the Pastor Johns House.com BLOG

Preparing Your Heart

2012-02-13T08:14:00.001-05:00

from a sermon on Wednesday, October 4, 1989

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Now, forget about verse one for a minute, and just look at verse two. “Yet, they seek me, daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice, they take delight in approaching to God” (Is. 58:1-2).

Now that sounds like us. Or does it? It sounds like me. I’ll volunteer. I seek God daily. I delight to know His ways. I ask of Him the ordinances of justice. I delight in approaching to God. But God wasn’t found by these people - because they didn’t prepare their heart to seek God. They sought God with an unprepared heart, and their prayers were not answered. In other words, they approached God without having the life to back it up. And God didn’t answer.

God still is like that. That’s why a whole lot of people don’t receive the holy Ghost; they seek God in mouth only. They don’t prepare their hearts to ask. Listen, if you come to God with a prepared heart to receive the holy Ghost, you’ll receive it right then, that minute! Glory to God! With a prepared heart, He will not tell you no. That’s why He doesn’t answer the people who are asking for the holy Ghost just with their mouth. But when a person finishes repenting, God gives his Spirit.

Look at this, starting at verse 6. “Is this not the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh? Then [when you have prepared to come and ask me a thing] shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily.”

Now is God a liar, or is He telling the truth? He’s telling you that your health will come forth speedily when you prepare your heart to seek your God. “And thy righteousness shall go before thee [and put fear on your adversaries]; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.” Listen: “Thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry out, and He shall say, ‘Here I am.’” Glory to God, hallelujah! Glory to God! Isaiah said in one place, “While they’re still asking, I’ll show up.” Hallelujah!

I’m not talking about just seeking God. The whole world is seeking God. I’m talking about preparing to seek Him. Jesus went down to the river of Jordan, and John didn’t have to baptize him but once and the holy Ghost came. You hear what I’m saying? Jesus prepared himself to go down to that river. He prepared himself to seek God. And when he opened his mouth and sought God, God came and said, “This is my beloved Son!” And He’ll come today, and He’ll still speak through you, and the essence of it is “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” He is well pleased with you before you get the holy Ghost, or you don’t get it. He’ll show up in a hurry when you prepare to seek God. Seeking God is not going to bring you your answer; seeking God is not going to do it. You answer will come when you have prepared your heart to seek God. You’ve got to get clean enough to get your answer from God. You must be clean enough in God’s sight. "The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to God." Every prayer that you’ve had answered from God was answered because you prepared to pray it. You prepared your heart. Did you know that you’re supposed to search your own heart before you approach to God? Listen to what David said: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear it” (Ps. 66:18). The man that Jesus healed from blindness said, "We know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of Him, him He heareth.”

Look at this, in the middle of verse 9: “If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light arise in obscurity, and thy darkness shall be as the noon day. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones and you shall be like a watered garden”. You’re going to be like a watered garden, bearing fruit in its season. “And like a spring of water, [you will be], whose water’s fail not.” That’s what Jesus was talking about when he declared, "the scriptures said, Out of your belly will flow rivers of living water, springing up into everlasting life.”

There’s no need to ask God anything with an unprepared heart. But with a prepared heart, you hardly even need to finish your sentence, and He’ll be there!

No Good Thing

2012-02-03T23:43:00.002-05:00

Excerpt from a sermon on Sunday, January 15, 2012

Even with the holy Ghost you don’t know how to love people. Everybody loves something; everybody can love with a human love. But how do you love people where you actually benefit them, eternally? You love them by saying, “You need the holy Ghost.” It’s not loving that counts anything in heaven. It’s loving God’s way. He knows how to love. Now HE knows how to love. And if we’re not loving the way God loves, we’re loving in vain. If we’re not living the way God wants us to live, we’re living in vain. We’re talking in vain. God’s way is the way. That’s the value of the truth; it shows you God’s way of loving, God’s way of talking, God’s way of being a friend. God’s way of being a husband or a wife, or a son or a daughter, father, mother. God’s way of being a child of God. God’s way of functioning in the body of Christ. That’s the only - capital O, capital N, capital L, capital Y - that’s the ONLY thing that does any good.

In you, Paul said, “In me, that is in me by nature, my flesh, there dwells only 5% good things.” (Congregation says, “No!!!’) What version have you been reading? One of my professors said that World War II was started because of love. The Germans started loving Hitler. Was it God’s way of loving? The worst evils that have ever been were because of the wrong kind of love – loving the wrong thing, or loving the right thing the wrong way. That’s why we need a Savior. We need somebody to love us God’s way. To teach us to pass it on God’s way. Everything else is vain. Everything!

God help us get that in our hearts. You don’t have anything to bring to the table but you. What do I think? How am I supposed to think, God help me! Save me from my own thoughts, from the pressures of this planet to think certain ways and certain things. Let me see it. God, I don’t know what to see, I don’t know what to think, I don’t know what to feel. Proverbs says, “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to God.” It also says, “Commit your ways to God and your thoughts will be established.” God hates your thoughts. Your thoughts are not His thoughts. You ways are not His ways. Oh God, let us take that in.

That is so important for us to believe. It’s so important for us to believe that in our nature is nothing good in the sight of God. Oh, I know people can be nice; you can train a dog to be nice. Being nice is not being holy. In being holy, you’ll be nice to people, you’ll be kind, you’ll be generous, but you don’t know how to be generous. You don’t know how to be kind. Jesus said, “Get thee behind me Satan”; that was Jesus loving Peter God’s way. There’s not a Pharisee in the world that would have said that to Peter; they would have been afraid to lose a member of their congregation. Jesus didn’t even have a congregation, he had God. And God added to him and he took away. And he just stood there. He looked around and said, “The rest of you want to leave? You’re not mine; you’re my Father’s”. When he was asking them to leave, he was really asking his Father, “Do you want them to leave too? Let me see what you’ve got in their hearts.” Peter said, “We’re not going anywhere. You’re the guy with the words of eternal life. Where are we gonna go?”

If he’d have thought there was one other place to go, he would have left Jesus. And the rest of the disciples, if they thought there was one other place, they would have gone to it. Except maybe John; he just liked Jesus. But in the end, they all forsook him and fled. There was nothing good in them. They didn’t even know there was nothing good in them; that’s why they got into trouble. That’s why Peter put himself in a position where he cursed and swore he never knew Jesus. He thought that there was still something good in him, that he was going to be loyal to the end. He was going to prove Jesus wrong in saying you’re going to curse and swear you don’t know me. He didn’t believe there was nothing good in him. He thought he could go all the way with Jesus.

Listen, Jesus is so different there is nobody who can go all the way with him without the holy Ghost. Nobody. Some might hold on to the garden, but you’re not going all the way with Jesus without the holy ghost. Not to the places where he goes. Not with the things he teaches. You can’t do it, you cannot do it; it’s not in the nature of man to go all the way with Jesus. Not in the places he goes; they’re too hard on the old man. Too hard on the nature of man, it can’t believe it’d be right to do that. It can’t believe it wouldn’t be right for Jesus to try to explain itself. When he was on trial for his own life – Why don’t you explain yourself?! He just stood silent. Pilate marveled. “What is wrong with you, don’t you know I have power to execute you?” Jesus said, “Yawwwnnnnnnn….” Mmmm, he knows when to yawn. It scared him; he frightened that mighty Pilate with his answer. Frightened him. He said, “You will have no power over me whatsoever if it weren’t given to you from my Father in heaven.” From that moment, Pilate tried to find a way to turn him loose. It says so. The Bible said that, actually said that, from then he began to try to find a way to set him free. But it was his time, and Pilate couldn’t set him free even if he wanted to. You think you’re in control? Pilate couldn’t even set him free when he wanted to.

Oh God, thank you for the mercy on our lives. Thank you for the mercy on our lives, oh God, that we’re here; that we even have an interest in the things of God. That when He’s spoken to us we believed it, we testified to it. What a great thing! I’m speechless. Just so wonderful; so wonderful.

Most of what you go through in this life is bad. That’s life in this world. But He’s given us an oasis, and when we come in here we want to hear about Jesus. We want to build each other up because we’ve got to go back out there where it’s mostly bad stuff. About half of the people we love in the Lord, and all of the rest, at least half of them, according to Jesus himself, end up in the Lake of Fire. You can’t change that. I can’t change it. But we can humble ourselves not to be a stumbling block for anybody. So that we can help those we do know.

"As many as I love, I chasten."

2012-01-17T19:10:00.002-05:00

Jesus loves those whom he corrects, and those who receive his correction love him.

Have You Ever Asked Yourself, "When were Jesus' disciples born again?"

2012-01-13T16:42:00.005-05:00

The Spiritual Condition of the Disciples

Before their Spiritual Baptism at Pentecost

What the Disciples WERE

(1) They were clean

Jn. 13:10 Jesus said to him, “The man who has taken a bath needs only to wash his feet, but he is clean all over. Likewise, you are clean, but not all of you.”

Jn. 15:3 You are already clean through the word that I have spoken to you;

(2) They were not of the world

Jn. 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would be friendly to its own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.

(3) They were chosen and ordained

Jn. 15:16 You have not chosen me for yourselves, but I have chosen you for myself, and I have ordained you.

(4) They believed

Jn. 14:1 You believe in God; believe also in me.

Jn. 17:8 they truly do know I that came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

(5) They loved Jesus

Jn. 16:27 The Father Himself loves (phileo) you because you have loved (phileo) me.

(6) They belonged to God

Jn. 17:6a They were yours, and you gave them to me.

(7) They knew that Jesus came from God

Jn. 17:25 Righteous Father, although the world does not know you, I know you, and these men know that you sent me.

(8) They had obeyed God

Jn. 17:6b [Jesus to God] They have obeyed your word.

What the Disciples WERE NOT

(1) They were not sanctified

Jn. 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Jn. 17:19 and for them, I consecrate myself so that they may be sanctified by the truth.

(2) They were not in Christ, nor was he in them

Jn. 17:21 ...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

(3) They had never asked God for anything in Jesus’ name

Jn. 16:24 Until now, you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive so that your joy may be full.

Jn. 16:26 In that day, you shall ask in my name, and I am not saying to you that I will ask the Father for you.

(4) They did not believe

Jn. 14:29 And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.

(5) The love of God was not in them

Jn. 17:26 I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known so that the love with which you loved me may be in them. (Rom 5:5!)

(6) They did not have the Spirit

Jn. 14:17 The Spirit of truth. . . . You understand it because it is with you, but it shall be in you.

(7) They did not know Jesus

Jn 14:7-9 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. And from now on, you know Him and have seen Him.

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

Jesus said to him, Have I spent so much time with you, Philip, and yet you do not know me?

(8) They could not bear to hear the truth

Jn. 16:12 I still have much to tell you, but you are not now able to bear it.

The Spiritual Condition of the Disciples

Before their Spiritual Baptism

Summary

Based on what Jesus himself said about his disciples before they received the holy ghost baptism on the day of Pentecost,

1. They were clean (Jn. 13:10; 15:3),

but they were not sanctified (Jn. 17:17, 19).

2. They were not of the world (Jn. 15:19)

but they were not in Christ, nor was he in them (Jn. 17:11, 21-23).

3. They were chosen and ordained (Jn. 15:16)

but they had never asked God anything in Jesus’ name (Jn. 16:24, 26).

4. They believed in God (Jn. 14:1; 17:8)

but they did not believe (Jn. 14:12, 29; 16:29-33; 11:11-15).

5. They loved Jesus (Jn. 16:27)

but the love of God was not in them (Jn. 17:26).

6. They belonged to God (Jn. 17:6a)

but they did not have the Spirit of God within them (Jn. 14:17).

7. They knew that Jesus came from God (Jn. 17:25)

but they did not know Jesus (Jn. 14:7-9).

8. They had obeyed God (Jn. 17:6b)

but there was truth that they could not bear to hear (Jn. 16:12).

The disciples, spiritually speaking, were as unborn children, nearing the hour of the birth (Jn. 16:20-22).

Receiving and Resisting Influence

2011-10-25T02:25:00.001-04:00

He who walks with wise men will be wise,

but a companion of fools will be destroyed.

Proverbs 13:20

This world is filled with influences. They are all around us, all the time. Some influences are good, and some are evil. If you welcome good influences and resist evil influences, you are wise, but if you welcome evil influences and resist good ones, you are foolish.

No one in this world can escape being influenced. It is an inescapable fact of life. The only issue is, Are we wise in our choice of influences, or are we foolish?

What Solomon Really Saw

2011-10-13T23:15:00.010-04:00

It can be a dangerous thing to be intelligent enough to see the vanity, the emptiness, of everything in this life. Solomon was given the wisdom to see it, and his wisdom would have driven him insane if the Lord hadn’t rescued him. Many a person who sees this world’s emptiness and vanity has fallen into the deep ditch of depression and turned to such things as drunkenness and drugs for relief. But it is so much better to turn to Jesus instead.

A depressed person looks at a lawn that needs mowing and says, “What’s the use of mowing it? It’s just going to grow back,” or “What’s the use of washing clothes? They are just going to get dirty again.” And if depression completely takes control of them, they may even ask such things as, “What’s the use of eating? I’m just going to get hungry again.” That may sound strange to some of you, but millions of people have struggled, or are struggling now, with such thoughts. An awareness of the complete emptiness of things in this life has driven multitudes into such depths of despondency that they have even come to hate being alive in a world like this and have killed themselves.

Solomon’s observations about this life sound so pessimistic that some biblical commentators say he was suffering from depression. He was not; he just saw earthly life the way it really is, since man fell into sin and was cursed. Thinking Solomon was depressed, however, is an easy conclusion to reach if one misses the other, more important part of his message. In fact, if you miss Solomon’s main point, then reading his Ecclesiastes can actually make you feel depressed!

In the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon talks about the wind endlessly coming and going, coming and going, and then he speaks about the cycle of rain falling, flowing to the sea, and then returning to the sky, only to fall to earth and start the process again. He talks about the futile cycle of people being born, living, and dying, and then another generation coming to live and die, and so, the pointless cycle is continued, generation after generation. Solomon’s summary of everything on earth was that it was all futile because it was just “for a time”. And that is true, except for the fact that God chose to come be a part of this vain world with us and show us how to live above the futility Solomon felt.

God is altogether a God of relationships, and from that, we learn what is not futile, and not useless: our relationships with one another and with Him. It matters how we make others feel, and it matters a lot. There is nothing useless about kindness, patience, love, faithfulness, and the other godly qualities that enable us to bless the lives around us. A godly person does not make another person’s life harder or less pleasant by getting depressed and letting his own life “go to pot”. He cares enough about his neighbor to keep his yard and his house in order. It may be frustrating for you to have to mow the yard again (and so soon!), but that’s not the point. The point is, how will it make your neighbor feel if you take care of your yard? Or, how will they feel if you do not?

A godly person cares enough about how he makes his family feel to do his part around the house. He does whatever he needs to do to make the lives of those around him happier, and to make them feel valued. He encourages; he helps; he stays close to Jesus so that everything he does and says, or even the way he looks at people, helps them on their way. The person who lives in the love of God lives an exciting life, not a depressed one. He loves people the way God does, and when we love people the way God loves them, we really live, aware that every single thing we do matters because everything we do touches someone else’s life. An old hymn that I learned from saints now gone has this wise exhortation in it:

Every act you perform is a seed to someone,

For the influence will never die.

Then, be careful each day, what you do, what you say,

For you’ll meet it again, by and by.

When we see what Solomon really saw, that this life has a very important point, we do not waste our lives wallowing in depression and frustration at the useless cycle of everything. We can acknowledge that Solomon was right when he said of things in this world, “Useless, useless, all is useless”. At the same time, the people in this world are important to our Creator, and we will give an account to God for every word we speak to them, but more importantly, how we speak to them; and for every deed we do, but more importantly, how we do it. Each moment of your life is filled with opportunity to sow good seed into another’s life. The very expression on your face, your whole body language, says something to those around you about what you think of them, and you will reap what ever kind of seed you sow many times over. Be eager to sow the kind of seed that makes others feel valued and loved.

What kind of seed are you sowing? Or, let me ask that question this way: How do you make those around you feel?

My father told me that depression is hatred, turned inward instead of turned on people. If that is true, then the opposite of depression is love turned outward instead of toward yourself. Solomon felt the hatred, turned inward, that this vain world makes one feel, and he did struggle with a time of depression, even saying at one point, “I hated life” (Eccl. 2:17). But he said that before he fully realized the wonder and the thrill of life itself, of having the precious opportunity to live and do good! God rescued Solomon from depression by letting him see that each moment presented him with the chance to do something good, and to be blessed for it.

Solomon made a list of the events on earth that are forced to repeat themselves because they are cursed with time. These are some of Solomon’s most famous words, though his meaning is almost never fully understood:

Ecclesiastes 3

1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6. A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Solomon’s conclusion, just a few verses later, was as simple as his wisdom was profound:

12. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

So, according to Solomon, as far as the ordinary events of this life are concerned, “there is no good in them” - and this list even includes the time of peace and the time of love! The only value Solomon found in any of these earthly events is the good that we do for one another while we are going through them!

Get excited! You are still alive! Take advantage today of your fleeting opportunity to do good for others. Don’t waste your life depressed about the uselessness of earthly things, but spend your time concentrating on the good you can do for the people you know. If you do that, you will find that nothing is more exciting and interesting than the life that God has given to you! Don’t grow old with regrets! Your life is now, and your opportunity is here, just waiting for you to take hold of it and make something of it.

Lastly, let me reiterate the point that the true measure of our deeds is not so much the details of what we have done or not done, or said or not said, but how we have made others feel. The hearts of the people around us will always be the truest indicators of the quality of our lives. How have you made the people in your life feel today?

The Light of the World

2011-10-12T07:48:00.002-04:00

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Jesus, in John 9:5

I just saw another of those silly Christian cliches that sounds good, but is just plain wrong. It said, "Jesus is the Light of the world." Is he? Jesus himself said that he was the light of the world only "as long as I am in the world" (Jn. 9:5).

No one can be the light of the world if he is not in the world. If the light of the world is in heaven, the world has no light. It is OUR time to be the light of the world now because we are the ones who are here, and pointing to Jesus, who is no longer here, is, I believe, one way that religious people have found to make themselves look good without being good. If Jesus is the light, we don't have to shine, do we?

For Christians to boldly proclaim to the world that Jesus is the light of the world can make them appear to be devout and wise, but it just is not true - according to the Jesus they are referring to.

Not Far from the Kingdom

2011-09-17T10:08:00.002-04:00

And the scribe said to him, “Well said, Teacher! You have spoken truthfully, for there is one God, and there is no other but He, and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love a neighbor as oneself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

And when Jesus saw that he had answered with discretion, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

Mark 12:34-36

If we ever really grasp the concept that ceremonies and rituals are worthless in God's kingdom in comparison to the quality of our relationships, and that true righteousness is a matter entirely of the heart, we will not be far from the kingdom of God, either! The kingdom of God is not an outward, fleshly thing (Lk. 17:20; Rom. 14:17a), but is simply “righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy ghost” (Rom. 14:17b). And if in these things you walk with God and others, you please God and are pleased with Him. Walking in the Spirit, you need no ceremonies, but more importantly, you have no desire for them.

Then and Now

2011-08-19T16:10:00.004-04:00

Under the Old Covenant, the knowledge of God came through Moses and the prophets, but there were false prophets in Israel, too, who gained the confidence of God’s people and stole their hearts away from God’s real messengers. If the people had clung to the right who, they would have trusted in the right what, the law. Instead, they trusted the wrong who and were led away from the law, and lost their souls in the end. In the New Covenant, the knowledge of God comes through anointed ministers of Christ. But just as happened under the Old Testament, false teachers arose along with the apostles, gained the confidence of God’s saints, and stole their hearts away from God’s true ministers, just as Peter said would happen (2Pet. 2:1). If God’s New Testament people had continued trusting the right who, they would have rejected false teachers and the Institution they devised and would have trusted the right what, the Spirit of God.

God’s true prophets cried out for Israel to heed the law of God, stressing that the only acceptable way for them to serve God was the way He told them to serve Him; that is, by following the law of Moses. God’s true ministers now cry out for the children of God to follow the Spirit, stressing that the only acceptable way for them to serve God is the way Jesus told them to; that is, “in spirit and in truth”. The law was Israel’s only access to God; every true Old Testament prophet proclaimed that truth. In this covenant, the Spirit is our only access to God (Eph. 2:18), and every true minister of God preaches that truth. Moses told God’s people that the law was their life (Dt. 32:46-47), and every one in ancient Israel who believed Moses and lived by God’s law will be given everlasting life in the Final Judgment. Jesus and Paul told God’s people that the Spirit is their life (Jn. 6:63; Rom. 8:10), and every one who believes them and lives by the Spirit will also be given everlasting life in the Final Judgment.

Pay attention to what you hear. Anyone who tells you that receiving the Spirit of God is just an added blessing, an extra gift, and that you do not need to walk in it to be saved in the end is one of those who would steal your attention from the servants of God who are telling you the truth. We are baptized into the body of Christ by the holy Spirit (1Cor. 12:13), and without that holy Spirit of God we are, as Paul said, “none of His” (Rom. 8:9). Judgment.

Who Really Loves God?

2011-08-02T19:21:00.003-04:00

Everyone who truly loves God also loves Jesus who was sent from heaven in the Father’s name (Jn. 5:43). Likewise, everyone who truly loves Jesus loves the holy ghost that was sent from heaven in Jesus’ name (Jn. 14:26). To reject Jesus is to reject the Father who sent him (Mt. 10:40), and to reject the Spirit is to reject the Son who sent it (Rom. 8:9).

Many in Israel who appeared to be godly were exposed as evil by their rejection of the Son of God , while many who appeared evil were revealed to be righteous by their love for him. To the envious religious rulers who despised him, Jesus said, “You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Lk. 16:15). On the other hand, the Master encouraged those who loved him with these words: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32).

“The kingdom of God”, wrote Paul, “is righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy ghost” (Rom. 14:17). So, when Jesus said that his Father would “give the kingdom”, he was saying that He would give them the holy ghost. This promise was fulfilled when his disciples “were all with one accord in one place, and there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the holy ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2).

It is only to the extent that the Spirit of God leads us that we are rightly led. Only to the extent that the Spirit governs is the body of Christ governed well. Only to the extent that the Spirit gives wisdom is there sound judgment among us. And only to the extent that the Spirit anoints is there ever true ministry. To desire God is to desire the Spirit, and to love God is to love the Spirit. There are many who claim to love God, when in fact what they really love is a god of their own imagination. It is a person’s response to the Spirit that came on the day of Pentecost which brings to light what that person really wants and loves.

The Spirit guides us into all truth (Jn. 16:13). If anyone knows any truth, if anyone understands anything rightly concerning God, that knowledge came from the holy Spirit. Said Paul, “No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1Cor. 2:11). What little uprightness exists in the world today exists only by virtue of the influence of God’s Spirit. It is the Spirit that convicts men of sin and then convinces them of what is right (Eph. 4:30; Jn. 16:8). It is the Spirit alone that cleanses from sin (1Cor. 6:9-11), and it is only by the indwelling of the Spirit that one possesses the precious hope of being raised from the dead into eternal life (Rom. 8:11). One of the Spirit’s titles is “the Spirit of Grace” (Heb. 10:29), and we are being “saved by grace” only if we are filled with the Spirit, for it is by the Spirit, and by it alone, that the grace of God is ministered to the soul.

Christ Jesus and his Father dwell in the hearts of believers only by the Spirit (Jn. 14:23)! Jesus himself is inside of no one. He is in heaven with his Father, waiting for the day when the Father will send him back for us. We either have the holy Spirit within us, or we have nothing holy in us at all.

Taking the Name of the Lord

2011-06-21T12:43:00.003-04:00

The first thing Jesus himself ever taught me, in the summer of 1975, was that "taking the Lord's name" means becoming a part of God's family, or being converted. From the point of conversion, the newly "born again" person belongs to that nation of believers who belong to God and are called by His name (e.g., "people of the Lord" or "a child of God"); in other words, they have taken His name upon themselves. So, to "take the Lord's name" means simply to become one of His people.

To use another biblical metaphor, to "take the Lord's name" can mean to enter into a sort of marriage covenant with God and become the "bride of Christ". Old Testament Israel was regularly referred to by the prophets as the wife of God. It was a frequent theme in the prophets that in worshiping foreign gods, Israel was unfaithful to her husband (God) and had become an adulteress (e.g., Ezek. 16).

In sum, "to take the name of the Lord in vain" means to become a believer and then to be unfaithful to the Lord in whom you have believed. People often speak, with romantic flair, of "the promises of God". There are even pretty, little books written about God's promises, usually with lovely, flower-covered covers. But the authors of those books are very selective when choosing which promises to write about. Some of God's promises are terrifying, such as the promise He made to believers who "take His name in vain":

"The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain"

Exodus 20:7

In other words, faithfulness to Jesus is required of "the bride of Christ". Jesus made that clear when he said concerning the Final Judgment of any unfaithfulness servant, "The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and he shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Mt. 24:50-51). That terrifying judgment awaiting unfaithful believers is also a "promise of God", but such promises don't fit easily in a book decorated with flowers and butterflies, does it?

The whole point is that if we take God's name upon ourselves by becoming His, then He expects us to live according to His will, and "be holy, for He is holy". Entire Christian sects have been founded on the premise that such is not the case, that once a person is converted, he will be saved in the end regardless of how he or she lives in this world. But the truth is that we cannot escape the promise that God made to those who take His name and then do not do His will. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me. 'Lord! Lord!' will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven." Every account of the Day of Judgment found in the Bible tells us that we will be judge "according to our deeds", not "according to what we claim".

You are not "saved" yet. None of us are. You may be converted; you may have taken the name of the lord, but salvation is the reward that Jesus will give in the end to those who not only take God's name but are also faithful to Him after they take His name. As Jesus told his disciples, "Many false prophets will arise, and will deceive many. And because of a great increase in lawlessness, the love of many [for God] will grow cold. But he who endures to the end [in his love for God], the same shall be saved" (Mt. 24:11-13).

“It”?

2011-05-23T20:57:00.004-04:00

How many times, after finding ourselves in a bad situation, have we have said to ourselves, “I knew something didn’t feel right”? We have all, at times, hurried past the “still, small voice” of the Lord, and later remembered having a nagging feeling that “it didn’t feel right” before we made the mistake we made. If you stop and think about it, however, we know that an “it” can’t feel anything. It takes life to have feelings, and the “it” that we often feel is really a “he”. And the “he” is Jesus, talking to us, telling us what he sees coming. Paul told the Corinthians that “the Lord is the Spirit” (2Cor. 3:17), and the Spirit of God inside His children is always giving them right feelings and thoughts, the feelings and thoughts of God.

Many have spoken of times they felt to slow their vehicles down, for no apparent reason, and they slowed down just in time to avoid having an accident. One man of God I knew “just had a feeling” not to go straight home one day after a prayer meeting, not knowing that an angry, wicked man was waiting to ambush the preacher at his home. By the time the preacher got home, the would-be murderer had sobered up, grown tired of waiting, and gone away.

The feelings of the Spirit don’t just come out of the air; they come from the heart of God, and they are always intended for our good. If we brush those feelings off as just “something” talking to us, we risk running into trouble, or missing a blessing. If “it” doesn’t feel right to you, it is not “it”; it is Jesus himself warning you of something you don’t see. If “something” is talking to you, Jesus is talking. Listen! A blessing is in it.

Some years ago, Brother Earl and I decided to go visit some saints. We were two young men in the Lord, happy, singing, and talking about the things of God as we drove along the highway. All of a sudden, the Spirit fell on me and I heard myself exclaim, “Earl, we are going to have a visitor from the Lord tomorrow!” Brother Earl and I continued on our journey, but I could not forget what the Lord had promised us. I spent the next day working hard on the old house that my wife and I had bought. As the afternoon progressed, “something” kept telling me that it was time to stop and get cleaned up, but there seemed to always be just one more board to cut, or just a little more old wood to tear out. Several times “it” felt that I should quit, but I pushed on. Later in the day, I finally did quit and went to get cleaned up. I was just stepping out of the shower when I heard a knock at the front door. Barbara was in the back part of the old house, the part we lived in. She could not hear the knock. Everyone who knew us came to the back door, and so I knew it must be a visitor -- then it struck me -- the visitor from the Lord! As quickly as humanly possible, I dried myself, jumped into my clothes, and rushed to the door. Nobody there. I ran out onto the sidewalk. I could see a long way in both directions, but no one was there. “I knew ‘it’ felt like I should quit work,” I told myself as I walked back into the house, knowing I had missed a blessing.

Brother Earl told me about a certain time he went to town on business. When he parked the truck and got out, he was about to lock and shut the door when a gentle voice asked, “Are you sure you want to do that?” Brother Earl was a little surprised, paused for just a moment, then thought to himself, “Of course I want to do that!” Then he shut the door and went on to do his business. Later, when he returned, he reached in his pocket for his keys. They weren’t there. Brother Earl looked through the truck window and saw them inside the locked truck. He remembered that “something” had asked him if he was sure he wanted to shut his truck door. Now he understood. It was not that “it didn’t feel right” that he should shut the truck door; it was that Jesus didn’t feel right about it.

Slow Down

Some years ago, I spent two days alone praying and seeking God. I needed some time away from everything and everybody to see if the Lord had anything he wanted me to see or know. Before I left the little mountain house where I was staying, I decided that I would write down the things I felt the Lord had shown me. At the top of the page, even above the first of the numbered things the Lord showed me to do, and written in large capital letters were these words: “SLOW DOWN!” And at the bottom of the paper, after the list of things the Lord had impressed on me, and again in large capital letters were the words, “SLOW DOWN!” By far the most important thing the Lord wanted me to do was simply to slow down.

Solomon said that the man who lives in a hurry is sinning (Prov. 19:2). What makes us sin when we are rushing about in a hurry is that when we live like that, we tend to forget that “the Lord is the Spirit” and shrug off the Lord’s feelings and thoughts as if an “it”, or a “something”, is talking to us, and rush on into a big mess. Then we stop and say, “I knew ‘something’ didn’t feel right.” But if we will just trust God and slow down, we will recognize His voice as being Him, not an “it”, and we will be saved from a lot of trouble.

The Lord is the Spirit, and what we feel in the Spirit can help us. We are neither wise enough or good enough to take care of ourselves, but our heavenly Father is, and the “it” we so often feel is Him trying to help us. He is doing His part. Those unexpected feelings and thoughts that surprise us do not come from something. They are from Someone who loves us and is letting us feel what He feels. Every time we listen to Him, our lives are made better, and every time we do not slow down and listen to that “still, small voice” of the Lord, it costs us something good.

The Seed of the Woman

2011-03-27T16:51:00.005-04:00

I will put enmity between you [the serpent]

and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed;

it shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.

Genesis 3:15

And the dragon was enraged over the woman

and went away to make war against

the rest of her seed,

those who keep the commandments of God

and have the witness of Jesus.

Revelation 12:17

There is no one in the Bible but Jesus Christ who is referred to as the seed of a woman, instead of the seed of a man. God caused the virgin Mary to conceive, not her espoused husband Joseph; therefore, her child, Jesus, was no man’s seed.

Going from the first book of the Bible, where God foretold of the woman’s seed coming to crush the serpent’s head, we go to the last book of the Bible, where we see in action the enmity that God set between the serpent and the woman. At first, the serpent tries and fails to destroy the woman; then, frustrated, the serpent turns his anger against the woman’s seed; that is, against those who have the witness (the holy ghost) of the Messiah, Christ Jesus.

Those who are “in Christ” are, like Jesus, the seed of the woman, the true Israel, because we are born of God, not man, as Jesus was. Paul speaks of this often, so as to encourage us Gentiles who believe in Christ. He pointed out to the saints in Rome that the Jews who are physically of the seed of Abraham are not the children of God; instead, they are the children of God who are “born again” by receiving the promise of the Spirit:

Romans 9

7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children, but, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.”

8. That is, they who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

Paul’s point is that if a person has the kind of faith Abraham had, then that person is a real child of Abraham:

Galatians 3

7. Know, then, that they are “sons of Abraham” who are of faith.

8. And the Scripture, seeing beforehand God justifying the Gentiles by faith, foretold the good news to Abraham, saying, “In you, all nations will be blessed.”

9. So then, those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

. . .

13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, becoming a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”),

14. in order that, in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles; namely, that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith.

. . .

26. for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

27. for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; nor is there male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs by means of promise.

The seed by which we are born into the family of God is God’s seed, not man’s, and this birth makes us, as Paul said, “the Israel of God”, not the physical nation of Israel which was produced by the physical seed of Abraham. Peter explained to the saints that, since they were born of a different kind of seed, they were obligated to love each other with a different kind of love:

1 Peter 1

22. . . . see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently,

23 being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever.

There is only one person in the Bible of whom it is said that he was born of the seed of a woman; that is Jesus Christ. At the same time, the apostles maintained that whoever is in Christ has been born of the same kind of seed that produced him.

Satan and Jesus Reaped What They Sowed

2011-03-18T18:02:00.005-04:00

You have said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven;

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

and I will sit on the mount of congregation, on the far north side.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High.”

But you will go down to the lowest pit of hell.

Isaiah 14:13-15

God highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name

that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus

should bow every knee of heavenly beings,

and of earthly beings,

and of those under the earth, and that every tongue

should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

Paul warned us that we will all certainly reap whatever we sow in this life, whether good or evil (Gal. 6:7; 2Cor. 5:10). When we consider God’s judgment of Satan, we can see how true this is. In Isaiah 14:13, we are told that Satan’s secret scheme was to sit with God on His throne, which was on the farthest north side of the mountain where the “sons of God” met. He wanted to be the closest one to the reins of power, and he believed himself to be the one most worthy of that honor. But in verse 15, we learn that God will reward him for his wickedness by consigning him to the farthest recesses of torment, a place that is furthest from God.

On the other hand, Jesus, who humbled himself lower than anyone had ever humbled himself and “made himself of no reputation”, was later raised up by the power of God and “made higher than the heavens” (Heb. 7:26). Moreover, we learn in Revelation 2 that Jesus was granted the place that Satan coveted. It says in Revelation 3:21 that Jesus is now sitting on the throne with his Father, and that those who humble themselves as he did will be exalted to sit on the throne with him.

Judgment within “the congregation of the mighty”

2011-03-02T01:46:00.003-05:00

Asaph was a Levitical song leader and prophet during the reign of king David. He wrote a number of the Psalms. In Psalm 82:1, Asaph wrote, “God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.” The Old Testament “congregation of the mighty” was the nation of Israel, His chosen people. The “gods” referred to in this verse were the rulers of Israel, the elders and priests of “the congregation of the mighty”.

Often, when there is a difference in judgment among the “gods” who rule over God’s people, those rulers are all saying right things. At issue in such cases is not whether the rulers are saying right things; they all are. Rather, the issue is, which of those right things is the right thing to say for the situation at hand. In other words, what is the right “right thing”? In such cases, it is impossible for men of earth to help. The gods in God’s congregation are all wiser than the world can be. In such cases, only God can judge among His “gods” and determine which of them is speaking the right “right thing”, the right thing that applies to the situation at hand. Solomon said, “The thoughts of the righteous are right” (Prov. 12:5). But that is not the point. The point is, which of those right thoughts is what God is thinking at the moment?

This is why Paul stressed the importance for all of us to hear the tender voice of the Spirit and be led by it. All of us who are called by God to Jesus will find ourselves having new, right thoughts. What we need is for our heavenly Father to show us which of those right thoughts applies to the situation we are presently in.

Jesus told some afflicted people that he healed to “go and sin no more”. But he said on other occasions that the affliction was not caused by sin. He was always perfectly guided by God in all his judgments; he always knew which right thing applied to which person and which situation. He had no formula to follow, and he had no pat answers prepared for all questions. He listened always to the Father so that he would know the truth of the moment.

When To Forgive, and When Not To Forgive

When someone in “the congregation of the mighty” errs, there are various directions which the congregation may take, depending on the type of error and related circumstances. But which one applies to a particular transgression at any given time? Judas confessed to the chief priests in private that he knew Jesus, and knew where he prayed, and was damned forever. His motive was evil. Peter cursed and swore in public that he did not know Jesus at all, and yet he was forgiven and became one of the chief apostles. He was simply overcome by fear. What man could judge such things rightly? Only God can give His people a right judgment because only God knows the hearts.

On the one hand, sin can be handled the compassionate way that Paul taught in Galatians 6:1-2: “Brothers, if a man be overtaken in some transgression, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way fulfill the law of Christ.”

That’s a godly attitude. But on the other hand, there are times when another approach in dealing with sin in the “congregation of the mighty” is in order, as Paul taught the Corinthian congregation. We need to take some time to consider what he said:

1Corinthians 5

1. It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and such immorality as is not even known among Gentiles, in that a man has taken his own father’s wife!

Note that Paul is telling the believers in Corinth that they were tolerating such sin as would make decent sinners sick to their stomach.

2. And yet, you are puffed up, and have not mourned instead, so that the one who has done this deed might be put out from your midst.

Paul criticized the saints in Corinth because they were tolerating a scandalous wickedness. The only remedy in their situation was to remove the young man from the assembly. The fact that the Corinthians had not done so told Paul that they had become proud. Therefore, Paul instructs them as to how the humility of Christ would have them to handle this situation.

3. As for me, absent in body but present in spirit, I have already judged, as if present, the one who has done this deed.

4. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you and my spirit are gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5. deliver such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Instead of judging the matter rightly, the body of believers in Corinth had continued holding their meetings as usual, with the wickedness in their midst, rejoicing in the Spirit, singing, testifying, exercising spiritual gifts, and so forth. But with that filthiness in the midst of the congregation, this was Paul’s assessment of their worship:

6a. Your glorying is not good.

The result of these believers continuing with their prayer meetings as usual was that after their meetings, they were in worse condition, spiritually and physically, than before. Paul said so in 1Corinthians 11:17, 30. The apostle James also warned the saints not to worship God when sin was present among them. He said, “If there is bitter envying and strife in your hearts, do not glory!” (Jas. 3:14). Jesus taught his followers the same thing. He said that if you have done wrong to a brother, you should not worship God, but go instead to the offended brother and make things right. Then, he said, you may return and worship God acceptably; that is, with a clear conscience (Mt. 5:23-34).

Here in 1Corinthians, Paul is teaching that the worship of a group of saints is no good if sin is tolerated in the congregation. Sin will influence the spirits around it, and it can pollute the worship of a whole body of believers, making it unacceptable to God. Paul instructed two young ministers, Timothy and Titus, to rebuke sin openly in the congregation. We assume, therefore, that there are occasions when doing so is God’s will for His people (1Tim. 5:20; Tit. 2:15).

After the ancient Israelites won their first battle for Canaan at Jericho, a man from the tribe of Judah, named Achan, took a few articles found in the destroyed city which had been dedicated to God. In the next battle, because sin was now in the camp, thirty-six men of Israel were slain, and the army limped back into camp, defeated. Thirty-six families lost fathers because there was unconfessed sin in the camp. Joshua did not understand why the army lost, and going to God’s altar, he fell on his face, weeping. But God was too angry to be compassionate. He rebuked Joshua, told him to get up off his face, and then thundered, “There is sin in the camp! That is why the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you any more, unless you destroy the accursed from among you!” (excerpt, Josh. 7:10-12).

This was similar to Paul’s indignant message to the Corinthian believers (continuing from 1Corinthians 5):

6b. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

7. Purge out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, since you are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for us

8. so that we might keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9. In a letter, I wrote to you not to associate with immoral people,

10. not meaning, of course, the immoral of this world, or the covetous, or swindlers, or idolaters, for in that case, you would have to leave the world.

11. But now I write to you not to associate with anyone called a brother, if he be immoral, or covetous, or idolatrous, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler -- not even so much as to eat with such a one.

Where do you see such judgment against wickedness in “the congregation” executed in our time? It is rare, admittedly, but it is the will of God, and it is found everywhere that believers enjoy genuine fellowship in the light of Christ because the light of Christ demands it.

Note also that Paul said he had already judged this situation - and he was not even there in Corinth. Paul knew nothing of the notion, which many in our time hold, that making judgments of people and of situations is ungodly. The truth is, it is ungodly for a body of believers NOT to have judgment among themselves. Paul even told the saints here at Corinth that they could escape God’s judgment if they would only exercise their own (1Cor. 11:32).

12. For what have I to do with judging those outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?

In the next chapter in 1Corinthians, Paul rebukes this “congregation of the mighty” because there was no one there among them godly enough to exercise righteous judgment when it was needed. He said in 1Corinthians 6:5, “I say this to your shame. Is it really so, that there is not a single wise man among you, one who is able to judge among his brothers?” Then, Paul, as one of the “gods” in the “congregation of the mighty”, concluded with this judgment of the situation:

13. Those on the outside, God will judge, but you put that wickedness out from among you!

Where there is genuine fellowship, there is no continuation of worship as usual when sin is discovered in the congregation. When the body is truly one in Christ, it feels God’s displeasure and sorrow, and it cannot rejoice. Sin is a spiritual disease, and it must be cut out, or it’s influence will grow until the whole body is infected. And when the entire body tolerates sin and is corrupted by it, God will reject the praise of the congregation. Remarkably, when a congregation becomes so sick with sin that God rejects its worship, it often happens that the people do not even realize that their worship is being rejected. By the time sin has spread that far, the people’s feelings are so dead that, like the shaven Samson of old, they do not even realize that God has departed from them.

Preacher Clark used to warn us that sin is as catching as diseases are. Catching a cold, for one example, is not something you know has happened until the effects are felt. Then, when the fever, stuffiness, and aching begin, you know that somewhere along the way, the unseen, microscopic disease has infected you. The infection is a “secret” event until its effects show, but it is nevertheless real. That is why Paul warned the congregation in Corinth that a person living in sin, especially such a disgraceful sin as had been committed among them, would ruin the whole congregation if that sin was allowed to remain. That’s not a theory; that’s a fact.

Receiving God’s Messenger

2011-02-01T11:17:00.001-05:00

If God sends someone to His people, and that person is faithful, he does not just sit around and talk about anything when he comes, or even express his own opinions, “for he whom God has sent speaks the words of God” (Jn.3:34; 1Pet.4:11). This is true even about Jesus. He himself said, “The words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself... but the Father who sent me, He gave me a commandment as to what I should say” (Jn.14:10; 12:49). And on another occasion, Jesus testified, “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me” (Jn.7:16). Anyone who has truly heard from God can say the same thing. For example, the apostle Paul declared that his doctrine was not taught him by any man, but came by revelation from God. Then, Paul proceeded to utter a curse upon anyone, even an angel from heaven, who taught a gospel different from the one he preached (Gal.1:8-9). Paul did not make such a stern statement because he was arrogant or feared competition for the hearts of believers. He made that statement because God had given him what he was teaching, and he he knew that anyone who taught contrary to that gospel would be cursed by God, whose message it was.

For those blessed people to whom God condescends to send a messenger, fellowship with the Father and the Son is predicated upon receiving that messenger. Jesus told his disciples, “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives Him who sent me” (Mt.10:40). With these words, Jesus was telling his disciples that no person or group can please God or draw close to Him if they reject the men God anoints and sends to them.

There is no fellowship with God apart from fellowship with His servants who have fellowship with Him. This unalterable fact of spiritual life is demonstrated in the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, and it is confirmed by events in our own lives if God will give us the eyes to see it.

“Having the Spirit”

2011-02-01T06:22:00.002-05:00

There are two ways to “have the Spirit”. The first is obvious. Those who receive the holy Spirit “have” it. But there is a second way of having the Spirit that is often overlooked.

When Paul was giving his counsel to the saints in Corinth concerning marital issues, he admitted that even though some of the counsel he gave was from the Lord, some of it was his own judgment. He concluded the counsel that came from his own heart by saying, “and I think I have the Spirit of God” (1Cor. 7:40). Paul was not saying that he thought he had received the Spirit; he knew he had received the Spirit many years before, when Ananias laid hands on him in Damascus (Acts 9:17).

To “have the Spirit” in matters of judgment means to be led by the Spirit in making judgments. To “have the Spirit” in matters of conduct means to be led by the Spirit in the kind of life you live. To “have the Spirit” in teaching means that your doctrine comes from God.

Jude also used this phrase “having the Spirit” with reference to being led by it when he described certain men who falsely claimed to be sent by God as ministers of Christ. This is what he said of them (Jude 1:16, 19): “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great, swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.... These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” We know that these men had received the Spirit because Jude is talking about conditions within the body of Christ. They had the Spirit in that sense. But they did not have the Spirit in the sense of being led by the Spirit to teach the divisive doctrines they were now teaching.

It is no small matter to “have the Spirit” in the sense of being led by it because in the end, the ones who God will claim as His own will only be those who have been led by the Spirit after they received it. Paul warned the saints in Rome, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). Paul understood that everyone who received the holy Spirit belongs to God, and those without it did not belong to Him (Rom. 8:9). But he also understood that after receiving the Spirit, some of God’s children would continue to “walk in the Spirit” and come to know God, while others would choose to follow their own will instead and never come to know Him. Jesus called the former group “wise virgins” and the latter, “foolish virgins” (Mt. 25).

It is essential that we have the Spirit; that is, to receive it. But if we do not continue to have it afterwards, to guide us in our ways, it will not go well with us on the Day of Judgment. In his own way, Peter said that on the Day of Judgment, it would have been better to never have had the Spirit at all than, after receiving it, not to continue to have it (2Pet. 2:20-22): “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and 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 I Say Unto You...”

2011-01-19T12:38:00.001-05:00

Jesus pointed out differences between the truth and some of the traditions of his time by saying, “You have heard it said . . . but I say unto you . . .” I will use that same formula now to point out differences between the truth and some present-day traditions held in high regard by many Christians.

1. “Joining the Church”

You have heard it said that it is good to join the church, but I say unto you that if the body of Christ is the Church, it is impossible to join it. The body of Christ is not a club. It is a family into which we must be born by being baptized with the holy Spirit of God. Paul taught us that “by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body” (1Cor. 12:13), and that baptism is the only way anyone can enter into it. God alone “sets every one of the members in the body as it pleases Him,” and any club, religious or not, that someone joins is not the body of Christ.

2. “Accepting Jesus Christ”

You have heard it said that you must “accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior”, but I say unto you that he is already your personal Lord and Savior, regardless of what you accept, do, or think. The very thing that makes sinners sinners is that they are not in subjection to Jesus, their personal and only Lord and Savior. If Jesus were not already everybody’s Lord, it would not be sin for sinners to live without him. The Bible states very plainly that “Jesus is [already] Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).

Besides the fact of Jesus’ eternal status as Lord and Savior, there is no such thing as any creature “accepting” Jesus, because it is always the case that the Greater accepts the lesser, not vice-versa. It is Jesus who makes us acceptable to God by washing away our sins and changing our nature. Our personal Lord and Savior must accept us; we cannot “accept” him, and there is nothing in the Bible that suggests that anyone on earth can do so.

3. “Make Jesus Lord”

You have heard ministers implore sinners to “make Jesus Lord of your life”, but I say unto you that you can make Jesus nothing. Peter said, “God hath made Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Jesus has been exalted by the Father “above the heavens” and has been given “a name above every name.” God has made Jesus “most blessed, forever”, and there is not one thing that we humans can add to his glory.

4. “Get Saved”

You have heard it said that sinners can repeat a few Scriptures and “get saved”, but I say unto you that salvation is the reward for the faithful, which Christ Jesus will bring to us when he returns. Jesus said, “He who endures UNTO THE END, the same will be saved” (Mt. 10:22). For this reason, Paul could say that our salvation “is nearer now” than it was when we first came to Christ (Rom. 13:11). When Jesus was asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”, Jesus did not respond, “Repeat after me.” He said, “Keep the commandments of God.” If you really want to “get saved”, do that, until the end.

5. “Go to Church”

You have heard it said that all believers should “go to church”, but I say unto you that no believers should “go to church”. Yes, of course, believers should “assemble themselves” often, and all the more as they see the day of the Lord approaching, but what does the saints gathering together have to do with “going to church”? Church religion is the greatest danger on earth to the fellowship of the saints, and should be avoided at all costs. I am convinced that God’s heart is broken because His people refuse to reject church religion and come out and worship Him “in spirit and in truth”.

Do not go to church. Instead, gather together with others who have received the holy Spirit (or are seeking it), and let the Spirit of the Lord teach you and make you “free indeed”!

“Among the gods”

2011-01-15T07:55:00.006-05:00

from a sermon by Pastor John in Louisville, Kentucky, August 10, 2005

When some of Israel’s elders condemned Jesus for saying he was the Son of God, Jesus quoted this verse from Psalms: “Is it not written in your law that I [God] said, ‘You are gods’?” In other words, Jesus was asking those who opposed him, “Don’t you remember your own scriptures, where God said to you, ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the most high’?” Of course, they did remember that verse because they were the elders of Israel. They knew the scriptures well, and they could not gainsay Jesus’ reasoning.

They had condemned Jesus, saying to him, “You are blaspheming, because you say you are the Son of God.” But Jesus responded, “Hold on a minute, here. Didn’t our God, tell you in your own law, that you are gods? And if that is true, if God called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the scriptures are true, are you telling me, the one the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme’, simply because I said ‘I am the Son of God’? If God said to you, ‘You are all children of the Most High,’ then where is the blasphemy in my telling you that I am the Son of God?”

Who was it that God called “gods”? That is the important thing about the verse which Jesus quoted. According to that verse, “gods” are those people, men and women, to whom the word of God comes. Has the word of God come to you? Consider for a moment what the word of God can do. The word of God created the universe out of nothing, and all the life forms in it. That’s what the word of God can do. And when that word of God comes into your frail human body, it makes you something more than a mere mortal because the word of God is something more than your life. Now, you know that you and I are not to be worshiped, but because of the entrance of God’s word, we now are called gods by the One who created us anew in Christ Jesus.

When Paul said, ‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,’ he was saying exactly what David and Jesus said: ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the most high.’ Again, we are not to be worshiped, not to be sacrificed to, but we must understand our status. As children of God, we are more important to God than the cherubim and the seraphim and all those wonderful creatures around God’s throne. We are more important to our heavenly Father than all of them put together. All the angels of heaven do not matter to Him as much as we do. We are His children. They are His creatures. They are His servants. As a matter of fact, they are our servants. It says in Hebrews that they are sent forth from heaven as ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Now, they don’t take orders from us, but they are here to serve us. They receive their orders from above. It’s God the Father who, through His Son, gives orders to the angels for the blessing of His “gods” down here. Even the angels understand that the children of God are “gods”, and that their duty is to serve them.

Paul said, ‘Don’t you know we will judge angels?” We are going to judge the world to come, and we will rule over this world with Jesus for one thousand years. Now, what kind of status is that? Such knowledge shouldn’t make you proud. It should amaze and humble us. John the apostle wrote, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” Believers are children of God now. Believers are “new creatures”. Believers are gods because God Himself said so.

You, as gods on the earth, can sense the spirits around you. You know what people feel and think, even if they do not show it on the outside. Nobody is a secret in the presence of God. How many times have you read in the Bible such phrases as “Jesus, knowing their thoughts ...”, and yet, those people assumed they were thinking in secret. The Spirit is a light; it’s a lamp; it brightens your pathway. When we walk in the Spirit of our Father, we don’t accidentally bump into anything. Nothing surprises us. You know where people are. That’s what comes with the territory of being gods. You know more than ordinary humans can know. You see more than ordinary humans can see. You feel things that humans don’t feel because you have a spirit that ordinary humans don’t have. You have a Father that humans don’t have. You have a family that humans do not belong to. You have a hope that humans don’t have. You live above the ordinary course of life because the word of God has entered into your heart and re-created you. It is not because you are by nature better than anybody else, but because God’s word creates wherever it goes; and in those who believe, it creates a new kind of being that had never been before Christ came. It is a being that knows things that it did not previously know, sees things it did not see, and can now do things it could not do. And it is going to come out of the grave long after it goes in, because the grave cannot hold that new creature down.

What superstition, and “doctrines of demons”, and “ways of the heathen” do, is intimidate God’s people so that they fear to believe and act like their new selves in Christ. Have faith in your God, and do not be afraid to be who you are. Go ahead and think the next thought, see the next vision, feel the next feeling. It’s God in you doing those things, just as Jesus said it was God in him doing the things he did!

Don’t be afraid of what you’re going to see next, what you are going to understand next. Don’t be ashamed of who you’ve become. You’ve become somebody that is connected with the all-knowing God. That’s who you are - sons and daughters of the living God, through the holy ghost.

If any man be in Christ, he’s a “new creature”. You must find out who you are — find out who each other is: a new creature. Old things are passed away. It is such a glorious truth that even those to whom it has happened can hardly believe it. It’s just too great to take in all at once. “Old things are passed away. All things are become new.” One of the things that becomes new when you are born again is your past. In Christ, you have a new past. You have a new family tree. The creature God makes you did not come from natural forebears. You were conceived and born of the “incorruptible seed” of the word of God. That body you have now came from the corruptible seed, the physical seed of your natural parents. But there is another seed. Jesus called it the word of God, and that is where you came from. And one of these days, you are going to shuck off this fleshly shell and be clothed with a new body. That’s what gods ought to have — a different kind of body from this decaying shell in which we live on Earth.

That is a hope worth living for. It is a hope worth dying for. It’s worth being misunderstood for. It’s worth suffering for, worth waiting for. It is worth loving your enemies for, and praying for those that despitefully use you. It’s worth praying for. It’s worth praising God for. It’s worth repenting for. It’s worth everything!

That new creature knows the future. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, Revelation 19 tells us. That is the spirit that you’ve received. You’re supposed to be a prophet. You are supposed to feel the coming judgment. You’re supposed to rejoice in hope of salvation. You are supposed to feel those things coming, and unless you have been confused and made dull of heart by “doctrines of demons” and “the ways of the heathen”, you do feel them coming. It’s real in you. That new creature has a real hope. It knows what’s coming. And well it ought to! Even demons sensed them coming whenever Jesus drew near them! They cried out such things as, “Are you come here to torment us before the time?” Ought we not to know, too, that time is coming? Those demons were not children of God. Then, we who are children of God ought to know that time of judgment is coming, and be excited about it. That awareness of the coming judgment made the demons tremble with fear. It ought to make us praise God. Jesus said that when we see the end near to lift up our head and rejoice, for “your redemption is drawing nigh.” Amen.

God Himself was the one talking when He said, ‘Did I not say, you are gods?” That was God talking, not the psalmist. The least we can do is say is He is right! God doesn’t judge things by how you feel; He goes by what He knows. And when you go by what He knows, you feel as He feels. That’s where good and right feelings come from; from what God knows.

The world mocks at the truth because it doesn’t know a god when it sees one. John said, ‘This world doesn’t know us because it didn’t know him.” The world didn’t know Jesus. How, then, is it going to know his brothers and sisters? The world doesn’t recognize God’s family. It’s too real for this world. It’s just too good.

“Among the gods”

Now, this is an important point for us to consider. Listen to this, from Psalm 82:1: “God stands in the congregation of the mighty. He judges among the gods.”

Referring to the imagined gods of the heathen, the prophets said more than once that the gods were vanity, or nothing. And if we use that definition of “gods” for this verse, then God doesn’t have much work to do, does He? Anyone can judge among nothing. Likewise, if we see the word “gods” in this verse as referring to demons, it won’t hold up for us, in our time, because God has already judged them. They are already condemned. But if we read this verse as referring to God’s children, that means that Jesus is among us, judging “among the gods”. Only God Himself and His anointed Son have the wisdom to do that.

This is why Paul was so distressed that a brother in Corinth had sued another brother and taken him to court. Paul called it “going before the unjust”. In other words, Paul was saying, “How in the world can you expect the world to judge what is right among the gods?” In order for the world to judge among this new race that God has created, they’d have to be led by the Spirit, but all they have to judge by is their eyes and their ears. That is all they have. And Jesus commanded us not to judge by what our eyes see and what our ears hear, but “judge righteous judgment”. The world cannot obey that commandment. So, the foolish man who had dragged his brother to court was not being led by the Spirit, even though in a worldly court he might look or sound better. Only God can judge among the gods.

Paul asked that man who went to the world with his grievances and sued a brother in court, “If you feel as if your brother has done you wrong, why wouldn’t you rather suffer wrong than to bring a reproach on Christ, before the world?” Paul was distressed that a child of God would love himself so much more than he loved Jesus that he would seek the world’s judgment of any matter among the saints, for every wise child of God knows the world cannot judge their affairs rightly. On the contrary, Paul indignantly asked, “Don’t you know that we shall judge the world?” Paul knew that every sincere child of God seeks justice from the Father and does not bring issues belonging to the body of Christ before the world to be judged. When God calls us, He calls us to faith in Him. And “by faith, we understand” that God alone is able to judge rightly “among the gods” and that the real “gods” in this world, according to our heavenly Father Himself, and according to His Son Jesus, are those to whom the word of God has come.

Your Best Helpers

2011-01-11T01:31:00.004-05:00

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

Those around us who are walking in the love of God do us good in many ways. One of the chief ways they benefit us is to point out errors in ours lives that we do not see. In the Old Testament, God commanded His people not to let it pass, when they saw a neighbor commit a sin. In other words, God commanded His people to love as He loves. Solomon said, “Whom the Lord loves, He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights” (Prov. 3:12). To love as God loves, then, means to correct a brother when he errs, to remind him of the right way when he has wandered away from it. This holy love is what makes certain people around us so valuable.

But there is another group of people who are also among the most valuable to us. They are those who hate us with perfect hatred. God uses them as well as the first group to point out faults that we may be overlooking. These intend their criticism for evil, while the first group intends it for good, but the important thing is that it is done. Jesus warned us that evil men (including fallen brothers and sisters) would speak “all manner of evil” against us, but intermingled with their lies and slander is often a few legitimate criticisms. It is especially from believers who have turned from righteousness that we can receive the best criticism. Having known us, and having once been touched by God, they are able to point out faults in us that the world cannot perceive. These fallen brothers failed to offer in love our needed criticism while walking with us in the light, but God is so wonderful that He uses them anyway for our good, in spite of their malicious intent.

These two groups of people, those who love us as God loves us and those who hate us as Satan hates us, provide our most valuable help in the Lord, with blunt, insightful criticism. It is no wonder, then, that we are exhorted to love both those who are true and faithful, and those who are our enemies; they are all the most important people in our lives! My father taught us that you will never help anybody in the Lord if you fear hurting them. In fact, he taught us that you will never help anybody in the Lord unless you hurt them. And if we fear losing a brother if we are honest with him concerning a fault, what good can we do him? Jesus is not not like that. Once, in John 6, he even invited his disciples to leave him if they didn't want to hear what he said to them. Neither those who love us as God loves us nor those who hate us as Satan hates us will refrain from hurting us. The godly do not want to hurt us, but they love us enough to do it. The ungodly do want to hurt us, and they love themselves enough to do it. Either way, both groups are used by God for our good if we love Him.

But there is a third group.

The least valuable people in our lives are those around us who see our faults and remain silent. They are the real trouble-makers in the kingdom of God. They are the grudge-holders, the luke-warm, whose love is skin deep, who gossip to others about the faults they see in us instead of correcting us so that we can be healed. These foolish believers refuse to function as a healing part of the body by helping others to see their faults and to deal with them. They remain, sometimes for many years, among the body as useless, dead weight. Time usually reveals that they are silent about the errors they see in others because they are hiding from others some secret sins of their own.

Friends, if you are going to be a part of the body, then function! Live from the heart among the saints and be a benefit to others who are striving to do the will of God. One of the greatest compliments ever paid to a body of believers was paid to the saints in Rome. The apostle Paul described them as “able to admonish one another”. This means that (1) the saints in Rome had the wisdom to discern when a brother or sister was wandering off the right path, (2) they had enough of the love of God among themselves to point out error among themselves, and (3) they had the humility to receive criticism from one another when it was offered. For the body to function as Jesus wants it to, these three qualities must exist in it. Do you measure up?

Under the Old Testament law, God said that if we saw a brother sin and remained silent, we were, in fact, hating him. He said, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart! You shall by all means rebuke your neighbor, and not allow sin upon him. You shall not seek vengeance or bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself! I am the Lord!” (Lev. 19:17-18). Jesus loves us, and so he reproves us and convicts our hearts when we err, and he desires that each of us should love as he loves us. He told his disciples, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12).

Do you love the saints around you as Jesus loves them? When you see fault, when you see something in a brother’s life that you know displeases the Lord, do you remain silent or whisper it to others instead of to him? If a brother harms you, do you hold a grudge. Do you seek revenge?

Let us determine today that we are going to function as we should, that we are going to love our brothers and sisters with the love of God while we have a chance. It will help us to do so if we remember that if we see a fault, it is only because Jesus has let us see what he sees so that we can co-operate with him in saving our brother. When we see a fault, Jesus is inviting us to do a good work. To be given the grace to see a fault in a brother is a golden opportunity; it is an open door to become a valuable part of the body of Christ, a healing part of the body, a fellow-worker with Christ, and to receive, in the end, the reward that is fitting for those who have served Christ well.

Only of God: What Fellowship Is

2010-12-27T13:13:00.006-05:00

Adapted from a sermon on December 15, 2010

“Unto me is this grace given,

that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ,

to make all men see what the fellowship of the mystery is,

which from the beginning of the world has been hidden in God...”

Paul, in Ephesians 3:8-9

The ultimate goal of everything Satan wants to destroy, or envies (he actually wants to have a part in it, but he can’t) is the fellowship of the saints. What is it about fellowship that makes Satan want it so badly, and yet strive so much to destroy it?

Fellowship in Christ is when we who are in Christ feel the same thing, when we have the same mind - without talking it over beforehand. It is when we have the same judgment concerning situations and people, and the same love for one another. And this fellowship is created only when God’s Wisdom comes down upon us. It is something that is created within us by God. It is not voted on by men. It is not of the will or wisdom of man at all.

The apostle John said that when we are born into the kingdom of God, we are born “not of blood [that is, of human blood, or human origin], nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man” (Jn. 1:13). This concept is very difficult to anchor in the hearts of believers; but, the kingdom into which we are born of God is a kingdom where every thing that counts is not of human origin, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man. If something counts in the kingdom of God, is it not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, and not of human origin (that is, “not of blood” of this world - no human race, no human genealogy, or any such thing). Those are the three things John said that those born into God’s kingdom are not of: they are born not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, and not of blood (actually, that word is plural in the Greek: bloods). That means, we who are in Christ are not of any human race, not of any human genealogy, or anything like that. We no longer have any national earthly identity.

When we are born again, we are born into a spiritual place where everything is that way - not just the born-again person. God’s is a kingdom where communion with God and with one another is not of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh, or of human origin. If we have any communion in the kingdom of God, it will only be of God, just as our birth into His kingdom was only of God. Communion with God happens only when God creates something to eat with us, something invisible for us to share with Him. And when He creates something within me and within you for us to enjoy together in Christ, we have fellowship, which is true communion.

The important thing to understand is that if God doesn’t create the fellowship, we don’t have it - even if we both want it, even if we both vote for it, and even if we both claim to have it. What we say does not make anything true. Nothing of earth matters; nothing of earth makes anything real in God’s kingdom. Nothing in God’s world is of the will of man; everything in God’s world is of God, just like our spiritual birth. Everything.

This includes the doctrine. God’s doctrine is not of the will of man. If it is not of God, it is not a part of God’s kingdom and carries no authority over the saints. It cannot be of the will of the flesh and be true in God’s world. It cannot be of human origin. Nothing in God’s kingdom is any of those things. We who believe are in a different universe now. When we entered into Christ, we crossed a line into a heavenly kingdom that is in no part human. Believers live in a different world from ordinary men. We live in a different universe, with different standards and a far greater wisdom. Paul’s famous phrase, “If any man be in Christ ... all things become new”, is real. We are not even our old selves anymore. Paul said, "I die daily" because he was living in that new realm, where his thoughts and his feelings were no longer of human origin.

Our feast days, our baptism, our holy places, the robes we put on for worship - nothing in our kingdom is of the will of man. You know as well as I do, when you see those colorful choir robes in Christian churches, that a man has willed to buy those pretty robes as opposed to what he considered less pretty ones. And because that choice and that purchase was of human will and ability, it cannot be a part of the kingdom of God. Those pretty choir robes do not belong in our world if we are in Christ.

God has called us out of this world; now, let’s stay out of this world! Jesus is saying, “You were born into my world. Now, stay in my world and be satisfied.” Godliness with contentment will make us truly rich.

Many of God’s own people are not content with the world into which they were born when they were baptized with the Spirit. They are not content with it because God’s world is not of the will of the flesh, and they are still in the flesh. Or they are not content with it because God’s world is not of the will of man, and they are still self-willed. Or they are not content with it because it is not of human origin, and their hearts are still attached to this world. Discontented and divided saints are still enamored of things that originate on earth, such as a carnal ceremony, or some doctrine formulated by human wisdom, or some other familiar form that is not a part of God’s kingdom.

Here at my house, we do not want any of that, and we will not have any of that. The holy Spirit will certainly not have any of that, and if we will only deny ourselves and humble ourselves to the Spirit, it will save us from all worldliness. He will save us from the spirits of the religious systems of man, including that of Christianity. He will save us from the unclean spirit of Christianity so that we can experience true fellowship in Christ and so that we can come together as a body and have it be for our good and not to our harm. We benefit from our gatherings only when we live close to God and worship Him “in spirit and in truth”. The holy Spirit is in no measure of this world.

Our sweet, shared life in the Spirit is the mysterious fellowship that Satan hates above all things because it is of God, and God has cast him out. He cannot share in it. The fellowship of human religions is of the world, and Satan does share in that. Jesus said that Satan “savors the things that be of man” (Mt. 16:23). Satan has been forever cast out of God’s kingdom, and he is very angry about that. He envies and slanders everyone whom God still welcomes into the pure fellowship of His kingdom. God is so determined that Satan will have no part in His kingdom again that even if a body of saints is fooled into making room for Satan, even if they are foolish enough to welcome him into their assembly, God withdraws that pure fellowship, and all that is left is a dead religious form. When God withdraws fellowship from a body of believers, all that remains is something of the flesh and of the world, some ceremonial form, some religious ideas, in which things Satan can have fellowship with man.

If we are to continue to enjoy the fellowship that is in Christ, we must walk together in the Spirit and refuse those things that are of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh, or of human origin. Instead of trying to serve God in such worldly things, let’s do the will of God and serve Him “in spirit and in truth”. Doing that, neither the things of this world nor Satan will ever pollute our communion with Christ and with one another.

What Fellowship Is

2010-12-17T07:29:00.006-05:00

Adapted from a sermon on December 15, 2010

“...to make all men see what the fellowship of the mystery is,

which from the beginning of the world has been hidden in God...”

Paul, in Ephesians 3:8-9

The ultimate goal of everything Satan wants to destroy, or envies (he actually doesn’t want to destroy it; he wants to have a part in it, but he can’t) is the fellowship of the saints. And I dare say just a few of God’s people on earth really understand what fellowship is.

Fellowship is when we feel the same thing, when we have the same mind - without talking it over beforehand. It is when we have the same judgment concerning situations and people, and the same love for one another. And that fellowship is created when Wisdom comes down upon us. It is something created by God. It is not voted on by men. It is not of the will of man.

The apostle John taught that when you are born into the kingdom of God, you are born “not of blood [that is, of human blood, or human origin], nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man” (Jn. 1:13). What is so difficult to get across and to really get anchored in the hearts of believers is that, in Christ, the kingdom into which they are born is a kingdom where every thing that counts is not of human origin, or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man. If something counts in the kingdom of God, is it not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, and not of human origin, that is, not of the blood of this world - no human race, no human genealogy, or any such thing. Those are the three things John said that those in God’s kingdom are not of: you’re born not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, and not of “bloods” (actually, that word is plural in the Greek). That means, you who are in Christ are not of any human race, not of any human genealogy, or anything like that. You no longer have any national earthly identity.

But what God’s people, in the main, do not understand is that when you are born, you are born into a place where everything is that way - not just you. It is a kingdom where your communion with God and with one another is not of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh. It is not a physical thing. It is not of earthly origin. If you have communion in the kingdom of God, it will only be of God, just as your birth into His kingdom was only of God. Communion with god happens only when God creates something to eat with you. It is when He creates something invisible for you to share with Him. And when He creates something within me and within you for us to enjoy together in Christ, we have fellowship. It may be a common judgment of people, or of some circumstance, or the times in general.

But the important thing to understand is that if God doesn’t create it, we don’t have it - even if we both want it, even if we both vote for it, and even if we both claim to have it. Nothing of earth matters; nothing of earth makes anything happen in God’s kingdom. Nothing in God’s world is of the will of the man. It’s not of the will of the flesh, but of God. Everything. The doctrine. It cannot be of the will of man. It’s not, not in God’s kingdom. It cannot be of the will of the flesh. It cannot be of human origin. Nothing in God’s kingdom is any of those things. We who believe are in a different universe now. In Christ, we crossed a line into a heavenly kingdom that is in no part human. We are in a different world. We are in a different universe. Paul’s famous phrase, “Behold, all things become new”, is real. You are not even yourself anymore. Paul said, "I die daily" because he was living in that new realm, where his thoughts and his feelings were not of human origin. His very life was not of his own will or his flesh's will.

Our feast days, our baptism, our holy places, the robes you put on for worship - nothing in our kingdom is of the will of man. You know as well as I do, when you see those colorful choir robes in Christian churches, some man has willed to buy those pretty robes as opposed to what he considered less pretty ones. And because that choice and that purchase was of human will, it cannot be a part of the kingdom of God, which means that means that pretty choir robes do not belong in your world. God called you out of that world; now stay out of that world! Jesus is saying, “You were born into my world. Stay in my world and be satisfied.” Godliness with contentment will make you rich.

Many of God’s own people are not content with the world into which they were born when they were baptized with the holy ghost. They are not content with it because God’s world is not of the will of the flesh, and they are still in the flesh. Or they are not content with it because God’s world is not of the will of man, and they are still self- willed. Or they are not content with it because it is not of human origin, and their hearts are still attached to this world. Discontented and divided saints are still enamored of things that originate on earth; some ceremony, some doctrine, some familiar form that is not a part of God’s kingdom.

We, here, do not want any of that. We will not have any of that. The holy ghost will not have any of that, and if we’ll deny ourselves and have the holy ghost in our midst, he won’t allow us have any of that. He’ll save us from worldliness. He’ll save us from the religious system of Christianity, which is altogether of the world. He’ll save us from that unclean spirit so that when we can experience true fellowship in Christ, and so that we can come together as a body and have it be for our good and not to our harm. We benefit from our gatherings only when we live close to God, and we live close to God only as we follow the Spirit that is in no measure of this world.

Our sweet, shared life in the Spirit is the mysterious fellowship that Satan hates above all things because it is not of the world, and he cannot possibly participate in it. He has been cast out of God’s kingdom, and he is very angry about that. He envies and slanders everyone God still welcomes into the pure fellowship of that holy kingdom. Even if a body of saints were fooled into making room for Satan, even if they would be foolish enough to welcome him into their assembly, Satan could not participate in the fellowship of holiness because wherever he is, the fellowship is not, and he will never understand it.

If we are to continue to enjoy our fellowship in Christ, we must walk together in the Spirit and refuse those things that are of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh, or of human origin. Instead of trying to serve God in those things, let’s all do the will of God and serve him “in spirit and in truth”. Doing that, neither the things of this world nor Satan will ever pollute our communion with Christ and with one another.

Not Just for Us

2010-12-16T06:57:00.001-05:00

Good morning John.

Today I was organizing and mailing out various tract and CD orders from the Isaiah58 web site that came in over the past couple of days.

When a person orders a CD from the site, I usually add one or two old CD's (those that went un-purchased) to that person’s order since it does not really add anything to the postage, and so that people can hear live meetings.

This morning as I reached into the box, of perhaps 50 to 100 of those left-over CD's, the sweetest feeling came over me. I could have picked any of the CD's in that box! We have things of real value! Things that go unclaimed among us just might be golden nuggets of life to someone who is hungry for reality in the Spirit. Many have never heard what is on a CD that we have hundreds of extras of. Tears came to my eyes when I thought about how rich we are in spirit, that we have such things of value. Where would we be without those gifts from God, without each other, without this truth? It's hard to even wonder. I am thankful, after your wonderful message last night, for you, for the saints who before us and paid a price, and for every child of God whom Jesus has put into my life right now.

And beyond that, I am thankful for soberness, for sanity, and for the readiness of mind and heart to want to get this truth to God's wandering sheep.

Gary

=================

Amen, Brother Gary!

God has chosen, for His own good reasons, to wonderfully bless us and give us a special work to do. I pray that we walk worthy of our calling. Our situation calls to mind one of the things God told father Abraham when He first spoke to him, in Genesis 12:1-3. God told that good man that all the nations of the earth would someday be blessed by the blessing that He was giving him. In other words, God was not blessing Abraham just to bless Abraham. And we can be assured that God has not blessed us just to be blessing us.

We have a holy calling upon us, and a work to do. May God give us the strength and wisdom to accomplish it!

jdc

Being the Truth

2010-12-15T12:44:00.005-05:00

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Jesus, in John 14:6

You do not really know the truth unless you are the truth. The truth is not a thing; it is a person, and you must have fellowship with him in order to know him. The truth on earth was the Son of God, while he was here. Now the truth on earth is other sons of God who are here. Nor is the light a thing; it is a person. If you are not in him who is the light, you do not know him who is the light. He was the light of the world as long as he was in the world (Jn. 9:5); now, those in whom he lives are the light of the world. The Word of God is not a thing; it is the Son of God, and he is alive. He took on flesh when he took on the body of Jesus of Nazareth, as John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” And he still comes and takes up residence in the hearts of those who believe in him. Has he become flesh in you? He became flesh in Paul, and Paul testified of it. He said, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ is living in me" (Gal. 2:20).

If the Word of God comes to you, he comes to re-create you in his own image. The Word of God comes to you to establish your thoughts, to shape your spirit, to direct your steps. He does not come to be challenged; he comes to take charge, to guide, to heal, to deliver. The Son of God did not take on flesh in order merely to become a topic for discussion. He came to govern, to purge, to make the believer perfect before God.

I do not ask, “Do you know the truth?” It is less important that you know than that you become the truth. Nor do I ask, “Do you know the way?” or “Do you see the light?” The issue is, are you the the way and the light to others? John wrote, “As he is, so are we in this world.” That was good for John and those he knew in Christ, but for us, the question is, are we, like those saints, like him who is sitting at the right hand of the Father?

Jesus never intended for us to stand on earth and point up to the sky, at him, to show men the light. He came to make us lights in this world. Besides, even if we get men to look up, they still cannot see him. They can only see us. Knowing this, my wise father taught us never to speak of Jesus to others unless we could also say to them, “Be like me.”

Paul wrote that “when he ascended on high, he gave gifts to men. . . . And he gave some, apostles, some prophets, some teachers,” etc. This means that, as your pastor and teacher, I am a gift to you. And as light for others in this world, you are a gift to them. Are you really a gift for them? Or let me ask it this way: Does he who is the Truth live in you? Does he who is the Light shine in you? Does he who is the Way walk in you? Can others attain to eternal life by following you? They can if you are following Christ. Paul unashamedly told the saints in Corinth, “Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1Cor. 11:1). This was not an unusual statement for Paul to make. He constantly exhorted the saints in every place to follow righteous men, both himself and others (e.g., 1Cor. 4:16; Phip. 3:17; 1Thess. 1:6; 2:14; 3:7, 9; Heb. 6:12. He knew that godly, mature saints were gifts to the rest of us, that like Jesus, they didn’t just talk about the truth and the way to us; they were the way and the truth for us, and Paul wanted us to take full advantage of them, as gifts from a loving heavenly Father.

The Honor of Jesus

2010-12-13T21:54:00.004-05:00

"God has highly exalted him..."

Phip. 2:9

The honor of men is nothing in comparison to the honor God gives. Jesus did not covet and would not accept honors that men bestow. “I do not receive honor from men,” he said (Jn. 5:41). Even when people wanted to take Jesus by force and make him their king, he refused and withdrew from them to a mountain alone (Jn. 6:15). He did not come to gain earthly honor; he came to do the will of his heavenly Father (Heb. 10:7). And as a result of his single-minded pursuit of honor from God, God “highly exalted him, and has given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phip. 2:9-11).

Jesus even refused to honor himself. He said, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing; it is my Father who honors me, whom you say that He is your God” (Jn. 8:54). Jesus was wise. He understood that no honor is worth having unless it comes from God.

In fact, he warned men that seeking and receiving honor from any other source will result in spiritual confusion. He told them (Jn. 5:44), “How can you believe, who receive honor one from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes only from God?” Fallen men are so blind to the things of God that they often do not recognize God’s honor when it is given to one standing among them; and they can badly misunderstand what is being done when someone is truly honoring God. Men have been known to go so far as to accuse someone of madness, or even demon-possession, when he is, in fact, honoring God. They did that to Jesus, and in reply, Jesus said, “I am not demon-possessed! I am honoring my Father, and you are dishonoring me” (Jn. 8:49).

Jesus loved God (Jn. 14:31; Ps. 91:14-16) and pleased Him because he desired only the honor that comes from God. He was even willing to suffer unjustly and die in order to please God. In response, God gave everything to Jesus (Jn. 3:35) and revealed Himself completely to Jesus (Jn. 5:20).

Everybody who hears from the true God comes to Jesus for mercy (Jn. 6:45), and nobody can come to the real Jesus unless they do hear from God (Jn. 6:44). Perhaps the most astonishing honor that the Father has given to Jesus is His requirement now that all people everywhere honor the Son just as they honor the Father (Jn. 5:23). Consequently, no one will be saved from eternal damnation who fails to honor the Son as God. But everyone who loves Jesus will be loved by God, and Jesus said that God will come to that person and live within his heart (Jn. 14:21-23; 16:27). Consequently, there is no hope of eternal life but through Jesus (Acts 4:12). This is the honor that God has bestowed upon Jesus, and there is no greater honor than that which the Father has shown to His Son.

Gluttony

2010-11-30T09:10:00.002-05:00

This is a message by G. C. "Preacher" Clark, from about 1965,

slightly edited by Pastor John for this BLOG

Sin, as we know, is very subtle and deeply imbedded in the nature of mankind. Of the three elements of which this world is made - “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1Jn. 2:16) - the lust of the flesh seems to be chief. Many of us who follow Jesus have been deceived by the spirit of lust and have made gluttons of ourselves. We have often denounced “the lust of the flesh” in other respects, but not in our overeating. Throughout the Bible, God condemned gluttony and drunkenness with the same degree of displeasure. Nevertheless, we find many among the followers of Christ who have failed to see this. All true children of God, I feel, are opposed to drunkenness. At the same time, many of these prohibitionists are inclined to eat too much.

After conducting healing campaigns and mailing out thousands of anointed handkerchiefs – since 1930 – I have learned that the greatest physical cause of sickness among the people of God is overindulgence in eating. Obviously, Jesus saw this deceiving demon at work when he enjoined his disciples, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be with overcharged with surfeiting [self-indulgence, or gluttony], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Lk. 21:34). There have never been so many “overcharged” hearts as we find today, and not all of these heart failures are coming from drunkenness and cares of this life. Thousands of truly converted people are sick and are suffering with heart trouble or other ailments associated with overeating.

Did you ever wonder why artists have never depicted any of Jesus’ disciples as being overweight or of the fleshy type? It is because they know that no one could have followed Jesus very long and remained overweight. There were times when Jesus and his disciples could not so much as pause for a meal (Mk. 3:20). What about you? Some have gone so long without fasting and have gained so much surplus weight that the demon of lust will not let them fast. He makes them sick and nervous every time they try. No, the artists have yet to paint one drunkard or glutton among the followers of our Lord.

You remember that Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a little “red pottage”. Oh, that demon of gluttony! Esau, of course, had plenty of good wholesome food, for he was “a man of the field” – a deer hunter; still, he craved “red pottage”, a thick soup made by his brother Jacob. Seemingly, I can hear his words now, as he cried to Jacob, “Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage” (Gen. 25:30). There has been a time when gluttons and drunkards were taken out by the elders of Israel and stoned to death (Deut. 21:18-21). It is fortunate for us that we live under this New Covenant of grace, for we might lose some of our good sisters and brothers in the Lord – not for drunkenness, to be sure, but for gluttony.

No artist could draw a more vivid picture of the gluttonous multitude which is in the body of Christ today than these following words, coming from the pen of the Apostle Paul in his description of some of the saints at Philippi: “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind early things” (Phip. 3:17-19).

Reader, perhaps you are asking the question, “Am I among these gluttons who are making a god out of their belly?” The answer will have to come from you, my friend; however, I will ask you a few questions in helping you to form the correct answer. First, let me ask you, are you overweight? If you don’t know, check with some competent authority and find out. For instance, my weight once was one hundred eighty pounds, thirty pounds overweight. My height calls for one hundred fifty pounds, which I now weigh. So you see, I was thirty pounds overweight, or shall I say twenty percent glutton. Since bringing my weight back to normal, I feel like a new person, especially in body. I suffered many different diseases during my twenty years of carrying this surplus weight. But since my last healing, which was most miraculous, I have brought my weight down, as I was shown to do, through the great light on this subject: Gluttony.

God can and will heal any disease coming from the evil of overeating; however, His healings still carry the command, “Sin no more, lest a worst thing come upon you” (Jn. 5:14). That great man of God, the apostle Paul, turns this emphatic statement of Jesus’ into the question, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The answer is obviously “NO”; for when God heals us, He wants us to cease doing whatever brought on our sickness. In other words, if sleeping in a draft gave you a cold, and God heals you of this cold, then He expects you to quit sleeping in the draft. Or if eating too much has brought on high blood pressure, heart trouble, or one of the many other diseases which come from being overweight, then God requires a reduction in your eating. Gluttony works just like any other sin. The thief must quit stealing, the liar must stop lying, the glutton must stop overeating. Children of God, let’s keep our bodies free from the sin of gluttony, realizing they are the temple of the Spirit of God. There is a place in God where sin and sickness cannot reach us. I know this to be true, even though we may not be altogether there. Yet, thank God for His promise and the desire we have to reach this place in Him. Listen to this promise of His: “If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do that which is right in His sight and will give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have brought upon the Egyptians [the world], for I am the Lord who heals you” (Ex. 15:26). Again, God says to His people, “And you will serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread, and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you” (Ex. 23:25). Don’t forget, God never changes. The preceding promises are as much for us today as they were for Israel centuries ago.

God’s power to heal is being increasingly demonstrated, as time approaches for the gift of healing, along with the other gifts, to be re-established as normative in the body of Christ. Every honest and sincere minister will declare the availability of God’s healing power. And, as we have stated, there is every reason why we should bring our souls, spirits, and bodies into harmony with the perfect will of God. Paul, in counseling his followers, said, “I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless [kept sound] unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thes. 5:23). What precious promises are given to us – if we will only obey God!

The gospel of Christ has not only a forgiveness-of-sin quality but also a healing quality. But we must remember that to receive and retain either or both of these blessings, we must obey the command, “Go and sin no more.” May the Lord bless this message to the heart of every reader.

True Doctrine is a Testimony

2010-11-29T21:53:00.002-05:00

“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.”

Peter, in 1Peter 4:11

“I’d have you to know, brothers, regarding the gospel delivered by me, that it is not of man. I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it,

but by a revelation from Jesus Christ.”

Paul, in Galatians 1:11-12

The only truth that exists is what the Spirit is saying this moment. Moses and Aaron found out, as did many other biblical characters, that what God commanded to be done in one situation was not the truth later. And because Moses and his brother did not learn that lesson in time, they sinned by keeping an old commandment and were forbidden to lead Israel into the land of Canaan. God said to them, “Because you did not believe me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them” (Num. 20:12). Moses did what God commanded him to do in an earlier, and similar, situation, but God had now given Moses a different commandment, and Moses and Aaron failed to obey it. We might say that they went by tradition rather than by a living faith.

Because only what the Spirit is saying right now is true, the relationship between God and His servants must be a living one. Otherwise, that servant will certainly harm God’s people by following an old pattern, one that worked at another time and in another circumstance. If a minister has no testimony of receiving his doctrine from God, stay away from him. He is only repeating a rumor about God that he has either heard from another man or that he has only read about in the Bible. He does not personally know what he is talking about.

If a pastor’s sermon is not a part of his testimony, if what he is saying is not the result of a personal experience with God, he is teaching falsely as far as he knows. The things that Paul taught the Gentiles were the result of a personal experience with God. He spoke of being “caught up to the third heaven” and of hearing things from God that were “not lawful for a man to speak.” And when his converts were being led astray by men who were teaching things of the past, Paul wrote them with tears, “Who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth?” Paul knew they had been fooled by men who could repeat much about what other men, such as Moses and the prophets, had received from God, but had no testimony of their own.

God is a living God. Therefore, the only issue of life is, what is God's Spirit saying now to the saints? Whatever that is, is the only truth that exists anywhere for God’s people, and everything else is a lie, no matter what great man of God in history used to say it and (as Moses’ story proves) no matter even if God used to say it.

A Friends Question:

2010-11-26T16:26:00.004-05:00

Eating and Drinking in 1Corinthians 11

Pastor John

Thank you for your previous reply to my question about 1Corinthians 11.

It's true that we now worship God in spirit and in truth, but these believers were "physically eating and drinking" earthly substance without conducting themselves properly. That's the reason why Paul was correcting and instructing them on that matter. But why did Paul not explicitly explain to them to forsake those earthly, fleshy substance and partake in the real things of the spirit, as you explained to me?

Jerome

==============

Greetings, Brother Jerome.

Let's eat together this message from Paul to the Corinthians, one small bite at a time, and wash it down by taking a spiritual drink or two! The following is from our translation of 1Corinthians, which you can find on our web site: www.GoingtoJesus.com

¶ 17. Now, in the following instruction, I do not praise you, for you come together not for the better but for the worse.

NOTE: Their gatherings in Corinth were so out of order that it would have been better for them not to have any gatherings at all. But what was the problem? Paul explains:

18. For, first of all, when you come together as a congregation, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I partly believe it.

19. For it is necessary that there be factions among you so that those among you who are approved by God might be revealed.

NOTE: The root cause for their meetings being worse than worthless was the lack of unity that existed among them. Paul already addressed the issue of their divisions in 1:10-13, so there was no need to go into that again here. He refers to it here only as an explanation as to why it would be better to have no gatherings than to have the kind of gatherings they were having.

20. Therefore, when you meet together in the same place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.

NOTE: The word "therefore" is key. "Therefore" means that the reason they cannot partake of "the Lord's supper" is what Paul had just said to them; to wit, they are divided. It is not because of their use or misuse of natural substances, such as bread and wine. Division among the saints is what prevents the blood of the Spirit from flowing from one to another; it prevents some from receiving the testimonies of others, and vice versa. We MUST have the blood of Christ flowing among us, or we should just stay away from each other.

The reason it was not the Lord's Supper wasn’t because of what they were eating, or how they were eating, but because of what they could not eat. Because they were divided, they could not eat each other!

21. For in eating, each goes ahead and eats his own supper first, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk.

22. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you show contempt for God’s congregation and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? I do not praise you.

NOTE: In these two verses, what Paul says was being done wrong was that the richer believers were bringing food to a meeting and eating it in the presence of hungry, poorer believers without sharing any of it (v. 21). That was cruel. The point of Paul bringing that subject up was to emphasize their divisions and lack of the love of God, and to command the saints in Corinth that if they wanted to eat physical food, then -- notice this! -- they are to eat it at home, not bring it to the gatherings of the saints! This is what Paul was talking about when he indignantly exclaimed, "What! Don't you have [your own] houses to eat and drink in?" In these verses, Paul is not trying to teach the saints how to eat and drink physically when they meet; rather, he is forbidding them to eat and drink physically at all when they meet.

One of the basics of building successful home meetings is to leave off physical eating and drinking. I have seen home meetings wrecked because meals and snacks became a regular part of the meetings. You may have noticed that I mention this issue in my instructions for a sound home fellowship, on the front page of the PastorJohnsHouse web site. This is what I wrote:

“I have never seen a prayer meeting succeed in becoming what it ought when eating and drinking becomes a part of it. Don't mix food with worship. The same can be said about ceremonies. Don't bring church into the home and then think it is not church. You can have church religion in a home as well as in a church building. Leave off snacks and leave off ceremonies. Just live in the Spirit together, and grow together in the light of God.”

23. For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread,

24. and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take and eat. This is my body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

25. Likewise, after supper, he also took the cup, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood; do this, as often as you drink, in remembrance of me,”

26. for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

NOTE: Here, Paul explains that fellowship among the saints (receiving one another) is the bread we break, and that drinking of the Spirit is drinking of "the cup of the Lord". Paul has already explained in 1Corinthians 10:15-17.

27. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in a manner unworthy of the Lord sins against the body and blood of the Lord.

28. Let a man examine himself; only then is he to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

29. For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

30. Because of this, many are feeble and sick among you, and quite a few have fallen asleep.

31. If we would judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

32. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we be not condemned along with the world.

NOTE: Since eating and drinking the Lord's Supper is not a physical consumption of earthly substance but a shared spiritual experience, if we partake of that experience in an unworthy manner (that is, with secret sin), we will be judged for it. If eating and drinking natural substance were deadly for sinners, Christians would be dropping dead all the time, for they regularly partake of their fleshly ceremony, and at the same time confess that they cannot cease from sin. Besides this plain fact, Jesus himself told us that "nothing entering into a man defiles him; it is what comes out of a man that defiles him" (Mk. 7:14-23). On another occasion, when Jesus, like Paul, seemed to be speaking of natural eating and drinking (Jn. 6), he told his disciples, "The flesh is worthless! The words that I speak to you are spiritual, and they are life!" Paul was speaking the same way, spiritually.

33. So then, my brothers, when coming together to eat, wait for one another.

34. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you do not come together for condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

NOTE: Finally, Paul exhorts the saints to love and consider one another ("tarry for one another") if and when they do meet for a meal, and as a last reminder, that they are NOT to eat natural food when they gather to worship the Lord, but to eat physically at home before they come to the meeting. Otherwise, their meetings will be harmful for them, not beneficial.

Above, you asked me, "Why did Paul not explicitly explain to them to forsake those earthly, fleshy substance and partake in the real things of the spirit just as you just explained?" I cannot imagine how Paul could have more plainly told them to avoid (in worship) the consumption of earthly, fleshly substance and to partake, in harmony, of the real things of the Spirit. By giving the commandment -- twice -- for them to eat physically at home before their meetings, was not Paul doing exactly what you say he did not do? Is that not how you see it? Please let me know.

FYI, Jerome, I have been a student of the background of Western Culture for some years now. Let me point out to you a widespread element of the Classical culture which in time was transformed into the religion of Christianity. In the Classical world, there was no sense of responsibility for the poor. If a wealthy man had an impulse to give of his wealth, he normally would give something to his city. He would sponsor the construction of a temple, public baths, or an amphitheater, or erect a statue to one of the city's gods, or sponsor some sporting event, etc. Simply giving to the poor was not done because (1) it brought no fame to one's city and, therefore, brought no fame to oneself, and (2) the poor were commonly seen as lesser creatures, even of "inferior blood", and so, not worthy of much consideration.

One erudite book that deals well with this topic, though it is thick reading, so to speak, is The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens, Elites and Benefactors in Asia Minor by Arjan Zuiderhoek. Mr. Zuiderhoek convincingly shows how deeply embedded in the Classical world was the impetus and pressures to give -- but to the city or state, not simply to the poor, and that the inspiration for most munificence at that time was the desire for fame, not love for one's fellow man. The rich did not consider the poor their "fellows" at all.

In the attitude of the richer folk in Corinth, we can see this Classical quality of carelessness toward the feelings and needs of the poor, and I believe that is what Paul was indignant that the saints there were allowing the status of the wealthy in the Greco-Roman world to become a guiding influence in the congregation.

Your servant,

Pastor John

Fourteen Years

2010-11-25T11:52:00.005-05:00

We have some old recordings of prayer meetings (from the late 1960‘s through the early 1980’s) that were held at Grandma’s farmhouse in Nash County, NC. Her farm was far from any city of size, and there were not a lot of people involved. Sometimes, no more than a dozen people showed up (but they showed up happy). When young Earl Pittman became involved with them and received the baptism of the holy ghost, he loved those simple gatherings so much that he purchased some equipment to record them. What a treasure those recordings are to us now!

I was young when Brother Earl did this and did not take part in the fellowship he was enjoying, so these meetings are new to me as well as to others. Some of the sermons, testimonies, and singing of those saints are absolutely thrilling to us; they challenge us to be finished with the world, to love and honor Jesus, live a holy life, and be pure in the sight of God.

One of the most stunning of those old testimonies came from 65-year-old “Uncle Joe”, a big man with an even bigger heart. Here is his testimony in that prayer meeting held in the farmhouse in which he was brought up, and six years after his mother, “Grandma Edna” had died:

Uncle Joe’s Testimony

You know, I’ve been thinking. Instead of saying, “You’re going to reap what you sow,” just say, “You are going to reap what you strew along the way.” You know, you can’t do anything without being rewarded for it. My mother rewarded me, I was thinking this week, about the time we moved down to Flood’s Chapel. We had no mule, had no wagon, had nothing, and the woman [on whose farm] we lived ....we were using her team to farm with. Mama bought a hundred pound sack of sugar, and she wanted me to bring it from the store to the house, and she said if I would do it, she would give me a quarter. And I put that hundred pounds of sugar on my back and took it to the house, she gave me the quarter. A quarter might not seem like much now, but back then, a quarter was five Pepsi Colas or five games of pool. She rewarded me for doing that, praise God, and God is going to reward us.

I believe we can know how long we are going to live. I got in touch with God last week, and He told me how long I could live -- with an option I could call for more if I wanted it. [After a little silence from everyone] I know what I am talking about! God told me I could have fourteen more years. I would just be as old as Brother Clark is, 79. With an option to ask for more if I wanted it. And ya’ll just need to make up your minds that you’re gonna have to put up with me a little while; ‘cause I’m going to be around. I’m not doubting God one bit. Glory to God. Whether I want to or not, I am here for a purpose. I didn’t choose God. God chose me. He hasn’t called somebody He didn’t want. He called everyone He wanted and needed. Glory to God! And it’s for a purpose that He called. Glory to God! We’re here to answer that calling. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that. Where in the world would we be if we hadn’t obeyed God’s call to be here, Earl? Praise God! It’s because someone sowed some seed along the way. Somebody yielded something. Gave something. Left an example that we should follow their footsteps. Same example as the Lord left. Praise God! “Who did no sin, neither was any guile found in his mouth.” No bitterness. That’s why they say a dove is like the holy Spirit; there is no bitterness. He can’t eat the things that other birds can eat because he doesn’t have any gall to devour it, to digest it with. I heard that said the other day. Praise God. I think it’s wonderful.

I don’t have anywhere else to go. Praise God! I’ve already been. Glory to God! I’ve been to all these false churches. Given a hundred dollars to this man and a hundred dollars to that man. What in the world did we gain from it? A lot of times, we even felt bad about it. I did. I’ve almost come nearer backsliding over that than anything I’ve ever done. A man came there in the middle of the winter and had a heater in his tent, I went out there, didn’t have anything, wound up giving him, I think, about 97 dollars during his campaign. After I left there, I nearly starved to death for lack of food. I didn’t nearly starve to death, but I was missing what I gave to him and regret giving it to him. It was sin for me to even do it, I believe. I do believe I was mistreating myself by doing it, and they get up there and beg and plead, and get on and plow on our sympathy and on the good nature that God has given you, to get money out of people, and I just go ahead and give. Glory to God! I’m not giving anything now I don’t regret. I don’t have much to give, but what I give now I don’t regret a penny of it. And if I didn’t think I was supporting the truth, I would want that back. Every penny of it! Glory to God! Hallelujah!

============

As I listened to this old recording for the first time, not long ago, I started counting up the years Uncle Joe lived after this testimony, and I realized that at the end of his promised fourteen years, God did give him, through a doctor, the option of more years if Uncle Joe would agree to undergo an operation to remove a small spot on his lung, but as Uncle Joe said to me at the time, “I’ve been cut on enough already. I think I’ll just let it go.” By being cut on already, Uncle Joe was referring, in part, to the major surgery he went through in 1959, when doctors at Veteran’s Hospital in Durham, NC, found him so full of cancer that they gave him a mere sixty to ninety days to live. But, of course, those doctors could not take into account a visit from God’s angel when they made their prognosis. That sweet visit from the heavenly messenger extended Uncle Joe’s life and filled it with health -- for another thirty-seven years!

I dare say that the folk in Grandma’s living room that day could hardly believe that God had actually revealed to Uncle Joe how much longer he would live and that if Uncle Joe wanted it, he would be given more years than that. I do not recall that the subject was ever mentioned again, either by Uncle Joe or anyone else. But the word of God is true, and that is why we can trust our souls to it, and boldly testify of it, as did Uncle Joe.

Coals of Fire

2010-11-22T19:50:00.006-05:00

Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent men who imagine mischiefs in their heart. Continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.

Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men who have purposed to overthrow my goings. The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords. They have spread a net by the wayside; they have set traps for me. Selah.

I said unto the Lord, “Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.” O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle. Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked! Further not his wicked device, lest they exalt themselves. Selah.

As for the head of those who compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them! Let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits, that they rise not up again.

Psalm 140:1-10

The prayer of this godly man was no doubt answered. There can be no doubt that God did rescue him from the poisonous hatred and evil intentions of those who wanted to destroy him and his work and that God did pour out "coals of fire" on the head of those evil men. But if God did so, He did so only because the godly man did things God's way. He took his cause to the Lord, and then waited on Him for justice. He did not avenge himself.

God will answer our prayers for His help, too, if we follow the Bible’s wise examples of trusting God. David provided a perfect example of trusting God to be his avenger when he and his loyal friends were fleeing from David’s angry son, Absalom, and his army:

2Samuel 16

5. And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came forth, and cursed still as he came.

6. And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

7. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, “Come out, come out, you bloody man!” And, “You man of Belial!”

8. The Lord has returned on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned.” And “the Lord has handed the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son!” and, “Behold, you have been taken in your own mischief, because you are a bloody man!”

9. Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray you, and take off his head.”

10. And the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Let him curse so, because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David!’ Who shall then say, Why have you done so?”

11. And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, “Behold, my son, who came out of my bowels, is seeking my life. How much more now may this Benjamite do it? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord has bidden him.

12. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.”

13. And as David and his men went along the road, Shimei went along on the hill's side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust.

Solomon exhorted his son to follow King David's example:

Proverbs 25

21. If your enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink.

22. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord will reward you.

Paul exhorted the saints in Rome to give good heed to Solomon's wise counsel:

Romans 12

19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

20. Therefore if your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.

21. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Every righteous soul, regardless of the pain inflicted, waits on the Lord to judge his cause. To avenge oneself is an expression of unbelief and pride. It is ungodly so much as to “bring a railing accusation” against the devil himself (Jude 9), much less to speak or do evil against human beings who have done you wrong. Be patient. The day of righteous, eternal Judgment is coming, the day when all things will be made known, and all things will be made right. In the meantime, trust in the Lord and live as He says for you to live.

The Family of God

2010-11-20T22:25:00.000-05:00

“To Timothy, my real son in the faith.”

Paul, in 1Timothy 1:2

Matthew 12

46. While he was speaking to the multitudes, his mother and brothers were standing outside demanding to speak to him.

47. And someone said to him, "Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside demanding to speak to you."

48. But he answered and said to the man who spoke to him,"Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?"

49. Then, extending his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.

50. For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother."

God has a time appointed for us all to be confronted with a decision. That decision, which will have eternal consequences, will be determined by what you feel in your heart now concerning this simple question: Was it really the Son of God speaking in Jesus Christ, and was He serious about what he said? But let’s narrow the focus down to the verses above, from Matthew 12. Do you think that Jesus really meant what he said? I don’t mean, do you think he meant what he said in some philosophical, other-worldly way. I mean, in practical, daily, real-world terms, do you believe that Jesus was serious in saying that his family is made up only of those who hear the word of God and obey it?

If you answer, “no”, Jesus did not mean his words to be taken literally, then you must answer this question: What, really, did Jesus mean? When he defined his real family as obedient hearers of the word of God, and if he did not mean exactly what he said, then what did he mean?

The truth is, there is no hidden message in Jesus’ words. The Lord meant exactly what it sounds like he meant. And he not only said precisely what he intended to say; I am persuaded that he is still saying it -- and that he still means it the same way. I am persuaded that God, through Jesus Christ, still considers no one to be a member of His family except those who have heard from Him, and who have obeyed what they heard.

Confessing Christ

Many years ago, Jesus taught me that if we follow his example in just this one thing, if we are like him in nothing but this holy attitude concerning who our real family is, those who are of this world will hate us. There is something about Jesus’ innocent and pure way of looking at life and family that enrages those who are “in the flesh” rather than “in the Spirit”. Nevertheless, at some point in your walk with God, you will be compelled to face the hatred and summon the courage (the courage of Jesus) to confess God’s family. That is no strange thing. Isn’t the confession of belonging to God’s family just another way of confessing that we are “aliens and pilgrims on the earth”, as did our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Heb. 11:13)? Would an alien to earth have relatives living here?

What did Paul mean when he said we are citizens of a heavenly country (Heb. 11:16)? or that we are God’s ambassadors for Christ (2Cor. 5:20)? Make your decision! Was Paul really speaking for Christ? Did he really mean what he said? Or was Peter serious about describing the lives of saints on earth as a “sojourning” (1Pet. 1:17); that is, a temporary stay in a foreign land? Of course these men meant what they said! It was real to them! They did not belong on earth, and they said so. And for those men of God to make such a confession was to confess Christ, who came from his heavenly home into this wicked world to make it possible for us to belong in his world and to belong to his family. But if we who believe refuse to confess that basic truth before men, Jesus warned us that he will refuse to confess us before the Father:

Matthew 10

32. Everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.

When Paul called believers “brothers” and “sisters”, he was confessing Christ and his family before men. Paul understood that all who believe have the same heavenly Father, and he lived his life as though the family of God really was his family. That was not evil for Paul to do. Neither does that mean that Paul was unkind or unmindful of the feelings and needs of any earthly relatives that he had. He said he grieved constantly for his unbelieving “kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:1-3). We never hear of any of Paul’s close natural relatives coming to Christ, but he must have maintained some sort of relationship with some of them, even if a small one. Paul’s sister’s son, you will recall, was visiting him in prison in Caesarea when the lad overheard some Jews making plans to murder Paul (Acts 23:12-16).

Special

Paul exhorted the saints to do good to everyone, as opportunity presented itself, but then he added, “especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). In this, Paul was telling the saints that to do good to God’s children is more important than to do good to others. What made Paul’s exhortation a godly one is that doing good to “those of the household of faith” pleases God more than doing good to others. God “loved the world” and gave His Son for the sins of all; still, He holds His children dearer than He does worldly people, and everything in the Bible, rightly divided, teaches us that.

God, speaking through Moses on one occasion and the young prophet Zechariah on another, told His Old Testament people that among all nations, they were “the apple of my eye” (Dt. 32:10; Zech. 2:8). There will come a time, appointed for us of the Father, when we will be called upon to confess that Moses and Zechariah, as well as Christ Jesus and Paul, and others like them, were really speaking for God and that they really meant what they said. God’s family is special to Him, and while He may be willing, at this moment in time, to forgive and receive sinners, He will in the end destroy them forever if they do not repent, and He make sure the wicked never trouble His dear children again.

At some point in your pilgrimage, my brothers and sisters, you will be asked by God to confess His Son and His family before men. That family begins with God’s Son, your brother, Jesus, and it includes all who love God as Jesus does. But be prepared for the hatred and the slander that will follow your confession. The world abhors and scoffs at the very idea of anyone belonging to a real, distinguishable family of God in Christ; therefore, when any of God’s children testify to the reality of that sweet, holy family, and testify of their participation in it, they will feel both the contempt of ungodly men and the burning heat of the world’s cruel wrath.

Desiring Whatever He Gives

2010-11-16T08:57:00.004-05:00

“Let the righteous smite me; it will be a kindness.

Let him reprove me; it will be an excellent oil which will not break my head."

Psalm 141:5

Straightening up the papers on a desk in my office this morning, I ran across an old letter from Brother Ray Lawson, dated May 1, 2009. (That says something, I guess, about the condition of my office.) Anyway, as I was going through those papers, I found several letters from Brother Ray that I had saved, and in one of them, I had underlined this sentence, in red ink:

"God sure wants to love us, so let us want to love all that He has for us."

May God give us the wisdom to desire whatever He has for us, as Ray said. Faith does that. How sad it would be if we refused any goodness from our heavenly Father, whether His goodness is expressed in some great blessing or some great trial! Either way, God is loving us and making us more like Him, if we will have it.

Who Are You Going to Kiss?

2010-11-14T13:18:00.000-05:00

“Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.”

1Thessalonians 5:26

There are some things that belong only to the children of God, just as there are things that belong only to the world. When Paul exhorted the saints in Thessalonica to greet the other believers there with a holy kiss, he was not telling them to kiss everybody. If they went around kissing everybody, there would surely have been sinners who would misunderstand what those people were doing. Some effeminate men of the world might assume that the brethren who kissed them were looking for a date!

As I said, there are some things that belong only to the family of God.

Thinking on this brought up a question within me today. If the proof of someone being born again is not the baptism of the holy ghost, with the evidence of the Spirit speaking in tongues through the person it baptizes, how then would God’s children know whom to kiss? How would they be able to judge who is a brother and who is not? Are we left to make up our own minds as to who is a believer and who is not? Or are we to kiss everyone who claims to belong to Christ? If so, what about those whom Paul said “made themselves out to be apostles of Christ”, or those Paul called “false brethren”, or the ones Jesus warned us of, the “false prophets”? If we are to judge things ourselves, or trust the testimony of men and embrace as brothers and sisters all who claim to be brothers and sisters, how could there be any such thing as a “false brother”? Jesus certainly did not believe people when they testified to his face that they believed in him (Jn. 2:23-25). Are we to think differently from the way our Master thinks?

It is such a blessing for us all that our heavenly Father has kept it in His own power to declare who is His and who is not. He alone knows the hearts of men, and He alone, then, knows when a person has truly repented. This is what Peter stressed to the elders in Jerusalem when some of them did not want to accept the fact that Jesus had baptized Gentiles into the kingdom of God. He stood up and told them, “God, who knows the heart, bore them witness, giving them the holy ghost, as He did unto us” (Acts 15:8).

God alone knows when the inner man has been forgiven and washed from sin. Man’s testimony carries no weight in heaven, and it carries no weight in the hearts of those who are in tune with heaven. God alone gives the witness of it. Paul said that God does this by sending His holy Spirit into our hearts, “crying, ‘abba’ Father!” John said that God bears witness by sending the Spirit into our fleshly temples, the Spirit “confessing that Christ has come into the flesh.” Jesus told Nicodemus that we would hear the sound (or “voice”) of the Spirit every time someone is born of the Spirit.

The principal reason that those holy men of God made it so clear how to know who really has the Spirit and belongs to the family of God (for without the Spirit, we are “none of his” - Rom. 8:9b) is so that we would not go around giving the holy kiss of fellowship to everybody who claims to be of God.

Please allow me to ask you, how do you know whom to greet as a brother, by a kiss or any other acceptable greeting, if you do not wait for the Spirit’s testimony to confirm that someone’s sins have been washed away? Paul wrote, “No man can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’, but by the holy ghost” (1Cor. 12:3). It seems to me that we would do well to remember that, the next time someone testifies that his sins have been washed away, but he just hasn’t yet received the holy ghost.

Empowered to Hate

2010-11-09T08:51:00.002-05:00

“The world cannot hate you,

but it hates me because I testify of it,

that its works are evil.”

Jesus, in John 7:7

I had always understood the above verse to mean, “The world doesn’t hate you”, but that is not what the Lord said. He said, “The world cannot hate you....” Recently, the Lord brought that verse to my attention and helped me understand what he was really saying to his earthly brothers, Mary’s other sons.

Jesus told his brothers that the world could not hate them, and then he told them why the world could not hate them, but could hate him: they did not testify to the world, that its deeds were evil, but he did. The fundamental reason that the world crucified Jesus instead of his brothers was that Jesus brought light into the world; that is, he brought the knowledge of God to men, which is the knowledge of what is truly good AND of what is truly evil. Standing before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, “For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth” (Jn. 18:37). Jesus’ example showed us that “bearing witness to the truth” includes pointing out to men what is evil as well as what is good.

But why is it that the world cannot hate unless someone speaks the truth concerning its evil deeds? It is because the truth, when it is spoken, has power. It creates. Within the hearts of the good, it creates a love for righteousness that they did not previously know. The truth, when it is spoken, elevates those who love God to a new level of communion with Him. It empowers them to become more like Jesus. That is why those who love God in their hearts love the truth when they hear it, and love the messengers who speak it to them. On the other hand, the truth, when it is spoken, elevates the ungodly to a new level of hatred for Christ and his servants. It empowers and embolden them to become more like the devil. That is why the ungodly, especially those who are religious, hate the truth when they hear it, and hate the messengers who speak it to them. When Jesus spoke, it empowered the world to hate as it had never hated before.

Only the truth gives men power to hate as Satan hates. God’s truth changes everything when it comes, with changes that cannot be undone. Everyone who hears the truth is changed by it, whether for good or for evil. Those who are “of the world” and hear the truth are empowered by the truth to be more evil than they are, to hate as never before, beyond the power of ordinary men. Likewise, those who are “of God” are empowered by the truth to be more of what they really are, to love as never before, to be good beyond the power of ordinary men. The truth brings out and magnifies whatever is hidden in the hearts of men.

The world cannot hate you if you do not reprove its “works of darkness”. Whoever is like Jesus testifies against the ungodly conduct of men. And those who dare to do that will be mightily blessed, the way Jesus said they would be: “Blessed are you when people revile and persecute you, and say every evil thing against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be glad! Your reward is great in heaven, for that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Mt. 5:11-12).

Unless you confess the truth before men, you will never know that blessing.

True Forgiveness

2010-10-20T14:38:00.000-04:00

“He who covers his sins will not prosper,

but he who confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy.”

Proverbs 26:13

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just

to forgive us our sins,

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1John 1:9

“If your brother sins against you, rebuke him;

and if he repents, forgive him.”

Jesus, in Matthew 18:15 

To have a tender heart and to be willing and ready to forgive is the way Jesus taught us to live, but to be willing to forgive it is different from actually forgiving. No one should be hard-hearted toward those who have done wrong because God was not hard-hearted toward any of us, but true forgiveness only exists as a response to true repentance. True, healing forgiveness is never extended or experienced until the ingredient of repentance is added to the transgression.

To forgive a killer who does not sincerely regret his crime is no more than an invitation for him to kill again. The same can be said of thieves, adulterers, and so forth. The betrayed wife who “forgives” her adulterous husband without him confessing and forsaking his sinful ways cannot be said to be showing him true forgiveness him at all. Rather, through ignorance of how to forgive in a godly manner, she is rewarding him with undeserved pardon and, therefore, encouraging him, if not granting him a license, to continue with his infidelity. She is not showing him either the love or the mercy of God because God isn’t like that. He will not forgive those who do not repent.

To offer forgiveness before the guilty party repents may be "the Christian thing to do", but it is not the godly thing to do. God, who is so full of mercy that His throne is called “the mercy seat”, has never forgiven any sinner who refused His call to repentance. Christians, on the other hand, regularly demand that we forgive unconditionally, which is utter foolishness in the guise of mercy.

Cutting a Covenant

2010-10-11T23:16:00.002-04:00

“I am meek and lowly in heart.”

Jesus, in Matthew 11:29

“He that has seen me, has seen the Father.”

Jesus, in John 14:9

If Jesus is the perfect reflection of the Father (Heb. 1:3), and if he is “meek and lowly”, then what does that reveal to us about the Father? Other than giving His Son for our sins, there can hardly be a more striking demonstration of God’s meek and humble character than what He did in Genesis 15, and yet, because our culture is so different from Abraham’s, almost no one now even realizes what happened.

In modern translations, the Old Testament phrase, “make a covenant” is only an English adaptation of the original Hebrew, which literally says, “cut a covenant”. This Hebrew phrase accurately describes what happened when a covenant was “cut” between two parties. In those times, when agreements were reached in matters of supreme import, it was the ancient custom to show one’s good faith by cutting animals into halves and then walking between the two bloody pieces. There was no need for words to be spoken. It was clear what was meant: “If I have lied, or if I fail to live up to my promise, I will surrender my life, as this animal surrendered his.” It was the most that anyone making a covenant could do to assure the other person that he would keep his word. The author of Hebrews wrote, “An oath for confirmation is an end of all strife.” In other words, if someone has offered his very life as collateral, that settled the issue.

In Genesis 15, Abraham’s faith was flagging. It had been over ten years since God called him away from all earthly security, away from his country and his protective near-kinsmen to follow the voice of God into a strange and violent country, alone. It have been over ten years since God had promised him children, and now, Abraham and his wife Sarah were growing old, and they were still childless. So, in Genesis 15, when God again visited Abraham, and repeated His promises, Abraham needed help to believe that those things could really ever happen. He pleaded with God, “How can I know it is true?”

God’s response must have astonished the troubled Abraham. He commanded Abraham to “cut a covenant”, to prepare animals for someone to make the supreme oath, the oath on His very life. Abraham knew that he had not made the promises; therefore, he could not be the one expected to pass through the bloody halves of the carcasses. Abraham cut the animals, laid them out on the ground, and waited.

As darkness fell that day, God humbled Himself to a man. He, Himself voluntarily swore on His own eternal life to His friend Abraham that He would do as He had promised. There was nothing more that Abraham could ask for confirmation. God had (technically) given to Abraham authority to take God’s life if He failed to fulfill the promises He had made. The reader of the Bible will note that Abraham never again asked God to assure him of the promises.

The author of Hebrews speaks about this incredible moment in Old Testament history. He did not explain the details to his readers as I have done for you, for they already understood what “cutting a covenant” meant, but he did refer to key elements of the event. He summed up what happened by saying that God had confirmed His word to Abraham by “two immutable things”. The first of these two things he expressly mentions; namely that God cannot lie. But the second “immutable” thing, the writer does not mention, possibly out of reverence for God and certainly because his readers already knew what that second “immutable thing” was: God cannot die.

God cannot lie, and God cannot die. He promised Abraham that He would protect and bless him, and He cannot lie; and then, He swore on His own life, and God cannot die.

Our heavenly Father wants us to rest in His promises, to trust Him so much that we are at peace. He offered Abraham His life, using the death of animals, to get the point across to Abraham. How much more, then, should we rest in His love for us when He has given us His life, using the death of His Son? Paul pointed this out in Romans 8:32: “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?”

The Simple Law of God

2010-09-01T05:47:00.004-04:00

"He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you,

but to do justly, to love mercy,

and to walk humbly before your God?"

Micah 6:8

For many years now, I have taught that ancient Israel failed in her walk with God because the Law that God gave to Israel was so simple, not because it was so hard. Israel, I have taught, simply did not have the faith to believe that God was as good and generous as Moses' Law showed Him to be. Nor could they believe that God would supply all their needs in this life and give them eternal life in the world to come if they did only the few simple things God required of them in the Law.

It is a blessing to hear this simple, undeniable truth stated from a different angle by others. The following is an excerpt from a paper being written now by my daughter, Rebekah, who is in the graduate school of theology at Fuller Seminary, in Pasadena.

"If serving YHWH [the principle Hebrew name for God] was a back-breaking task, one would expect that Israel would fail to serve Him properly in the areas of the Law which were exceptionally difficult to carry out. If the problem was with the law-giver and not the law-followers, then one would expect to read about either a group of dedicated people who tried as hard as they could to obey but always fell short and paid the cruel price or a group of people who did not even attempt to obey the difficult parts of the Law because they felt it was a pointless endeavor. Yet, each time we see Israel angering God, it is in the simplest things. It is in ways that cause the engaged reader to no doubt share in God’s feelings of frustration, disgust, and disappointment. "Do not worship other gods." "Take care of the poor." "Treat one another justly and righteously." "Love God." Are these commandments really so taxing? How could they be less taxing? Surely they are less taxing than the demands of the gods they chose to worship instead — gods such as Molech, whose appeasement and protection required mothers to watch babies they had nurtured inside and outside of their bodies for nearly a year burn in the merciless hands of its graven image."

Is that not an excellent, undeniable fact of biblical history? Anyone who knows the OT knows those words of true. The overall goal of Rebekah's paper will be to compare the behavior of Israel, rejecting the simplicity of God for the cruel and complex ways of other gods, to the behavior of NT believers, rejecting the simple and pure way of life in the holy Spirit for the ostentatious, ritualistic ways of earthly religions, especially the religious system known as "Christianity".

I am thankful for the truth and for the ones God has also blessed to be able to spread it. Jesus confessed before Pontius Pilate that his whole purpose for coming to earth was to "bear witness to the truth". Now, what are we here for?

True Liberty

2010-08-30T02:12:00.006-04:00

What is it that you want that God does not want for you? Whatever it is, if there is anything, you are to that extent in bondage. This is the most prevalent form of bondage that exists on earth, though often unrecognized for what it is. Most people in this world are in bondage to themselves, to their own desires, rather than to the will of others.

I heard my father say many, many times, "I only want what God wants." The extent to which we can say that, and mean it, is the extent to which we are truly free in Christ Jesus, who himself wanted most of all to have only what God wanted for him.

True liberty is first and foremost, liberty from yourself. If you are not dominated by your own lusts, your own will, or your own opinions, but are instead subdued to the will of God for you, then you are among the few who are truly free.

Speaking Truth in the Heart

2010-08-19T11:43:00.003-04:00

"LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?

who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

He that walks uprightly, and works righteousness,

and speaks the truth in his heart."

Psalm 15:1-2

"Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. . ."

Psalm 51:6

The real challenge for us all is to be honest with ourselves about ourselves. Jeremiah warned us that the human heart “is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9), and the one person that a man’s heart most often deceives is himself. God’s grace is God’s offer to deliver us from the bondage of our own hearts; it is the offer for heavenly strength, the strength for us to tell ourselves the truth about ourselves. Without that grace, every man is a liar, and hopelessly so.

God desires truth to reign in our hearts, the truth about Him and His Son Jesus, the truth about ourselves, the truth about those whom we love the most, and the truth about everyone else in our world.

May God help us to be honest with ourselves about ourselves. His will is to deliver us from every secret thing about ourselves that is not holy. If we are honest enough to confess to Him the truth about ourselves, He is faithful and loving enough to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

David pleaded with God to “cleanse me from secret faults” (Ps. 19:12b). He did not mean that those faults of his were secrets from God. He knew better. He wanted God to cleanse him from those things that were a secret to others, and maybe even to himself, so that he could truly be the man that some people thought he was. And in the end, because David spoke the truth about himself in his own heart, he truly did become that man.

Forced Conversion

2010-06-23T23:37:00.001-04:00

Forced Conversion

"And the lord said unto the servant,
Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in,
that my house may be filled."
Jesus, in Luke 14:23

When Christian missionaries came to America with the early Spanish explorers, they brought with them the mind set of religious totalitarianism. Their offer to American Indians could be summed up as this: "Convert to our religion, or die!" Many an Indian in the new world was burned at the stake because he or she refused to cease from their old ways and agree to be baptized into the Catholic faith.

The Christian faith is a faith of ceremony; it is a religion that is "in the flesh". Therefore, men can be forced to participate in it. But the way of Christ is "in the Spirit"; it is a way of the heart. There are no ceremonies in Christ. His way is that way of life. Therefore, no one can be forced to partake of it. Even in the Old Testament, God refused to accept any sacrifice that was not willingly offered. Much more is that the case in this New Covenant of Jesus Christ.

If your religion is a kind of religion that someone can be forced to participate in, then your religion is not God’s religion. Men can force other men to submit to a religious ceremony, such as Christian baptism, but no one can be forced to partake of Christ. Who can force Christ to baptize anyone, or teach anyone, or heal anyone, or hold communion with anyone? The Lord of heaven and earth does the will of the Father, not the will of men. He will baptize, but only if a soul truly repents. He will heal, but only is a soul truly has faith. He will teach, but only if a soul truly humbles itself at his feet. He will grant communion, but only in spirit; never in the flesh.

Because those who find the truth want so badly for others to find it, too, they are often accused of trying to force others to believe it. That is not the case. No one can be forced to believe or to participate in the true gospel. When Jesus told his disciples to "compel them to come in," he did not mean to threaten to burn people at the stake if they did not submit to you. He meant only for us to testify to what he has done for us and to be so full of love and joy and peace that those around us are provoked to come and know Christ for themselves.

Unbelieving Disciples

2010-06-23T23:34:00.001-04:00

“But there are some of you who don’t believe.”
Jesus, in John 6:64
There is a type of believing that was impossible for those who were under the Old Testament law, including Jesus’ own disciples. When Jesus came and purchased God’s Spirit for us by his sacrificial death, he brought about a new kind of life, with a new kind of believing. Of course, Jesus’ disciples believed as much as humans could possibly believe without the Spirit, and they loved Jesus as much as humans could love him, but God’s love would fill their hearts when the Spirit came, and then they would be capable of a faith they previously knew nothing about.
But Jesus also had some disciples who did not believe at all. They followed him even to remote places, and they listened to him teach; still, they did not believe in him. Of course, if you had asked them if they believed, they would have said they certainly did, but it was not so. It seems impossible that such a thing could be, but it is actually very common, even today. There have always been people who are attracted by the happiness of faith that they see in others, even though they do not themselves have faith. They want the benefits of righteousness that they see in others, but they do not have a heart for it themselves. In John 6, we are given an example of such disciples of Jesus:
John 6
60. When many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?”
61. But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Does this offend you?
62. Then what if you should see the Son of man ascending to where he was before?
63. It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is worthless. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.
64. But there are some of you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn’t believe and who it was who would betray him.)
Because these men did not believe, but were following Jesus for their own misguided reasons, they could not endure the doctrine he taught. Jesus knew from the beginning that these men did not believe, but instead of telling them not to follow him, he simply did his work and let them figure it out for themselves. Eventually, on their own, they came to the conclusion that Jesus was not the man they expected him to be. They forsook him, and they no doubt considered themselves fortunate to have escaped from what they would have called the Jesus of Nazareth cult.
It is ironic that what those unbelieving disciples did is recorded in verse 6:66:
John 6:66: From that time, many of his disciples turned back to former things and no longer walked with him.

Principalities

2010-06-18T20:36:00.003-04:00

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this world,

against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Paul, in Ephesians 6:12

At one point, Daniel prayed and sought God for three weeks before an answer from heaven came to him. When that answer came, it came in the form of a visit from an angel. None of us would have expected or even believed what the angel said to Daniel if it were not plainly written in the Bible. He told Daniel that he had been sent to him when Daniel first began praying, but that he had been prevented from arriving for three weeks by an evil spirit. He even identified the evil spirit, calling him “the prince of the kingdom of Persia”. Moreover, he was only able to overcome that spirit’s opposition and finally come to Daniel only with the aid of the great archangel, Michael:

Daniel 10

2. In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks.

3. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled.

4. And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel,

5. I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz.

6. His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

7. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision. The men who were with me saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.

8. Therefore I was left alone, and I saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.

9. Yet, I heard the voice of his words, and when I heard the voice of his words, then I was in a deep sleep on my face, and my face was toward the ground.

10. And, behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.

11. And he said unto me, “O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto you, and stand upright, for unto you am I now sent.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling.

12. Then said he unto me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to chasten yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I am come because of your words.

13. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days. But, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia.”

There are two unexpected but wonderful lessons we may learn from what the angel told Daniel.

Lesson #1: Nations Have Spirits

We know from experience that individual humans have different spirits. One man may have a spirit of covetousness, another man may have a spirit of lustfulness, etc. An astonishing fact of life in the world of spirits that we learn from the angel is that nations, too, may have spirits. Individual nations have specific evil spirits attached to them, apparently giving them their distinctive characteristics. The angel called the spirit attached to the Persian Empire, “the prince of the kingdom of Persia”. I assume that the prince of that empire gave some sort of aid to the Persian leaders, perhaps increasing their strength and wisdom.

This idea of nations having specific evil spirits over them seems to be confirmed a few verses later in Daniel 10, when the heavenly messenger tells Daniel that he must leave to do battle with the prince of Persia and that, after he leaves, the prince of the Greek nation will come:

20. Then said he, “. . . And now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come.”

This was not a human prince any more than the prince of the Persians was a human prince. Human princes could not have prevented an angel of God from coming to Daniel. This was a spiritual being that was given charge over the Greek nation, to increase the strength and wisdom of the Greeks.

Moreover, the angel revealed to Daniel that there was a “prince” of the Jewish nation! And he told Daniel that the prince’s name was Michael:

21. But I will show you that which is noted in the scripture of truth. And there is none that holds with me in these things, but Michael your prince.

Was this heavenly messenger saying here that no spiritual prince of any nation of earth held to the truth except Michael, the prince of the nation of Israel? That would certainly make biblical sense, for no other nation on earth had a connection with God such as Israel had. In the end of this age, all the nations of earth will be inspired by their princes to follow the beast and gather as one army to do battle with Israel, to try to destroy that tiny, lonely nation (Zech. 14:2; Rev. 16:13-16).

In the last chapter of Daniel, the angel told Daniel that Michael would play a role in the events of the last days, and he described Michael as “the great prince who stands up for the children of your people . . . and then, your people will be delivered” (12:1).

It appears that Michael alone, of all the mighty angels given power over the nations, held to the truth. This would explain why Michael and the angels under him were granted the very great privilege of fighting against Satan and his angels, and of casting them out of heaven after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the Father:

Revelation 12

7. And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels warring against the dragon, and the dragon waging war, and his angels,

8. but he did not prevail, neither was there place found for him in heaven any longer.

9. And the great dragon also was cast down, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the entire world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Lesson #2: Rulers

It is impossible to believe that only the nations of Persia, Greece, and Israel had an angel that was their “prince”, or ruler. The kingdom that preceded the Persians, the Babylonian Empire, would have had a demonic “prince” over it, and the Roman Empire which came after the Greeks would also have had its spiritual guardian and guide. I suspect that every nation on earth has a wicked spiritual ruler, including the United States, and that under each of those invisible national rulers are other evil powers which are over provinces and states, and over counties, parishes, and perhaps even over towns.

Jesus did not argue with the devil when he told Jesus that power over all the nations of the world had been handed over to him (Lk. 4:6). Paul himself called Satan “the god of this world” (2Cor. 4:4), and so it seems obvious that Satan rules over the angels who are “princes” of the nations. Jesus mentioned “the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25:41) when he spoke of the everlasting fire that is prepared for them, and he also said that Satan’s kingdom was not divided (Mt. 12:25-26). In other words, Satan’s kingdom is well-organized, and its rulers, from the highest to the lowest rank, work together as a disciplined unit.

There are, as Paul said, “principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). But what we may glean from the angel’s words who came from heaven and spoke with Daniel is that there is order in the realm of angels and demons. That is, there are angels who rule over other angels, and there are demons who rule over other demons. Michael is called an archangel by the apostle Jude (1:9). The Greek word “arch” means “chief” or “ruler”, which is more evidence that Michael ruled over some other angels. Satan is a cherub, and he is also said to have angels over which he rules.

One Mediator

It is the privilege of the nation of saints no longer to be ruled over by the “spirits of this age”. Those who have been “born again” are citizens of a heavenly country. They are free to live according to “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”. For them, there is no longer any fallen angel governing them, for although they are still in fleshly bodies, they no longer live after the flesh but after the Spirit. Jesus said that the children of God are even free from the obligation to pay taxes to earthly governments; though, for the sake of sinners who may be looking for the truth, they should do so (Mt. 17:25-27).

Matthew 17

25. And when [Simon Peter] came into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take customs or poll-tax? From their children or from strangers?”

26. Peter said to him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Well, then, the children are free.

27. But, so that we be no stumbling block to them, you go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you’ve opened its mouth, you’ll find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and for you.”

For the children of God, there is but one mediator between God and them, “the man, Jesus Christ” (1Tim. 2:5). The nations are still held in the grip of demon overlords, but those who believe are delivered from them all, and they will replace those angels when our Lord returns and will reign over the nations with Christ a thousand years:

Revelation 20

4. Then, I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was granted to them. And I saw the souls of those who were beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the Beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their forehead or their hand, and they came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Jesus taught that, in the resurrection, some saints will be given greater authority than others (Lk. 19:12-26), according to the ability of each one. Also in the resurrection, some saints will be ruling over other saints, just as it is now among God’s people in this present life (Heb. 13:7, 17, 24). Even on the new earth, after this heaven and this earth are destroyed, there will be some (Paul, Daniel, Noah, and others) who will be made kings, to reign over certain parts of that blessed world (Rev. 21:24).

Paul told the saints in Corinth that when Christ returns, the saints of God would be given authority to judge both the world and angels (1Cor. 6:2-3). During the thousand-year reign, we will judge the world, and on the new earth, we will judge the world and angels. In this life, man was “made a little lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:6-7), but in the life to come, we will reign over all creation as “joint-heirs with Christ” who is the king of angels and of everyone else, except the Father.

May God grant us the wisdom to learn of His kingdom now, and to grow in grace and the knowledge of God so that we might be found worthy to reign with Christ forever.

Psalm 38

2010-05-18T17:13:00.004-04:00

I said, “Hear me! Lest when my foot slips,

they exalt themselves against me.”

Psalm 38:16

The writer of Psalm 38 was in an extraordinarily difficult place. He was suffering in three different ways at the same time. First, God had stripped him of his health because he had committed great offences against God:

1. O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath; neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.

2. For your arrows stick fast in me, and your hand presses me sore.

3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

4. For my iniquities are gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

5. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

6. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

7. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh.

8. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

9. Lord, all my desire is before you; and my groaning is not hidden from you.

10. My heart pants, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.

Secondly, he is suffering extreme loneliness because all of his family and friends have backed away from him. He does not state why, but it is either that his sins have made them angry with him or that his sickness is so vile that they cannot bear to be around him, or both.

11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague; and my relatives stand afar off.

Lastly, he is suffering at the hands of those who hate him, who are taking advantage of the opportunity to put him down, now that he has erred and the Lord is chastening him:

12. They also that seek after my life lay snares for me, and those who seek my hurt speak destruction, and plan deception all the day long.

13. But I, as a deaf man, do not hear; and I am as a mute man who opens not his mouth.

14. Thus I was as a man that does not hear not, and in whose mouth is no response.

15. For in you, O Lord, do I hope. You will hear, O Lord my God.

16. For I said, “Hear me, lest they rejoice over me. When my foot slips, they magnify themselves against me.

17. For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me.

18. For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.”

19. But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong: and those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied.

20. Those also who render evil for good are my adversaries, because I follow what is good.

So, the Lord is chastening him for the evil he has done, his enemies are rejoicing at his suffering and are trying to finish him off because of the good he has done, and his family and friends have deserted him until they see what happens next.

This suffering man knew he had sinned; he knew no one on earth could help him, or even wanted to help him; and he knew there were many who were determined to destroy him. He also knew beyond all doubt that His only hope was to somehow obtain mercy from God, and he threw himself helplessly at His feet.

21. Forsake me not, O Lord. O my God, be not far from me.

22. Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.

Is there anyone who can doubt that God had mercy on this man who was so completely honest with himself about his sins and who cried out so meekly for help from the Almighty?

Ashamed

2010-04-12T09:57:00.002-04:00

Taken from a recent text message from Jammie Curtsinger

Our prayer is to be so full of God's spirit that other spirits are ashamed to be around us! And if are we not full of the Spirit, then we ought to be ashamed to be around others!

God’s Righteousness

2010-04-10T05:03:00.001-04:00

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Paul, in Romans 10:3

When you walk in the Spirit of Christ, you cannot believe a lie because the Spirit of Christ will not allow a lie to enter into your heart. Nobody could lie to Jesus because he walked in the Spirit, and he suffered and died so that we might also walk in it.

As a young man, after he was converted, my father was boasting one day to an elderly mother in Christ of his new way of living. The wise old saint listened patiently as the young convert told of how he used to tell lies, but did no more. Then she replied, “Oh, Brother Clark, there’s something better than not telling lies.”

“What’s that?”

“Not believing them..”

That mother in Christ was actually reproving my father for boasting in his righteousness rather than rejoicing in God’s. What we can do within our own strength and will is our righteousness; what we can only do by the power of God is His righteousness. We can make up our own minds to tell no lie, but no amount of will-power can save us from believing a lie. Only God’s power living within us can do that.

Paul said, “If any man boast, let it be in the Lord.” That means, if we are going to boast about being good, let it be a boast of the kind of goodness that only God can create in us. Sinners can make up their minds not to commit adultery, but they cannot purify their hearts from wicked lusts. They can, with their own will-power, decide not to murder, but they cannot fill their hearts with the love of God for others.

Christ came to make God’s righteousness available to us, through the Spirit. This is another reason why, without the Spirit, no man can please God and be saved in the end, or even belong to God’s family.

Lawlessness, Part 2: Forgiven

2010-04-07T12:23:00.002-04:00

Blessed are they whose lawlessness is forgiven!”

David, in Psalm 32:1, and Paul, in Romans 3:4

Moses told Israel that the law God was their life (Deut. 32:47). Later, David said, “The law is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Both these great men understood that God’s law is the light of our lives; that is, God’s law helps us to understand life and to live it as it should be lived. In the New Testament, the Spirit of God has replaced the Old Testament law written on paper. It is the same law, given from the same God, but it is in a different place – within us, rather than in a book that we must read in order to know it. The holy law which God gave to Israel is now written in our hearts by the Spirit, and we are liberated from ignorance of God by “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” which “has made us free from the law of sin and death.”

The apostle John, long after the law of Moses was fulfilled in Christ, still defined sin as “transgression of the law” (1Jn. 3:4). That is because the law that God has written in our hearts by the Spirit is the same law that He gave to Moses and Israel. The law of God given to Israel was not destroyed by Christ; it was fulfilled and confirmed by him! “Don’t suppose that I’ve come to destroy the Law or the prophets; I didn’t come to destroy but to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17).

When Jesus was here, he promised his disciples that he would make a way for them to walk in the “light of life”; that is, he would make a way for them to have God’s holy Spirit within them, guiding them through this life. In fact, that is the very thing that the Son of God came to earth to do. He said, “I am come that they might have life” (Jn. 10:10). He could just as well have said, “I am come that they might have the Spirit” because, as Paul said, “the Spirit is life” (Rom. 8:10).

Through the ancient prophets, God had promised that one day He would write His law on our hearts. That is, He would find a way to put His law within our hearts so that we would sense it when we were going in a wrong direction, or going in the right one, so that we would be able to recognize good thoughts from evil ones, or true words from false ones. And God did this so that He could rescue us from lawlessness, from not having God’s law governing our feelings, thoughts, words, and deeds. God loved us too much to leave us to ourselves to judge what is right and wrong. And He accomplished that great mercy when He sent His Son to die for our sins so that we could receive His Spirit and have His law within us, guiding us every day in every situation and letting us know every moment what is godly (i.e., lawful) behavior and what is lawlessness, or sin.

It is impossible for men without God’s Spirit to live according to God’s law because we are all born lawless, that is, we are born into this world without the Spirit of God within us. That is why Paul said, “The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be.” No one without God’s Spirit can obey God’s law because the Spirit is the only thing that lets us know what God’s law is. We are born lawless and we will die lawless unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.

Paul quoted David in Romans 4:7, and said, “Blessed are they whose lawlessness is forgiven!” Amen to that! It is a precious opportunity that we are offered in Christ to be born anew, to have all our former lawless behavior forgiven, to be given a heart that discerns right from wrong, and to be brought under the perfect law of Christ.

Lawlessness, Part 1: anomia

2010-03-26T18:05:00.002-04:00

“Who gave himself for us,

that he might redeem us from all lawlessness”

Titus 2:14

“You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the

oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

Hebrews 1:9

When I began to work on my New Testament translation, a particular Greek word, anomia, caught my attention. That word, anomia, is usually translated “iniquity” in the King James Version even though it actually means “lawlessness”, or more literally, “without law”. In the beginning, I followed the example of the King James and other translators by translating anomia as “iniquity”, but something about doing that did not settle with my spirit. The more I worked on the translation, the more I began to think that “iniquity” did not adequately express what the writers of the New Testament intended with the word anomia. In the end, I decided that “lawlessness” is the only word that communicates what they intended to say.

John defined what sin itself is in 1John 3:4, using anomia. He wrote, “Everyone who does sin also does lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness [anomia].” By using the word anomia, John was teaching the children of God what sin really is; that is, sin is whatever is not according to God’s law. If in 1John 3:4, one were to translate anomia as “iniquity”, it would read, “sin is iniquity”. But what good would that statement be? Everybody knows that sin is iniquity. But not everybody knows that sin is living contrary to God’s law! Not everybody understands that sin is lawlessness! One can say “sin is iniquity” or “iniquity is sin”, and nothing is explained because both mean the same thing. But when John said, “sin is lawlessness”, he was educating us in the things of God. Iniquity is defined for us when we accurately translate John’s words.

Law Provides Social Boundaries

All of us need boundaries. We need to live with an awareness of what is appropriate behavior and speech. That is why God gave His law to man. Before God gave His law to Israel, rulers of other nations had devised laws of their own. I have studied several of these law codes, such as the famous Code of Hammurabi, and I am sure that they seemed very good to the people who crafted them. But those laws fell far short of teaching men what is truly right and wrong. God’s law, however, was perfect. It revealed a righteousness that no other law code had shown to mankind. God’s law taught men what kind of conduct was truly appropriate. People could please God and benefit their neighbors by walking in His law.

In our debased culture, we see lawless behavior everywhere we look. It is common now to hear foul language on street corners or in cafeterias, from the mouths of the old as well as the young and foolish, and to see people, young and old, dressed inappropriately in public places. Many people now seem to lack a sense of decency and order. That is lawlessness. That is what sin is. It is behavior that is not governed by the wisdom of God; it is life without an awareness of God’s presence. Lawlessness is to live without being guided by the law of God, without being aware of the boundaries of right conduct. In short, lawlessness is to walk in the flesh rather than in the Spirit because the flesh is lawless.

In this covenant, to be lawless is to be Spiritless. When we receive the Spirit, we receive the law of God into our hearts; God’s feelings, God’s thoughts, God’s will becomes a part of us. This is what Peter meant when he said that the children of God “have been made partakers of the divine nature.” Because God knows what is right, those with His Spirit can feel that knowledge guiding them. Because God loves people, those with His Spirit can sense what is appropriate behavior around people. Because God is wise, those with His Spirit within discern it when an unclean spirit of this age draws near. That being guided by the Spirit, that inner sensing of what is good, that discernment, is living, as Paul said, “under law to God,” and every other way of living is sin because every other way is lawlessness.

The “Self-Esteem” Agenda

2010-03-23T17:27:00.004-04:00

“I am a worm, and no man.”

Christ, in Psalm 22:6

“What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

David, in Psalm 8:6

An essay on self-esteem by Token Embry.

Self-Esteem is an important component of society today. Society frowns upon criticism of a child’s character. Yet the gospel teaches that in us, “there is no good thing” (Rom. 7:18) The point of the gospel is that we are born in need of some help from Jesus. We do not know how to choose what is good and right without the spirit to guide us in all truth. We are inherently bad creatures. We are inherently wrong in our hearts because we do not know God. This is opposite of what so many teachers, counselors and even parents will say to children today.

When I was a child in elementary school, the whole school was brought to the auditorium for an assembly on “Self-Esteem”. In an effort to teach us how wonderful we were, we sang over and over a one-line song, “I am special; I’m important; I’m unique.” I and many of my classmates were embarrassed. We avoided the microphone as it was passed around for us to sing into. But our teachers all encouraged us to sing it and sing it loud! This incident shows just how self-focused we were taught to be, and that symbolizes the whole approach to education that I received growing up by well-meaning adults.

In order to reach Jesus at some point, every child who was asked to sing that song will have to come to a different place where they say in their hearts, “No. There is nothing good about me. It is your love, Jesus, that has given me the wonderful life I have. I did not inherently deserve it or even know how to desire what was right. But you do, and I want what you want for me, not my own ways. I need your help to find what is right.” The point of the Gospel is that we need God’s help. We should seek him and pray to get it. It is a “pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:46). But if we are so “special, important and unique” then how can we admit fault and our need of help?

The Gospel teaches us that if there is anything good about us, it comes from above, from God’s life in us. It is His spirit that shows us how to love the ones we love and how to be good, like our Father. While it is God’s “good pleasure to give us the kingdom” (Luke 12:32), we can not forget it comes from him. What we need today is to know that God’s thoughts and feelings in us are not our own. We cannot have right thoughts without God. And we need to stop taking credit for what God gives us, confusing them as our own, but rather to enjoy freely the wonderful gifts they are. We need to esteem them so highly that no man can persuade us otherwise. To be so thrilled that God has rescued us, we do not let go of his instruction. To be so hungry for His Voice, that the sound overtakes any other sound around us. What we need is God-Esteem, not self-esteem.