The Family of God

“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

“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?

“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

“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

“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

“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

"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

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

"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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

“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.

God’s Chambers

“He brings the wind out of His treasuries”

Psalm 135:7

When the Spirit came upon king David and moved his hand to write out the pattern for the temple to be built in Jerusalem, that pattern included chambers within and around the temple. Into some of these chambers were brought the tithes and offerings for the priests, and into others were kept some of the other things necessary for the maintenance of the temple and cult of Israel. Chambers in which the king’s treasures were kept were referred to as “treasuries”, as in the verse above. Sometimes, prophets or prophetesses occupied some of the temple’s chambers, such as the prophetess Anna who came out of her chamber to greet the baby Jesus when his parents brought him to the temple for the first time (Lk. 2:36-38): “And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (a widow about 84 years old), who departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in at that moment, she gave thanks unto the Lord, and spoke of him [the baby Jesus] to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”

The author of Hebrews let us know that the temple in Jerusalem was a figure of heaven itself (Heb. 8:5; 9:23), and so, it should not surprise us that the Bible often speaks of God’s chambers, or treasuries, in which He holds things in store. The “treasuries” mentioned in the psalm above is a reference to the chamber in which the wind is held, to be brought out and used when and where it pleases the Lord. God asked Job, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” (Job 38:22-23). David said that God “waters the hills from his chambers, and the earth is satisfied” (Ps. 104:13).

Winds, precipitation, sunlight, and whatever other essential elements of nature there may be, are all stored up by God to be used as it pleases Him. “By faith, we understand” that “mother nature” is a fantasy of man’s darkened heart and that this universe is held together and operates by the power and choice of God, not by the so-called “laws of physics”. This universe does not operate by it’s own power but by the power of God, through Jesus Christ His Son: “For by him were all things created, things in the heavens, and things on earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and all things are held together by him” (Col. 1:16-17).

Jeremiah understood this. He asked the rhetorical question, “Can the heavens give rain?” (Jer. 14:22). The answer is, no. Rain can no more come from heaven than it can come from rocks. God gives us rain, and when we understand that, we perceive something about the goodness and wisdom and power of God.

Hiding Places

The most touching reference to the chambers of God is found in Isaiah 26. This portion of Scripture is a prophecy of the end of time, when God will strike the earth with merciless plagues – but only after sending His Son to take the saints up into chambers prepared for them in heaven, safely out of the way of the wrath on earth. Isaiah spoke of that wonderful mercy with these words: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” (Isa. 26:20-21).

God has already prepared a hiding place for us, to keep us in those days when death and disaster will cover the earth. When the time comes, our heavenly Father will send Jesus to take us up, and to cover us with his love until God’s indignation against the wickedness of this world is past. In spirit, David was moved again to sing of that time (Ps. 57:1): “Be merciful unto me, O God! Be merciful unto me! For my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until the calamities be overpast.”