BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, SEPTEMBER 6-7, 2018

There was a quite-shocking news’ release on my computer recently from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association saying, “Nearly 20 million Americans struggle with depression. Over 42,000 commit suicide each year.” It also highlighted Psalm 34:18 (ESV), “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Have you witnessed the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit without any concern, compassion, or care for, yes, the “needy” right in front of you, or next door?

It was a heart-breaking news’ release, but then I read a Sarah Palin statement on, what at the time under ‘Obamacare’, she quoted that 21,904 people had DIED on waiting lists! And you’re certainly challenged by ‘life desperation’ in many – most unaware of God’s presence, God’s help, God’s ministry, God’s Son, yes, sent by the Father as life’s Savior and Lord, a life’s needy ‘the GREAT PHYSICIAN’, and life’s conqueror over sin, over sickness, over death, over world domination, that is godless and heavily injures body, soul, and spirit, by blindness to Satanic interference!!

“Living by pathetic decisions”? Just consider the ‘atheistic community’ world-wide or even locally around you! “There is no god!”, and so they “choose” to willfully live in the choice of ‘the suicide of the soul’, closing the door of heart and mind on the Truth of Biblical Hope in Christ!

It was Sir Francis Bacon, in his writing, “Essays: Of Atheism” XVI, who wrote, “A little philosophy inclines a man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy brings men’s minds to religion”, but, sadly, religions as well as man’s philosophies, often are blinding men rather than opening their eyes, minds, and hearts to Christ Jesus’ KNOCK on their hearts’ door!

O.A. Battista, in his writing, “Power To Influence People”, (copyrighted in 1959 by him), says: “An atheist is a man who looks through a telescope and tries to explain what he can’t see.” So true! Spiritual blindness in atheism is a deadly disease, AND a deadly ‘dis-ease’ living one stranded on a ‘sinking ship’!

In my early days, I lived with my grandparents because my mother divorced my father then took me to live with them while, for a number of years she lived a care-free, Christ-less life, strapped in her ‘flesh nature’! I still praise God at 82 years of age because my grandparents and my mother’s two sisters ‘blessed me spiritually’ from my three years of age until at about twelve years of age when my mother married Frank Callaway who became my step-dad! (In all my years of life my dad never came to see me, never –but I’d travel 30 miles to his parents’ home, and he’d drop by or I’d go to his office.) But my mother’s parents, my grandparents and my two aunts, one just two years older than me and the other about six years older, basically, ‘discipled’ me faithfully! Some, in a situation like mine, often ‘choose’ to “turn away from God” because, how could He allow such irreverence and shunning of His eternal purpose in every life? But, thank God, though without mother and father, I WAS BLESSED! I didn’t turn to ‘atheism’ because I heard, saw, witnessed, believed in, and trusted the “Lived-Out-Trust-in The Loving Lord and Savior” through the family and our local church blessed with a large number of true disciples who, yes, also nurtured me in the faith!!

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Fears in Solitude”, he wrote: “Forth from his dark and lonely hiding place, (Portentious sight!) the ‘owlet’ Atheism, Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon, Drops his blue-fringed lids, and holds them close, And hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven, Cries out, “Where is it?”

I love what Alexander Pope once said! “Atheists put on a false courage in the midst of their darkness and misapprehensions, like children who, when they fear to go in the dark, will sing or whistle to keep up their courage.”

Worldly intelligence often so deceives ‘unbelievers’, and at times ‘intelligent mind-believers’, that, all of a sudden, they think, “There is no God!’, opening the false door to one’s ‘self’ as the “best god I know”, and willfully ‘lie’ to themselves, “There is no god!”, choosing, yes, a godless life or a godless pretense! Others catch the “dis-ease” of recognizing their need of God, but unwilling to submit to His commands, they find it easier, though deathly, to determine for themselves, “I don’t need YOUR GOD!”

There is a spiritual disease called ‘atheism’ that is a repressed ‘religion’ that captures some hearts and minds, but has not, cannot, will not ever produce the miracle of new lives, new hearts, new minds, recognizing only ‘human intent of honoring ‘any god’ by, at least, being ‘honest’(?) with themselves’, but opening the ‘door’ to eternal death! It was Mary Ann Vincent who once said: “An atheist’s most embarrassing moment is when he/she feels profoundly thankful for ‘something’, but can’t think of anybody (or anything) to thank for it.” So true!

And, guaranteed, there ARE, for some atheists, dark, dark, tragic, tough moments when they stop and think, “If God is real, would He be willing to help me when I need Him the most?”

Oh, and then there are the “agnostics”. The Random House Collegiate Dictionary of 1975, published in a Revised Edition, says of an ‘agnostic’, “a person who holds that the ultimate cause (God) and the essential nature of things (though real) are unknown and unknowable.” So, of course, the agnostic refuses to trust, relate to, submit to, or obey the One he/she has no desire to know, though He exists!

And, though, at times, many ‘agnostics’ are ‘intellectually wise’ in their worldly philosophies, their arrogance deceives them in thinking, “Though ‘God’ exists, He has no ‘genius’ about ‘fleshly creation in the human heart and mind’ but certainly His world, created by His Word, is sure beautiful! I can accept that!” ,but will deny “Amazing Grace, Love, Truth, and Mercy”, and especially ‘God in Christ’!”

Then, beyond what we’ve seen so far, there are still, yes, many, many people who are not atheists or agnostics, but individuals who have a ‘mental awareness of the reality of God’ but no desire to be reconciled to Him, be transformed by Him, or even consider that He could and would, having “birthed them into an eternal spiritual relationship”, be used by Him to extend His Kingdom, express His love through them, and demonstrate through them His Power! But…they willfully say, ‘no; there is no God’, He ‘knocks’, but they refuse to open the door of their minds and hearts because they are content with their worldly wisdom, their fleshly ambitions, and their own entertainment, yes, without any need of Calvary’s Savior, Lord, and Master of eternal life and blessing!

Also there are many in our highly educated, self-centered world, bound by that ‘world philosophy’, by ‘Satanic deceit’, and by the “I do it ‘my way’,” godless, brain-dead and heart-diseased, state of only inward allegiance and ‘self-fulfillment’, that they have no time to even consider a relationship with a loving, merciful and caring God! That’s like Napoleon Bonaparte who once said, “You think you are too intelligent to believe in God. –I am not like you.- Not every one who wishes to be is an atheist,” denying His desire to be Lord over your life as you ‘fend’ for yourself, denying Him His eternal desire to be Lord, Savior, Master, or Ruler in and over your life, turning ‘existence’ into Holy Presence!

Are YOU “living under” the pretense of your thoughts, your turning, and your ‘self-inflicted’ torture of “Godless living”? Thomas Carlyle once said, “There is but one thing without honor, smitten with eternal barrenness, inability to do or to be, and that is unbelief. He who believes nothing, who believes only the show of things, is not in relation with nature and fact at all”, like, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’!” So true!

Oh, and then there is the “later-crowd”, the “sometime, but, ‘not-now-crowd’” who ‘believe’ but not to the point of trust or surrender or allegiance to His “Amazing Grace”!!

Oh, and also, there IS the “wilted-flower-‘fan’” that Alfred Lord Tennyson described in his writing, “Flower in the Crannied Wall” theme: “Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,

Little flower – but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.” Also, so true!

BUT, also, there IS the spiritual tragedy of the fallen man easily distracted by the worldly influences, by the, yes, demonic distractions and devilish influences, AND by that ‘all-out-allegiance to satisfy one’s sin-nature and self-centered allegiances’! THEY ALL ARE EXTREMELY POWERFUL, BLINDING, AND EFFICIENT IN THEIR FRAMES OF REFERENCE!! In 1 Corinthians 13:11 Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” That was Paul, but certainly there are young children who latch on to Holy God, and they won’t let go! Not all, but some!

I read a small article by Eric Metaxes and Stan Guthrie on my computer this morning entitled, “Beware of Apatheism” that I found so appropriate for this message. It said: “With apologies to Richard Dawkins, the New Atheists are old news. But we’ve got a bigger problem. You remember them, don’t you? Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Bennett, and Sam Harris?

These so-called “New Atheists” drew crowds with their bombastic and occasionally clever attacks on God and theism. For a while their books were best sellers, “The God Delusion,” “God Is Not Great,” for example. But as atheist and evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson recently wrote, “The world appears to be tiring of the New Atheism movement…

However, that’s not necessarily good news. Writing in The Public Discourse, Paul Rowan Brian and Ben Sixsmith warn of something even more insidious than atheism. APATHEISM – that is, answering the “God question” with a shoulder shrug and a calm, “Whatever.” Again, “Whatever,” Brian and Sixsmith write, “With roots in the practical atheism and deism of the Enlightment, ‘apatheism’ is embodied in French philosopher Denis Diderot’s famous remark that ‘it is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.”

They cite K. Robert Beshears of Southern Baptist Seminary, who says the West suffers from an “unholy trinity of apatheism”: a lack of ‘reason’ to believe, supposedly because of science; a lack of ‘motivation’ to believe, because someone else will worry about it, and a lack of ‘will’ to believe, because religion “is just too much drama.”

And one WONDERS: “How stupid, blind, and spiritually ignorant has ‘fallen mankind’ stooped to?” BUT…THERE IS HOPE!! In Hebrews 12:1-9 God’s Holy Word challenges us all! It says: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which SO EASILY BESETS US, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him, that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him.

For WHOM the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. IF you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father never chastens?

But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you are bastards (illegitimate), and not sons. Furthermore we have had our fathers of our ‘flesh’ who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” GOOD QUESTION!

I recently went back to re-examine Edwin Louis Cole’s book, “Maximized Manhood”, and I had to wonder, once again, “is that theme the opposite of “death to self in exchange for Christ’s Resurrection Presence after true repentance and faith in His finished work at the Cross and the empty tomb”, encouraging ‘best effort’ in place of “crucified with Christ, buried, then raised in the “newness of His Presence”?

ARE YOU: “Living by pathetic decisions”? Examine Luke 8:4-18!! And when much people were gathered together, and were come to Him out of every city, He spoke by a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

And some fell down upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. (Moisture of the Holy Spirit?). And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

And others fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. When He had said these things, He cried out, ‘Hear that has ears to hear, let him hear.’ His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘What might this parable be?’ He said, “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear; then comes the devil, and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. No man, when he has lighted a candle, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed; but sets it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.

For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how YOU hear; for whosoever has, to him shall be given; and whosoever has not, from him shall be taken that which he seems to have.”

What’s the Question of this very moment? Are YOU “Living by Pathetic Decisions OR Are YOU Overcoming by Divine Promises?" A few words I recently wrote that states this: “I once was lost, but now I’m found; I once was blind, but now I see; I once was dirty in the garment of sin, but now I’ve been cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb.

Darkness prevailed, and then came the Light; darkness distressed, and the Light offered “Rest”; darkness ‘tired’, but the Spirit “inspired” LIFE IN THE LORD that never retires!

Darkness’ ease is a deadly disease, but, the Great Physician brings “Heaven’s Release”! Darkness’ author is the Satanic Liar, offering release to a ‘lesser lair’.

Darkness’ song is an off-key chord, eventually bringing a life that is bored; but Jesus comes to offer His Light to free you from ‘the cellar of devilish might’!”

The question now is: Are YOU still living by ‘pathetic decisions’ OR are YOU overcoming by Christ’s and the Word’s Divine Promises? I TELL YOU:

Darkness shakes like a massive hurricane at Jesus’ Presence, darkness moves deeper under the Devil’s own fear of the Light, darkness trembles at even the mention of Jesus’ Name, and darkness looks to its ‘author’ and ‘inventor’ of all its own fears, faults, and feelings! Oh, but then comes King Jesus, the Light that dispels darkness’ soiled agendas and then King Jesus turns on the “Eternal Light” of His ever abiding Presence.

Where is YOUR life planted? In Satan’s darkness or the Savior’s Light? P.P.Bliss wrote a hymn published in the old “Broadman Hymnal” in 1940 entitled: “The Light of the World Is Jesus”, saying: “The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin, The Light of the world is Jesus; Like sunshine at noonday His glory shone in, The Light of the world is Jesus.

No darkness have we who in Jesus abide, The Light of the world is Jesus; We walk in the Light when we follow our Guide, the Light of the world is Jesus.

You dwellers in darkness with sin-blinded eyes, The Light of the World is Jesus; Go, wash, at His bidding, and light will arise, The Light of the world is Jesus.

No need of the sunlight in Heaven we’re told, The Light of the world is Jesus; The Lamb is the Light in the city of Gold, The Light of the world is Jesus.”

Tell me! Your “residence” NOW and Eternally? In the ‘darkness’ of fallen humanity under the domination of Satan and his demons? OR, is it “residence” NOW and Eternally in “The Light of the Very Present, Presiding, Perfecting Light Of Christ Jesus”?

OF HELPLESSNESS IN ONE’S SELF”

I’m not sure that even many ‘evangelical Christians’ will agree with my deep conviction about “suicide”, but I must share my despair over “suicide”, and especially when some “professors of faith” see it as a door to heaven! They say, “One doesn’t lose his/her salvation,” revealing that they don’t believe true salvation is believing in Jesus without any concerns about one’s obedience to Him or not, refuting His Word: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I say!”

I say to you without any hesitation that “ suicide”, professing believer or not, is a chilling reality of unbelief and disobedience, a ‘cheap imitation of surrender and obedience,’ a dark shadow of death not life in the Spirit, and is nothing more than a spiritual famine, an inadequate supply of biblical faith, and a famine of true surrender and yieldedness to the King of kings and the Lord of lords! It is a devastating picture of the absence of Holy Presence and eternal purpose!

Suicide is a strange word and language to true people of faith, an enemy of Resurrection life, Resurrection power, and Resurrection hope. Suicide is a godless decree of Satan and a sad remnant of either unbelief or a decaying faith! It was Frank T. Marzials, in his writing: “Death as the Fool”, who said: “God help the fools who count on death [or suicide] for gain.”

What does Romans 8:6-11 tell us? Paul had just said, by God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin or because of its ruthless treatment of His created, that He condemned sin in the flesh, {but you believe you can ‘sin in the Spirit”? Give me a break!}.

Verses 6-11, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind IS enmity against God; for it (asserting its ‘self-will’) is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh (even as a professing believer!) cannot please God.

But you (In Christ) are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, IF INDEED THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. Now if ANYONE does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you {Big “IF”!}, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit {IN YOU} is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him [God Himself] who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Even the word ‘suicide’ in any man, believer or not, leaves me with the deep conviction that unbelievers or professing believers do not understand, have no conviction about the very sacred nature of physical life but more important the gift of Resurrection Life, and even contemplating ‘suicide’ reveals a ‘train of faith or faithlessness’ both off the “tracks of God” as chief engineer!

Yes, to BE suicidal is the act of rejecting the “Author of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ,” yielding not to Him but the act of imitation ‘priests’, muted, blinded, unyielding to His Spirit and Word! As Christ Jesus is the Deliverer from death, ‘your salvation experience’ is either the modeling of His life and hope, or your oppression, deception, and blindness by the devil.

But, Yes, to be “in Christ” is to possess the Divine Spirit, Life, and Hope within, ruling and reigning, not to extinguish one’s life but extend and express His eternal life in you and through you. There’s nothing formidable or instructive about ‘suicide’ other than ‘pumping up’ the devil and his demons! They celebrate a suicide! Suicidal death is nothing more than an extreme expression of obstinateness and indifference to the will and Word of God and His honor. Suicidal deaths diminish, for far too many people, the Truth of Christ and His victory over spiritual death and spiritual strangulation!

Suicidal death is not a “master-piece” print-out of Resurrection Life but a cheap imitation of His promises. Self-death by human, willful means is one’s rejection of “spiritual life” by Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. Suicide is not “done with sin” but an open and willful celebration of sin in fleshly cares, woes, and pains!

Suicide is the door to the land of darkness and the shadows of that darkness, the door to the hellish celebration of the dead, the demons, and ALL of Hell’s constituents, plus the absence of any “fruit of the Spirit” but only the “rotten fruit of a misspent life”, honoring ‘flesh’, unbelief, disobedience, rebellion to the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Suicidal death is an announcement of darkness and one’s ‘changed mind’ or desire for it, and a rejection of “Life, Liberty, and the eternal Spirit and His fruit: Galatians 5:22-24, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law, AND THOSE WHO ARE CHRIST’S HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES. IF WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, LET US ALSO WALK IN THE SPIRIT.”

Is suicide loving God or loving ‘dust’, loving the Savior or loving the sensual flesh and its never-ending disappointments, or loving the foolish setting aside Redemptive Faith? Suicide “sinks the soul, the spirit, the very life of true faith”! Suicide is being overcome by fleshly domination, being blinded to the God who saves, heals, and delivers; it is the exaltation and submission to the fleshly manifestations of fear, faithlessness, and the futility of ‘self-effort discipleship’ apart from His promises!

James 4:7-10 says, (This is from the brother of Jesus!), “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Please, let me highlight, underscore, enlighten you more about “willful suicide”:

FIRST, IT IS SELF-ASSERTION RATHER THAN TRUE TRUST IN GOD’S CARE. In Jeremiah 29:11 the Lord God spoke: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Suicide is, yes, the act of willfully rejecting the Author of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ, and giving the devil himself more right to your life than the blood-redemption of Christ Jesus.

As Christ Jesus is the “Deliverer from death”, your salvation experience and continual event is taking the sentence of death to yourself daily that He might rule and reign in you, with you aware of the necessity of giving room daily to His model and eternal reality of divine life and eternal hope, not your oppression or deception by the devil that suicide is spiritually legal.

Suicidal death is honoring flesh, honoring a misspent life, honoring indifference, unbelief, and hopelessness! It’s the extreme manifestation of ‘self-will’, rejecting divine will, trusting my deception more than His Truth and His Trust, and more trust in my misspent mind than His peace, His design for me, and His future hope for me ‘In Him.’

SECOND, SUICIDE IS SELF-DETERMINATION RATHER THAN SOVEREIGN CARE BY HOLY GOD. Romans 6:23 is so clear! “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“The gift of eternal life”? But some disregard His gifts, His provisions, and His fruit, and substitute or give way to ‘best effort’ or a slavish indifference to His revealed truths!

It’s so interesting that in Hebrews 4:14 – 16 the author magnifies Jesus, the Son of God, and us ‘holding fast our confession’, then saying, “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.” Obtaining mercy and finding grace is not God agreeing one’s suicide is “OK” with Him!

There was a time in the psalmist’s life when he found “trouble and sorrow.” Psalm 116:4-9 is a powerful testimony. It says: “Then I called upon the name of the Lord: “Oh Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul. For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you."

Further on, in Psalm 118:5-17, there is a song, the psalm, of exalting and praising God for His everlasting, All-sufficient, and never-ending mercy! It says: “I called on the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.

THE LORD IS ON MY SIDE; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The LORD IS FOR ME among those who help me; therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

They surrounded me like bees; they were quenched like a fire of thorns; For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. You pushed me violently that I might fall, but the Lord helped me.

The Lord is my strength and song and He has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

And true believers, born the second time through the blood of Jesus, are raised up, not to give in to the devil’s suggestions, but to expose him and his evil ways – suicide IS an evil way of the powers of darkness! “In Christ”, we have the Great High Priest from whom we obtain mercy and grace to help in the times of need and our greatest ‘stress moments’!

THIRD, SUICIDE IS YIELDING TO ‘THE THIEF’ (SATAN) RATHER THEN YIELDEDNESS TO GOD’S PROMISED OVERSIGHT. In John 10:9-10 Christ Jesus declared, “I am the door. If anyone enters (the Kingdom of God) by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief (Satan) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

And in strenuous times, dark clouds, heavy winds, testy storms, some who ‘professed’, like some ‘church-attenders’, yet, sadly, never ‘possessed’ the resurrected Christ, identified themselves, though loyal ‘Temple-attenders and observers’, as what Jesus described as “sons of the devil”! In John 8:43-47 Jesus said of, yes, the ‘religious elite’ of His day, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He (Satan) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in 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 lies. 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 believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

FOURTH,SUICIDE IS THE ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF DISAVOWING THE SACRIFICIAL DEATH OF CHRIST AND HIS LORDSHIP, DETERMINING, THOUGH PROFESSING, ONE IS REALLY HIS OWN AND CAN DO AS HE/SHE PLEASES. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul challenges every ‘professing believer’,

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and YOU (In Christ) are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

No “believer” has the right, the privilege, the choice, of choosing on his/her own what pleases or displeases God, what is “my decision” related to life or self-imposed’ death, or what road or path “I” am to walk on! “In Christ” is not a license to do as one pleases!

FIFTH, IT IS THE CLEAREST ACT OF BETRAYAL OF THE BODY OF CHRIST, OR ALL BELIEVERS, AND AN ACCEPTANCE OF THE WILL OF THE AUTHOR OF DEATH, REBELLION, AND DISOBEDIENCE.

Psalm 33:18-22 declares: “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.”

The lack of the reverential awe of Almighty God, Christ’s Lordship, and the Holy Spirit’s authority and power, is the “open door” to what you believe satisfies you, not God, not the Spirit, not the Lord Jesus, and certainly, NOT HIS WORD: “You shall not kill.”

Colossians 1:19-23 is an awesome warning from the biblical word “if”. Do you know that word in your own spiritual journey? Paul said: “For it pleased the Father that in Him [In Christ!] all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight – (“GET READY”!), IF INDEED YOU CONTINUE IN THE FAITH, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister [or a Messenger].”

“IF” means “conditional” or “will you show Me your devotion by doing My will?” Paul had explained in Colossians 1:18 that Jesus is YOUR author in life decisions! “And He is the head of the body, the church, [all believers], who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, THAT IN ALL THINGS HE MAY HAVE THE PREEMINENCE.” [And you believe it’s permissible to do as you please as a disciple, even committing suicide?].

SIXTH, SUICIDE IS A SUBSTITUTION OF PERSONAL DEATH FOR CHRIST’S RESURRECTION LIFE, RESURRECTION POWER, AND RESURRECTION HOPE! What did Christ Jesus Himself declare 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 {by coming to Him rather than the devil, the flesh, or the world spirit!}, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

SEVENTH, SUICIDE IS A SUBSTITUTION OF FLESH RATHER THAN THE VICTORY OF CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK! There is a dramatic convicting passage of Scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 where again, Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses against them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

The old has passed away? The old things of flesh indulgence and self-will, or self-determination of life choices, even suicide, has passed away? Is ‘self’ the controlling spiritual influence or “the Christ in you the hope of glory”? And If Christ is the hope of glory in the “new man” in Him, where does the “new man” find, in Christ, an open door to suicide? If God says that by willingness and obedience to Him, He gives the precious privilege of “eating” the good of His land, then its ‘OK” to indulge in the ‘flesh’, even “feeling good” about ending it all by suicide?

“In Christ” one is not granted the fleshly right to do as he/she pleases? “In Christ” one doesn’t have to discern “divine will”? “In Christ” is a lie and one is allowed, though saved, to choose for himself whether to live or die by his own hand? Even though ‘professing Christ’ is a legitimate expression, having done so, have I then the right and rule to determine for myself whether I choose to live or whether I choose to die by my own hand, and it will please the Savior and Lord and honor Him if I betray His Lordship and shorten, end, or cancel His eternal purpose He determined to fulfill through me?

Suicidal death is not the door to eternal life; suicidal death is not a hymn of one’s devotion to His Savior and Lord, but an ‘off-key’, un-tuned horns, phony words of ‘OK’ by the choir director of darkness, evil, and the satisfactions of all indulgent demons! It is corruptible, it is a devilish substitute for the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, it is ‘the end of life’, not a divorce from its sorrowful bents and turnings and witness, and it is not ‘debt paid for my failures, my rebellion, my indulgences, my rejection, and my determination, and loving God ought to be pleased that I won’t shame Him anymore, because I end my failing life?

Suicide is the devil sealing his ownership by default of trust, obedience, or honor of the Savior and Lord! Suicide is a “mastered piece of hellish art” by the devil of darkness who claims ‘light’!

“Unashamed the devil stands and claps his hands over the suicidal man. ‘Goodness’ to him is you ending your pain, sorrow and suffering in your estimation of your failures, worthy only of ripping your painting of your life off the wall, and letting him celebrate your rejection of God’s help!’”

If the devil walks about seeking whom he may devour, do you believe his invitations are those by which you dishonor God, destroy yourself, giving him room to celebrate another battle won?

It was Shakespeare, in his “Hamlet”, who once wrote: “The spirit that I have seen may be the devil; and the devil has power to assume a pleasing shape,” and in his “hellish, pleasing shape”, promoting his darkness, ‘suicide’ becomes for ‘doubters’ the open door to rest, peace, and good feelings! Give me a break!

Why not “rebuke the devil and he will flee from you”! Expose him not explain him! Resist his demonic temptations rather than receive his deathly trouble! The “suicide-tempter” IS the “unmasked devil” with the intent of one’s horrific death, dishonoring the God who made him, to the devil’s pleasure! You don’t keep the devil in your house – you kick him out! “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer – I (Jesus) have overcome the world and the devil!” Amen?

And if the Lord Jesus has “chosen” us, that is not the “choice” of freedom in Christ to do with myself as I please but yielded to His sovereign will in all circumstances of one’s life, and, be assured, Holy God doesn’t give His “Amen” to any believer’s choice of killing himself/herself but challenges all believers to “LIVE” for His glory, His honor, His praise!