By J. Farrell Fisher, January 23-25, 2017

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 there is a strong challenge to the stubborn indifference to fallen man’s challenge to Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross in their behalf because they see nothing in themselves worthy of death! Paul wrote: “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

I’m assuming that YOU are aware, for the most part, of the blindness of many of the world’s civilizations concerning their ‘standing’ before God – most sense no need of Him because in them there is nothing needed to be redeemed from! Most are “waders” in the shallow waters of their existence with no awareness of what abides in the dark depths of the human heart, or the dark spaces of a nation’s blackened heart, alienated and separated from Holy God! Human and, yes, national ‘blindness’ to one’s spiritual condition is best described in Mark 4:18-19 when Jesus said, “Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, AND THE CARES OF THIS WORLD, THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, AND THE DESIRES FOR OTHER THINGS ENTERING IN CHOKE THE WORD, and it becomes unfruitful.” They have no shame!

And the Proverbs author really sought to awaken both ‘saint’ and sinner when in Proverbs 11:31 he wrote: “If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth (by God Himself), how much more the ungodly and the sinner.” The former Memphis, Tennessee pastor, Dr. R.G.Lee, once preached a never forgotten message entitled “Payday Someday!” For the ungodly and the sinner who ignore, deny, excuse the sin nature and its ‘deathliness’, the ‘door’ to forgiveness, healing, and the “new life in Christ” remains firmly closed, locked, blocked, and men continue in the sin and sinfulness of “red-handed mutiny” and defiance of Holy God and His loving heart for them proven at the Cross!

Reckless unbelief, fleshly hypocrisy, irrational denial of one’s need of reconciliation with the God who made them, lost them, then bought them with the shed blood of the Lamb of God, stiff-necks, sin-clouded minds, and darkened hearts, mold, prepare, shape, and tarnish their lives with the devil’s marks of ownership, and then in their daily lives insult, curse, and continually deny the loving, merciful, caring heart of Holy God!

There are those firmly rooted in their old sin natures who are ‘in love’ with what they see as “the nobility of human nature” when the Holy Word declares in Romans 3:23, “for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So… “shedding the shame, and living to the glory of Christ’s name” OR embracing the shame and living to the goriness and godlessness of YOUR name and YOUR fame? The old, sin-nature- bound men seem ‘hell-bent’ on preserving their independence from God, leaning on their ‘foul love’ of the ‘flesh’, and, yes, worshipping the mis-alignment of one’s heart with God, ‘satisfied’ with the world, the flesh, and the devil’!

Oh, but then we read in the Corinthian letter by Paul that “God chose the foolish,” that “God chose the weak,” that “God chose the base things of the world and the things which are despised,” that “God chose the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” In fact, in John 5:48 Jesus said: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (I rest easier when I see ‘perfect’ as “perfected by His grace, mercy, and love”!). But, imperfect men, repentant in heart AND mind, trusting in Christ alone, are not a religious society’s ‘elite’, but the Kingdom of God “elect”, God smothering man’s fleshly pride in the “blood of the Lamb”!

The ‘elite’ rather than the “elect of God” are those who resemble ‘the humiliation of Babylon’ as seen in Isaiah 47, but in Verses12-13 of chapter 46, God said, “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.”

As Isaiah 47:3 unfolds, Holy God exposes, not only Babylon’s nakedness, but the spiritual nakedness of every fallen man! Verse 3 then says, (which is an eternal principle of Holy God!), “Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame will be seen;…” with God then saying in Verses 8-11, Therefore hear this now, YOU WHO ARE GIVEN TO (FLESHLY) PLEASURES, WHO DWELL SECURELY (in ‘self-trust), WHO SAY IN YOUR HEART, “I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow (or widower), nor shall I know the loss of children”; But these two things shall come upon you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children, and (a marriage partner). They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments.

For you have trusted in your wickedness; [Would it be advisable for you to search out in the Word what God calls ‘wickedness’?]. You have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ Therefore evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put if off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.” That’s fleshly independence erected as one’s ‘god before which he/she bows daily to worship’! But there IS the eternal reality of one bowing, confessing, surrendering, devoted to the King of kings and Lord of lords! And 1 Corinthians 1:28 we’re told Holy God “chooses” the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence,” but IN Christ Jesus we’re declared wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

It was Spurgeon who once preached, “The grace which is found in any man, and the glory and eternal life to which any attain, are all THE GIFTS OF GOD’S ELECTION, and are not bestowed according to the will of man.” [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol.8, p293].

How clear to you is Ephesians 2:8-10? “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.”

True believers? Those “graced by God,” those who are recipients of His mercy, those who lean not to their own understanding, but in all their ways give God His rightful place as True Sovereign, Loving Savior, and compassionate Lord and Master, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power through a repentant, yielded, surrendered life! No doubt this is why David prayed in Psalm 86:3-5, “Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to You all day long. Rejoice the soul of Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and ABUNDANT IN MERCY to all those who call upon You.” How clear is Romans 9:16? Paul said, “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”

David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:1-13 certainly ought to capture and guide any ‘convicted by the Spirit’ sinner! David said: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me, a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.” WHAT AN AWESOME REVELATION! But, I wonder sometimes, how many “disciples, pastors, churches today” live with the zeal of King David to touch the lost, needy world with the message of repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, and beyond the empty tombs to “street evangelism” and “missions”!

Paul gives us a true picture of the “redeemed” when In Galatians 4:3-7 he wrote about our “adoption” as sons and daughters of Holy God through God’s Son the Lord Jesus: Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God had sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

You are aware that the world, the flesh, the devil are ‘slaves’ in bondage – a statement in an old hymn said: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” and there becomes instilled in a born-again life with its trials, temptations, and troubles, that apart from God’s grace, there would be mass ‘fallings-away’! But because we ARE ‘sons of faith”, Holy God sent the Spirit to guard, protect, empower, and oversee our journey of faith into the fullness of Christ Himself!

And, because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to true sons and daughters of the faith, Simon Peter broadens our understanding of the Spirit’s ministry beyond “born of the Spirit” to being “anointed by the Spirit” to bear witness of Christ! In 1 Peter 1:2 he speaks to “the elect” which was and is “according to the foreknowledge of God,” set apart by the Spirit “for obedience”! “You shall be My witnesses…to the uttermost parts of the earth!”

It’s amazing to me, and awe-inspiring, that in Acts 4:8, I read about Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” with Verse 13 telling and inspiring me, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Many of the intellectual elites in our modern-day assume they are smarter than God Himself! It’s been a ‘philosophically debated argument’ that “Christ and His teachings” don’t measure up to their ‘philosophical brilliance’ whose numbers are few, while today billions upon billions of re-born mankind ‘in Christ’ are conquering the nations!

IN fact, Paul was very clear in his anointing in the Holy Spirit when he said in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight… for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” How clear is that? And law-breaking in the Word of God is to shatter one’s self-image and then willingly to cast himself/herself upon the mercy, grace, and love of God! Jesus still says: “You must be born again. That which is flesh is flesh, but that which is of the Spirit is spiritual reality, sovereign oneness with the Savior, and declared vessels washed and cleansed and indwelt in Resurrection life, Resurrection power, and resurrection hope!

Have YOU died? Colossians 3:3 declares, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Why did Paul say, “I die daily”? Because he wanted no part ever with the ‘old man,’ the ‘sinner’, the rebellious loyalist to one’s sin nature, but was passionate in his desire, motivation, and prayer to be found loyal to the “new life” in Christ! Yes, Paul put on the “new man” daily who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him…with Christ as his “All in all!” Paul said in Galatians 6:14-15,

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” ARE YOU CHRIST’S NEW CREATION?

Are you living in darkness or have you come to “The Light of life in Christ”? In 1 John 1:7 John wrote: “But if we walk in the light as He (Jesus) is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” In the old “American Hymnal” of the 1930’s there is a hymn entitled, “There Is A Fountain”, written by William Cowper and Lowell Mason. It says: “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved, to sin no more.

Ever since, by faith, I saw the stream Your flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die.

Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Your power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave.”

What’s your song that you sing to the glory of God alone?

By J. Farrell Fisher, January 23-25, 2017

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 there is a strong challenge to the stubborn indifference to fallen man’s challenge to Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross in their behalf because they see nothing in themselves worthy of death! Paul wrote: “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

I’m assuming that YOU are aware, for the most part, of the blindness of many of the world’s civilizations concerning their ‘standing’ before God – most sense no need of Him because in them there is nothing needed to be redeemed from! Most are “waders” in the shallow waters of their existence with no awareness of what abides in the dark depths of the human heart, or the dark spaces of a nation’s blackened heart, alienated and separated from Holy God! Human and, yes, national ‘blindness’ to one’s spiritual condition is best described in Mark 4:18-19 when Jesus said, “Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, AND THE CARES OF THIS WORLD, THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, AND THE DESIRES FOR OTHER THINGS ENTERING IN CHOKE THE WORD, and it becomes unfruitful.” They have no shame!

And the Proverbs author really sought to awaken both ‘saint’ and sinner when in Proverbs 11:31 he wrote: “If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth (by God Himself), how much more the ungodly and the sinner.” The former Memphis, Tennessee pastor, Dr. R.G.Lee, once preached a never forgotten message entitled “Payday Someday!” For the ungodly and the sinner who ignore, deny, excuse the sin nature and its ‘deathliness’, the ‘door’ to forgiveness, healing, and the “new life in Christ” remains firmly closed, locked, blocked, and men continue in the sin and sinfulness of “red-handed mutiny” and defiance of Holy God and His loving heart for them proven at the Cross!

Reckless unbelief, fleshly hypocrisy, irrational denial of one’s need of reconciliation with the God who made them, lost them, then bought them with the shed blood of the Lamb of God, stiff-necks, sin-clouded minds, and darkened hearts, mold, prepare, shape, and tarnish their lives with the devil’s marks of ownership, and then in their daily lives insult, curse, and continually deny the loving, merciful, caring heart of Holy God!

There are those firmly rooted in their old sin natures who are ‘in love’ with what they see as “the nobility of human nature” when the Holy Word declares in Romans 3:23, “for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So… “shedding the shame, and living to the glory of Christ’s name” OR embracing the shame and living to the goriness and godlessness of YOUR name and YOUR fame? The old, sin-nature- bound men seem ‘hell-bent’ on preserving their independence from God, leaning on their ‘foul love’ of the ‘flesh’, and, yes, worshipping the mis-alignment of one’s heart with God, ‘satisfied’ with the world, the flesh, and the devil’!

Oh, but then we read in the Corinthian letter by Paul that “God chose the foolish,” that “God chose the weak,” that “God chose the base things of the world and the things which are despised,” that “God chose the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” In fact, in John 5:48 Jesus said: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (I rest easier when I see ‘perfect’ as “perfected by His grace, mercy, and love”!). But, imperfect men, repentant in heart AND mind, trusting in Christ alone, are not a religious society’s ‘elite’, but the Kingdom of God “elect”, God smothering man’s fleshly pride in the “blood of the Lamb”!

The ‘elite’ rather than the “elect of God” are those who resemble ‘the humiliation of Babylon’ as seen in Isaiah 47, but in Verses12-13 of chapter 46, God said, “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.”

As Isaiah 47:3 unfolds, Holy God exposes, not only Babylon’s nakedness, but the spiritual nakedness of every fallen man! Verse 3 then says, (which is an eternal principle of Holy God!), “Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame will be seen;…” with God then saying in Verses 8-11, Therefore hear this now, YOU WHO ARE GIVEN TO (FLESHLY) PLEASURES, WHO DWELL SECURELY (in ‘self-trust), WHO SAY IN YOUR HEART, “I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow (or widower), nor shall I know the loss of children”; But these two things shall come upon you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children, and (a marriage partner). They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments.

For you have trusted in your wickedness; [Would it be advisable for you to search out in the Word what God calls ‘wickedness’?]. You have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ Therefore evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put if off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.” That’s fleshly independence erected as one’s ‘god before which he/she bows daily to worship’! But there IS the eternal reality of one bowing, confessing, surrendering, devoted to the King of kings and Lord of lords! And 1 Corinthians 1:28 we’re told Holy God “chooses” the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence,” but IN Christ Jesus we’re declared wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

It was Spurgeon who once preached, “The grace which is found in any man, and the glory and eternal life to which any attain, are all THE GIFTS OF GOD’S ELECTION, and are not bestowed according to the will of man.” [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol.8, p293].

How clear to you is Ephesians 2:8-10? “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.”

True believers? Those “graced by God,” those who are recipients of His mercy, those who lean not to their own understanding, but in all their ways give God His rightful place as True Sovereign, Loving Savior, and compassionate Lord and Master, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power through a repentant, yielded, surrendered life! No doubt this is why David prayed in Psalm 86:3-5, “Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to You all day long. Rejoice the soul of Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and ABUNDANT IN MERCY to all those who call upon You.” How clear is Romans 9:16? Paul said, “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”

David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:1-13 certainly ought to capture and guide any ‘convicted by the Spirit’ sinner! David said: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me, a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.” WHAT AN AWESOME REVELATION! But, I wonder sometimes, how many “disciples, pastors, churches today” live with the zeal of King David to touch the lost, needy world with the message of repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, and beyond the empty tombs to “street evangelism” and “missions”!

Paul gives us a true picture of the “redeemed” when In Galatians 4:3-7 he wrote about our “adoption” as sons and daughters of Holy God through God’s Son the Lord Jesus: Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God had sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

You are aware that the world, the flesh, the devil are ‘slaves’ in bondage – a statement in an old hymn said: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” and there becomes instilled in a born-again life with its trials, temptations, and troubles, that apart from God’s grace, there would be mass ‘fallings-away’! But because we ARE ‘sons of faith”, Holy God sent the Spirit to guard, protect, empower, and oversee our journey of faith into the fullness of Christ Himself!

And, because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to true sons and daughters of the faith, Simon Peter broadens our understanding of the Spirit’s ministry beyond “born of the Spirit” to being “anointed by the Spirit” to bear witness of Christ! In 1 Peter 1:2 he speaks to “the elect” which was and is “according to the foreknowledge of God,” set apart by the Spirit “for obedience”! “You shall be My witnesses…to the uttermost parts of the earth!”

It’s amazing to me, and awe-inspiring, that in Acts 4:8, I read about Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” with Verse 13 telling and inspiring me, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Many of the intellectual elites in our modern-day assume they are smarter than God Himself! It’s been a ‘philosophically debated argument’ that “Christ and His teachings” don’t measure up to their ‘philosophical brilliance’ whose numbers are few, while today billions upon billions of re-born mankind ‘in Christ’ are conquering the nations!

IN fact, Paul was very clear in his anointing in the Holy Spirit when he said in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight… for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” How clear is that? And law-breaking in the Word of God is to shatter one’s self-image and then willingly to cast himself/herself upon the mercy, grace, and love of God! Jesus still says: “You must be born again. That which is flesh is flesh, but that which is of the Spirit is spiritual reality, sovereign oneness with the Savior, and declared vessels washed and cleansed and indwelt in Resurrection life, Resurrection power, and resurrection hope!

Have YOU died? Colossians 3:3 declares, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Why did Paul say, “I die daily”? Because he wanted no part ever with the ‘old man,’ the ‘sinner’, the rebellious loyalist to one’s sin nature, but was passionate in his desire, motivation, and prayer to be found loyal to the “new life” in Christ! Yes, Paul put on the “new man” daily who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him…with Christ as his “All in all!” Paul said in Galatians 6:14-15,

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” ARE YOU CHRIST’S NEW CREATION?

Are you living in darkness or have you come to “The Light of life in Christ”? In 1 John 1:7 John wrote: “But if we walk in the light as He (Jesus) is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” In the old “American Hymnal” of the 1930’s there is a hymn entitled, “There Is A Fountain”, written by William Cowper and Lowell Mason. It says: “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved, to sin no more.

Ever since, by faith, I saw the stream Your flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die.

Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Your power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave.”

What’s your song that you sing to the glory of God alone?

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!