God's Will and Loving People

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God,
and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. . . .
He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God because God is love. . . .
If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us."
1John 4: 7-8, 12

You will never have to choose between doing the will of God and loving people. You will never have to choose between walking in the will of God and walking in the love of God. They are the same thing.

Your Testings

From a testimony by Uncle Joe, early 1960's.

"Your testings make you bitter or better."

What Looks Good to You?

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."
1Chronicles 16:29

"Then I heard something like the sound of a large multitude,
and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of strong thunderings,
saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad! Let us give glory to Him because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready!"
John, in Revelation 19:4-5

"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared like a bride adorned for her husband."
John, in Revelation 21:2

Some folk are put off by the children of God when the Spirit falls on them and they respond with joy and praise. But it looks pretty to me. The world is impressed with lovely buildings and somber religious ceremonies. But I would rather see the Spirit fill somebody and feel their relief, or hear their shout of victory than to see the glittering gold and "priceless" antiques of the Vatican any day. The power of God on one of His saints is beautiful, a real work of art; but lovely treasures of earth gained by making false claims and teaching false doctrines about God hold no attraction to anyone in love with Jesus.

What attracts your heart? What really interests you? What do you think is worth your time? We frail mortals attract the attention of God. Our welfare is what most holds His interest, and caring for us occupies all of His Son’s time, day and night. When we are faithful to God, we are happy, and when we are happy, we look very good to Him. (Paul even suggested that those who walk in the Spirit smell good to God!)

When the bride of Christ is prepared for him, she has adorned herself with the beauty of holiness, and she looks good to Jesus. I wonder if it is possible to attract him so much, to be so full of peace and joy, that he would desire to come for her early? I wonder if the bride could become so beautiful to the Lord that he could not bear to be away from her any longer, and he would ask the Father if he can come for her now? I know that Paul said God was ready to avenge all disobedience, when our obedience if fulfilled. And Peter said that we could hasten the coming of the day of the Lord. Could it be possible that Jesus is just waiting for his bride to make herself irresistible?

Emptying Yourself

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, existing in God’s form, did not consider equality with God
as a prize to be seized upon;
instead, he emptied himself, assuming the form of a slave,
made in the likeness of men."
Paul, in Philippians 2:5-7

To save us from death, the Son of God in heaven emptied himself to come here and be like us. He divested himself of all that he had in glory with the Father and was "made in the likeness of men." In return, the gospel demands that we follow the Son’s example. We must repent, which means to empty ourselves to be made like him.

This emptying of oneself is a requirement, for we must be filled with the Spirit in order to be made like Jesus. But as Uncle Joe once said,"God doesn’t fill up anything but empty vessels."

Sister Donna also made a remark one time that says the same thing in others words. She said, "The only good you are to anybody is how alive you are in the Spirit." Isn’t that true? Isn’t our value to others really measured by our closeness to God, who loved the world so deeply that He gave up His only begotten Son for our sins?

May God help us live close to Him so that our lives will truly benefit others.

Altogether vanity

And when they heard these things, everybody in the synagogue was filled with rage, and they rose up and drove him out of the city, and they led him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built, to throw him off the cliff.
Luke 4:28-29

And when it was day, he departed and went to a deserted place, but the crowds looked for him, and they came to him, and they tried to keep him from leaving them.
Luke 4:42

"The sweet psalmist of Israel" once said, "Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity" (Ps. 39:5). This means that no man has anything to offer to God except his sin – and faith that God is indeed faithful to forgive our sins if we confess and forsake them (1Jn. 1:9).

When Jesus walked among us, he "knew what was in man" (Jn. 2:25); therefore, he was not moved by either their hatred of him or their love for him. The people of one city might want him to stay with them forever, while those of another city might want to kill him. If Jesus had given in to either of these two groups, he could not have accomplished his mission. If he had not made the effort to escape the hatred of mobs who wanted to kill him before the Father’s appointed time, he would have come short of fulfilling his mission. And if he had not made the effort to escape the love of disciples who wanted to save him from suffering, he would have also failed in his mission.

Both the love and the hatred of fallen man are worthless to God, and if Jesus had been moved by either of them, he would have failed to accomplish the will of God. The gospel calls for us to acknowledge that everything that fallen man feels and thinks is worthless to God. Paul said it this way, "In me, that is in my flesh [i.e., nature], there is no good thing." If we have been delivered from sin and darkness, it is only because God has done it, and if God has done it, then He did it by Himself because we can do nothing to help God save us. We don’t know what to do to get ourselves out of sin, and we wouldn’t have the power to do it, even if we did know what to do.

Jesus had a disciple who betrayed him, which was evil, with evil intent, and he had a disciple who wanted to keep him from going to the cross, which also was evil, but with good intent. He had disciples who forsook him, feeling malice, because of his doctrine, and he had disciples who clung to him, feeling love for him, even when Jesus wanted to be alone with the Father’s love. But whether they were disciples who forsook Jesus and hated him or disciples who smothered Jesus and loved him, all men were lost, and if Jesus had been moved by either group, we all would have been lost. Thank God that Jesus saw how utterly blind and desperately needy we all are!

If the people of Nazareth had gotten their way, Jesus would have died after his first sermon – and nobody else would have ever heard the good news Jesus preached. But had the people in Capernaum had their way, Jesus would have stayed with them and built up a successful ministry for himself in that city – and nobody else would have ever heard the good news Jesus preached. The result of human hatred and human love is always then same; it is all contrary to the Spirit of God.

God help us, and save us from ourselves! Regardless of intentions, the only result of anything man does on his own is always the same – confusion and death.

Unmoved

"He who does these things will never be moved."
David, in Psalm 15:5

Jesus suffered and died in hope of gaining influence in our lives. He wants to influence us so that he can save us from heartache and, in the end, from eternal death. He loves us and desires nothing but eternal happiness for us – and he knows how to make it happen! If we trust him, and co-operate with him, he will lead us to the happiness we all want, both for ourselves and others. The word "trust" means simply to yield to the sweet influence of Jesus! The happiest people on earth, and the safest, are the ones who are most yielded to the influence of the Spirit of Christ.

In ancient times in heaven, the cherub called Lucifer began to envy God’s influence over His creatures, and he began to lie about God in order to steal some of that influence for himself (Isa. 14:12-14), and it worked, even among many of the angels! Another way to say this is, Lucifer wanted to move others, to share in God’s holy influence over their choices and feelings; he wanted God’s creatures to think of him as they had always only thought of God. And that is still his purpose.

Unmoveable

Whoever influences you has power to move you or to prevent you from moving. The goal of every child of God should be to grow in grace to the point of being "led by the Spirit"; that is, to move only when the Spirit leads one to move. And when the Spirit is not leading you to move, then obedience to God means to "be steadfast, unmoveable," and "established in grace" (1Cor. 15:58; Heb. 13:9).

To remain unmoved by the spirits of this age, in spite of all they say and do, to remain unmoved in our decisions, our thoughts, and our feelings, requires great spiritual strength, but then, that is exactly why Jesus died for us, to give us strength. Paul said it this way, "When we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. . . . God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:6;8).

Many people are moved by fear of death, but Jesus came "that through death he might . . . deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14-15). We see this fearlessness in Paul when he was being warned of the suffering that lay ahead for him by believers who loved him. In Acts 20:22-24, Paul told a group of saints "I am going, bound in the spirit, unto Jerusalem not knowing the things that will befall me there, except that the holy Spirit bares witness [to me] in every city [through which I travel], that bonds and afflictions await me. But none of these things move me; neither do I count my life dear to myself."

Being Moved

King David was moved by Satan once (1Chron. 21:1), and the result was tragic for all of Israel (1Chron. 21:14). David was crushed with grief over the suffering he caused his beloved nation by allowing himself to be moved from perfect trust in God. Over 70,000 of his fellow Israelites died as a direct result of David’s error. The grieving king pleaded with God to let him suffer instead of the people, and God soon forgave him, and Israel’s suffering ended.

Of course, there is more to the story than that. The whole nation had provoked God and brought this terrible disaster on themselves (2Sam. 24:1), and God had sent Satan to move David so that He could chasten Israel for its disobedience. But the point is that it was only by the king being moved by Satan that the suffering came about. Both the king and the nation were chastened by God because the whole nation, including the king, was already doing something (we are not told what) that displeased God.

We hurt ourselves and everyone around us when we are moved. I know that by experience. But I also know that the Lord is for us, not against us, and that he is listening for our cry, as he was listening for David’s, when we find that we have been moved by some strange spirit away from communion with God. He is able and very willing to help us in those times. If you ever find that you have been fooled by the adversary and have moved from your heavenly Father’s peace, don’t even try to cover it up. Confess it and let Him heal you. Don’t be afraid of losing your status among the saints; they are all "helpless pilgrims, just like you", and they will understand, and will respect you even more for being a good example of what to do when we find that we have been moved.

"Leave Them!"

Then his disciples approached him and said,
"Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard that saying?"
But he answered and said,
"Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.
Leave them! They are blind guides of blind people.
And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."
Jesus, in Matthew 15:12-14

It seems difficult for God’s sheep to do as Jesus said for us to do when we perceive that a man is not speaking from God; that is, "Leave them!" Is it that the sheep have such tender hearts that they cannot bear to hurt a man’s feelings by leaving him? Is it that they fear gaining a bad reputation among men? Whatever reasons there may be, disobedience is still disobedience, and Jesus said for his sheep to "Leave them!"

Solomon gave the same wise counsel to his son: "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when you do not perceive in him the words of knowledge" (Prov. 14:7). Leaving ministers who do not teach the truth, and joining oneself to a true servant of God, is a principal part of righteousness because "he who walks with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed." Our souls’ eternal destination is too important for us to be paralyzed by fear of hurting the feelings of fools who would teach us about God, or fear of their displeasure. That is why David encouraged young Solomon to "forsake the foolish, and live! Go in the way of understanding" (Prov. 9:6). There is nothing wrong, and everything right, about forsaking the foolish.

It serves as a good warning for us to be taught that one who refuses to depart from false teachers, refuses to depart because he has already gone astray. Solomon said it this way, "The man who wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead" (Prov. 21:16). Solomon is warning his son that a person is already outside the will of God who stays with a minister whose teaching is not the truth.

What these wise words of Jesus and other servants of God boil down to is this: sometimes, the fastest way to go astray is to go nowhere at all, but just to sit still at the feet of a man who does not know God.

"Over You in the Lord"

"Know them who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord,
and admonish you, and to esteem them very

highly in love for their work’s sake."
Paul, in 1Thessalonian 5:12-13

"Remember them who have the rule over you,
who have spoken to you the word of God, whose faith follow . . . .
Obey those who have the rule over you, and submit yourselves,
for they watch for your souls, as they who must give account . . . ."
Hebrews 13:7, 17

Sometimes, people are uncertain as to who really is "over them in the Lord". They are willing to do as Paul said to do toward elders in the faith, but they don’t know for sure whose faith to follow, whose admonishments they should receive (false teachers sometimes admonish saints for doing right), and whom "to esteem very highly in love for their work’s sake." God’s humble people want to know whose faith to follow and whose teaching to receive. It is easy to find out who is President of the country, or Governor of the state, or Mayor of the city, and so forth. Everyone in the world seems to know what the laws are, even if they break them. But God’s children want to know who is who in Christ, whose commandments to obey and whose authority to submit to, in the kingdom of God.

Here is one way you can always tell who is "over you in the Lord": Whoever is over you in the Lord is genuinely happier for you to be blessed than you are yourself.

The Trees of the Lord

“The trees of the Lord are full of sap.”Ps. 104:16

“Every plant that my Father has not planted will be uprooted.”Jesus, in Matthew 15:13

Throughout history, men have quarreled fiercely, even fought wars, over who is serving God and who is not. The entire history of man can be learned, in general, by following the records of wars and false religion. But Jesus let us know the simple fact of the matter; namely, if God doesn’t make a person His, that person just does not belong to God and will be damned in the Final Judgment. That is what the Lord meant when he said, “Every plant that my Father has not planted will be plucked up.” In the end, only those God has chosen will be saved.

As simple a truth as that is, it has been an extraordinarily difficult truth for men to believe. The nature of man rebels against the notion that God is in absolute control of His kingdom. There are no unguarded borders and no illegal aliens in the kingdom of God. Every person who now shares in God’s kingdom first received a personal invitation from God to leave their own country and kin and come to Him. In other words, to use Jesus’ imagery, there are no trees anywhere in God’s kingdom except the trees He has personally chosen and planted there.

Let’s humble ourselves before God and confess this unchanging truth. Only those whom God cleanses from sin are cleansed from sin. Only those “born of God” are “born again”. Only those called by God can come to Jesus. Only those baptized by God are baptized; only those circumcised by God are circumcised; and the only people on earth who know God are those who have been taught by God.

Until God makes a man worthy of eternal life, that man is unworthy of it, no matter what anyone thinks of him or what he thinks of himself. Earthly titles and reputations count for nothing with God. His precious Son Jesus had a reputation among certain religious leaders for being demon-possessed. That reputation didn’t count with God, either. Men not only can be wrong; men are wrong, all the time, unless God makes them right. And the sooner we confess that truth to ourselves, the sooner we will understand that God is always right and that only those He makes right are right with Him.

Being Hunted

"Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth;
evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him."
Ps. 140:11

Take God’s warning seriously. If you attempt to harm someone, even with your tongue, you will be hunted down by evil. Solomon said that an evil person "flees when no man is in pursuit." That is because, even though no man may be pursuing them, the wicked can sense the wrath of God. Something within them senses that "evil angels from God" are on their trail, and they cannot escape them. The wicked imagine themselves as hunting down the upright, to tear them down, but in fact, by giving themselves to evil, they have only become the hunted.

When Jesus said for us to do good to those who hate you and to pray for those who maltreat us, he was not simply saying, "Y’all disciples be nice, now." Not at all. By that, Jesus was revealing to us the only way of escape from the wrath of God against all unrighteousness. God meant it when He said, "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay." Therefore, if we avenge ourselves, we are not only guilty of disobeying Jesus; we are also guilty of thievery, for you have stolen something that belongs to God alone: vengeance.

Quotes

The following are quotes from a couple of meetings, recorded by Jamie Gregory:

These are quotes from the first night of the new NT study with Pastor John (6/14/08):

"God creates within us the right desires we have by writing His law on our heart."

"The spirit will let you know what is right and what is wrong in every situation. The law of Moses could not do that."

"God despises ceremonies behind which unclean spirits hide. And the most unclean spirits hide behind the most beautiful religious ceremonies."

''Believing in Jesus does not make you a child of God, it gives you the right to become one (Jn. 1). 'He who comes to God must first believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him’ " (Heb. 11).

"God is your God if you have His spirit."

"Holiness is not contrary to common sense; it gives you common sense."

"Live as if we are thankful."

"With this knowledge comes responsibility."

"Nobody can do more damage to God’s truth than those who have been given it and yet are unfaithful to the Giver of truth. Nobody can turn people away from the light more effectively than those who have been given it and do not walk in it."

These quotes are from the next morning’s gathering (6/15/08).

"You condemn the world by not living the way it does."

"We are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh " (Rom. 8), even to our fleshly, natural parents. God got you here. He chose your parents; they did not choose you. You owe everything to Jesus. We do owe a debt to gratitude and kindness to parents, of respect and fear to governors, and a debt of goodness to anyone who has given us a helping hand along the way, but we do not owe them so much that they have a right to influence the way we live, to pull us into sin. We are not debtors in the flesh to anyone, to live after the flesh."

The Veil That Covers

"And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people,
and the veil that is spread over all nations."
Isa. 26:12
". . . you covered me in my mother’s womb."
Ps. 139:13

According to Isaiah, God has covered all people with a "veil". Every person who has ever lived on earth was covered with it, just as David was, in their mother’s womb. This veil is something that all have in common, and it is referred to many, many times throughout the Bible, especially the New Testament. What is this veil, this covering that God has cast over all people?

David referred to this covering while praising God for creating him within the womb of his mother. He said (Ps. 139:13-15): ". . . you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows right well. My substance was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth."

So, what was this covering, this veil cast over David, cast over every other human being? The answer is revealed in the book of Hebrews, when the writer refers to the glorification of Jesus; that is, when Jesus passed out of his natural body and was given a glorified body by the Father: "Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holiest place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, through his flesh" (Heb. 10:19-20). The flesh that covers your spirit is the covering that God casts over every soul that is conceived, and, just as David described it, God gives flesh to those souls while they are still fetuses in their mother’s womb.

Isaiah prophesied of a glorious day in which God will destroy this covering of flesh and give His people new bodies to cover their spirits, bodies made of eternal substance, bodies that will never suffer pain or die, bodies that are "like his glorified body". We are blessed to come into existence, to be given this veil of flesh so that we may live and know the Lord, but it will be a far better blessing to pass through this veil of tears and receive our spiritual "mansions" that are stored up for us now, with Jesus in heaven.

The Rod of the Wicked

"The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous,
lest the righteous put forth their hand unto iniquity."
Psalm 125:3

"Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
Ps. 23:4

It is undeniable that the wicked can afflict the righteous. It happens all the time, and it has happened throughout history. The Bible is full of stories of the righteous being maltreated by the wicked. The promise that God has made is not that the rod of the wicked will never touch the righteous but that it will never rest upon the righteous. In other words, the rod of the wicked will not afflict the righteous perpetually until it drives him beyond his power to endure, but it will be removed when our heavenly Father has accomplished His wise purpose for it being there. It makes me tremble to know what God can choose to do, using the rod of the wicked. When Job lamented, "The thing I greatly feared has come upon me," he was lamenting the fact that God had chosen to use the rod of the wicked against him.

God’s rod comforts us, but it takes some humility to confess, when we are being persecuted, or even chastened, that God is using the wicked as His rod. How could we ever be comforted by the rod of the wicked unless we commit ourselves completely to the Lord, trusting Him to be the one who determines when we suffer, how we suffer, and how long the suffering must last?

Solomon said, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly." In other words, God uses humans to try other humans, Solomon’s point being that God will use evil men to try the faith of righteous men. But David’s point in Psalm 125:3 is that those wicked men are not in charge of what happens to the righteous. They may want to do us the damage they attempt to do, but nothing can be done unless our loving heavenly Father determines it shall be. And it will end when He determines it will end, and not before. Many times, wicked men wanted to kill Jesus, but they could not because "his time was not yet come." But when God determined it was time for His Son to die, a wicked man, such as Pontius Pilate, could not prevent Jesus’ crucifixion, even though he wanted to. It was God’s appointed time for Jesus’ crucifixion, and as Christ said to the Father through David, "All my times are in your hand."
God has tried no one beyond his power to overcome. No one among the saints has ever suffered more than he has been able to bear. God knows our limitations, and He designs our sufferings so that if we stand fast in faith, our sufferings will only make us stronger and wiser; they have no power to destroy us; God never sends that degree of affliction into our lives. Every soul who has fallen into sin and unbelief during times of trial has done so because he rebelled against the hand of God and chose the wrong path; he was not pressed by God beyond his ability to bear the pressure.

When the upright suffer, it is only for a season, and it is always for a good, healing purpose. And if we stay humble and do the will of God even when we are hurting, the time will come when we will be thankful for the pain that God used to perfect our hearts. God may choose to use the wicked to afflict the righteous, but after the trial is over, He will destroy the wicked and take the righteous up into His comforting bosom, closer to them than ever, and they will be satisfied.

Right Relationships

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Jesus, in Matthew 22: 37-40

Every commandment that God ever gave to His people was designed for one purpose; that is, to guide them into a right relationship, either with Him or with other people. You can search from Genesis to Revelation and you will never find a commandment from God that was not directed toward one of these two goals.

Life in the kingdom of God is not a solitary affair. The word righteousness describes life that is in a right relationship with God and with our neighbors; it does not describe the quality of a soul without regard to others. There is no righteousness where there are no right relationships.

The Law that God gave Moses contained a multitude of commandments concerning how to express one’s love for God and for others. When God said, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image", He was revealing to the Israelites how to have a right relationship with Him. When He said to them, "Thou shalt not kill", and "Thou shalt not steal", He was revealing to them how to have a right relationship with one another. It is all about relationships. There is no such thing as being holy alone, unless you are God. But even God has chosen not to be holy alone.

In both the Old and the New Testament, we are given instruction concerning relationships with people who occupy specific places in our lives, such as husband, wife, parent, child, and even spiritual places, such as prophet, pastor, and teacher. There is a way to have a right relationship with each person who occupies each place in our lives. The Bible is full of instructions intended to guide us into a right relationship with others, based on (1) their place in our lives and (2) their spiritual condition. But the places that can be occupied in our lives are so many, and the spiritual conditions of the people in those places can vary so widely, that the Bible cannot tell us how to have a right relationship in every circumstance with every person. That is why Jesus suffered and died for us to have the holy Ghost; it guides us into "all truth"; that is, it guides us into a right relationship with every person, in every circumstance, every day of our lives. The Bible can never do that.

Paul said, "Comfort the feeble-minded." And he said, "Warn the unruly." And he also said, "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine." Now, if someone comforts the unruly instead of warning them, and warns the elders that do well instead of honoring them, and gives double honor to the feeble-minded, that man doesn’t have a right relationship with the people involved. The holy Ghost must reveal to us who is "unruly", and who is "feeble-minded", and who qualifies as "an elder that rules well", etc. Then, when by the holy Ghost we discern who is who in the body of Christ, we can at last develop a right relationship with them.

Once you see the magnitude of this truth, you will want to strive to have a right relationship with everyone in your world. You will even want to make sure that you have a right relationship with the Devil. God has a right relationship with the Devil, and we can, too. God cast him out of heaven, and Paul told us to be like God and "make no room for the Devil." Sometimes, a right relationship is no relationship at all. Several times Paul mentions that a certain body of believers should cast out a member of the body because of stubbornness and rebellion. Jesus even mentioned cutting off precious members of the body so that the whole body could be saved.

There is no such thing as a man having a right relationship with God but a poor relationship with God’s obedient people. Jesus said, "As much as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." John said, "How can you love God whom you have not seen, if you love not these whom you have seen?" I recently spoke with a man who thought that his relationship with God was fine, even though his relationship with the body of Christ is almost non-existent. He is like many who have a higher opinion of himself than Jesus has of him. Jesus loves those who love his people and who express that love in a way that helps them develop right relationships.

All right relationships in the kingdom of God are a triangle. That triangle includes you, another person, and God – with God in the middle. No one has a right relationship with anybody without God being in the middle. My father taught us that God was so jealous over his people that He even wanted to sleep between a man and his wife, and that if He did not, then there was bound to be trouble between them. Pursue every relationship you have on this earth through God. Do not be closer to anyone than that person is to God. Do not trust anyone more than that person trusts God, and do not follow any person unless that person is following God. Even the great apostle Paul said, "Follow me, as I follow Christ."

Only those who are led by the Spirit of God have a right relationship with anybody. That is why Paul said that only those that are led by the Spirit of God are the real children of God (Rom. 8:14). Thank God for helping us to discern who is who in our lives, so that we can develop relationships that are right in His sight, for if there is a single relationship in our life that is not right, we ourselves are not yet completely right with God.

Two Commandments and Relationships

Hey Pastor John,

I sure have been thinking about relationships lately and how much they mean to God. I was going through some old emails yesterday and found this one. It is an excerpt from one of our meetings about relationships.

Amy
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Pastor John:

Here are some notes I took from what you said last night:
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Every one of God's commandments concerns relationships. Every one of them. Everything in the Bible is there to direct us to a right relationship with somebody, either with God or our fellow man.

The commandments of the Law, such as "Thou shalt not steal," teach us how to have a right relationship with others. Stealing from another is not how to have a right relationship.

All of God's commandments are love, written out. They teach us to love as God loves. That's why Paul wrote, "Therefore love is fulfillment of the Law." Everyone of God's commandments leads us to a godly relationship, either with him or with another. Everyone of his commandments teaches us how to have a relationship that is healthy and holy and eternal.

There is no commandment just for you, apart from anybody else. There are no loners that are going to be saved in the end. You're going to have a relationship with the people who are going to be saved, or you are going to be left out. And that relationship is going to be good, pure.

One man asked Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment?" And he said, "Love God with all your heart, mind, and strength." And then Jesus said, "Let me volunteer the second biggest one: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Then Jesus added, "On those two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets."

The whole of our lives, as they should be lived, is summarized in those two commandments which direct us to love God completely and to love others.

Dangerous

"Those who are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God."
Paul, in Romans 8

One of the most dangerous things a man can do in this life is to pray, when the Spirit is not leading him to pray. Another most dangerous thing for a man to do in this life is not to pray when the Spirit is calling him to it.

Anything can be dangerous if God is not in it, and nothing is to be feared when He is.

Reading The Bible Backwards

"Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right;
and I hate every false way."
Psalm 119:128

Not everyone possesses the knowledge of God and the love of the truth, so that he is able to recognize every false way, much less to hate every false way. Only the most dedicated and blessed saints hate every false way because only they know what those ways are. False ways can be made to appear right, but the wisest among the saints see through the appearance of good that often conceals the evil within. The author of this Psalm was an extraordinary man. He considered everything God said to be right, no matter what God was talking about, and he despised everything else. He was a man who knew God, and who loved what he had come to know about Him.

While I pondered over this verse, asking myself how this righteous man managed to attain to such knowledge and holy love of God, I noticed the verse before this one: "Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold."

But how did he come to love God’s commandments so passionately? I noticed the verse before that one: "It is time for thee, O Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law." So, it was jealousy for the Lord, when he saw God’s people ignore His word, that provoked such a strong passion for the commandments of God. But how did he come to possess such a knowledge of what God’s words were, and the importance of them? He humbled himself before God and pleaded with Him to know His words! This I discovered when I read the verses before this one: "I am thy servant! Give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies!"

But how did he come to feel that he was a servant of God, so that he might approach God with such a request? He found such faith and boldness when God touched him and gave him a great hunger for truth and a great desire to be free from the oppression of men, as shown in the verses which come before that one: "Be surety for thy servant for good. Let not the proud oppress me. Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness. Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes."

And finally, the reason this humble man’s prayer was heard, when so many other similar prayers go unanswered, may be found in the verse before that one: "I have done judgment and justice; leave me not to my oppressors." The blind man healed by Jesus, in John 9, told the elders who were questioning him, "We know that God does not hear sinners, but if any man be a [true] worshiper of God, and does His will, him God hears." So, the prayer of the wise author of Psalm 119 was heard by God because he humbled himself to God and did His will before he prayed.

No matter which way we read the Bible, whether backwards or forwards, there is hidden wisdom to be found.

Who Are Jesus' Enemies?

"My zeal has consumed me because my enemies have forgotten thy words."
Ps. 119:139

Fallen man does not know anything rightly. He does not know how to think rightly, how to behave rightly, or even how to love or hate rightly. Paul confessed this when he said, "In me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing" (Rom. 7). Only God’s word, coming to fallen man, makes it possible for man to know anything rightly or do anything rightly.

Another thing that fallen man does not know how to do rightly is to choose his friends. I have seen numerous times over the years that some people have the worst habit of choosing friends that do not edify them. I have seen children of God drawn to each other because they both had the same fault, and the fault just grew worse as a result. Jesus knows how to choose his friends. And he knows whom to consider an enemy. Psalm 119:139 reveals to us how Jesus thinks in this regard.

Jesus knows how dangerous a person can be who forgets God’s word. He is not fooled by appearances. He judges others by their attitude toward the word of God. If they hold God’s word dear, he befriends them, and if the word of God is to them just another idea, and they forget it, then he sees them as enemies. Jesus waits to see the word of God become flesh in a person, as it did in him, before he takes them into his bosom as his friend. He likes feeling safe.

If God’s word comes to you, and you love it so much that you remember it, then Jesus chooses you as his friend. If you forget it and then go your own way, Jesus loves his Father so much that he considers you his enemy. He said so, when he moved David to sing, "my enemies have forgotten thy words."

Let’s pray the way David prayed, that God would create in us the kind of heart that always remembers God’s word.

God's Thoughts

"The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."
Ps. 119:130

When God communicates one of His thoughts to man, the hearts of all who are upright in heart rejoice and find rest. To hear from their heavenly Father, and thus to know Him more perfectly, is the desire of the upright; His word is the only answer to their deepest prayers. When God communicates one of His thoughts, those who truly love God refuse to have any thought of their own, at least for the moment. Their entire attention is fixed on taking in and digesting God’s holy, wonderful words. The wise are mesmerized by the wisdom of God; they hunger for the hidden truth that His thoughts can reveal, and when His thoughts come to them, those thoughts command all their attention; they become their entire world. To Jesus, the word of God was his necessary food (Jn. 4:32); he lived to commune with His heavenly Father, and he lived by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God (Jn. 6:57).

The godly are they who feel that there is nothing else to say after God has expressed one of His thoughts. His thoughts, to them, are perfect; they satisfy their souls completely because they thirst for the knowledge of the truth. To them, the coming of the word of God brings an end to their longing. God’s word is, as David said it was for him, "the rejoicing of their heart."

Any thought which any person dares to express on a subject after God has communicated what He thinks about it is repugnant to the righteous. Human opinion about anything is, to them, an affront to God after He has condescended to reveal His thoughts on the matter. If God has spoken, the righteous conclude, what can any man have to say that is worth hearing?

The righteous feast on every thought that comes from the heart of God. Be wise, and do not interrupt their meal with one of your thoughts. While they are consuming God’s thoughts, they may not be able to refrain from expressing contempt for yours.

No Choice

"And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.
And the dragon fought, and his angels, but he did not prevail,
neither was there place found for them in heaven any longer.
The great dragon also was cast down, the ancient serpent,
who is called Slanderer and Satan, who deceives the entire world.
He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. . . .
For this, rejoice, O heavens and those who dwell in them!
Alas, earth and sea, because the Slanderer has come down among you,
having great anger, knowing that he has just a little time.
And then, the dragon raged against the woman,
and he went away to make war against her remaining seed,
those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus."
Revelation 12:7-9, 12

"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
Luke 10:18

Let me ask you an odd-sounding question: If Satan hates God, as many teach, and if he despises what God says and does, as most believe, then why was he cast out of heaven? Doesn’t that sound like a strange question? Think about it, and it may not seem so strange.

My real question is, if Satan despises God and hates what is good and holy, then what was he doing in heaven at all? Why, if he despises holiness and hates God, didn’t he just leave heaven on his own instead of hanging around until God had to throw him out? God gave him no choice. "Choice" is a blessing that sin causes one to lose. Satan had to leave, and being given no choice in that matter made him very, very angry.

The fact is that Satan loves the glory of God, but he loves it in the wrong way. He envies it, and that is a destructive kind of love. He loves the glory and power of God for his own benefit, not because he loves others, including God. Satan even loves truth, but not all of it. He loves only that part of the truth which serves for self-aggrandizement. He loves the name of Jesus, and according to Paul, Satan inspires men to declare the name of Jesus to others (2Cor. 11:13-15), but he loves it only in a way that also brings him glory. He loved certain Scriptures from Psalm 91 when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, but he didn’t love the Scripture Jesus quoted back to him, because it exposed his self-serving love of the Bible.

Satan doesn’t hate holy things. He loves them and wants them for himself! He covets the blessings of God. He longs to enjoy the glory of the Lord in the midst of God’s saints. He longs to be back in the light of God’s presence. And it makes him absolutely furious to know that he can never have those things again. That is why he became so angry when he was cast out of heaven. That is also why, when he was cast out of the kingdom of God and thrown down to earth, Satan struck out at God’s chosen people, first against the Jews, and then against those "who keep God’s commandments and who have the testimony of Jesus." People whom God rejects often react in the same cruel way.

Satan envies your blessings from God. He wants them, but he wants them for the wrong reasons. Therefore, God judged Satan to be unworthy to live in His presence. As for Satan, he judged himself to be more than worthy to be in God’s presence, and he no doubt feels misunderstood and mistreated because he is no longer welcome among the assembly of the sons of God. He became proud of his blessings from God. He lightly esteemed his glorious place in God’s kingdom and devised wicked plans to steal more glory than he had already been given – and lost it all.

Like Satan

Over the past few months, I have commented to a number of people that in the past, if people began to doubt the truth I or other servants of Jesus preach, or if they grew discontent with the way matters were handled among the saints, they just went away. But over the past few years, I, and I suppose other ministers as well, have had to face another breed of backsliders, people who love the freedom and blessings of God that are among the saints too much to go away, even though they feel discontentment in general and feel superior to their pastor in judgment. Here among us, it has been difficult for me to get some people to leave who ought not to be here!

It has been awkward, but I have actually had to sit a few people down over the past few years and tell them what is in their hearts. I have had to tell them, "You do not like it here. You are not happy. You need to go find your pastor. You need to go find the place where you really belong." Oddly enough, they often become angry when told they do not belong here, just as Satan grew angry when he was told (rather unceremoniously) that he did not belong in heaven. One would think that if you did not like the way things were in a congregation, you would leave. But not Satan, and not those who are like him. They want to stay and share in the glory and enjoy blessings they have not earned, and benefit from precious gifts that have not been given to them.

The question could be asked of such people, just as I asked in the beginning about Satan: If they hate me and despise what I and others here teach and do, then why were they asked to leave? The real question being, Why were they hanging around here in the first place? The truth is, they had a love for me and for the benefits of the truth I teach, but they only loved the parts that suited their private purposes. And in imitation of my Father, I will not tolerate that kind of love. Like Him, those around me are going to love me sincerely with all their heart, as I love them (for their welfare, not mine), or they will not be welcome in my presence. They will be given no choice in that matter.

Why would any one of us welcome or even tolerate people in our homes and lives who love us for their own benefit, and not love us the way God loves? That’s just simple common sense. It is also the way of our wise God conducts His holy life.