABOVE EVERY NAME: THAT AT THE NAME OF JESUS EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, OF THINGS IN HEAVEN, & THINGS IN EARTH, & THINGS UNDER THE EARTH; & THAT EVERY TONGUE SHOULD CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER. WHEREFORE, 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 IN FEAR & TREMBLING. FOR IT IS GOD WHICH WORKS IN YOU BOTH TO WILL & TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE.”

THAT LAST SCRIPTURE EXPLAINING “IT’S GOD WHO WORKS IN YOU,” SHOCKS THE ‘SELF-CENTERED “CHRISTIAN” DEVOTEE’ WHO SEES HIMSELF BEING A GOOD ‘FOLLOWER’, BUT IS EASILY ENRAGED WHEN HE/SHE LEARNS THEY’VE BEEN SHAMMED BY ‘RELIGIOUS LEADERS’ RATHER THAN “SHIELDED” BY THE SPIRIT, WHO,YES, INFORMS US OF BEING ‘INFLAMED’ BY THE “STAR” IN THE EAST! MATT.2:2 SAYS, “WHERE IS HE THAT IS BORN KING OF THE JEWS? FOR WE HAVE SEEN HIS STAR IN THE EAST, & HAVE COME TO WORSHIP HIM.” A “STAR” GIVES LIGHT! OH, & IN JOHN 8:12, THE LORD JESUS SAID: “I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD: HE THAT FOLLOWS ME SHALL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, BUT SHALL HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE.”

BUT, SELF-CENTERED ‘PROFESSORS OF FAITH’ WHO PROFESS BUT KNOW NOTHING OF BEING “POSSESSED, OWNED, RULED OVER BY THE INDWELLING CHRIST WHO DOESN’T TAKE YOU INTO DARK PATHWAYS”, BUT “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES” WILL CAPTURE YOU IN “DARKNESS” RATHER THAN YOU FAITHFULLY BEING LED BY “THE LIGHT OF LIFE, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN HIS RESURRECTED PRESENCE IN YOU AFTER YOUR FINISHED WORK OF FAITH & TRUST IN HIM ALONE – NOT “BEST EFFORT, FALSE ‘CHRISTIANITY’”!!!

AND TO THOSE “ENSLAVED” TO THE FALSE CLAIMS OF JUDAISM IN HIS DAY, REJECTING HIS JOHN 8:12 CLAIM, JESUS THEN SAID IN JOHN 8:24, “I SAID THEREFORE UNTO YOU, THAT YOU SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS; FOR IF YOU BELIEVE NOT (TRUST NOT,ADHERE NOT TO ME) THAT I AM THE “TRUE MESSIAH”, “GOD IN FLESH”, YOU SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS”; & THAT INCLUDES, “REGARDLESS HOW ‘RELIGIOUS’ YOU THINK YOU ARE”!! OH, THE LORD JESUS WASN’T FINISHED YET IN HIS EXPOSURE OF THE “JEWISH RELIGIOUS PRETENDERS”! IN JOHN 8:38 JESUS SAID: “I SPEAK THAT WHICH I HAVE SEEN WITH MY FATHER, & YOU “DO” THAT WHICH YOU HAVE SEEN WITH YOUR “father”, (OR SATAN HIMSELF, THE DEVIL OF HELL!).” AND EVEN THOUGH PAUL UNDERSTOOD CLEARLY ‘RELIGIOUS DECEPTION’ IN HIS JEWISH COMMUNITY, AS HE WROTE TO HIS SPIRITUAL SON IN THE FAITH, TIMOTHY, IN 2 TIMOTHY 2:15-26, HE WROTE: “STUDY TO SHOW YOURSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDS NOT TO BE ASHAMED, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. BUT SHUN PROFANE & VAIN BABBLINGS: FOR THEY WILL INCREASE UNTO MORE UNGODLINESS. AND ‘THEIR’ WORD WILL EAT AS DOES A CANKER; OF WHOM IS HYMENAEUS & PHILETUS; WHO CONCERNING THE TRUTH HAVE ERRED, SAYING THAT THE RESURRECTION IS PAST ALREADY; & OVERTHROW THE FAITH OF SOME.

NEVERTHELESS THE FOUNDATION OF GOD STANDS SURE, HAVING THIS SEAL, “THE LORD KNOWS THOSE THAT ARE HIS.” &, “LET EVERY ONE THAT NAMES THE NAME OF CHRIST DEPART FROM INIQUITY. BUT IN A GREAT HOUSE THERE ARE NOT ONLY VESSELS OF GOLD & OF SILVER, BUT ALSO OF WOOD & OF EARTH; & SOME TO HONOR, & SOME TO DISHONOR. IF A MAN THEREFORE PURGE HIMSELF FROM THESE, HE SHALL BE A VESSEL UNTO HONOR,SANCTIFIED,& MEET FOR THE MASTER’S USE, & PREPARED UNTO EVERY GOOD WORK. FLEE ALSO YOUTHFUL LUSTS: BUT FOLLOW RIGHTEOUSNESS, FAITH, CHARITY, PEACE, WITH THEM THAT CALL ON THE LORD OUT OF A PURE HEART.

BUT FOOLISH & UNLEARNED QUESTIONS AVOID, KNOWING THAT THEY GENDER STRIFES (OR SPECULATIONS!). AND THE SERVANT OF THE LORD MUST NOT STRIVE; BUT BE GENTLE UNTO ALL MEN, APT TO TEACH, PATIENT, IN MEEKNESS INSTRUCTING THOSE “THAT OPPOSE THEMSELVES”; IF GOD PERADVENTURE WILL GIVE THEM, REPENTANCE TO THE ACKNOWLEDGING OF THE TRUTH; & THAT THEY MAY RECOVER THEMSELVES OUT OF THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, WHO ARE TAKEN CAPTIVE BY HIM AT HIS WILL.”

‘SNARED BY SATAN’? ‘TAKEN CAPTIVE BY SATAN AT HIS WILL’? IT WAS JOHN DRYDEN, IN HIS WRITING, “ABSALOM & ACHITOPHEL”, (PT.1,L.79), WHO SAID: “WHEN TO SIN OUR BIASED NATURE LEANS, THE CAREFUL DEVIL IS STILL AT HAND WITH MEANS.” OR, EVEN ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING’S WRITING IN “AURORA LEIGH,” (BK.7,L,105), WHO WROTE: “THE DEVIL’S MOST DEVILISH WHEN RESPECTABLE.”

OH, BUT ONE OF THE BEST STATEMENTS I READ ABOUT SATAN’S ‘BEST’? IN HIS WRITING: “SUENOS”,BY SIR ROGER L’ ESTRANGE, HE SAID: “WHEN THE DEVIL PREACHES THE WORLD’S NEAR AN END.” AND HE, SATAN, PREACHES “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”, EVEN PROCLAIMING, “APPROVED BY GOD HIMSELF”! REALLY? ARE YOU AWARE THAT THERE ARE THOSE “RELIGIOUS FOLK” WHO “FEEDS ON ASHES”? THAT’S ISAIAH 44:20! “HE FEEDS ON ASHES; A DECEIVED HEART HAS TURNED HIM ASIDE, THAT CANNOT DELIVER HIS SOUL, NOR SAY, ‘IS THERE NOT A LIE IN MY RIGHT HAND’?”

“ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”? PAUL SAID IN GALATIANS 6:3, “FOR IF A MAN THINKS HIMSELF TO BE SOMETHING, WHEN HE IS NOTHING, HE DECEIVES HIMSELF.” IT’S TRUE! “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES” ARE THE FOUNDATION STONES OF “RELIGIOUS PRETENCE” & “RELIGIOUS FABRICATIONS” WITH NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SACRIFICIAL BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD ATONING FOR THEIR FALLING AWAY FROM GOD’S GRACED WAY OF LIVING, GOD HAVING CRUCIFIED THE OLD SIN-NATURE WITH CHRIST, & OFFERING JESUS’S RESURRECTED PRESENCE IN THE BODY GOD HAS DESCRIBED AS ‘WORTHY’ ONLY OF BEING CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!

“ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”? IN GENESIS 11:4 WE READ ABOUT WHAT FALLEN MEN CONSIDER THEIR ‘REMEDY’FOR THEIR ‘RELIGIOUS PRETENCES’: AND THEY SAID, “GO TO, LET US BUILD A CITY & A TOWER, WHOSE TOP MAY REACH TO HEAVEN; & LET US MAKE A NAME, LEST WE BE SCATTERED ABROAD UPON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH.” BUT, ZEALOUS SELF OR RELIGIOUS DESIRES, HAVE NOT, CANNOT, WILL NOT BE RECONCILED TO HOLY GOD – ONLY BY CHRIST’S SHED BLOOD ON THE CROSS DO MEN FIND THEIR SINS WASHED AWAY & “NEW BIRTH” GENERATING, BY GOD’S GRACE, HIS ABIDING PRESENCE IN THE REDEEMED HEART & LIFE!!

OH, BUT THERE IS: “THE SOVEREIGN PRICELESSNESS OF GOD’S GRACE”!!! ROMANS 6:23 ILLUMINATELY DESCRIBES IT AS PAUL, INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WROTE: “FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH; BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN OR THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.” WHAT DID PAUL ALSO TELL US IN ROMANS 8:32? HE (GOD) THAT SPARED NOT HIS OWN SON,BUT DELIVERED HIM UP FOR US ALL, HOW SHALL HE NOT WITH HIM ALSO FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS?” IN ERIC METAXAS’ BOOK, “7 MEN & THE SECRETS OF THEIR GREATNESS”, INTRODUCED THE BOOK, SAYING, (P.XIV),

“NOW, MY OWN PERSONAL ‘GREATEST’ ROLE MODEL IS JESUS. &YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT HE DIDN’T JUST TALK. OF COURSE HE SAID A LOT OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS, BUT HE ALSO LIVED WITH HIS DISCIPLES FOR THREE YEARS. THEY SAW HIM EAT & SLEEP& PERFORM MIRACLES. THEY SAW HIM LIVE LIFE & SUFFER & DIE. THEY SAW HIM INTERACT WITH ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING THEMSELVES. HE LIVED AMONG THEM. THAT’S THE MAIN WAY THAT HE COMMUNICATED HIMSELF TO THE MEN WHO WOULD COMMUNICATE HIM TO THE WORLD. THAT’S HOW HE MADE DISCIPLES – WHO WOULD MAKE DISCIPLES, WHO WOULD MAKE DISCIPLES. SO FROM THE GOSPEL STORIES OF JESUS’ LIFE, YOU GET THE IDEA THAT SEEING A PERSON’S LIFE IS AT LEAST AS IMPORTANT AS GETTING A LIST OF LESSONS FROM THAT PERSON. YES, SERMONS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT SEEING THE ACTUAL LIFE OF THE GUY WHO GIVES THE SERMON MIGHT BE EVEN MORE POWERFUL. AND YOU GET THE IDEA THAT HOW YOU LIVE AFFECTS OTHERS. IT TEACHES THEM HOW TO LIVE.”

IN PROVERBS 3:5-8 THE “WISE MAN” WROTE, “TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART; & LEAN NOT UNTO YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING. IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM ( THAT’S GIVING JESUS THE REINS OF YOUR LIFE, NOT YOU ‘PERFORMING’ FOR HIM!), & HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS. BE NOT WISE IN YOUR OWN EYES; FEAR THE LORD, & DEPART FROM EVIL. IT SHALL BE HEATH TO YOUR NAVEL, & MARROW TO YOUR BONES.” HOLY GOD SAID TO ISAIAH IN ISAIAH 55:11, “SO SHALL MY WORD BE THAT GOES FORTH OUT OF MY MOUTH:IT SHALL NOT RETUTN TO ME VOID, BUT IT SHALL ACCOMPLISH THAT WHICH I PLEASE, & IT SHALL PROSPER IN THE THING WHEREIN I SENT IT.”

ARE “YOU” FACING LIFE’S “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”, REJECTING THEM, ABANDONING THEM, & SHUTTING THE DOOR ON THEM? THEN ARE “YOU” ACCEPTING “THE SOVEREIGN PRICELESSNESS OF GOD’S GRACE”? THERE’S AN OLD “BENEDICTION” CHORUS IN THE BACK OF THE 1940 BROADMAN HYMNAL THAT SAYS: “MAY THE GRACE OF CHRIST OUR SAVIOR, & THE FATHER’S BOUNDLESS LOVE, WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT’S FAVOR, REST UPON US FROM ABOVE. AMEN, OR SO BE IT.” IS THERE A “SO BE IT” IN YOUR SPIRITUAL VOCABULARY & YOUR DAILY SPIRITUAL PILGRIMAGE?

ALSO IN THAT SAME OLD HYMNAL IS ANOTHER “SONG-MESSAGE” ENTITLED, “FOLLOW, I WILL FOLLOW THEE”. IT SAYS: “JESUS CALLS ME, I MUST FOLLOW, FOLLOW HIM TODAY; WHEN HIS TENDER VOICE IS PLEADING, HOW CAN I DELAY? JESUS CALLS ME, I MUST FOLLOW, FOLLOW EVERY HOUR, KNOW THE BLESSING OF HIS PRESENCE, KNOW THE FULLNESS OF HIS POWER.

JESUS CALLS US, I MUST FOLLOW, FOLLOW HIM ALWAYS; WHEN MY SAVIOR GOES BEFORE ME I CAN NEVER STRAY.

FOLLOW, I WILL FOLLOW YOU, MY LORD, FOLLOW EVERY PASSING DAY; MY TOMORROWS ARE ALL KNOWN OF THEE; YOU WILL LEAD ME ALL THE WAY.” BEING LED BY GOD TRULY IS BEING LED BY HIS GRACE, HIS MERCY, & HIS LOVE!

EXODUS 13:18 TELLS US THAT GOD LEADS US THROUGH LIFE’S WILDERNESSES. ISAIAH 63:12 SAYS GOD LED US WITH HIS RIGHT HAND.ROMANS 8:14 SAYS WE’RE LED BY GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT, & ESPECIALLY SINCE THE WORD SAYS, THE SPIRIT GUIDES US INTO ALL TRUTH! WHAT ABOUT THE INSPIRATION OF GALATIANS 5:16-25? THIS I SAY THEN, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, & YOU SHALL NOT FULFILL THE LUST OF THE FLESH. FOR THE FLESH LUSTS AGAINST THE SPIRIT, & THE SPIRIT AGAINST THE FLESH: & THESE ARE CONTRARY THE ONE TO THE OTHER: SO THAT YOU CANNOT DO THE THINGS THAT YOU WOULD.BUT IF YOU BE LED OF THE SPIRIT, YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW.

NOW THE WORKS OF THE FLESH ARE MANIFEST, WHICH ARE THESE: ADULTERY, FORNICATION, UNCLEANNES, LASCIVIOUSNESS, IDOLATRY, WITCHCRAFT, HATRED, VARIANCE, EMULATIONS, WRATH, STRIFE, SEDITIONS, HERESIES, ENVYINGS, MURDERS, DRUNKENNESS, REVELLINGS, & SUCH LIKE: OF THE WHICH I TELL YOU BEFORE, AS I HAVE ALSO TOLD YOU IN TIME PAST, THAT THEY WHICH DO SUCH THINGS SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.BUT THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE,JOY,PEACE, LONGSUFFERING,GENTLENESS,GOODNESS,FAITH, MEEKNESS,TEMPERANCE; AGAINST SUCH THERE IS NO LAW. AND THEY THAT ARE CHRIST’S “HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH, WITH THE AFFECTIONS & LUSTS. IF WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, LET US ALSO WALK IN THE SPIRIT.”

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR WALK? “BEST EFFORT”? “TRYING HARD”? OR, DAY BY DAY, “TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY TO THE OLD SIN-NATURE, THE OLD MAN, THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED IN YOUR MORTAL FLESH”? IN THE OLD “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”, (PUBLISHED IN 1933, BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE,TENN.P.43)IS A HYMN ENTITLED “MOMENT BY MOMENT.” IT SAYS: “DYING WITH JESUS, BY DEATH RECKONED MINE; LIVING WITH JESUS, A NEW LIFE DIVINE; LOOKING TO JESUS TILL GLORY DOES SHINE, MOMENT BY MOMENT, O LORD, I AM THINE.

NEVER A TRIAL THAT HE IS NOT THERE, NEVER A BURDEN THAT HE DOES NOT BEAR; NEVER A SORROW THAT HE DOES NOT SHARE, MOMENT BY MOMENT, I’M UNDER HIS CARE.

NEVER A HEARTACHE, & NEVER A GROAN, NEVER A TEARDROP & NEVER A MOAN;NEVER A DANGER BUT THERE ON THE THRONE, MOMENT BY MOMENT HE THINKS OF HIS OWN.

NEVER A WEAKNESS THAT HE DOES NOT FEEL, NEVER A SICKNESS THAT HE CANNOT HEAL; MOMENT BY MOMENT, IN WOE OR IN WEAL, JESUS, MY SAVIOR, ABIDES WITH ME STILL.

MOMENT BY MOMENT I’M KEPT IN HIS LOVE; MOMENT BY MOMENT I’VE LIFE FROM ABOVE;LOOKING TO JESUS TILL GLORY DOES SHINE; MOMENT BY MOMENT, O LORD, I AM THINE.” FOR YOU,IS IT “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES OR THE SOVEREIGN PRICLESSNESS OF GOD’S GRACE”? I MUST SHARE COLOSSIANS 2:6-17!! “AS YOU HAVE THEREFORE RECEIVED CHRIST JESUS THE LORD, SO WALK IN HIM; ROOTED & BUILT UPON HIM, & STABLISHED IN THE FAITH, AS YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT, ABOUNDING THEREIN WITH THANKSGIVING. BEWARE LEST ANY MAN SPOIL (OR TAKE YOU CAPTIVE!)THROUGH PHILOSOPHY & VAIN DECEIT, AFTER THE TRADITION OF MEN, AFTER THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD, & NOT AFTER CHRIST. FOR IN HIM DWELLS ALL THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY. & YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, WHICH IS THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY & POWER: IN WHOM ALSO YOU ARE CIRCUMCISED WITH THE CIRCUMCISION MADE WITHOUT HANDS, IN PUTTING OFF THE BODY OF SINS OF THE FLESH (OR OLD ‘SIN-NATURE’) BY THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST: BURIED WITH HIM IN BAPTISM, WHEREIN ALSO YOU ARE RISEN WITH HIM THROUGH THE FAITH OF THE OPERATION OF GOD, WHO HAS RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD.

AND YOU, BEING DEAD IN YOUR SINS & THE UNCIRCUMCISION OF YOUR FLESH HAS HE QUICKENED TOGETHER WITH HIM, HAVING FORGIVEN YOU ALL TRESPASSES; BLOTTING OUT THE HANDWRITING OF ORDINANCES THAT WAS AGAINST US, WHICH WAS CONTRARY TO US, & TOOK IT OUT OF THE WAY, NAILING IT TO HIS CROSS; & HAVING SPOILED PRINCIPALITIES & POWERS, HE MADE A SHOW OF THEM OPENLY, TRIUMPHING OVER THEM IN IT.

LET NO MAN THEREFORE JUDGE YOU IN MEAT, OR IN DRINK, OR IN RESPECT OF AN HOLYDAY, OR OF THE NEW MOON, OR OF THE SABBATH DAYS; WHICH ARE A SHADOW OF THINGS TO COME; BUT THE BODY IS OF CHRIST.”IN CLOSING, CONSIDER SERIOUSLY COLOSSIANS 3:1-5A,PLUS VERSES 15-17! “IF YOU THEN BE RISEN WITH CHRIST, SEEK THOSE THINGS ABOVE, WHERE CHRIST IS SITTING ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. SET YOUR AFFECTION (MIND) ON THINGS ABOVE (ETERNAL), NOT ON THINGS ON THE EARTH. FOR YOU ARE DEAD, & YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD. WHEN CHRIST, WHO IS OUR LIFE SHALL APPEAR, THEN SHALL YOU ALSO APPEAR WITH HIM IN GLORY. MORTIFY THEREFORE YOUR MEMBERS WHICH ARE UPON THE EARTH…” VERSES 15-17, “AND LET THE PEACE OF GOD RULE IN YOUR HEARTS, TO THE WHICH ALSO YOU WERE CALLED IN ONE BODY; & BE THANKFUL. LET THE WORD OF CHRIST DWELL IN YOU RICHLY IN ALL WISDOM; TEACHING & ADMONISHING ONE ANOTHER IN PSALMS & HYMNS & SPIRITUAL SONGS, SINGING WITH GRACE IN YOUR HEARTS TO THE LORD. AND WHATSOEVER YOU DO IN WORD OR DEED, DO ALL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS, GIVING THANKS TO GOD & THE FATHER BY HIM.” AMEN? I PRAY SO!

OF CHRIST’S NAME!”

By J.Farrell Fisher, September 28, 2016

You’ll remember that I wrote a teaching recently entitled, “Bearing the Name, Living With Shame”! And it certainly majored on “pretenders”, “imitation game-players in the spiritual arena”, or like the scribes and Pharisees about whom Christ Jesus spoke “woes”, in one case saying, (Matthew 23:14), “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.”

There is a powerful, encouraging, challenging word in Psalm 4:2-3 when David “sang”: “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The Lord will hear when I call to Him”, saying in Verse 8, “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

What you’ve just read from the Psalms is both a song of divine safety, Prince of Peace gifting, and a song of living to the Glory of Christ’s Name, because through His shed blood, we are reconciled to the protective arms of Almighty, Holy, Loving, Caring, Holy God and His family of redemptive faith!

“Shedding the Shame”? The prophet, Isaiah, in Isaiah 54, began the chapter alerting attention to the “barren ones…who have not born,” alerting us to the fact and reality that, “For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord!

Oh, but then in Isaiah 54:3, enlightening the “true remnant of Israel”, are God’s promises to them, and us, “For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.”

And then in Verses 4-8, the prophet increases the intensity of excitement, saying, “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; (not Mohammed, not Confusius, not the idols of pagan peoples with their pagan gods); He is called the God of the whole earth!

For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused, says your God. “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; BUT WITH EVERLASTING KINDNESS I WILL HAVE MERCY ON YOU,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.”

And when Holy God “sheds your shame”, He then said in Isaiah 54:14, “In righteousness you [Now!] shall be established [or “made to stand!],” adding in Verse 17, “This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,” says the Lord.

Nor a ‘self-attained’ righteousness but a divinely implanted righteousness, not a recollection in one’s mind about God, but reconciliation with God through repentance and faith, not a positive ‘best effort’, but a persuasive, perpetual, powerful, Prince of Peace miracle of grace, not a collection or gathering of like-minded folks, but a conversion of the flesh-minded to the very mind of Christ, not a mental adjustment of a moral nature, but the might and miraculous power of Holy God; Oh, but then Paul, in Titus 3:5-7, declared, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, THROUGH the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that HAVING BEEN JUSTIFIED [declared ‘just as if we’d never sinned’!] by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” WHAT A DECLARATION OF REDEMPTIVE FAITH!

In “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations” that I turn to frequently as I write, I came across a statement by someone named Dwight E. Stevenson,(p.67), that shocked me! Whoever he is, Dwight Stevenson is credited with the following: “The Christian church is not a congregation of righteous people. It is a society of those who are not good.” And, I immediately was ‘sickened’, all because a man declares the ‘church’ ‘a society of those who are not good’! The ‘church’ of the Lord Jesus Christ is the “gathered” by Christ through their repentance and faith, and before Holy God the Bridegroom, Jesus, was united with you, His believing, trusting, yielded bride, “the righteous”, whom Jesus described in Matthew 13: 43, “Then the RIGHTEOUS will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

But as Jesus dealt with the ‘spiritual elite’ of Israel in His day of ministry on earth, the scribes and Pharisees, he spoke directly to a ‘seeking’ Pharisee, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, in John 3:3-9, “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 (that’s ‘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. 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.” Nicodemus answered and said, to Him, “How can these things be?”

“Shedding the Shame – Living To The Glory of His Name”! How familiar are you with Ephesians 2:8-16? Paul wrote: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

THREFORE REMEMBER that you, once Gentiles in the flesh – who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands – that at that time YOU WERE WITHOUT CHRIST, BEING ALIENS from the commonwealth of Israel and STRANGERS FROM THE COVENANTS OF PROMISE, HAVING NO HOPE and WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD.

BUT NOW in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, [That’s God and man!] and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinance, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.”

Oh, we clearly know that man without God is fully described when in Romans 3:23 Paul said, “For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..”, but then in Verse 24-26 continues, (thank God!), “being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS, 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.”

Let Biblical Truth sink in!! “Brought near by the blood of Christ”, the open door to the Holy Presence of God! “No separation from God but oneness with Him” through the blood! “Holy God births ‘new men’ through faith in Christ’s sacrifice”!

“Reconciled to God through Christ’s Cross”! “Redeemed” by the blood of the Lamb”! “Peace with God through Christ alone”! “Justified freely by God’s grace through Christ’s blood sacrifice”! “From ‘strangers to God’ to sons of God through Christ”! “Hopeless without the hope only Jesus gives to be brought into the Holy Family of God”! “God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus”! “Through Christ’s Cross, the old sin nature crucified – Resurrected, He grants Holy Presence within every true son and daughter of faith”! “Grit grounded and buried – grace the love gift of God in and through Christ Jesus”!

“No wavering before the promises of God in unbelief, but fully convinced that what God has promised, He’s ABLE to fulfill, in you”! “No excusing God’s sentence of death on your old nature, old man, old fleshly ambitions, but daily celebration and thanksgiving for being reconciled to God through the blood of the Lamb”! “No longer bound by the shame of a godless life, fleshly rebellion, loveless indifference, worldly desires, but NOW consumed with the passion to KNOW HIM and THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS”!

Do YOU rejoice “in Christ” every day? Do YOU thank Him, every day, for your new, eternal, heavenly identity? Do YOU praise God that NOTHING has to separate YOU from God’s love because of WHO Christ Jesus is? Paul says in Romans 8: 37-39, “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 things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But “the battle, the warfare,” to separate us from our Savior is not any ‘small disturbance’ as we live in this world, but the battle-fronts of the world, the flesh, and the devil are faced in our life’s journey, regularly, looking for opportune moments to turn us away from our Lord and Savior! Paul assures us of “Victory In Jesus” when we lean not to our own understanding BUT Lean on Jesus, the Spirit, and the Word, reminding ourselves to Whom we truly belong!

In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 Paul reminds us again of the spiritual war-clouds, war-storms we will face! “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high things that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

How ‘strange’ a term Paul highlights for our modern day in America and American churches! Did he really say, “bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” and as a result refute the point many churches, pastors, leaders assert: “To say Christians have to obey” is, for them, to assert you don’t have to obey – “that would be salvation by works”! No, True salvation births a yielded, surrendered, willing heart, desirous of pleasing the Lord, Master, and Savior who has made true disciples His Holy Temple!

“Christ in you the hope of glory”, but you choose the choice of whether today you want Jesus to be Jesus in you, but when and how and where you please?

True believers are temples of Holy Presence! True believers are men so desirous of honoring Christ in them! True believers understand He ‘predestined’ repentant hearts and yielded souls to, yes, be conformed to the image of God’s Son, and that they clearly understand God called them to His intent, justified them, sanctified them, and glorified them in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

“LIVING TO THE GLORY OF HIS NAME”? Is this why God inspired Paul to instruct us, enlighten us, empower us in Romans 12:1-2? “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be [being!] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

IF we are true believers living to the glory of His Name, are we, yes, praying daily, “Lord, your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, in us, through us, and by our devotion to Your Holy Presence to extend Your life to others, express Your love to others, and prove, yes, Your present life and power, extending Your Kingdom-rule, and fulfilling the eternal ‘heart-beat of the Father for His Kingdom-rule through others’”?

Even King David became awed by God’s purpose when in Psalm 40:5-10 he prayed: “Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened. [Are YOU hearing the voice of God speaking to YOU?]. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart. I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly; indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.”

“LIVING TO THE GLORY OF HIS NAME”? It was Leo Tolstoy, in his writing, “The Kingdom of God,” (Chapter 12), who wrote: “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 of us.” How true, and yet many believers remain “silent servants”, embracing ‘a tale told by others’ but not worthy enough for them to lay down their lives extending His Kingdom, expressing the fruit of His Spirit, and proving, by faithful trust, His power and able-ness in bringing others to His glory, grace, mercy, love, and eternal purpose through them! Are you “fruitful” in the extending and expressing and enlightening of Kingdom Living under Christ’s Lordship?

I heard a black disciple, not a pastor, speak in my son’s (Scott) church recently and hearing him say: “Churches are full but their doors are closed,” and what he was speaking about was a ‘cloud of unconcern’ for those of another race, with few outreach ministries, black or white, in both cultures!

I read an interesting quote from Frederick William Robertson, {“The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, compiled by Frank S.Mead, p.294}: “In these two things the greatness of man consists, to have God 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.” But I add a third: A deep awareness of responsibility in extending His Kingdom rule and expressing His love to the “lost” who need His “Blood-Redemption” also for their wayward walks apart from Him and His eternal purpose and plan through their redeemed lives!

“LIVING TO THE GLORY OF HIS NAME”? Holy God “convicts” one of his sin nature and need of redemption! Holy God “bears witness” through Christ’s Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and His desire to make your heart and life His earthly tabernacle and sanctuary of Holy Presence: Again, “Christ in YOU the hope of glory”! Holy God mandates in every new believer’s heart this word, Acts 1:8, “But YOU shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; AND YOU SHALL BE WITNESSES TO ME IN JERUSALEM, AND IN ALL JUDEA AND SAMARIA, AND TO THE END OF THE EARTH.” Didn’t Paul say later, in Acts 2:32, “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” Glory!

It’s so interesting AND convicting when we read in Matthew 20:25-28 that as Jesus called His disciples to Himself, He said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

“LIVING TO THE GLORY OF HIS NAME”? We just read that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The one thing you ought to be assured of in this moment is that Christ came to You, forgave you, redeemed you, and anointed and appointed YOU to live and share the glory of His Name!! Christ Jesus came to unveil God’s mercy to you and through you!

In John 10:10b, Christ Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” HE CAME TO GIVE HIS LIFE AS A RANSOM FOR MANY, but how many around YOU are you seeing who lay their lives down for the lost, the alienated, the separated from God who so needs His love, grace, and mercy?

Hear me, “The soul that sins (and keeps on sinning) shall die,” but the soul that repents, returns, confesses and forsakes his sin, finds mercy and grace through the Lamb’s blood! And the “new, bright, eternal day” dawns and one begins to live to the glory of His Name, His honor, His praise! Spurgeon quoted an old, old hymn from his day, (Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, p.66), that says: “Come, guilty souls, and flee away, and look to Jesus’ wounds; This is the accepted Gospel day, Wherein free grace abounds….God loved His church, and gave His Son to drink the cup of wrath; And Jesus says He’ll cast out none Who come to Him in faith.” Faith is more than awareness – it’s trust!

There is a stark, shocking verse in Psalm 9:17. It says: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” …In Psalm 50:22 God says: “Now consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” “Forgetting God?”

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says of forgetfulness: “The quality of losing the remembrance or recollection of a thing; or rather, the quality of being apt to let anything slip from the mind…loss of remembrance or recollection; a ceasing to remember; oblivion…neglect, negligence; careless omission; inattention; as forgetfulness of duty.”

Do you remember Daniel confronting Belshazzar in Daniel 5:22-23? [NAS], “Yet you Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzer, have not humbled your heart even though you knew this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.”

Did Daniel say of some, “There are those who have not, do not, will not GLORIFY GOD”? What did he say?: “But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.” But a Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ.” Is your walk of faith a testimony of ‘triumph in Christ’ or an unveiling of negligence toward Him, ‘careless omission, inattention; as forgetfulness of duty?’

Romans 1:18-32 are earth-shattering, heart-breaking verses about people and nations who forget God! [Please read before continuing!]

In Hosea 13:4-9 there are sad, prophetic words that ought to grip, convict, and convert every human soul: “Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; For there is no Savior besides Me. I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. When they had pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me. So I will be to them like a lion; like a leopard by the road I will lurk; I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them. O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from me.”

How easy for some to forget Proverbs 14:34!! “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” Righteousness is ‘salt’ that preserves while ‘sin’ is poison that destroys. Righteousness is God’s divine preservative for nations while sin is self-inflicted destruction. Psalm 2:11-12 tells us: “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are those who put their trust in Him.”

Do you understand “perishing in the way”? Let’s see if we can discern some of the ways “Why Nations Forget God”!

FIRST, NATIONS FORGET GOD BY OMITTING RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD. In Psalms 37:23 we read: “The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord.” God is to be in control of every man’s life, yes, his every step. The New American Standard translates it: “The steps of a man are established by the Lord; and He [God] delights in his way.”

I was reading in Marketplace Ministries magazine a statement by Jay Badry. He wrote: “Many people hold fast to the idea that ‘God can do anything,’ but I shrink from that for there is one thing God is incapable of doing: violating His own perfections and attributes. What this means to me is that in a constantly changing world, sinking ever deeper into the mire of depravity, the perfect God is both timeless and changeless. As a kite must be tethered to a fixed point for stability, so my soul, indeed all that I am must be tethered to Him at all times.” That’s a person, a people, and a nation!

If a nation, a life, a family, a business, a ministry, is not ‘tethered’ to God, there is no line, strong line, holding it up soaring in the air where God wants it to soar, but releasing itself from God’s control, it crashes!!

Do you understand that when a government omits responsibility to God it shuts the door on a nation ‘blessed by God’? If you’ve studied American History at all you know that Thomas Jefferson was one of our founding fathers. He is reported to have said: “The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that those liberties are the gift of God?”

WHEN GOVERNMENT IGNORES, DENIES, SEEKS TO REFUTE THE DIGNITY OF DIVINE INITIATIVE IN ESTABLISHING, YES, A ‘HOLY NATION,’ IT VIOLATES EVERYTHING God intended for the human society He created. When government assumes the Jehovah-Jireh spirit, it has stolen and betrayed the ministry only God can fulfill.

It was D.A. Carson in his book “For The Love Of God” who wrote: “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”

A nation is not liberated if it omits, yes, legislatively that God has no place in our nation – “We’re Free”!! No, that nation that denies God’s right to rule is bound by the chains of darkness and the devil himself!

Is America today being ‘governed’ by “LIBERALS”? Are far too many churches being ‘governed’ by “LIBERALS”? Are far too many academic institutions today being ‘governed’ by “LIBERALS”?

Liberals foul the mind and fool the conscience. Liberals promote their ‘truth’ and crucify “The Truth.”

Liberals bow at the throne of its own deceptive governments and denounce the government of God. Liberals preach tolerance, interpreted by its own actions as intolerant, especially of God and men and women of saving faith.

Liberals spout freedom while subjecting its students to their bondage, spouting individual determination of one’s own destiny void of the true, lasting, eternal foundation of faith in the God who made them, lost them, and then bought them with the price of the shed blood of the Lamb of God.

Liberals bow before the idol of education leaving its devotees anchored to emptiness, impotence, and shallowness, while it celebrates its poverty and bankruptcy and avoids the true riches of grace.

Liberals and their liberalism, having become one of the largest religious systems in the world, builds its ‘foundations of faith’ on the doctrines of death, seen in the philosophy, ’you can make it without God,’ ‘Christians are kooks, the truly uneducated of our society,’ or, ‘the Bible is the fool’s book.’

Liberals major on mental imaginations of men who see themselves as men of superior intellects, when in reality they are the spiritual midgets and dwarfs void of REALITY. Liberalism masks itself in the assertions of “superior knowledge and intellect,” validated by their degrees, failing to see their unmasking because of their denial that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Liberalism promotes a Godless society, not understanding “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God!’” Liberalism is the cloud of “political correctness” that darkens the sky of constitutional and scriptural freedoms, constitutional intent and scriptural ideals, a nation built on the foundation of faith and submission and obedience and worship and devotion to the one True and Living God as revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Liberalism is the noose around the neck of nations and peoples, strangling the very life of divine intent out of institutions, families, and individuals, captured by the deceptions of foolish men intent on enslaving the wills and minds of those under their diabolical influences.

Liberalism is the release of scriptural restraints upon a society unleashing the release of rebellion, ungodliness, “my way,” my thoughts, ‘god’ unto myself, releasing the supposed higher thoughts of men in total opposition to the holy truths of God.

Do you grasp what I’m speaking about? It’s that shallow grasp for a mystical, meaningless nothing; a deception of diabolical, evil, devilish proportions – no God, no truth, no sin, no wrong, no shame, a reckless abandonment of decency and honor for a moment of soul, sensual, sinful, satanic satisfaction that never satisfies.

For many, their better is better than God’s best, satisfied with the philosophy and religion of personal achievement; for many, educational achievement rules and reigns as supremacy over God’s best, intellectually superior to even the knowledge and wisdom of God Himself.

What did I say ‘FIRST’? “NATIONS FORGET GOD BY OMITTING RESPONSIBILTY TO GOD!” That’s not freedom ‘in Christ’ but freedom from responsibility in doing what God says. Didn’t Jesus say, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ – but you do not do what I say.”

Oh, I pray you don’t miss what’s going on across our nation today! They say, “We’re free!!”, and by that there are those who mean “Freedom of release of responsibility in relationships that includes not only God but free from the spiritual care of others! False freedom is the freedom to do your own thing without any consideration of the consequences to the covenant Body of Christ, yes, your local assembly!

False freedom is the freedom to go your own way and do your own thing without one serious thought of leaving voids and vacuums in others! False freedom is the freedom to exercise self-initiative without any submission to Holy Spirit-direction and leadership!

False freedom is the freedom to believe the Gospel without the insight to walk it out where God places you! False freedom is the freedom to see your wisdom as valid that invalidates the wisdom of God for you.

False freedom is the freedom to believe one can preach the Gospel without the nature of Christ leading and to believe one can do that without imparting one’s own life as well. False freedom is to say you’re a friend without the “greater love” of laying down your life for your “friends”.

False freedom is to receive but not to give, the freedom to take and not to share, the freedom to be blessed and ignore the Blessers.

False freedom is to move in an apparent spirituality in order to steal and take from others who accept you blindly because of their loyalty to the Spirit of Christ in them.

False freedom is to abdicate the calling of ministry “helps” with no feeling of guilt or regrets. False freedom is to ignore ‘brotherhood’ because of a greater allegiance to “me-hood”!

False freedom is to reduce others to ‘less-ness’, unimportant to you because of one’s prideful ‘more-ness.’ False freedom is the phony freedom of virtuousness that is a vacuum as one victimizes the greater victors, yes, victimizing the true disciples of Christ with no regrets!

SECOND, NATIONS FORGET GOD AS THEY IGNORE, DENY, SUPPRESS THE MANDATES OF GOD! Deuteronomy 8 is one of God’s most powerful words for any nation anywhere. Please follow me in your own Bible with a marking pen in hand!!

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 says: “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

I’m convinced without a doubt that God wants to put His own fingerprint, His own palm-print, His own signature on our lives! Look at verses 11-14!! “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest – when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage…”

What is a ‘lifted-up heart’? That’s pride, that’s self-sufficiency, that’s pumped up flesh! Look at verses 17-19! Then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.”

In Matthew 4:4 we read of Jesus saying the same thing we read in Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”….Do you remember what the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy? 2 Timothy 3:14-17, “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

I pray that you have not failed to grasp the authority, the power, the true freedom that comes for nations through the Word of God. Psalm 119 is so powerful, so liberating, so redemptive in its truth!! Are you ready? Come to Psalm 119!!

Psalm 119:9, 11…Verse 9, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.” Verse 11, Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

Psalm 119: 24-25, “Your testimonies also are my delight, and my counselors. My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word.”

Psalm 119:37, “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.” Verse 18, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”

Psalm 119: 49, “Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope.” Verse 54, “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.”

Psalm 119: 67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” Verse 72, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.”

Psalm 119: 89, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” Verse 92, “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.”

Psalm 119: 101, “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word.” Verses 103-104, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”

Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Verse 111, “Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.”

Psalm 119:130, “The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Verse 133, “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.”

Psalm 119:140, “Your word is very pure; therefore Your servant loves it.” Verse 160, “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.”

Psalm 119:162, “I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure.” Verse 165, “Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.”

Do you remember Jeremiah’s testimony in Jeremiah 15:16? He said, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”

This is why Peter wrote in I Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow [up into your salvation.]”

What did Jesus tell us in Matthew 7:24-29? Listen carefully!! “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

Have you ignored, denied, suppressed the Living Word of God?

THIRD, NATIONS FORGET GOD BY THE SUPPRESSION OF THE CELEBRATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD. Come to John 4:7-26!

All around you there is FAMILY DISINTEGRATION but no celebration and worship of the one true and living God. All around you there is pulpit and church quietness but no celebration and worship of the one true and living God. All around you there is national moral decay but no celebration and worship of the one true and living God. All around you there is ‘false religion domination’ but no celebration and worship of the one true and living God!

Nations forget God by the suppression of the celebration and worship of God.

FOURTH AND LAST, NATIONS FORGET GOD BY FORGETTING INTENTIONALLY AND SEEKING TO OBLITERATE THE GREATEST SACRICE OF GOD HIMSELF – THE VERY SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD, JESUS, TO COVER A NATION’S SIN!! Obliterate? Listen to Noah Webster’s definition in his 1828 Dictionary: “To efface, to erase or blot out…to wear out, to destroy by time or means…to reduce to a very low or imperceptible state…to obliterate the monuments of antiquity…”

Well, what about obliterating the truth of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world? That’s Revelation 13:8!! “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.” Before nations existed God knew what fallen nations would do and He decided before the world came into existence that the Son would be the Savior as the Lamb of God slain on the Cross!

Come to Revelation 19:5-10, “Then a voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write” ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!!” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

In your history studies did you ever come across the French Statesman Alexis Compte de Tocqueville? In early American history Tocqueville said: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rivers, lands, and prairies, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”

GOD, HELP US! GOD, SAVE OUR NATION! GOD, LIGHT THE FLAME AGAIN OF CELEBRATION AND WORSHIP OF THE ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD! GOD, HELP US AGAIN BE A NATION OF DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS!”

H. Ernest Nichol wrote this old, old hymn that ought to be resurrected: “We’ve a story to tell to the nations, That shall turn their hearts to the right, A story of truth and mercy, A story of peace and light…

For the darkness shall turn to the dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright; And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, The kingdom of love and light.

We’ve a song to be sung to the nations, That shall lift their hearts to the Lord, A song that shall conquer evil and shatter the spear and sword.

We’ve a message to give to the nations, That the Lord who reigns up above, Has sent His Son to save us, And show us that God is live.

We’ve a Savior to show to the nations, Who the path of sorrow has trod, That all of the world’s great peoples, Might come to the truth of God.

For the darkness shall turn to the dawning, And the dawning to noonday bright; And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, The kingdom of love and light.”