Banner of Truth

"Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth" (Ps. 60:4).

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The Basic Postulate of Life by Faith - By Fred O. Blakely

The Basic Postulate of Life by Faith

By Fred O. Blakely

That the children of God, while in this evil world, live by faith is an emphatic doctrine of holy Scripture. “The just shall live by faith,” proclaimed Habakkuk six centuries before the Word was made flesh (Hab. 2:4) and three times Paul cited this principle in his ministry of the new covenant (Rom. 1:16-17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38; cf. Jn. 3:36; 20:30-31; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:9). It is a fact that is personally experienced by all who are truly risen with Christ and are walking in newness of life with Him.  Theoretically, this formula for spiritual life is admitted by all who profess to recognize the sacred writings as divinely authoritative, though far from all of them employ it in their day-to-day lives. 

The fundamental postulate of the law of life by faith seems to be not so well known or acknowledged. It is integral to the divine economy, however, and can no more be ignored than the rule itself, if one is to possess and flourish in that life which is from Above. That postulate, rooted in veritable reality, is that the life of kingdom children is essentially a vicarious one. That is, their vitality is a derived quality, coming from without themselves. They receive their life from God through Christ. As it is written, the Father sent the Son into the world, “that we might live through Him” (I Jn. 4:9-10). This principle is distinctly and necessarily implied, even as it is everywhere taught and insisted upon in Scripture, when it is asserted that the holy family lives by faith. Faith must have an object, and in the case of the faith of God that Object is Himself.

Closely associated with this basic circumstance is that respecting the natural life of the believer. Inasmuch as he lives by faith, it is definitely implied (and required by Scripture) that he renounces himself as a source of life and competence before God. If he were, of himself, sufficient for these things, the rule of life by faith would be invalidated. This is because faith, in the scriptural sense, carries one outside of himself. It looks away from self to the Father and the Son, and in that look of complete reliance upon Them, receives “the spirit of life from God” (Rev. 11:1; cf. Rom. 8:2). “They looked unto Him, and were lightened [as well as enlivened]: and their faces were not ashamed” (Ps. 34:5). Thus, Paul’s universal: “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin” (Rom. 8:10). And the testimony of his own experience of its application: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).

God’s call to all people through Isaiah demonstrates the situation.  “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 45:22). Even the Lord Jesus Himself, during the days of His flesh, was not exempt from the necessity to receive life from Above. “As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father,” He declared, “so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me” (Jn. 6:57). So, in completion of his witness in the matter, the Apostle continued, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Let us learn, therefore, to take all the implications of the creed which we acknowledge. It is the Father through the Son that both “giveth life and sustains it (Jn. 5:21, ASV). He alone is our sufficiency. To Him we look for the quickening and the sustenance of our spirits, and for all things during the days of our pilgrimage. In the Savior, we have abdicated our natural selves as competent to take care of our own interests. We have “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26-27), and are now hidden with Him “in God” (Col. 3:3-4). Henceforth, we are the wards of “the Lord God Almighty” (II Cor. 6:17-18).

This is the fundamental postulate of our scriptural axiom of life by faith, and the basic circumstance of the children of light.  May we have grace to walk becomingly of our recognition of the truth in the case, and so realize more and more the blessed amplitude of our Father’s riches and care for us.

    "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;  and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately" (Lk. 12:35-36).

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“I Have Set My King upon My Holy Hill of Zion” (Ps. 2:6) - By Michael Zaucha

“I Have Set My King upon My Holy Hill of Zion”  (Ps. 2:6)   By Michael Zaucha

The Good News of the Gospel.  The gospel declares that there are manifested benefits to us-ward who believe in the name of the Son of God and they are occurring in "the last days." These benefits which the people of God do partake of are directly attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures (I Cor. 15:3-4).

Ordained by God from the foundations of the world, the "last days" are the time of Christ Jesus’ preeminence in all things especially to them that believe. To them that believe that Jesus is the Christ of God are endless blessings promised. Hear of these blessings that the Apostle John recorded for us, revealed to him by Jesus Himself for our benefit: “whosoever believeth in Me should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:15); “he that heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (Jn. 5:24); “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst” (Jn. 6:35); “he that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (Jn. 7:38); “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (Jn. 11:25-26); “he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to My Father” (Jn. 14:12). Jesus has made it known that because God has set Him as king in the heavenly places, these things are occurring now to them that believe in Christ Jesus.

According to the Good Pleasure of God.  The purpose of God which He purposed before the foundations of the world is coming to pass during “these last days." They are centralized in Christ Jesus, "who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (I Pet. 1:20).

By the grace of God, as we continue to consider Jesus in the light of the Scripture - in all His revealed glory and power which He currently has – emphasis that Jesus currently has - this very truth concerning Christ Jesus’ current reign is not only life giving but also life sustaining - even unto your enduring to the end.  Therefore the gospel will continue to declare and affirm to you that these things are not only being revealed of Jesus by God through the Scripture, but also that Jesus is The One who is bringing the purpose of God to full fruition. It is vital for us to have this revealed proper knowledge and understanding of Jesus for by it we have knowledge of who God truly is and what God is doing, and that is eternal life (Jn. 17:3).

God Has Set His King in Zion.  The reign of the Lord Jesus Christ is directly joined with the purpose of God and they are inseparable. From the highest view, that is why Jesus is reigning - in order to do, to accomplish, and to fulfill the eternal purpose of God which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph. 3:11). Jesus is the chosen One of God, His anointed One (Isa. 42:1; Jn. 1:33), His empowered king to bring to pass God's so-great salvation, and Jesus has total authority to do so (Mt. 28:18).

God's purpose concerning man is to save him to the uttermost. That saving has to do from that which occurred in the fall - sin. Everything revealed about Jesus is associated with the accomplishing of that purpose. The Scripture reveals the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us for that reason: speaking of Mary, His mother, "she will bear a Son, and shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Mt. 1:21). The reason Jesus went around doing good was to heal "all who were oppressed by the devil" (Acts 10:38).

According to the good pleasure of God, Jesus died to reconcile men to God, (Col. 1:19-22), and was raised again for our justification (Rom. 4:25). And the good news continues to be proclaimed that Jesus ascended into heaven and was set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3) to "save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us" (Heb. 7:25).  Jesus will finally hear from the Father "it is done" when He will appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28).

To Do Thy Will O God. All that Jesus is, and all that Jesus is doing is unto the fulfilling of God's purpose, and it is necessary for Him to have the power and authority to do so. If Jesus is to give eternal life to as many as God has given Him, He must have power over all flesh – and He does now! (Jn. 17:2). If there are mighty and strong adversaries that will war against them that shall be heirs of salvation, then Jesus must have a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in the earth, and things under the earth – and He does now! (Phil. 2:9-10). And if men are to have victory over sin, they will need a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, who is ministering succor – to help, to aid and to give strength to resist the devil - to them that are tempted (Heb. 2:17-18) – and we now have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. This reality concerning Christ Jesus’ current reign is the sum of the declaration! (Heb. 8:1).   It is for these reasons and all the more that Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of the Throne of God and is reigning in the midst of His enemies, precisely as God said He would (Ps. 110:2), even to give needful and necessary gifts unto His people (Eph. 4:8-11).

Manifested to Men. The truth of Christ’s current reign was demonstrated on the day of Pentecost when the reality of His rule was manifested in the earth to His people. As Peter was ministering to the devout Jews in the city of Jerusalem, he testified of Jesus' current reign and that the promised benefits had come: "therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear" (Acts 2:33).

That which God had purposed for us aforetime, Jesus was bringing to pass having been exalted to the right hand of God to do so by God Himself - and it is marvelous in our eyes! The king that God has set upon His holy hill of Zion, and His current reign is associated with God Himself, unto the fulfilling of His eternal purpose which He spoke of through His holy prophets: thus saith the Lord: “yet, I have set My king upon My holy hill of Zion” (Ps. 2:6). “Also, I will make Him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth” (Ps. 89:27). And “of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end” (Isa. 9:7). And I will give Him “dominion, and glory, and as kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14). Jesus is God’s king whom He has set in the place of all power, authority, and judgment to accomplish and to fulfill that which God had purposed.

 Jesus’ Testimony of the Truth. When Jesus was brought before Pilate in “the judgment hall,” the truth as to who He is was sought for, and Jesus being in control of the situation, even to the point of turning the tables as He began questioning Pilate. Through this interchange in “the judgment hall” came forth the glorious truth concerning the reign of Christ Jesus. This truth had to be made known to men concerning Himself and Jesus was the only One who was able to do so: “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art Thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth” (Jn. 18:33-37).

The Apostle’s Affirmation. The proclamation of the truth Jesus’ current reign would be affirmed by the Apostle Peter in that selfsame day the Holy Spirit was given unto men. What the Apostle Peter declared was evidence of Christ’s exaltation for the king and the kingdom was being opened to men. (Acts 2:25-36).

The Apostle Peter is declaring that the Lord which David “foresaw” and wrote of in the Psalms was Jesus. God was faithful to His promise to David to perform His promise made to him: “Behold, the days come saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:5-6). 

Peter’s proclamation is that Jesus – “this Jesus hath God raised up” (Acts 2:32) - is this promised One of God who is seated in David’s throne, Jesus being anointed as king by God in fulfillment of the promise. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

Truly as King, having a kingdom, and power, and dominion, and might and riches, the Apostles would have much to reveal and remind the people of God about concerning Jesus. Peter declared to the Jews in the temple: Jesus is “the Prince” – ruler, authority, author – “of Life” (Acts 3:15). Unto the council, Peter said of Jesus: “Him God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31). Unto Cornelius Peter declared: “He is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). And to the strangers – strangers in this weary land – scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, he had a word of encouragement concerning Jesus that they might endure their journey: Jesus has “gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities made subject unto Him” (I Pet. 3:22). The Apostle Peter was well acquainted in that which would sustain and keep and increase the people of God on their way, and he never did hold back from declaring this truth unto them.   As did the Apostle Paul, who declared this to the Roman believers: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). The Apostle Paul was able to speak in this manner because of His knowledge of truth of the exalted Christ who is currently reigning until His enemies be put under His feet (I Cor. 15:25).   Conclusion. The testimony of the Scripture reveals the reality of Christ’s reign now and that the reign of Christ is directly associated with the fulfillment of the purpose of God in His so-great salvation, even unto the bringing of many sons to glory.

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THE SWORD OF THE LORD - By Gene Hutchcraft - Part 2

THE SWORD OF THE LORD

By Gene Hutchcraft

Part 2

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:34-38)

So, again the words of our Lord provoke us to right thinking. “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34) Jesus’ presence causes decisions in those drawn to Him and in those repelled from Him. Each reveal their decisions by their responses to the life and immortality brought to light in His person, words, and works. Some men react as the demons and run for cover at the threat of exposure to His light. Other men may attempt to fight and overcome the light but they cannot, they cannot even comprehend it! Yet, even as the demons, they continue on the course of their nature and desires which brings corruption and ultimate destruction. His presence forces such revelations and reactions which glorify God and honor the Son, even when men reject the truth.

This sword of truth and righteousness separates the old and new, it divides that which is above from that which is of the earth, and it even divides people from people. Scripture is one instrument of this work and Jesus, Who is the Word, is the power and wisdom behind God’s living and active word! His very words provoke the hearts and minds of the hearers. Those who receive the love of the truth draw nearer and nearer while those who reject it turn away with apathy or disgust. Jesus’ did not come to earth to make men happy or contented in it. He came to purchase people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation as His Father’s possession and dwelling forevermore. That involves their turning to Him from their flesh, the world, and the prince of the world. They turn from that which the world loves and values to that which the Father of life loves and values.  As John states…“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:17)

So, the presence of godly people in the earth provokes conflict with the world. This world resents, even hates, those who do not love it and share its values. They may speak of tolerance yet they begrudge those who refuse its interests and appetites. And it comes to blows in a spiritual conflict of thought vs. thought ‘that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.’ It even comes to physical violence in many places still today where believers and followers of Jesus live under a constant threat because of their identity with the One Who came from and returned to heaven. This division enters families and produces resentment, it did throughout the Bible record, from Cain and Able to believers in the first century and continues to do so today. Jesus is not something which a person adds to their life. He is life, nothing and no one else is. The conflict simply reveals which side the opponents take while in this vale of appearance and shadows.

Jesus states the situation clearly in our primary text, cf. Matthew 10:34ff, and its restatement in Luke 12:51ff. Faith in Him reveals what the heart loves or desires. It will not turn to another since it knows His voice and wants to follow where He leads. The sheep of His flock will not follow another for He alone has the words of life and gives the water of life which becomes in His people a well of water springing up to eternal life. They want this supply of life more than what the world offers. Also, they are worthy of Him by His working in them and prove it by their allegiance to Him and opposition to any and all who oppose the gospel of His grace.

Scripture is full of this partitioning, from Genesis to Revelation. It began when God divided the light from the darkness, the firmament above from that below, and the land from the waters. God makes distinctions in things and displays the qualities of each, assigning them their nature and all that attends that nature. They do not mix but are purposefully divided in line with God’s will and purpose for it. Paul will later declare this aspect of life which also involves human decisions grounded in God’s decisions. “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:20-21) Men do have decisions to make; however, God’s decisions are the ultimate factors. So, let us align ourselves with those which then engage God’s pleasure or grace that is in Christ Jesus.  Then we will find ourselves numbered among these seen by John. “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.’” (Revelation 7:9-10)

The Savior’s words reveal what we need to understand the divisive nature of God’s truth and Jesus’ identity to the world. Then we can count the cost with knowledge and set our face toward Him though the world plague us for doing so. Heaven injected this division in the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God commanded Abraham to send Ishmael away from Isaac, Isaac sent Jacob away from Esau, and Jacob’s sons lived in contention toward Joseph and each other for years. They did reconcile, to some degree, but still lived in fear of Joseph, thinking he was like them and would seek revenge after Jacob’s death. He did not though when young most of them hated and planned his death. Joseph accepted these things as from God’s hand leading to the present deliverance Joseph provided for them. This is a type of God’s salvation provided by the One hated of many in His own people!

Joseph and Jesus took up their cross and followed God’s will for their earthly work which separated them from natural earthly involvements and enabled them to do the work God called them to do and bring about God’s promised deliverance. Those enemies were as dogs or bulls attaching at every opportunity. However, earthly circumstance could not interfere with God’s purpose and will to have His people and dwell among them. God did this in Israel and has fulfilled this also in the people of His flock in Christ Jesus the Great Shepherd of the sheep. And it will have its ultimate fulfillment when the Son delivers up the Kingdom to the Father, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20-28.

Jesus divided those who heard His words and saw His works. Believers clung to Him at all cost while unbelievers turned away in apathy or reviled Him and worked to damage Him as they could. Later some (who claimed to follow Him) twisted or distorted His word and works to make it appear His kingdom has an earthly focus or emphasis, a here and now agenda. Yet, John declared this reality in the opening words of his gospel, which are part of Jesus’ earthly experience and that of His people as they follow Him. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:10-13) Those words are a few which confirm this nature of the truth as people believe or turn away from Him. The Scripture contains much more as to this work of division in the heart!

The separation begins when one is born again from above. Life from above is separate from the old life or the old man. And so the apostle commands the believers in this vein, drawing a contrast with the ways of the world and life in Christ. “But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:20-24) Paul, earlier in the letter, reminded the readers, “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Ephesians 2:2-3)

Finally, we separate from all who are not in Christ Jesus and following Him in truth. Yet, our Savior assures that, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:18-19) Jesus lived this and those who belong to Him do as well. So, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.” (1 Peter 4:12-14) “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” (1 Peter 5:10)

You belong to the Lord of heaven and earth Who by this truth prepares you for His presence from which you will not go out but abide in glory, strength, and peace forevermore. The conflict is only for this world and will not endure long! Lift up your heads, redemption draweth nigh!

[banneroftruth]

THE SWORD OF THE LORD - By Gene Hutchcraft - Part 1

"Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth" (Ps. 60:4).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THE SWORD OF THE LORD

By Gene Hutchcraft

Part 1

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:34-38)

  God is on the offensive in the earth, a spiritual offensive executed partly in the realm of flesh since that is where man sinned and the enemy so rules the fallen. Yet, God does not war as does the flesh and neither do those who engage the enemy in His name. Paul stated this truth categorically in these words. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) So, this offensive stance projects from God the Father of our Lord Christ Jesus into those who abide in Him by faith. Heaven stages this battle through God’s people according to their measure, engaging the enemy in His name and for His glory as he strengthens or enables them!

The created realm is part of the offensive in which God works His will by establishing an earthly, physical environment and inhabiting it with beings make in His image, male and female. He then allowed a spiritual being, who opposed Him, to enter its realms and by deception corrupt those God made in the divine image. Such a composition baffles the mind unless you have a revelation of God’s purpose in which the earth and the human race are crucial elements, though not the key elements. Scripture also records the culmination of that revelation in Christ Jesus. He is God’s essential element in this spiritual conquest. Paul writes of it that believers would have a grounded perspective which they cannot have without a revelation from on high. Apostolic preaching and teaching, especially Paul’s, were to this end; “…to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ephesians 3:9-11)

So, in our primary text Jesus declares heavenly battle tactics by which He, ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh,’ entered the realm of the Prince of Darkness. Christ’s statement, of our main text, was when He sent His twelve disciples out two by two at the end of His second year of ministry, previous to the first feeding of thousands with bread and fish. Then, months later, our Lord restated it in other words which Luke records. Jesus’ aggressively offensive focus, as He approached the cross, was unflinching. “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.” (Luke 12:51-53) He does not use the words ‘sword’ in this statement, yet His point about this current conflict is in both texts.

The impact of Jesus’ presence in the earth forces human choices based on faith or the lack of it. Heaven engaged spiritual forces of wickedness in the earth, a warfare that is in the field of flesh, that is, the race of men. The souls of men are the trophies won and lost. However, heaven is on the offensive while the forces of wickedness and darkness unsuccessfully attempt to deflect divine progress. These forces are in fact, are tools of God’s sovereign will and purpose. Paul later declares Jesus’ total triumph in these words where he quotes a portion of a Psalm. “Wherefore he saith, ‘When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.’” (Ephesians 4:8 … Psalm 68:19). In another letter Paul states Jesus’ absolute domination of our enemy in this manner,“And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15)

Jesus did this in the earth, where sin controls men, and while in the body or ‘found in fashion as a man.’ Satan used every deception in his arsenal and they all fell uselessly to the ground in the presence of the Son of God and Man. Nothing was too hard for Jesus as He “went about doing good and healing those oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38) Satan had nothing in Jesus Who pressed forward in the work of God on every front. He often caught the enemy unaware as in the case of the demonized man in Capernaum. “And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, Saying, ‘Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.’ And Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Hold thy peace, and come out of him.’ And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.’” (Mark 1:23-27) Another time Jesus confronts the ‘Legion’ of spirits. “And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, ‘What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?’” (Matthew 8:28-29) His near presence was a painful and terrifying experience for these spiritual entities because of the reality of His power and glory which oppressed them as they oppressed their weaker victims.

Christ blazed a trail through the earth in which believers now make their way to God’s presence, that way is Jesus Himself and the power of His indestructible resurrected life. Believers are His happy captives willing to follow His way and doing in all things. They are the primary trophies of His triumph over sin and the grave! Those who fear God and love His truth yield to His mercy, kindness, and righteousness in all things. They forfeit anything that entangles them as they ‘press the battle ere the night shall veil the glowing skies.’ ‘We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.’ And since we fear nothing as we do God’s wrath, we cast ourselves upon the ‘Stone’ heaven set in the earth that our broken selves will then be restored and recovered on and from the battlefield. The Captain of our salvation gives new life and equips us in His armor for the offensive against the flesh, the world, and the enemy of our souls.

This involves cutting loose from earthly and fleshly engagements which distract us from the primary assignment, to daily crucify our flesh by walking in the Spirit. This cutting loose will include separation from some people ‘near and dear’ to us in the earth if they refuse the gospel of grace, if they fear other things more than God, if they love the earth more than the promises of God. Such expressions take many forms. However, faith enlightens the heart and mind of the believer to that which blinded us. Now we see clearly and so love God’s truth, wisdom, goodness, and righteousness more than any earthly bond. The call of God pitches us forward and upward, away from the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Truth made us free of these things and strengthens us to obtain that which God holds out, through His dear Son, to those who are His by faith!

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A New and Living Way - By Judah Hutchcraft

A New and Living Way

By Judah Hutchcraft

Christ is always victorious. Whatever Christ does, it is done without effective opposition. When He came to earth as a man, He came with a work to do, and that was to put all sin upon Himself and bear it away.

The Devil knew that the fulfilment of this work would result in his head being bruised--as in the prophecy in Genesis 3:15--and did everything in his power to stop the work. He started with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All three of the Patriarchs' wives were barren. Even Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin, and thus unable to naturally give birth. In these cases, children were given miraculously, and the lineage was kept alive through divine providence. When Jesus was born, an assault on all children two years old and under was made for the surrounding cities by Herod, the king. Jesus, however, was not killed. These were all unsuccessful attempts by the wicked one at disrupting the line Jesus would come from, and preventing Jesus himself, from continuing. Unsuccessful because God’s will always prevails, and His will in this case was for Jesus to put sin away.

While Jesus was on the earth, several more attempts were made to kill Him before the time. On one occasion, when the people tried to push Him off a cliff, the time wasn’t right, so He walked right through the middle of them, untouched. In response to Satan’s temptations, Jesus put the scriptures to use and the Devil left Him for a season. After all of those futile assaults, Judas’ betrayal, the capturing of Jesus, and His trials before Pilate and Herod seemed like the culmination of what the Devil had been trying to do throughout human history.

When Jesus was on the cross, it must have seemed to Satan like he’d finally prevented the work. “After all that work, my head won’t be bruised after all!” is what he must have thought. What wasn’t seen in this particular circumstance by the Devil was that God’s will even now was being worked out. “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him (Christ)”, and in that, the Devil gave himself his own deathblow. It seemed like killing Jesus was the Devil’s idea, but in that happening, Satan only bruised Jesus’ heel, and Jesus bruised the Devil’s head. A bruise on the heel might hinder activity for awhile, but it will be restored in time and be back to functioning correctly, but a bruise to the head is deadly. Something to be seen in this is that God meant good to come out of something Satan did with evil intentions.  (Genesis 50:20...“Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.”)

Jesus died the death that we deserved for sin, but He couldn’t have done it if He had sins of His own. The fact that He lived a perfect, sinless life, a life we could never live, qualified Him for bearing the sins of the WORLD. Since none of the sins He bore were His own, it meant that the grave couldn’t hold Him, thus being the first-fruits of them that are asleep in the grave. Had Jesus not died in our stead, the toll of our sin would have resulted in eternal death, but Jesus’ death wasn’t permanent because the sins He bore weren’t His own. The result of this is the new and living way that was opened between us and God. The Temple veil was torn in two as a symbol of the way being opened because Christ bridged the gap between sinful man and God, in whom is no shadow of turning. We can now come before God on Christ’s merit because our sins were taken away by Him.  The physical partaking of the Lord’s Table was instituted as a shadow of what we do when we remember Christ. Matthew 26:26-28.

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

In the fellowship of the brethren, we have a Lord’s Table meditation, which is when we consider Christ and make Him a part of us. We remember His death ‘till He come, and just as the physical partaking of the Lord’s Supper becomes a part of our physical constitution, so Christ becomes part of who we are.

(I Jn. 2:6- “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”).  Walking as Christ walked isn’t as simple as “What would Jesus do?” Rather, when Jesus lives in you, His will becomes your will and you will walk as He walked. This also means that walking as Christ walked doesn’t mean that you do what He would even if you want to do something else. You conduct yourself as Christ would because that’s who you are with Him living in you. When you’re truly in sync with Christ, walking as He did comes naturally.

We are made able to do this because Christ sacrificed Himself. He gave His innocent life for our guilty ones, and by His stripes we are healed. May we never lose the wonder of God’s mercy for us. An incredible price was paid for us to be made worthy to stand before God. “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).

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The Better Covenant with Better Things - By Michael Zaucha

The Better Covenant with Better Things

By Michael Zaucha

In any and all comparisons between the old and new covenant, the new is better. First and foremost, the new is better because it is built upon the better, the far more superior, the once for all sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The new is better because at its foundation is the only sacrifice – for the remission of sins – that God has or ever will accept.

And now, because of the better sacrifice, the rock solid foundation of Christ Himself and what He accomplished, all who have received Christ (Jn. 1:12), all who have put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14), all who have been baptized into Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:27), they all have access to the better things of the new covenant (Heb.6:9)

The Better Things. The things of the new covenant are better because the old could offer only things that pertain to this world and this age. And as such, they all have termination dates and will be burnt up at the appearing of the Great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

In Christ, we have a better hope (Heb. 7:19), a hope of fulfillment that extends beyond when time shall be no longer (Rev. 10:6). And we have better promises (Heb. 8:6) – and this is the promise which He promised us, even eternal life (I Jn. 2:25). The old could never provide such a glorious promise. And we have a better country, that is an heavenly (Heb. 11:16), and in the better country, we have a better and an enduring substance (Heb. 10:34) – substance that can neither fade away or be taken away (Mt. 6:20). The most precious substance is God Himself who Himself is our exceeding great reward (Gen 15:1). And because of Christ, we know that awaits us is the obtainment of a better resurrection (Heb. 11:35) – a resurrection of life and of being with the Lord for ever, as opposed to a resurrection of damnation (Dan. 12:2; Jn. 5:29) - being “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power” (II Th. 1:9). All man shall partake of either one or the other of these resurrections. By the grace of God, our objective is to attain unto the better resurrection.

The Necessity of Preaching These Things. While it is true that all these better things come to us because of Jesus’ one sacrifice to God, His one acceptable offering, it is equally true that these better things need to be preached to God’s people more than once, even again and again. It is absolutely vital for us to put each other in remembrance of these better things, even though ye know them and are established in them (II Pet. 1:12).

Nothing in the words spoken by Jesus Himself or in the Apostle’s doctrine would lead anyone to assume that the wonderful works of God through Christ Jesus, and the provisions and benefits that are in Him is to be a onetime announcement to the people of God – only used to bring people into the kingdom. It is vital to proclaim these better things in order to keep them all in as well.

Therefore, it is through the proclamation of the accomplished work of Christ, and the declaration of the better things - because of what Jesus accomplished – that not only creates in God’s people a desire for them, it also intensifies the anticipation for the fullness to be realized, and strengthens them to forsake all else “for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).

The Testimony of Jesus. In the days of His flesh, Jesus began to teach His people in this vital truth. Jesus said: “abide in Me” (Jn. 15:4). Abide is a most wonderful exhortation to the people of God for it means to remain, to stay, to continue and to be stedfast where God has put you. And the gospel reveals that place to abide is where God put you: “of Him (God) are ye in Christ Jesus” (I Cor. 1:30). So the exhortation of the Lord God Himself is to stay and remain in Christ Jesus.

And there are better things to know concerning this exhortation, for with it comes the enablement to perform it. The old covenant made no provision to enable God’s people to fulfill its commands and exhortations – for it was weak through the flesh (Rom. 8:3), but the new does. And that provision is Christ Himself. Jesus continues to open this up with His word: “Abide in Me, and I in you.” The exhortation to abide in Christ is accomplished by Christ abiding in you. Jesus is saying that if you abide in Me, I’ll abide in you.

And with Jesus abiding in you – staying in you, remaining in you, continuing in you, those better promises are yours. “For all the promises in Him are ye, and in Him, amen” (II Cor. 1:20) – even the bearing of much fruit unto God.

Jesus said: “He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit (Jn. 15:5) to the glory of God. And this is good fruit that comes forth from our being joined to Christ for it came forth from the good tree which is Jesus Himself, and a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit (Mt. 7:18).

Good Fruit is to be Partaken. Now in Christ, we are partakers of God’s promise - specifically of heirship, being heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ (Eph. 3:6; Rom. 8:17). However, this does not come naturally or in our own strength. You must be qualified and enabled for this high position, and the gospel declares, in Christ, you have been.

The gospel declares: “we are made meet”- by God both qualified for and enabled to be – “partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12). This is an eternal inheritance (Heb. 9:15) and will not be given to just any man – only His Beloved Son, and those who are made acceptable in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6); those of whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren (Heb. 2:11). To all these, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the kingdom (Lk. 12:32).

We are partakers of the heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1), so don’t invest a lot of your time in calls to remain in the low places. Set you affections on things above, not on things on the earth (Col. 3:2).  Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). The saint’s calling is a high calling which not only originates in heaven, but also pertains to heaven in its fullness. Ours is a calling unto full partakement of all the promises of God in Christ Jesus with its apex of fulfillment in our being made one with the Godhead just as Jesus interceded for us (Jn. 17:20-23).

We are made partakers of Christ (Heb. 3:14), and of the Holy Ghost (Heb. 6:4), and of His (God’s) holiness (Heb. 12:20) is the gospel proclamation. To the believer in Christ Jesus, this very declaration is a strengthener and an enabler for us to continue to fight the good fight of faith and to lay hold of eternal life – that better promise. Each of us enduring to the end is vital for only those that hold the beginning of their confidence stedfast to the end shall partake in full (Heb. 3:14).

Conclusion. The provisions of the new and better covenant – full of better things - have been given to us by God to affect these very things in us. And in our partakement, we do give glory to God and acknowledge that this is the Lord’s doing: to the Only Wise God be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.

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Daniel's Seventy Weeks, a Summary - By Al Stoner

Daniel's Seventy Weeks, a Summary

By Al Stoner 

This a very marvelous portion of Scripture teaching us many things about God, about Christ, about the nature of the gospel, and about the people of God.  The notes that we used for our discussion are as follows:

Daniel 9:24 "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

1. These are the words of the man (the angel) Gabriel, having been sent from God in response to Daniel's prayer and supplication, recorded at the beginning of this chapter.

2. These words are in response to prayers that were prayed according to the will of God (cf. Ezek. 36:37; Rom. 8:27; Jas. 4:3).  Daniel understood by books (Jeremiah's prophecy) that the time of the captivity had come to its determined end, and so he gave himself to prayer regarding the matter.  God promised and Daniel prayed and watched in prayer for the fulfillment of the promise. 

3. The communication of these words to Daniel was an instantaneous response from the throne of God. "At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth", Gabriel said.  It was not after Daniel begged and pleaded with God, but at the beginning of his supplication, that the commandment went forth.  Let those whose hearts are perfect towards God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be encouraged that God often responds in this manner.

4. The words tell us something about God Himself (what He is like in His character and Person, what He is presently engaged in, how He responds to godly men and to their prayers, how His eternal purpose reaches into the affairs of men.) The affairs of men, from one perspective, are but a stage for the enactment and outworking of God's purpose in Christ.  We often see masses of men going about their daily business.  Who knows but that God is at work somewhere there in the midst?

5. The words teach us that God has a special regard for a particular people and for a particular place. In former times it was the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the place was the Jerusalem, which now is (in the realm of the seen). Now the people are those who are in Christ, and the place is the Jerusalem which is above, or the heavenly places.

6. Israel was approaching the end of the seventy year captivity, which Daniel was very much aware of, but now God is speaking about "seventy weeks". The captivity seemed like such a long time, but the "seventy weeks", though it is actually seven times longer (7 X 70 = 490 years), seems like a relatively short time. And from the perspective of eternity, it is. "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (II Pet. 3:8).   "For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night" (Ps. 90:4).

7. Seventy weeks are determined. Determined is a word which speaks of God acting in accordance with His own Person and purpose. Determining is characteristic of the way that God acts.  He is ever at work (cf. Jn. 5:17), further implementing His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus.  He is not looking for things to do, as is the case oftentimes with men, but He is looking for perfect hearts, in order that He might show Himself strong in their behalf (cf. II Chr. 16:9; Ps. 34:15; I Pet. 3:12).  Wherever hearts are imperfect towards Him, men are in danger of being used for an evil purpose and being held accountable for it.  Consider the following examples: The death of the Lord Jesus Christ came by "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Though evil men conspired to slay Him with wicked hands, yet from the higher perspective, it was "to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 2:28). (See also Dan. 9:26-27 where desolations were determined of God. 

8. In Daniel's prayer and confession of Israel's sin, he confessed to the Lord that, "all Israel have transgressed Thy law" (v. 11). He confessed to God, "we have sinned against" God (vv. 8, 11). He was "confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel" (v. 4). He also confessed "the iniquities of our fathers" (v. 16, also v. 13; v. 5, iniquity). Trespassed and the acknowledgement of wickedness were words also words that Daniel employed in his prayer.

9. Transgression speaks of an express violation of God's commandments. Sin speaks of missing the mark, of coming short of the glory of God. Iniquity speaks of injustice, wickedness, and that which is not right in the sight of God. 

10. He was confessing the sins of "the men of Judah", and "the inhabitants of Jerusalem", and "all Israel" (v. 7). He was confessing the sins of "our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land" (v. 6). 

11. There were times in the past, such as in the case of Moses, when the sins of the people were confessed (Exod. 32:31-35), when severe judgment still followed.

12. In former times God had responded to sins by judging it and punishing it (and He still does). In Israel, and in the nations round about, it is as if a pattern had been established: men were sinning, and God was punishing. Men were transgressing, and God was judging. Men were committing iniquity, and God was reserving unto judgment. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full (Gen. 15). Speaking of wicked men and false teachers, "whose judgment lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not". If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

13. God has not changed, He does not change, and He cannot change. "I am the Lord, I change not" (Mal. 3:6), "therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."   He has not changed, but He is working "a new thing in the earth" (Jer. 31:22), something that He had purposed from the foundation of the world. 

14. The Lord Jesus Christ is "a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev, 13:8).  This very fact demanded that there be a new development in the outworking of God's eternal purpose. And there was, praise God, when the fulness of the time was come.

15. Now, instead of punishing the transgression, God speaks of "finishing" it, putting an end to it. Now, instead of judging sins, He speaks of making an end of them. Now instead of iniquities running their course of separating men from God (Isa. 59:1-2), God speaks of making reconciliation for them. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes!

16. Now God speaks of bringing in everlasting righteousness, that commodity which men were so desperately bereft of in their own persons. Abraham, Moses, and David were all very much aware of this prominent part of God's character: His righteousness.  But in many respects they considered this as observers, and not partakers.  But now instead of the Lord affirming that He is righteous, or apprising men of their unrighteousness, the Lord God was, and is bringing in everlasting righteousness. He was bringing it in. He throughout all eternity was known as the righteous Lord, and the righteous God, but now He was bringing it in to be imparted to believing men and women.  

17. Anointing the most holy One and the most holy place.  The anointing of the Most Holy One refers to the anointing of the Lord Jesus as High Priest over the house of God, and of good things to come.  Also regarding the most holy place, "the heavenly things themselves" had to be readied for redeemed personalities to dwell there (cf. Heb. 9:23-24). 

18. The Lord Jesus Christ was, and is, the embodiment of this marvelous revelation given to Daniel. As He walked about, in the days of His flesh, the finishing of the transgression, the making an end of sins, the making reconciliation for iniquity, the bringing in of everlasting righteousness was all embodied in who He was and what He did.  And as Sister Karen Sankowski (from our local assembly) aptly observed, the Lord Jesus presently is, and ever continues to be, the embodiment of these things.

19. The world to come will have as its foundational elements these essential things which were accomplished in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

20. Even now, we have the first fruits of the Spirit and are given to taste of these things in measure. --Editor

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Regarding Divine Instruction - By Al Stoner

Regarding Divine Instruction

“It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me” (Jn. 6:45; see Isa. 54:13).

By Al Stoner

Does God have specific matters that He teaches about?  Are the things which He teaches of a critical nature?  Is it possible for men to come to Jesus apart from receiving Divine tutelage?  The Father addressing the Son in Isaiah's prophecy declared: "And all Thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of Thy children" (Isa. 54:13).  Again, the Lord Jesus Christ, citing that Scripture in His great Galilean discourse, declared: "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me" (Jn. 6:45).  From these and other examples, it at once becomes evident that the manner in which God teaches is of an entirely different order than the teaching of men, even the best of men.  If men are going to be taught of God, there must be a willingness to forsake the old values, and to embrace entirely new ones.  "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein" (Lk. 18:17).

"In Jeremiah's landmark prophecy of the new covenant it is declared by the Lord God that "they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them" (Jer. 31:34). And also as Isaiah prophesied, "they shall be all taught by God" (Jn. 6:45, RSV, cf. Isa. 54:13). The nature and content of what God is teaching are not academic, that is, not merely factual, but rather He is teaching men to properly esteem His Christ, in order that they might come to, and whole-heartedly receive the Savior. He is teaching men to take hold of "the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (II Tim. 2:10). Consider some of the involvements of this Divine teaching.  Taught by God to Come to the Savior. As the Lord Jesus declared, "Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me" (Jn. 6:45). Why is Christ "precious" (cf. I Pet. 2:7) to some, but to others, despised and rejected? Yes, to be sure, it is because such ones have believed, and we would not want to obscure that matter for a moment. However, it is also because the believing ones have "learned of the Father."  They have been taught by the Father to value Jesus for who He is in truth. Yes, the preaching of the gospel was, and is involved.  And yes, men and women, who are ministers of the reconciliation were employed by God.  But the essential teaching of the heart was done by God Himself. This teaching and learning is indispensable for coming to Jesus. He is not welcomed, to say the least, by "the natural man" (I Cor. 2:14) nor by "the carnal mind" (cf. Rom. 8:7-8), which all men have inherited from Adam. 

Those who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who believe that He is precious, must reason that they have been "taught of God" and that they have "learned of the Father" the great value in coming to Jesus. They now perceive the value within themselves. It is like "treasure hid in a field" (Mt. 13:44). It amounts to "riches" that are "unsearchable" (cf. Eph. 3:8). The riches are boundless and unfathomable. But the value of these riches cannot be taught or learned academically. 

Taught by Him to Put Off the Old Man and Put On the New Man. "But you have not so learned Christ; if so be that you have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:20-24).  Putting off the old man "with his deeds" (Col. 3:9), as well as putting on the new man, are both absolutely essential to new creatureship in Christ. This labor of putting off, and putting on must be taking place in men, or else they are simply not reckoned to be among God's sons and daughters. Such ones are still in the flesh. 

Both the old man and the new man are unidentifiable and undiscernable to men apart from the revelation of God's Word. Men have neither the ability nor the wisdom to do this without Divine assistance and counsel. Thus, they must be effectually taught and enabled by God to do this.  Taught by Him to Love One Another. "But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another" (I Th. 4:9). Concerning the love of Christ's brethren, God teaches believing men and women of the preciousness of other redeemed personalities, who share a common bond of love in the Savior Himself, and a common eternal destiny in the world to come. Those who are begotten of God have a natural inclination toward all others who are begotten of Him (cf. I Jn. 5:1), to frequently associate with them, to do them good as they have opportunity, and to speak with them often concerning the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (cf. Mal. 3:16).

  Taught by Him to Overcome Religious Seducers. "And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the Anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in Him" (I Jn. 2:25-27). "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I Jn. 4:4).

  The Anointing spoken of here is the Holy Spirit, the "Comforter" (cf. Jn. 14:16-17), sent by the Savior to abide with us forever, as He said. "The Spirit of truth" comforts redeemed personalities by counseling them in the truth. He gives inward instruction and counsel to men by the Scriptures. He shows to believing men and women that the things which are troubling them are "common to man" (I Cor. 10:13), and that their troubles are in order that "may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God" (II Th. 1:5), for which they are suffering. This higher perspective of trouble sweetens the cup of affliction, making it easier to endure. 

The Scriptures are, as it were, the raw materials, which the Holy Spirit refines, processes, and personalizes in men's understanding as they earnestly consider them. "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16, NASB). God has "sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (II Cor. 1:22; cf. Eph. 1:13; 4:30). "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit" (I Jn. 4:13). The Anointing teaches men and enables them, not to be snared by false prophets and false teachers, thus overcoming them (cf. I Jn. 4:1-4), by bringing to their remembrance the preciousness of the Savior and of the salvation which Christ has accomplished in their behalf. --Al Stoner

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On Recovering our Zeal for Christ - By Fred O. Blakely

On Recovering our Zeal for Christ  By Fred O. Blakely 

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous there¬fore, and repent," the exalted Lord urged the backslidden, luke-warm Laodicean church (Rev. 3:19). This also is His exhortation to all today who have lost their "first love" for Him and lapsed into carnal complacency (ch. 2:4). The tendency to become "weary in well-doing" and faint in our minds is one to which we are constantly exposed (Gal. 6:9; II Th. 3:13; Heb. 12:3). The result of succumbing to this tendency is to become merely formal and perfunctory in our devotion to God. Thus, it is vital that we know how both to avoid this snare of Satan, or to recover ourselves from it and to remain, or get back, in full fellowship with, and the hearty worship and service of, God through our Savior (II Tim. 2:5-26).  According to scholars, the word rightly translated "zealous" means literally "boiling with heat." Christ's call thus is an exhortation to spiritual fervor. He desires and requires that we be "hot" in our relationship to Him. Any level of devotion short of that is unacceptable (Rev. 3:15-16). Certainly, a mere casual attitude in the matter is rejected with vehemence.  The Crucial Question. How are we to recapture the fire of first-faith, once it is lost? That is the important question, and the one which confronts us in the light of the rebuke of the Laodiceans and the call to repentance and zeal. Obviously, "there is nothing in all the world worse than for a person to try to work up emotion---nothing which is so sure, sooner or later, to come to mischief, sure to breed hypocrisy and all manner of evil. If there is anything worse than trying to work up emotion, it is attempting to pretend it."  How, then, may we rekindle the flame of zeal for the Lord?  It would seem that the way is indicated in the message to the Laodiceans as one would expect it to be. "When our Master says to us, 'Be zealous therefore, and repent,' we must remember that zeal in a person ought to be a consequence of knowledge. Seeing that we are reasonable creatures, intended to be guided by our understanding, it is upsetting to the whole of one's nature if his heart works independently of his head. The only way in which we can safely and wholesomely increase our zeal is by increasing our grasp of the truth which feeds it."  The Unmistakable Answer. When properly analyzed, therefore, the essential intent of the exhortation, "Be zealous therefore, and repent," becomes evident. It is a call to "lay hold upon, and meditate upon, the great truths that will make your heart glow." Observe that this exhortation is a consequence, being tied to what goes before it by the adverb "therefore." And what precedes the exhortation? A whole series of considerations set forth by the glorified Lord such as these: "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire ... and white raiment ... and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve" (v. 18). "That is to say, lay hold of the truth that Christ possesses a full store" of all that you require to remedy your backslidden condition. "Meditate on that great truth, and it will kindle a flame of desire and of fruition in your heart."  The Demonstration to John. It will be remembered that the Savior employed the identical technique in dealing with the wavering faith of John the Baptist. "Go and show John those things which you do hear and see," He said to John's disciples, after "in that same hour" performing numerous mighty miracles in attestation of His deity (Mt. 11:1-6; Lk. 7:19-23). It was designed that John should regain his initial conviction concerning Jesus (In. 1:19-34) by due consideration of this evidence of His Person.  Prominent among the qualities of our Lord which the Laodiceans were to ponder in restoring the fervency of their devotion to Him is that of His divine love. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." In other words, the call is to "grasp the great thought of the loving Christ, all of whose dealings, even when His voice assumes severity, and His hand comes armed with a rod, are the outcome and manifestation of His love. Sink into that love, and that will make your heart glow. Think of the earnest, patient, long-suffering appeal which the Master makes, bearing with all our weaknesses and our shortcomings. Let these sweet thoughts of a Christ who gives everything, of a Christ whose dealings with His people are in love--let them draw us to Him, and kindle and keep alight a brighter flame of consecration and devotion in our hearts to Him. Feed upon the great truths of the gospel which kindle zeal."

[banneroftruth]

About God's High and Lofty Ways - By Fred O. Blakely

Like Himself, They Are Above, Contrary to Us

About God's High and Lofty Ways  By Fred O. Blakely

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isa. 57:15).

"Blessed is he," declared the Lord Jesus, "whosoever shall not be offended in Me" (Mt. 11:6). The same, of course, may also be said of the Father, of whom the Son is "the express Image" (Heb. 1:3). Contemplating those who by grace are given to whole-heartedly embrace the Godhead by faith and, in meek submission, to consent to all Its demands and ways, the beatitude by the Savior is actually equivalent to an assertion of divine intervention in the case. That is to say, it amounts to Him saying, Whosoever is not offended in Me has been blessed from Above, and his compatibility with Me is evidence of that blessing.  Man's Incompatibility with God. We have but to consider the reaction to Christ of those whom He designated as "not of My sheep" to perceive this nature of the case (Jn. 10:25-26). The Pharisees were offended at His teaching, we read (Mt. 15:12-14), and "when He was come into His own country," they of Nazareth, His hometown in the flesh, "were offended in Him" (Mt. 13:54-58; cf. Lk. 4:16-30). Indeed, the Jews as a whole "stumbled at that Stumblingstone" which the Father laid in Zion, regarding It as a "rock of offence" (Rom 9:30-33; cf. Jn. 5:39-40). Prior to Messiah's coming, it was the same with their attitude toward the Father--they "would none" of Him, and would not hearken to His voice (Ps. 81:10-12). And not only the Jews; all men every where by nature find that God grates their spirits, which results in their stumbling "at the Word," being unreceptive and disobedient thereto (I Pet. 2:6-8).  God's Exaltation Above Man. Why this inveterate antagonism of man to God? The answer is found in His declaration by Isaiah. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 55:8-9). "God is not a man," as He proclaimed through Balaam (Num. 23:19), neither is He like man in His thoughts and ways. In Nature and conduct, He is, in fact, precisely contrary to the natural man. This is because man in Adam is in a state of alienation from, and rebellion against, God. Thus, the human aversion and opposition to the holy God and His "right ways" (Acts 13:10). Besides being intrinsically counter to his own, the thoughts and ways of God are "far above," out of the sight of sinful man (Ps. 10:5). Even if so disposed, he cannot "by searching find out God" (Job 11:7). As the Apostle exclaims, "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" (Rom. 11:33).  The Necessity for Divine Intervention. This situation respecting God and man posits the necessity of a twofold work by God. If man is to know and walk with God, he must be reconciled to Him in his nature and, being reconciled, he must be illuminated as to the divine thoughts and ways. God will walk in no ways but His own; hence, the indispensability of human consent to those ways, if the creature is to have fellowship with the Creator. And, since God's thoughts and ways are transcendent to those of man, it is essential that He reveal Himself, if man is to know Him.  In the propitiation for man's sin wrought by the death of Christ and ministered to the individual by the Holy Spirit, the believer receives his reconciliation to God. Then as he turns to the Word of God, inscribed in the holy Scriptures and ministered to him by the Spirit, he perceives the divine Nature, and comes to be transformed into it, "from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Cor. 3:18). So are estranged and defiant people brought into a state of communion and "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1-2; cf. Eph. 2:11-18), being given to know and have fellowship with Him, with whom to be so acquainted and related is "life and peace" in the Holy Ghost (Jn. 17:3; Rom. 8:6; 14:17).

[banneroftruth]

Walk about Zion - By Michael Zaucha

Walk about Zion

By Michael Zaucha

“Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following”(Ps. 48:12-13).

The manner of the kingdom of God and of His Christ for all His followers is one of increase (Isa. 9:7), particularly in the knowledge of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ (Tit. 2:13), that we all would grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him (Eph. 1:7), that none of us would neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (II Pet. 1:8).

The Psalmist likened this pursuit of knowing the Only True God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent as walking about Zion - doing so as to becoming more familiar with Him. And it is through the gospel that we know he was not speaking about an earth geographical familiarity, but rather of the One whom the Psalmist was truly testifying of and directing us to - the Lord Jesus Christ (Rev. 19:10).

Tell the Towers Thereof. It is surely reasonable that the Psalmist was speaking of something greater and far more effective than earthly towers for what benefit are such to the people of God today? Can such truly be a place of refuge for us in times of need, or a place where troubles are hasted away?

By the grace of God, there is such a provision for the people of God, as He promised there would be: “a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest” (Isa. 32:2).  And that man is the Lord from heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress and my deliverer. The God of my rock, in Him will I trust: He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my Savior" (II Sam. 22:2-3).

Jesus truly is such a high tower and this truth of Him is being made manifest by the church - even today - as they continue to abide in Him having this testimony of God's Christ and our High Tower: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth unto it and is safe" (Prov. 18:10). Jesus is a strong tower yesterday, today and for ever.

Consider the Palaces. The first and foremost consideration of the palaces is that they are the dwelling place of the king, and concerning the King of Heaven, of Jesus alone is it declared: "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the God Head bodily" (Col. 2:9). Everything - absolutely everything that is God is resident or dwells in the man Christ Jesus. Each and every divine quality and characteristic of God, and everything that comes from God abides and continues in Him.

This is a most powerful and glorious revelation to the believer in Christ Jesus - and must continue to be preached unto them unto their edification, exhortation and comfort - for in the man Christ Jesus, God has made all the benefits, all the blessings and all the promises accessible to the saints - in Him, in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Ps. 68:19; II Cor. 1:20; Eph. 1:3). And these provisions are of an exceeding great and everlasting magnitude.

The palaces are the place where the treasures and the riches of the king kept. And God, in putting them in the man Christ Jesus, reveals that they are not there to be viewed as museum pieces - only to be observed, but rather to be partaken of to the salvation of their souls: the riches of His goodness and forebearance and longsuffering (Rom. 2:4); the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom. 11:33); the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7); the riches of His glory (Eph. 3:16); the riches of the full assurance of understanding (Col. 2:2).

Through Christ Jesus we do partake of these riches according to God's eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus: "For God ISmaking known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles" (Rom. 9:23-24).

Mark Ye Well the Bulwarks. The exhortation is to each of the people of God concerning the bulwarks of the faith: mark them well. Inscribe them deeply into your hearts and minds. Assist one another in this glorious ministry among God's people in rehearsing them one to another. Remind them of their strength and solidity and unchangeableness before the Holy, Holy, Holy God.

The bulwarks are sure and stedfast because God Himself has laid them in place: “thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation” (Isa. 28:16). It was the Apostle Peter who revealed that God was speaking of His Christ when the Apostle, quoting the prophet Isaiah, opened up this text of Scripture concerning Jesus: “ and he that believeth on Him (Jesus) shall not be confounded” (I Pet. 2:6).

Mark these bulwarks well: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (I Cor. 15:3). A most powerful enabler of God’s people by which they draw nigh unto God. Even though Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 5:6, 13:8), there is no sign of aging or deterioration upon this mighty bulwark. There are no cracks, no breeches at all, no, not even the smallest of beginnings upon it.

And next to it is laid another: “now once in the end of the world hath He (Jesus) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26), and another, “to the praise and glory of His grace, wherein He (God) hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6), and still another “and ye are complete in Him” (Col. 2:10).

Let your faith take hold of the many strong and sure bulwarks of Zion revealed in the Scripture, for you will soon become aware that you are compassed about by them all, to the glory of God and His Christ, and to obtainment of your salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory (II Tim. 2:10). Continue to consider them in your good fight of faith knowing – as the song writer penned – speaking of God and His Christ, “a bulwark never failing” (Martin Luther). Amen.

[banneroftruth]

The Error of the Healing Emphasis

"Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth" (Ps. 60:4).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The Error of the Healing Emphasis

  Many Christians are being disturbed by the popular teaching that anyone can be healed of any sickness, provided he has enough faith. Ergo, if you are a Christian without perfect health, it means that you do not have proper faith! Instead of growing in the faith and knowledge of Christ, and rejoicing in the "salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Pet. 1: 5-6), faithful Christians are depressed because they are told they haven't faith enough to be healed. 

  The Claim of Miraculous Power. Claims for wholesale healing are based on several false assumptions. Widespread is the claim that Jesus expects us to perform miracles. "Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto My Father" (Jn. 14:12). Jesus did not imply by this that we should do greater work of the same nature as that which He did. Can anyone multiply loaves and fishes? Calm the stormy sea? Call the dead forth from the tomb? What greater work is there than the atonement, in which Christ took our sins and met their penalty on the cross? Certainly Jesus did not mean that we can either duplicate or improve on His work. What He did mean was that at His ascension He would send the Holy Spirit to inspire the Apostles, through whose preaching men would be convicted "of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (Jn. 16:8), and thus be brought to accept the great salvation which He accomplished for them. 

  The preaching of the Gospel, with its power to redeem and save both body and spirit for eternity, is a much greater work than the mere healing for a brief time of the dying body. The miracles which were wrought by the Apostles were for the specific purpose of confirming "the things that were heard" concerning salvation. In the miracles, God was "bearing witness" of the authenticity of the message proclaimed "by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will" (Heb. 2:1-4; cf. Mk. 16:20). Paul wrote to the Corinthians that "the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty works" (II Cor. 12:12). If everyone worked miracles, there could be no such thing as "the signs of an Apostle" through miracles. The very term itself distinctly implies the limitation of miraculous powers.

   The Doctrine of Healing in the Atonement. Many claim that healing of the body is guaranteed by the suffering and death of our Lord—that is, that bodily healing as well as the propitiation for sin is included in the atonement. They quote Matthew 8:16-17 in justification of this contention. But Matthew simply states that Jesus cast out demons and healed all that were sick, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the Prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bear our diseases." This prophecy (Isa. 53:4), obviously, was fulfilled in the fact that Jesus, in His earthly ministry, sympathetically bore the diseases and took them away by healing the sick. It certainly does not mean that Christ's death on the cross was for the purpose of giving us physical health in this life. His atoning death was to meet the ultimate penalty for our sins, which is the final and ultimate death at the judgment. Nowhere in the New Testament Scriptures is there any suggestion that our Lord's death was for the purpose of healing our sicknesses. Rather, it was to "put away sin" (Heb. 9:26; cf. Rom. 4:25; II Cor. 5:21; I Pet. 2:24; Heb. 1:3). He died "for the remission of sins," as He Himself declared (Matt. 26:28). The penalty for sin is not sickness, but death in the final judgment, a death that is eternal. It was to meet this penalty on our behalf that Jesus died. 

  The Ascription of Sickness to Satan. Sufferers are told that they are sick because they are in the grip of Satan, and that they need deliverance from Satan to be well. Job was afflicted with sickness so severe that his wife told him to simply curse God and die. But the account of Job's sickness reveals that he was under God's constant protection, that he was afflicted for God's glory, to demonstrate his faith in God. From beginning co end, Job was accounted righteous before God. His sickness was due to his righteousness, not his sinfulness. He did get well, but only after the purpose of God had been served. 

The disciples called attention to a blind man, asking Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?" The Lord replied, "Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made mani-fest in him" (Jn. 9:1-3). The man was not blind because of Satan nor because of sin, and he was not healed because of any particular faith which he had in Christ. What a far cry from the kind of claims and conditions made today by healers!" 

  The Insistence That God Wants You Well. Some make the presumptuous claim that "God wants you well." Therefore, if you are sick or crippled, it must be because you have little faith, and certainly it is in opposition to God's will. But there are several reasons why this claim must be false. God did not always heal through the Apostles. Paul prayed for healing, but God did not heal him, saying instead, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness" (II Cor. 12:9). Rather than viewing physical impairment as a calamity or lack of faith, Paul took "pleasure in infirmities" and "gloried" in his weaknesses, "that the power of Christ" might rest upon him (vv. 9-10). In fact, he wrote that it was because of his infirmities that the Galatians had heard the gospel (Gal. 4: 13-14). Therefore, the Apostle was able to "glory of the things that concerned" his infirmities (II Cor. 11:30). 

  Apparently, Paul was unable to heal Timothy, whom he instructed to "use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities" (II Tim. 5:23). Not a word about Timothy having more faith in order to be healed! In Second Timothy 4:20, the Apostle wrote that Trophimus was sick, so he had left him at Miletus. We could hardly accuse Paul of having little faith, yet he evidently was not able to heal either these men or himself. In all of his letters, in fact, we find no guarantee of physical healing. 

  The Actuality of the Matter. If God wants you well, as many claim, then you will get well. God is able and does heal. We have seen His healing in numerous instances, some of them quite dramatic. But far more important than our physical health is our relationship to God and our attitude under stress. Peter writes that we have "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven” for us . . “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials" (I Pet. 1: 3-6). These trials, he adds, are to prove our faith and refine it. Our rejoicing is in the salvation wrought in the atonement of Christ, and in the inheritance reserved in heaven for us. It does not depend upon our being in perfect health. 

  Some of the greatest contributions to Christian understanding have been made by those who labored under severe physical handicaps. The curse which God placed upon the entire race at Adam's fall was death. Death being thus decreed by God, obviously, He does not intend for anyone to remain in perfect health in this present evil world. People grow to an age when their work here is done, then they die. Sometimes the illness serves a good purpose which no one discovers, but which only God knows. It is faith which enables one to accept such infirmities without complaint or question, so that rather than sickness proving that one does not have faith, as so-called faith healers claim, the sickness, properly endured, proves the faith. God still heals. He could heal everyone, if He wanted to. He could feed everyone, as Jesus fed multitudes on two occasions, if He wanted to. 

  We do not always know the mind of God, so we cannot always pray with faith for God to heal. Nevertheless, we are taught to pray for that which we need. Two of the conditions of prayer are given in Jn. 15:7: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Abiding in Him refers to abiding faithful. Certainly, He knows whether or not you will remain faithful. The "if" also includes "and My words abide in you”, that is, our hearing and reading what He teaches, and making His teaching the rule of our lives. "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination (Proy. 28:9). Many people desire healing, but care nothing at all for Christ's commandments. 

  Another requirement of God is that we pray for one another. "Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed" (Jas. 5:16). Those who spend their time and money going from one "healing" meeting to another may have little concern for confessing their sins and praying for other people. This kind of prayer refers not to praying for another person to be used for our own benefit, but rather that we be concerned enough for other people and their afflictions that we pray for them instead of praying for ourselves. We are to forgive the other person and pray that he may be blessed. God desires that we turn our minds to Him and to others, rather than always concentrating on our own desires. James gives specific instructions to the sick. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church: and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord" (Jas. 5:14). Note that this is to be done by the elders of the church and not by professional healing hucksters.

  Instead of obeying the Lord's instructions, millions of people flock to "crusades," traveling halfway around the world to sensational "healers." This is not faith, but a lack of faith: for faith is to believe that God will do what He says He will do under His own terms. Faith is to believe that God is present throughout His world; He is no more in Tulsa than He is in Gallup. He can heal as well in your own town as lie can in Lourdes, or Manila, or wherever the latest popular "miracle-worker" is holding his or her crusade. It is significant that the Apostles never needed to "screen" the audience to find the neurotics (easy marks) and those with functional problems, a large percentage of which are psychosomatic. They never required the warm-up session of emotional-packed songs and never took up huge collections in connection with healing.

  Healing is not proof of a healer's hotline to God. Satan, has great power, and is able to perform mighty signs and lying wonders" (II Thess. 2:9) through his ministers, who "fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness" (II Cor. 11:15). Multitudes are deceived by his work, which is so marvelous that he might "lead astray, if possible, even the elect" (Matt. 24:24). 

  God can heal, and does heal. "The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working" (Jas. 5:16). But He makes no blanket promise to heal everyone that desires it or "believes" it. God is not our servant and is not subject to our desires. It is God "who worketh all things after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11), and not ours. What He desires is that we seek Him, not His healing. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt. 5:6). What He demands is that we have faith to accept whatever He gives or does, that we deny ourselves to follow Christ, and that in all things we give Him praise and honor. 

  The Ultimate Purpose of God for Us. The purpose of God is to conform us to His own Image. Such transformation is going on continually for those who are "called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28), but it will not be complete until Christ comes and we "put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:53; II Cor. 3:18; Phil. 2:13). Then every Christian will be permanently healed, with glorious and immortal bodies. There will be no more sickness, and no more death (Rev. 21:4). But that inheritance is now “reserved" for you, "to be revealed in the last time" (1. Pet. 1:4-5). It is ours now by faith and in hope, but then it will be ours in sight and by actual personal possession. The work which .Christ came to do was to "seek and to save that which was lost” and to ''give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:18: Lu. 19:10). 

  The greatest proof of the work of the Holy Spirit is found in redeemed lives, not restored livers. The Bible reveals that Satan has power to produce miracles, but only God can reconcile, forgive, and redeem for eternity. For those who "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Cor. 5:7), and who are not seeking after a sign like the Pharisees, this is enough. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worth for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (II Cor. 4:17). --Slightly revised from an exchange

[banneroftruth]

“The Father Which Sent Me” (Part 2) By Michael Zaucha

“The Father Which Sent Me”

  (Part 2)

  By Michael Zaucha

    The Command of Life Forevermore. Our hope will now shift to things eternal and everlasting, specifically, the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory (II Tim. 2:10). To this end, it is also recorded for us that God Almighty spoke forth another command, and this command is of higher order than that which was spoken in the creation, for the effect of this command will continue on forever and ever with eternal glory, unlike the natural creation. And you want to be sure you are a partaker of this commandment.

  This command of God is a blessing, a blessing like none other, even life everlasting. The same God that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, the very God that commanded and when He commanded, it stood fast, this very God hath commanded a blessing, even life forevermore (Ps. 133:3). The command of life forevermore has sounded forth from God, who shall turn it back?

  From the mountains of Zion, that city of the Great King (Ps. 48:2), from His holy temple, from His throne in heaven (Ps. 11:4), there the Lord commanded a blessing, even life forevermore. The blessing proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord: life forevermore – and none can stay His hand.

  However, this command was not spoken as in the creation to the void and the darkness, but to Him who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn. 1:1). And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Jn. 1:14), and His name was called Jesus (Lk. 2:21).

  Spoken to the Man Christ Jesus.  It is Jesus to whom the commanded blessing was spoken to by God unto His fulfilling of it. This is the word that not only did Jesus affirm to the people in the days of His flesh concerning Himself, but declared that this is the very work He is engaged in to accomplish: “the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.  And I know that His commandment is life everlasting; whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.”  Life everlasting is that, which the Father sent the Son to accomplish, and Jesus is fully engaged in it unto fulfillment, for this fulfillment could not be accomplished by divine command alone. The fulfillment would require a Sin Bearer, A Savior, a High Priest, a King - the Christ of God, our Lord Jesus Christ – all that He is, and all that He would accomplish.

  Consider Him whom the Father Sent.  There is far more that the Holy Spirit will make known about Jesus to strengthen your faith in Him, to increase your hope and trust in Him, and it is found in the record that God has given of His Son that you might believe in His name.

  Through the prophet Isaiah, it is made known that Jesus is God’s Elect Servant (Isa. 42:1). It is God Himself who chose Jesus for the work of salvation and for its fulfillment, and with good reason – He is God’s Beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased, so consider the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One whom the Father sent: God’s soul delights in Him, for He always did those things that please the Father (Jn. 8:29). His meat – Jesus’ very sustenance and good pleasure - was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work (Jn. 4:34). His very life was intent toward doing the will of His Father, and to fulfill and accomplish all that He was sent for.

  God Himself would uphold Jesus in the work for He is like-minded as the Father: He loves righteousness and hates iniquity (Heb. 1:9). Therefore God anointed Him above all His fellows – His fellow man – to accomplish all that God sent Him for.  For this mighty work, God would put His Spirit – without measure – upon Him, and in Him dwelteth the fullness of the God head bodily (Col. 2:9).

  To bring God’s purpose to full and complete fulfillment, much grace and truth would be necessary, so God sent Him that is full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14). Moreover, Jesus revealed the substance of eternal life: this is eternal life, to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent (Jn. 17:3). But in order to accomplish this would be no small work, for no man knoweth the Son save the Father, and neither  knoweth any man the Father, save the Son (Mt. 11:27). Therefore, this puts eternal life out of the reach of men apart from Jesus – hear that again, eternal life is out of the reach of all men apart from Jesus.

  So hear the glad tidings of good things, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ: “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (Jn. 1:18). It is Jesus who is revealing the Father unto eternal life and He does so by revealing Himself for Jesus alone is the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of God’s Person (Heb. 1:3), so that if you see Jesus, you’ve seen the Father (Jn. 14:8).

  More of His Greatness Revealed. I bring to your remembrance these other things concerning Jesus, The One whom the Father sent, God’s Elect Servant: He was obedient to the Father in all things, even unto the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). And this is the main thing the Father sent the Son: to taste death for every man (Heb. 2:9); He was manifested to take away our sins (I Jn. 3:5); He appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26), which He did on His cross.

  With the entire body of sin (Rom. 6:6) being righteously put away from the sight of God and from us, the blessing of God could be given to men who repent and are baptized. Yet still, it doesn’t end here concerning the greatness of Him whom the Father sent, for Jesus is the Fit Man who raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, for He alone is able to lay His life down that He might take it up again (Jn. 10:18).

  Brethren, these things concerning Jesus are declared that your hearts be not troubled, even in these most perilous times, in these times of trouble, as we journey in a land of troublers. These things are declared that we would believe in God and believe in the One whom He sent, to partake of those things that Jesus accomplished for us. To this commanded end, Jesus would not fail nor be discouraged (Isa. 42:4).

  God’s Empowerment to Fulfill. To the attainment of the promise of eternal life, the Holy Spirit will continue to reveal the One that the Father sent - Jesus is come with all the power and authority of God Himself. Unlike kings and rulers of the earth who send ambassadors to make known their will, and their objectives, they do not have the power or authority to accomplish that which they were sent for – but Jesus does! “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:7, 9) – to do it – to accomplish His will – Jesus came “to do” the will of Him that sent Him.

  Jesus made it known that “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth (Mt. 28:18), power to fulfill the commandment He received of God.  All things are delivered unto Me by My Father (Mt. 11:27) unto the fulfilling of God’s purposed command: (God) hast given (Me) power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him (Jn. 17:2). And the gospel announces that Christ Jesus was faithful to Him that appointed Him (Heb. 3:1-2) - And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.

  The Means unto Fulfillment. One last consideration from this text which continues to reveal much about God and His Christ, and that is concerning the means by which the command of eternal life is received by men – Jesus said it is by “the word which I have spoken.” It is the very word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord that giveth life. Jesus said: “the words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (Jn. 6:63). And Jesus demonstrated this truth in a firstfruit sense - at the tomb of Lazarus who was dead four days.  Lazarus neither did come forth nor could he come forth until Jesus speaketh, until Jesus spoke the words of life: “Lazarus, come forth” (Jn. 11:43), and come he did as by the word of the Lord.

  These Things were Written for Us. This account – the raising of Lazarus from the dead - is one of great power and glory, but it is also written to teach us even more concerning the greatness of the man Christ Jesus, and to point us to the One the Father sent because Jesus alone has the words of eternal life (Jn. 6:68), and that His word is still of power- even unto this very day - to give life, even eternal life.  

  It is written of those who have come forth to newness of life: you were “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Pet. 1:23), which means His word not only brings life, it continues to sustain that eternal life. And these words continue to be in the present tense.

  With the command of Almighty God being sent out – even life forevermore, let us seek grace to enter in and not come short of it  - “Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed” (Jn. 6:27). Amen.

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“The Father Which Sent Me” (Part 1) By Michael Zaucha

“The Father Which Sent Me”

  (Part 1)

  By Michael Zaucha

  “Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me. And he thatseeth Me seeth Him that sent Me.  I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Meshould not abide in darkness.  And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.  He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.  For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.  And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak” (Jn. 12:44-50).

  Unto those to whom Jesus cried aloud these wonderful words of life in those last few days before He would give His life a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28), much of God would be made known. These were previously hidden things, things that pertaineth to the only true God, things that men by their own ingenuity and strength are not able to find and know, but He that is in the bosom of the Father is faithful to declare Him (Jn. 1:18), unto the fulfillment of the command of God, that we should not abide in darkness of the knowledge of God, but walk in the light of life (Jn. 8:12), even life everlasting.

  Behold Our God.  In considering Christ Jesus, the One sent by God, the solid foundation from which all else would be built upon and flow perfectly unto fulfillment begins with the Sender: “Him that sent Me” is Jesus’ main revelation. “The Father which sent Me” is not only Jesus’ main emphasis, but He is also the One Jesus would continue to bring men’s minds and hearts unto.

  And there is good reason for that because the Sender who gave Jesus a commandment also made a promise as well - you might say God confirmed His command with a promise of fulfillment – “and this is the promise that He promised us, even eternal life” (I Jn. 2:25).  The command and promise of eternal life is declared with purpose, God’s own purpose - that the promise be received by man. Therefore, it is God Himself who truly is at the forefront. Yea, He is also the rear guard, even the One that is over all.

  That we would have strong confidence in Him, the God who commanded everlasting life also reveals that He is able to perform what He has promised. Therefore, from the very beginning of the record, the Holy Spirit would begin to teach men about God, that they might know that God is The Almighty God (Gen. 17:1), and there is none else; there is no god beside Me (Isa. 45:5). The record is the showing forth of the truth of God. God would manifest this truth concerning Himself from the beginning. The creation would evidence this truth about God Himself, for it was to the void and the darkness, that the command or the word of God would be sounded forth: “Let there be light; and there was light” (Gen. 1:3), in all its intrinsic properties of speed, of color, of reflection.

  God had commanded the light to shine out of darkness according to the council of His own will (Eph. 1:11), purposefully, according to His purpose, and it was so. The Apostle would reveal even more of the creation and of the Almighty God who created it when he said that not only was light created then, but also “the worlds” – plural - not only those that are seen, because there are other worlds that are not seen by the eye of flesh – these “worlds were framed by the word of God” as well.  Moreover, the Apostle continues, the “things which are seen” – the moon, the stars, the sun, the earth, all formed by the word of God – “were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). In other words, these things spoken of did not exist before God had commanded them into existence. And they were not the result of reconstruction, but of creation. “For He spake, and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast” (Ps. 33:9).

  There is still more the Holy Spirit wants God’s people to know of the only true God who gave a commandment: Thus saith the Lord: “I will work and who shall let it” is the challenge that would go forth, as if there were any who might contest with Almighty God (Isa. 43:13). Who shall hinder, stay, reverse or change the purposed effect for which God Almighty has spoken? Who shall be able to cause to cease the effect that those words which I the Lord have declared? Who indeed shall let it?

  These where not rhetorical questions left unanswered for God Himself would answer them unto ministering to our confidence and hope. The answer would be soon coming that all might know this of Almighty God, and it would be demonstrated thru the mightiest of the earthly kings.  Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold in his vision, the mightiest of earthly heathen kings, was humbled before God by a word spoken by God: “to thee it is spoken; the kingdom is departed from thee” (Dan. 4:31). And for the next seven years the mightiest of the kings of the earth was taught of God in the fields of animals. In his humiliation before God, he was given to know the truth about God, and to declare the answer for us concerning the Most High: “none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what doest Thou?” (Dan. 4:35).

  Once the commandment of the Almighty goes forth, it cannot be countermanded, overridden or stopped by any created personality be they in heaven, or on the earth or under the earth – be they principality or power or angelic being. “His hand is stretched out, who shall turn it back?” (Isa. 14:27). There are none is the resounding word of truth.

  So let these words of truth sink down into your ears concerning the very person of Almighty God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Father, especially as we now consider the command and the promise of everlasting life, because the knowledge of these wonderful revelations of God will strengthen trust in the believer in God and in His Beloved Son, to an enduring and perseverance, even to the end. For that which God has commanded, He is able to perform (Rom. 4:21).

[banneroftruth]

God’s Keeping - By Sara Stoner

God’s Keeping

 By Sara Stoner

Moses sang of Israel, “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.  He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness, He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye” (Deut. 32:9-10).  The nation of Israel is the apple of His eye. To this day He has kept them and preserved them and will yet graft them in again into their own olive tree.  “He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock”(Isa. 31:10).  The nation itself is a testimony to God’s love and ability to keep; yet there are greater testimonies than these.              

Moses and the prophets are replete with examples of men and women of faith whom God guarded, protected and delivered. During times of famine God preserved Jacob and his sons in Canaan and Elijah in Ahab’s day. God kept David from all his enemies that he might retain kingship over Israel, and fulfill the type of Christ’s throne.  Hannah knew the Lord keeps the feet of his saints. Daniel was preserved through two world empires, four world rulers, and a den of lions.  He did not deny His faith and trust in God and God kept him. Not all of those who trusted in God were kept from physical harm or hardships.  These are the ‘and others’ of Hebrews 11 of whom the world was not worthy, who left this world destitute, afflicted and tormented.  Nevertheless, they were kept.  Their faith did not fail. They are in that city whose builder and maker is God.

When God sent His own Son into the world, He kept Him.  From Ps. 89:26-29, God is speaking: “He shall cry unto Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make Him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.  My mercy will I keep for Him for evermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with Him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and His throne as the days of heaven.”  The Father speaking to the Son in Isa. 42:6-7 said: “I the LORD have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will keep Thee, and give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” Ps. 91:11-12:  “For He (God the Father) shall give His angels charge over Thee (the Son) to keep Thee in all Thy ways.  They shall bear Thee up in their hands, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.”  Although Satan used this scripture to tempt the Lord to test God, that doesn’t make it any less true. How many times did Jesus escape from the midst of those who would kill Him?  The Psalmist gives us a reason for God’s tender care in verse 14:  “Because He has set His love upon Me, therefore will I deliver Him.  I will set Him on high because He hath known My name.”  When Christ was suffering in the garden, angels were sent by the Father to strengthen Him.  Here was the Lamb of God, ‘kept up’ so to speak, as the Passover lamb was kept up (Ex. 12:6), until the time when he was to be offered up.

Jesus kept His own disciples when He was here. In His prayer in John 17, He passed the keeping of their souls unto His heavenly Father.  “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee.  Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one, as we are.  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”  And in v.15 Jesus prayed:  “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil,” (or rather from the evil one). God did keep them from the evil one.  Though they fled from His Son in the garden and Peter denied Him, they recovered themselves.  None of them were ‘lost’, as was Judas.  These were the men who after Pentecost, after the filling of the Holy Spirit, were the ones who turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

Scriptures declare that God has the power to keep us by working certain things in us.  His Holy Spirit, of course is His primary worker.  Without His working we have no life toward God.  We are kept from doing evil and from a great many fiery darts of the wicked one by us keeping God’s word in our hearts.  “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee” (Ps. 119:11). In John 17, Jesus noted in His prayer to the Father that His disciples had kept the word He gave to them.  He asked the Father,  “Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth”.  Love for and a biblical fear of God, of His word, and of His Son are meant to keep us in this world.  And faith works by love.  We are commanded to keep ourselves.  “But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 20). “Keep yourselves unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). Remember John’s words, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (I John 5:21). 

Underneath God’s keeping power is the foundation of God’s faithfulness.  “But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from the evil (one)” (II Thess. 3:3).  Paul wrote to Timothy of his assurance of God’s power to keep. “But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (II Tim. 1:12). Paul, being a faithful and prodigious worker, had much committed to God’s trust, but He was assured in His heart that God would preserve these things until the Day of Judgment. Peter, also, assured the scattered saints throughout Asia of the inheritance reserved in heaven for those “who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Peter 1:5).  At the close of His epistle, he sought to comfort the saints who were partakers of Christ’s sufferings.  “Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (I Peter 4:19). ESV: …”Let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”  AMP: …”commit their souls to the One Who created them and will never fail [them]”.

So I ask you, do you have a God who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy? He is well able.    

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CONSIDER CHRIST JESUS - “The One Sent By God” - Preaching in Delaware

CONSIDER CHRIST JESUS

“The One Sent By God”

  June 27-29, 2014

  Location: The Feed Company

13275 Reynolds Pond Rd. Milton, DE 19968

  Consider Christ Jesus! He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. He is the One sent by God to be the Savior of the world and He is the One making intercession to God on our behalf. Before the foundations of the world were laid God had determined to save man through THE MAN Christ Jesus. He sent Jesus. We will be considering this aspect of the Son of God. Everything that God needs in order to accomplish this great work of salvation is and will be performed in the One He sent to do it - Jesus. Let us consider Him!!

  —Friday Night—

5:00 p.m. —Dinner—

6:00 p.m. —Singing—

6:15 p.m.  Opening Thoughts,  —Karen Sankowski

6:30 p.m. “What the One Sent by God Would Accomplish” (Dan. 9:24) —Albert Stoner

7:15 p.m. —Break—

7:30 p.m. “Sent in the Fulness of Time” (Gal. 4:4) —Aaron Hutchcraft

  —Saturday—

8:30 a.m. —Breakfast—

9:00 a.m. Opening Thoughts, —Barbara Hutchcraft

9:15 a.m. “He Was Given a Commandment” (Jn. 12:50) —Michael Zaucha

10:00 a.m. “He Came from Heaven and is Above All” (Jn. 3:31) —Paul McCulfor

10:45 a.m. —Break—

11:00 a.m. —Singing and Testimonies—

11:30 a.m. “He Made a Sufficient Sacrifice” (Heb. 10:18) —Michael Knapp

12:30 p.m. —Lunch—

2:30 p.m. “He Came Not to Bring Peace but a Sword” (Mt. 10:34) —Timothy McCulfor

3:15 p.m. “God Sent His Son to be the Savior of the World” (I Jn. 4:14) —Patrick Woods

4:00 p.m. —Break—

4:45 p.m. “He Came to Fulfill the Law and the Prophets” (Mt 5:17) —Daniel Brueck

5:30 p.m. —Dinner—

  —The Lord’s Day—

8:30 a.m. —Breakfast—

9:00 a.m. Opening Thoughts —Kayla Olmsted

9:15 a.m. Singing/Prayers/Thanksgivings

10:00 a.m. “Believing on the One Sent by God” (Jn 6:29) —Tyler-James Boyd

10:45 a.m. —Break—

11:15 a.m. “He Does the Will of Him Who Sent Him” (Jn 4:34) —Erik Olmsted

12:00 a.m. The Lord’s Table

12:30 p.m. —Lunch—

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The Spirit's Indispensability - By Fred O. Blakely

By Him We Relate to God in All Respects

    The Spirit's Indispensability

By Fred O. Blakely

“They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:8-9).

The personal indwelling of the individual by the Holy Spirit is God’s appointed seal, or mark, of sonship (Eph. 1:13-14). Thus, Paul tried the genuineness of the Ephesians’ relationship to God by inquiry concerning that seal. “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” he asked (Acts 19:2, ASV).  

“Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a [mere] servant, but a son; and if a son, an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:6-7; cf. ch. 3:13-14; Rom. 8:15-17). The Father, it will be recalled, acknowledged Jesus of Nazareth as His only-begotten Son by conferring the Spirit without measure upon Him at His baptism (Jn. 1:29-34). So, to the extent that He has determined for us (Heb. 2:4), we who receive the Son obtain “the gift of the Holy Spirit” when, in unfeigned faith and genuine repentance, we are baptized into Christ (Acts 2:38, ASV). The indispensability of this enduement, as regards our enablement for conduct as God’s children, as well as authentic identification as such, is stressed by Scripture. The following considerations demonstrate that indispensability.

The Reception of Christ. The very fact that we are “given” to believe in Jesus as the Christ (Phil. 1:29) is due to the Spirit’s operation upon us. That is not to say that His influence is arbitrary and irresistible. It is certain, however, as Scripture makes clear, that it is real, being wielded through the gospel. At Caesarea Philippi, Peter came to that conclusion—that Jesus is the Christ—by revelation of the Father, which was by the Spirit, our Lord declared (Mt. 16:16-17). Thus, Paul’s declaration, “No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit” (I Cor. 12:3; ASV; cf. I Jn. 5:1). Faith, accordingly, is said to be a “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22). We need to recognize this ministry of the Spirit in conversion. Although we plant and water the kingdom seed, it is “God that giveth” the life and the increase from our labors (I Cor. 3:6-7). That is done by the Spirit.

The Son’s Glorification.A vital factor concerning the Spirit’s ministry very badly needs to be generally recognized today. It is that of His personal unassertiveness and unobtrusiveness. He does not “speak of Himself,” as Jesus declared (Jn. 16:13). In that characteristic, His ministry is notably different from those of the Father and the Son, both of whom proclaim Themselves (Isa. 45:22; Jn. 14:6). Today’s preacher of the Holy Spirit (as a primary emphasis), thus, is both unscriptural and ungodly in his proclamation. Instead of Self-proclamation, the Spirit preaches and glorifies Christ, as Jesus said it would be. When Christ is perceived in the glory and blessedness of His Person and ministry, it is by the Spirit. “Unto you therefore which believe, He [Christ] is precious,” says Peter (I Pet. 2:7). You perceive Him in the splendor of His divine Sonship, the complete efficacy of His Saviorhood, and His sovereignty over all the works of God’s hands, which has been given to Him (Jn. 13:2-3). In that apprehension of Christ, you have your sense of completeness in Him, as Paul observed (Col. 2:9-10). The Holy Spirit is the One who gave you that grasp of Jesus, and the righteousness, peace, and joy that come from an adequate view of the Son and ones personal union with Him.

The Exposition of Scripture.One of the means by which “the Spirit glorifies Christ is by taking of “the things” of His and showing, or making them plain, to those who receive the Spirit and yield themselves to His tutorship (Jn. 16:14). “All things that the Father hath are Mine,” Jesus declared (v. 15). Hence, the Spirit will lead His subjects into “all truth” (v. 13), instructing them in “the deep things of God” and His kingdom, as Paul says (I Cor. 2:9-12; cf. I Jn. 2:20, 27).

Otherwise viewed, it is Christ Himself, functioning through the Holy Spirit, that expounds the Scriptures and the Father to those in whom He, by the Spirit, dwells. So we read that, following His resurrection, He “opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Lk. 24:45: cf. vv. 27, 32).

That this ministry did not cease with our Lord’s pre-ascension fellowship with the disciples, but only began, is evident from His own anticipation of His post-ascension ministry. “In that day, ye shall ask Me nothing,” He said (Jn. 16:23). Prior to His resurrection, they were full of questions. Later, He would instruct them from within, causing them to “know all things” pertaining to the kingdom, as John recognizes (I Jn. 2:20). “These things I have spoken unto you in proverbs [dark sayings]: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father,” He continued. That time was inducted with the Lord’s coming by the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, to indwell the Apostles and the church (cf. Jn. 14:15-18).

Therefore, as people today possess the Spirit, they may have this expository ministry of the enthroned Christ, if they are willing to hear what He has to say to them. From this circumstance, an inescapable conclusion is apparent. Ignorance of God and the Scriptures is inexcusable in those who claim to have the Holy Spirit. It is a manifestation of their quenching of the Spirit, or their resistance of Him in His revelative ministry.

The Life Godward.Spiritual life, or life unto God, is begotten and sustained by the Holy Spirit. It was by the Spirit that Christ was raised from the dead (Rom. 8:11). So are we also “born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:5-6, 8), and maintained in our life Godward by Him. He, accordingly, is called “the Spirit of life,” or, as is so with Christ, a “life-giving Spirit” (Rom. 8:2; I Cor. 15:45, ASV).  “If we live in the Spirit,” says Paul—and there is no other way to live, as God reckons life—“let us also walk in the Spirit”  (Gal. 5:24; cf. Rom. 8:14).

“What then if ye should behold the Son of man ascending up where He was before? asked Jesus of the disciples before His death. “It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing” (Jn. 6:62-63. ASV).  Although it apparently is the human spirit that is here said to give life to the mortal body (cf. Jas. 2:26), it is certain that the Holy Spirit of God is contemplated in the Lord’s assertion. His reasoning is: Though He was to be physically absent from them (cf. II Cor. 5:6-7), He would return to them by the Spirit (cf. ch. 14:15-18; Eph. 3:14-19), and impart divine energy to their spirits—“strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). 

So Paul later wrote of this situation. “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11). The allusion is not to the bodily resurrection at the Lord’s coming. The body of that occasion will be an immortal one, and will be distinguished from the mortal frame (I Cor. 15:37-38, 42-44). Clearly, the reference is to the energizing of the human spirit by the divine One, so enabling the Spirit’s possessor to do the will of God (cf. vv. 12-14; ch. 6:19-23). 

It should be remembered that it is with the Holy Spirit and our spirit as it is with Christ and us. “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (I Cor. 6:17); “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20); “we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph. 3:30). That is to say, in Christ we are essentially identified with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Spirit (cf. Mt. 28:19, ASV).  So are the required disciplines of this life to be achieved through the Spirit,” not by human willpower alone (Rom. 8:13).  “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye, through Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

All the demanded mastery of the Adamic nature and the evil world is to be achieved in the same way—”through the Spirit.” That includes the denying to oneself of “ungodliness and worldly lusts,” and the general perfection of holiness “in the fear of God” (II Cor. 7:1; Tit. 2:11-12).  Jesus said of Himself, “Without Me, ye can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). So also it is with the Spirit, by whom Christ dwells in us. That is why it is written, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9). It is only by the indwelling Spirit that one is recognized by God as His child, and can live and walk acceptably to Him.  In fact, absence of the Spirit denotes ones personal unacceptance by God, since the Spirit’s bestowal is the Father’s seal, or mark, of one’s divine sonship (Gal. 4:6-7; Eph. 1:13-14). Lacking the Spirit, or “having not the Spirit,” as Jude would say (Jude 19), one is but a natural person—yet “in the flesh” (Rom. 8:8-9; cf. Heb. 11:6)—and so alienated from God. 

The Indispensability to Worship.When it comes to the worship of God, possession of the Spirit is equally necessary. Those who seek to approach Him “in the flesh,” i.e., without faith, are attempting the impossible. That is because He has cut off flesh, as spiritually regarded. The reason we who are reconciled to God “know no man after the flesh” (II Cor. 5:16) is because He does not do so. In that characteristic we partake of the Divine nature. The flesh was cut off by “the circumcision of Christ,” by which the “new and living way” to God was opened for those who participate in that circumcision (Col. 2:10-13:  Heb. 10:19-22). 

Despite the disputation concerning it, that is the essential contemplation of Jesus in John 4:23-24. He there envisions the era of regeneration, when God is to be related to in spirit and in truth,” or in the worshiper’s spirit and in reality. That situation is opposed to the endeavor under law to relate to God while still in the flesh, and so in a state of unregeneracy, or personal alienation from Him. 

Thus, Paul’s forceful statement of the case in Philippians 3:3, as he, too, contrasts new-covenant relation to God with that of the old-covenant dispensation. “We are the [acceptable] circumcision,” he says—those who have been circumcised with “the circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11)—”who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (ASV).  The KJV renders it, “which worship God in the spirit,” etc. Again, the contemplation thereby is that of the human spirit being energized by the divine Spirit, so as to enable it to acceptably approach and do homage to God. Hence, by either translation—or that of the RSV—the worship is rendered by the Holy Spirit.

Since prayer is integral to the worship of God, it is well to note that it also is offered by the Spirit, if it is to be received in heaven. “Praying in the Holy Spirit,” says Jude, we are to keep ourselves “in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 20-21, ASV; cf. v. 19). Thus, Paul said, “I will pray with the spirit,” as well as sing therewith (I Cor. 14:15)—i.e., with his spirit, as enlightened and enlivened by the Spirit of God. 

Since prayer is integral to the worship of God, it is well to note that it also is offered by the Spirit, if it is to be received in heaven. “Praying in the Holy Spirit,” says Jude, we are to keep ourselves “in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 20-21, ASV; cf. v. 19). Thus, Paul said, “I will pray with the spirit,” as well as sing therewith (I Cor. 14:15)—i.e., with his spirit, as enlightened and enlivened by the Spirit of God. 

The Logical Response.“What shall we, then, say to these things?” as Paul probably would ask (Rom. 8:31). The answer for those who are serious about their relation to God is obvious. Let us be certain that we possess and are led by the divine Spirit, in every aspect of our relation to God. He is the Spirit that ministers to us “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). Let us, therefore, yield implicitly to Him, that He may sanctify us wholly, and present us before the Father as well-pleasing and delightsome, in all our approaches and relations to Him.

The way of such infillment and direction by the Spirit is made plain by Scripture. It is that of hearing the Lord Jesus Christ, believing in Him, being baptized into Him, and then walking in “newness of life” with Him (Jn. 5:24; 14:15-18; Acts 2:38; 5:32; Rom. 6:4).  Peter epitomized the situation well by saying the Holy Spirit is given by God “to them that obey Him” (Acts 5:32). The Spirit has been “poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,” declares Paul (Tit. 3:6, RSV), so is fully available, in all His several functions for today, to those who will meet the conditions for His possession. Let us, therefore, as we are urged to do, “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18), and please and glorify God by that infillment.