Why Christians purposefully don't get it

“The fact of the matter is we are distracted from reality and from what we should really be doing for the cause of Christ,” says Columbus, Ohio preacher David Reid, speaking at a Bible conference the other weekend in Concord, N.C.

“What Paul’s saying in Philippians 3:8 is, ‘All those things that are filling my life I count them loss.’ Then he says, ‘for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.’

“Let’s talk about suffering the loss of all things. One of the questions I’ve gotten over the years and probably you have as well, when you teach right division and people start to see it, one of the things they’ll often say to you is, ‘Well, if this is true more people would believe it.’ Of course, that doesn’t make any sense because people didn’t believe Noah and what Noah said was true.

“Another thing they’ll say that’s very similar to that is, ‘Well, look, if this is true, why don’t the big name preachers preach it?’ Right? ‘None of the people on TV preach this. Why’s that?’

“So here’s my answer and this is just my opinion, you can take it or leave it. I think as a saved person, it’s very easy to get comfortable where you are. And so what happens to the big-name preachers, or really any preacher, is you have a life where you have certain financial arrangements. You have a life where you have certain interpersonal arrangements. You have relationships with folks. Sometimes it affects your retirement. Sometimes it affects the size of your ministry. Sometimes it affects your prestige.

“And so what happens is if you’re going to respond to the truth, then there’s a lot of things in life you’re going to have to hold very loosely and you’re going to have to be willing to endure the loss of them.

“What happens is many folks won’t. I’ve had situations where I’ve dealt with someone on the subject of right division, and I think I’ve visibly seen this—I’ve seen the knowing glance where you can tell they got it and then a second later you can see them turn off the lights because they realize, ‘If I go down this path, that means all the current friends and buddies and relationships I have, they’re going to think I’m as nutty as this guy I’m talking to!’

“People just make a conscious choice because they’re choosing NOT to suffer the loss of all things. Preachers, where if they decide to come to that realization that this is the right thing, say, ‘If I preach that, I’ll lose my congregation!’

“But what kind of rationale is that?! ‘Well, if I preach this truth, then people won’t be there.’ What?!

“When you come to the judgment seat of Christ and you say, ‘Look, I kept all the people. I didn’t tell them what was true. Their spiritual lives were a wreck, they didn’t know the gospel, they didn’t have the right bible, but I had a large group.’ It’s utter madness, isn’t it?! That’s what goes on, I think.

*****

“Here’s what we have to embrace and just accept. Everything in life, all position, all prestige, everything on your resume, if it somehow prevents you . . . if it keeps you from the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus . . . where if you decide to set aside growing in that for that worldly stuff, it’s dung! It’s just gross and offensive. You don’t want to be entangled with that, do you? You want to be as far away from it as possible.

“This is the verse that the people on TV just utterly ignore: ‘Yea all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.’ Here’s the way the common TV preacher thinks about this: ‘Look, if you just send me money, God’s going to bless you.’

“It’s like a seesaw. If you just press down on this side of the seesaw, the other side’s going to go up. And so if you just send him money, God wants to make you healthy, wealthy and wise and He’s just going to pour out blessing all over you and you’re going to drown in it. All that’s just utter nonsense because what happens when you live godly in Christ Jesus? You have problems, right?

“The reason that is is in Ephesians 2: [2] 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:
[3] 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.

“When it talks there about the course of this world, I think about a body of water like a river. You know how a river carves out a course, where the water flows in the same location for hundreds and thousands of years and it carves out a path? And so the river has a course to it. It has a direction that it goes.

“There’s a course to this world and it says there that it’s ‘according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.’

“This is my observation and you take it for what it’s worth. At times I feel, and I think many of us feel, that we’re alarmed at the dishonesty of this world. Don’t you find that the affairs of life are just full of dishonesty? And it sort of drives me crazy and then I think about it and I say, ‘Well, why are you surprised about that, David?’

“Because the world has a course to it, influenced by ‘the prince the power of the air,’ the ‘father of lies,’ so here’s what the world system’s going to be full of. It’s going to be full of lie after lie after lie after lie and that’s just how it is.

“You watch what happens on the earth and you have, unfortunately, millions and millions of people who follow the course of the world and the reason why is, how hard is it to swim against the current of the river? That’s why Paul says in Galatians 16, ‘Be not weary of well-doing.’

“It’s a wearisome thing to swim up against the river. What Satan’s done is 

he’s designed this world to flow in a certain direction with a strong current, and that direction is the direction of ‘the Lie.’ That direction is directly contrary to what God would have us to do.

“And so our life is going to be weary because we’re always headed in the opposite direction. I’ve said this before, but it’s like walking up the down escalator. It’s fun to do that when you’re six or seven years old and you go to the department store and you’re trying to get all the way to the top.

“That’s what life’s like, though, and that’s why people look at saved people as if we’re weirdos. The world is going a certain direction and as long as you’re going against it, you’re going to suffer opposition and persecution.

*****

“Here’s what the fellowship of his sufferings means. If you live godly, if you walk with Christ, then as you walk in that direction, people are going to throw rocks at you. They’re going to and what happens is the Lord says during His earthly ministry, ‘Count the cost.’

“Here’s what we can decide, frankly. We can decide, ‘Look, I know if I walk the right way, I’m going to face opposition and obstacles and problems. And you know what? I might just choose I’m not going to do it.’

“That’s a possible choice, but what that’s doing is that’s giving up the opportunity to walk with the Lord, which is going to give you joy throughout your life. It’s going to make your life meaningful, and if choosing NOT to do it, because there’s going to be some obnoxious people along the way that throw rocks at you, it’s the wrong choice.  What we’re doing is giving up the joy we could have just because we’re going to face a little bit of problems.

“Paul says in Philippians 3:11-12, [11] If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
[12] Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

“There’s not a reference to the catching up because Paul already knew he would attain to that. Here’s what he’s saying there and just embrace this because this is just fascinating. What he’s saying there is,  ‘There’s nothing in this life that prevents me from walking exactly as I will in the next life.’

“Let me put it this way. Is there any reason that you have to sin? I realize we still have the old nature. Do we have to sin? We choose to sin. Romans 6:4 says ‘Even so we also SHOULD walk in newness of life.’ It doesn’t say we WILL, but it says we SHOULD which means we CAN.

“What Paul’s really saying in Philippians 3 is, ‘Because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me, because my flesh has been circumcised and the old man has been crucified, I now have the ability to walk in newness of life. I can walk exactly like I should in the next life.’

“What he’s saying is, ‘Don’t give me the excuse that you CAN’T because you CAN!’ "

(to be continued)

Satan's in the animosity, grudges

“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices,” Paul reminds the Corinthians.

“You notice how he says ‘devices’ plural?” notes Jordan. “Paul said we’re not ignorant of his tricky strategies. He’s got these devices, this every wind of doctrine, this sleight of men in cunning craftiness, these wiles, these schemes and plans to capture you. There’s more than one and in this passage, it’s animosity among the brethren.

“You remember the story in I Corinthians? They had a man who was living with his father’s wife. Now you hope that’s his stepmother, but that’s not what it says. In fact, Paul says it’s a kind of a sin that even the Gentiles out there don’t name, and listen, if you lived in Corinth, the Gentiles did some pretty raunchy things. You think our culture today’s bad; you go read about their’s and we’ve got a long way to go yet before we get to the bottom.

“Paul said this stuff, it’s not even named among the Gentiles, and yet the Corinthians weren’t doing anything about it. They were puffed up. They didn’t mourn; they didn’t deal with sin in their midst. You know what Satan wants to do? He wants you to ignore the sin and make out like it doesn’t count. You’d never do that if you read Romans 6-8.

“So it starts with not dealing with sin. Paul says, ‘Put the guy out; deal with him.’ In chapter 2, Paul says, ‘Now that he’s gotten right . . .’ You’ll see the guy repented. He changed his mind. He did exactly what II Corinthians 7 says: ‘Godly sorrow works repentance.’

“And now that he sought to be restored (‘Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.’) there were people in the church at Corinth who said, ‘No way we’re letting you back inside!’ And they wouldn’t forgive him. They held animosity. They held a grudge against him because of his sin.

“Paul says, ‘You know, I forgave the guy and I did it so you could see how you are to be. I’m your apostle; I’m your pattern. I did it so you could see how you ought to do lest Satan get an advantage over you.’

“That’s what Satan wants to do. He wants to get a leg up on you. When you get an advantage over somebody . . . he wants to outwit you so that he can gain the upper hand. One of the tactics in a ball game is get ahead soon. Why? Because then you have the advantage.

“One of the devices Satan uses to destroy the work of the ministry of saints working together is that animosity among the brethren and holding grudges. That’s why he says in Colossians 3:13, ‘Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.’

“You’re going to have quarrels, folks. You work together and there’s going to be a little friction. So when it happens, he says ‘forgiving one another as God for Christ’s sake forgave you.’

“You don’t just forbear. You don’t just say, ‘I’m going to hold back and not have an argument.’ Because if you forbear and don’t forgive, that forbearing will produce brooding, and that brooding will produce bitterness, and that root of bitterness will destroy everything. It gives Satan an entrance into your life and through your flesh, and through the propensities of your personality, to destroy the work.

"II Cor. 10: 3-5 says, [3] For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
[4] (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) [5] 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;

“You know how you fight the sleight of men and cunning craftiness; the crafty strategies, schemes and trickeries of the Adversary? ‘Casting down imaginations.’ Casting down all those high things that exalt themselves. That’s anything that contradicts what God says.

“That's every thought that you have about an issue. By that you ought to write down Philippians 4:8: [8] Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

“It doesn’t say bring every thought into captivity to the obedience TO Christ. I used to think that’s what it meant and I used to try to corral up all my thinking and say to myself, ‘You need to obey what Jesus said. You need to obey what the Word of God says.’ But my old nature would go, ‘Agh.’ And I would say, ‘No, no, you’re dead!’ and I would fight. You know what happens when you try to perform to make it real? You lose.

“Where’s the obedience of Christ? Philippians 2:8 says, [8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

“You know what the obedience OF Christ is? Bring every thought into captivity to what Jesus Christ did for you at Calvary: ‘The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.’ I live in dependence. I’m bringing my thinking into captivity, not to ‘the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.’

“I’m bringing my thinking into captivity to what God’s accomplishing for me in His Son. And I don’t need to say to myself, ‘Stop that!’ I need to say, ‘Here’s who Christ has made me. I’m a saint of the most high God. That has no place in my life because that’s what Jesus Christ died to put away!’ ”

(new article tomorrow)

'Fully set in them to do evil'

When Paul warns Timothy that "perilous times shall come," the term "perilous" is the idea of dangerous. Talking about his life, Paul writes in II Corinthians 11:26, "In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren."

“All of those conditions are dangerous conditions that can kill you, can overwhelm you; they're horrendous and can overpower you,” explains Jordan. 

“In Romans 8, Paul uses the term in an interesting way. Verse 35 says, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’

“Perilous times can have to do with you just being taken out and slaughtered. They’re dangerous times.

“When he describes them in II Timothy 3, the nature of the age under grace—it’s not going to be getting better.

“I remember in the ’80s, right after I’d come up from Alabama to Chicago, preaching a message at North Shore Church and I quoted a verse in Ecclesiastes. Afterward, I had three people come up to me and ask, ‘Where is that verse?’ I thought everybody knew the verse but I came to find out people don’t read the Book of Ecclesiastes.

“Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, ‘Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.’

“Isn’t that what Peter said about the dispensation of grace? II Peter 3 says, ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’

“Man doesn’t say, ‘Wow, I’m glad I missed the wrath! Thank you for not destroying me!’ He says, ‘Oh, He doesn’t see. I’ll go out and do some more.’

“Isaiah 26:10 says, [10] Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

“You know what the longsuffering of God demonstrates? The complete depravity of humanity. And the longer the dispensation of grace goes on, the longer you’re going to see a more and more mature depravity overtake mankind.

"De-evolution, not evolution, is man’s pattern. That’s why that image in Daniel 2 starts at the head and winds up at the feet. Man doesn’t go from the dust to glory; he goes from glory to the dust.

“Occasionally they’ll be a little burst forth of life and light as the Reformation was when it finally anchored itself in England . . .

“You know, until that last person gets into the Body of Christ, that day of grace keeps going and then it will be over. Now that’s God’s timing. I have no idea to tell you when He’s going to do it; when He activates it. That’s up to Him.

“What we do is just be faithful and consider every day to be the last day. When you look at the world around you, instead of saying, ‘Oh, woe is me, how terrible it all is,’ just say, ‘Well, it’s exactly the way God said it was going to be. Thank God for the testimony.’

“Years ago, when I was young, I used to preach on the street with a guy in his mid- 40s who’d been saved out of a gangster’s life. He’d been a bootlegger, a robber, a thief, pretty much everything.

“Elbert had been in a knife fight when he was young and his face was cut from here to here and they did a botched job of sewing him up so he couldn’t talk out the right side of his mouth because it was nerve-dead.

“One day we were out passing tracts and some smart aleck business guy came along and started mocking Elbert about the Bible, saying, ‘What do you know? Look at you!’

“And Elbert reached up, took his fingers and got that guy’s nose and just twisted it and the guy’s nose started bleeding. He was screaming and hollering and Elbert looked at him and said, ‘Bud, thank you for the testimony,’ and walked off.

“I said, ‘Elbert, what it the world?!’ and he said, ‘The Bible says the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood (Proverbs 30:33). Still true!’ ”

Talkin 'bout THIS generation

“The Book of Proverbs looks into the future--into the tribulation going into the millennium--but the Book of Revelation looks at the tribulation from right smack-dab in the middle of it, and I want you to notice what it says about these people who will be there,” explained Connecticut preacher Rodney Beaulieu in his sermon on YouTube from last Sunday.

“Proverbs just explained what they’re like. Revelation is going to tell you what they’ll DO! There’s progression in the Word of God. I want you to see these people in action.

“In Revelation 13 we’re introduced to two beasts. The first one receives his power from Satan, from the dragon. The first beast is the head of the political empire.

“The dragon is that old serpent called the devil. In case you missed that, John also calls him Satan. You’re not going to miss this! What does he do? It says ‘Satan, which deceiveth the WHOLE world.’

“This one is cast out of heaven into the earth and that’s why the last half of the tribulation is worse than the first half, because Satan himself is cast out. That’s why the last half is ‘hell on wheels.’

“You remember that TV commercial a long time ago where the kid pulls out of his driveway on the sidewalk and he’s got his Hot Wheels? Well, this is Hell on Wheels here. This is Satan.

“And because he’s been cast out of the heavens, where the Body of Christ now occupies, he’s been evicted, and notice it says in Rev. 12:12, ‘Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.’

“ ‘Therefore rejoice, ye heavens.’ That would be us! We’re going to rejoice because we’ve been raptured and kicked Satan out. That’s the only place the Body of Christ is found in the Book of the Revelation.

“Satan’s been the prince and power of the air for thousands of years but now the Body of Christ is happy. Now what about those down here?

“The last part of Rev. 12:12 says, ‘Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.’

“Revelation 13:2 says, ‘And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.’

“That power and that seat and that great authority are political authority. He holds political sway over the entire world. And notice how the people respond. Rev. 13:3 says, ‘And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.’

“ ‘All the world wondered after the beast.’ Verse 4 says, ‘And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?’

*****

“Their attitude about the coming Antichrist and his political reign will be greatly received by the generation that has been deceived and brainwashed into believing the lies that are perpetrated by the government and by false religion.

“Verse 5 says, ‘And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.’

“Oh, they’ll LOVE that. That’s what Paul says in II Timothy about the last days: ‘Perilous times shall come.’ What will they be like? They’ll be speaking blasphemies. This man is in perfect keeping with their character and with their attitude and with their mouth.

“The second beast is the religious authority and he holds religious power over the world. Look at Revelation 13: 11-14.

“You have the dragon and the two beasts and these are often referred to as the ‘unholy trinity.’ The first beast is the Antichrist. He’s not called that in Revelation; he is called that in I John. The second beast, the one that did the miracles, has a name. He’s called the false prophet.

“Now I want to show you these three working together. Rev. 16:13 says, ‘And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.’

*****

“I show you all that just for one reason. The emphasis I want to make is not on the unholy trinity but on the GENERATION that is there and their RESPONSE to the unholy trinity. John writes that ‘all the world wondered after the beast.
[4] And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

“They’re going to be WORSHIPPING! If he was here right now, this whole generation would be worshipping him! Not the Baby Boomers! See, THIS generation!

“Verse 8 says, ‘And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.’

“Verses 12-14 says, ‘And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
[13] And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
[14] And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.’

“Who are these people? Where did they come from? They’re the generation that will be on earth after the catching away of the Body of Christ. They’re the generation that’s going into the tribulation period to worship the Antichrist and you see the formation of it TODAY! I mean, you actually SEE it with your eyes!

*****

“Jesus Christ spoke of two generations in the gospels. The generation that would put the crown of thorns on His head and nail Him to cross and the generation that would put a crown on the head of the Antichrist and receive him with open arms.

“Jesus Christ speaks of a ‘wicked generation’ and He speaks of a ‘perverse generation.’ When referring to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religionists of His day, Jesus Christ refers to them as a wicked generation. Matthew 16:4 says, ‘A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.’

“You see, when referring to the generation that would crown the Antichrist, He called them a ‘perverse generation.’ He says in Luke 9:41: ‘And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither.’

“When Jesus Christ was in the earth, what He was speaking of pointed forward into the tribulation period, into Daniel’s 70^th week into the time of Jacob’s trouble. Two generations exist there.”

(new article tomorrow)

Worship of depravity free-for-all

“Satan, the real master of the New Age, delights in mysterious code words and (symbols) because they allow his agents, when questioned, to escape public censure by hiding behind a verbal mirage.”

-- Texe Marrs, author of Dark Secrets of the New Age.

*****

Paul warns Timothy in II Timothy 3:1, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” In verses 2-4, he details the depths of the moral declension:

[2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
[3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
[4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.

Jordan explains, “In these last days of Paul’s life—this is the last book he wrote—

he’s telling Timothy what to expect in the days ahead.

“In the prophetic program, the last days had very specific signs. There were signs in the sun, the moon, the earth, etc. that they could literally see and point to. J.C. O’Hair once said, ‘There are no signs of the times today because these are the not the times of the signs.’

“So when Paul talks about the characteristics of the last days of the dispensation of grace, he gives you these generalized moral kind of things where man is the measure of everything and when you have that, degeneration is naturally going to take place.

“When you come to verse 5 you notice that, in spite of all of the excess of human depravity, men have ‘a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.'

“Man is naturally religious; he just can’t ‘get over it’ and that’s why Romans 1, after he’s ‘changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things’ . . .  he simply takes God and reduces Him to something he can control and you have to understand there’s a WORSHIP. There’s a desire to worship and control things.

“So what they have is an external religious form of godliness. Even the Antichrist uses the Baal worship system in the Scripture to rise to power. So human depravity isn’t going to leave out religion and it will have a zeal for what it’s committed to with a religious fervor and the ferocity of religious commitment.”

(new article tomorrow)

Intercessory joy

“Having God’s life is to have a life that always just instinctively lives for the benefit of others, never for itself,” says Jordan.

“Simplicity is truth’s most becoming garb; it doesn’t have to get all complicated. Every time Paul talks about an inheritance, he never puts an ‘s’ on that word one time. As far as Paul’s concerned there’s only one inheritance. That one inheritance is distributed based upon the capacity; there’s what he calls ‘the reward of the inheritance.’ There are various positions, stations, responsibilities in the inheritance but it’s still just the one inheritance.

“The issue of reigning with Christ is not the elitist, political reigning that you’re so familiar with; like what Jesus talks about in Mark 10 where you reign like the Gentiles, just having power and being in control and being boss. 

“Colossians 1:9 says, ‘For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.’

“Look at Colossians 2:2: ‘That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
[3] In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’

*****

“One of the most powerful things you’ll ever do in relationships with other people is you look at them and say, and I deal with this in marriage and inter-personal conflicts all of the time, ‘They’re 95 % wrong and I’m 5% wrong.’

“Let’s say that’s true. If you say to them, ‘You know, friend, I’ve been wrong and I’m sorry,’ you may only be confessing 5% of it in your mind, and they’re guilty of the rest, but that’s them and this is you and you know what, that is such a powerful thing in relationships.

“You say, ‘How can I do that?’ ‘Who is he that condemneth? It’s Christ that died.’ If He doesn’t condemn you, what matters if anybody else does? Can I say to you God is for you.

“In verse 26, Paul says, ‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’

“An infirmity is somewhere where you have a weakness. In my mind, the weakness in this verse is defined for you. ‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought.’

“The ultimate weakness you have in life is you really don’t know how you ought to pray. When it comes to taking what God says and applying it to the circumstances of your life, you often throw up your hands and say, ‘I’m not really sure,’ because there are more places where He doesn’t tell you what to do directly.

“He never says buy that car, marry that person. He’ll say, ‘Don’t marry that one,’ but He never says, ‘Marry that one.’ Isn’t that interesting? God expects you to make some of those choices. He expects you to work with Him; take His word and let it work in you to make some choices and some decisions.

*****

“I was raised in a religious system where every time you did anything you were happy about you figured it was your flesh because you couldn’t be happy. That’s flesh. I remember reading that verse in I Timothy 6 about how ‘God’s given us all things richly to enjoy,’ and I used to puzzle over that and think, ‘If He’s given us all things richly to enjoy, then why do I have to be miserable all of the time to be pleasing to Him?’

“Then it dawned on me one day that I didn’t have to be. I could have some joy that had nothing to do with it being attached to my flesh. 

“The Spirit of God takes His Word and makes intercession. He’s for you. You’re not left abandoned. God’s for you.”

(new article tomorrow)

Either it's for Christ or it's 'dung'

“Trust in the Lord is choosing not to trust in other things,” said Columbus, Ohio preacher David Reid at a Bible conference last week in Concord, N.C. “When Ephesians 2:9 ends with ‘lest any man should boast,’ what it’s telling you is the gospel’s designed to take everything you could possibly claim and just, as Paul’s going to say shortly, count it as ‘dung.’ You’re saved when you trust in Christ alone and not anything else.

“Romans 3:27 tells us that boasting is excluded by ‘the law of faith.’ Salvation is when one trusts in Christ alone, not Christ plus other things. So I’ll say this, salvation is not based upon works, but it is giving up reliance on anything other than Christ.

“Paul’s talking in the present tense in Philippians 3:8 when he says, ‘Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.’

“Do you see how that’s different from verse 7? In Philippians 3:7, he says, ‘But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.’ That’s in the past.

“So all those things that were on Paul’s human resume and to his credit, he said, ‘You know what that is? It’s worthless, it’s dung; it does me no good whatsoever.’ But Philippians was written many, many years after he was saved. He continued to count all of those things loss and then he tells you the reason why: ‘For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.’

“Here’s what he’s saying, and we should believe this but we don’t. He’s saying that as a saved person, you should count EVERYTHING in your life as loss, as dung, in comparison to the ‘excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.’

“You know what happens with us? There’s a lot of things we still esteem. There’s a lot of things that occupy our time, that become obsessions for us, and we don’t really believe that verse that the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ is so surpassing that it makes all the other things in which we spend our time dung.

“Webster 1828 defines excellency as ‘being of great virtue or worth.’ The second definition is ‘distinguished for superior attainments.’ The core of what it means to be excellent is to be superior. It’s something that is better.

*****

“I think Matthew 13 is an interesting picture of this. This is in the kingdom program, so please don’t misunderstand, but this is a good picture. Matthew 13:44 says, ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.’

“So you find a treasure in a field and it’s just surpassing; it’s beyond anything you’ve ever experienced. It is then a rational decision to sell everything you have; to give up every other possession you have just to get that field because that treasure is so great. That is the same concept that Paul is saying with regard to the ‘excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.’

“Think of it this way. Do we spend a lot our time occupied in worldly stuff that just fascinates us? The point in Philippians 1:10 is not simply to approve things that are different (through right division); it’s to approve things that are excellent; that are superior.

“In life you don’t look to simply be a dispensationalist because being a dispensationalist means you recognize the right division chart and the differences in things over time, but what you do is approve things that are excellent and invest your LIFE in those things. When we make decisions in life, we need to make decisions about what is the best thing.  Oftentimes the question we ask is, ‘Is it okay for me to do this?’

“Does scripture tell you to think about life that way?! I Corinthians 6:12 says, ‘All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.’

“Romans 6:4 says, ‘Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’

“Today, we are not under the law, period. You should make ZERO decisions in life on the basis of whether something is lawful. The fact is you don’t need Scripture to do anything you want; you already DO anything you want.

“By the way, there are consequences for everything you do. When you make bad decisions in life, there’s often physical consequences. You harm your body. There’s legal consequences. There’s reputational consequences. There’s consequences at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

“I Corinthians 6 says ‘all things are lawful to me but all things are not expedient.’ That’s the test! I Corinthians 7:23 says, ‘Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.’

“The idea there is, forget lawfulness as the test; the test is expediency. The word ‘expedient’ means literally ‘hastening, urging forward. Useful, profitable.’ In other words, does it move the ball forward?

"There’s a lot of things we do in life that just don’t advance the cause of Christ. It’s not expedient because it doesn’t contribute to our edification or the edification of others in the Body of Christ. It doesn’t lead to someone getting the gospel.”

(to be continued)

My mind, my goal, my strength, my life

Paul tells the reader in Philippians that he counts all things in his life “loss” or “dung” outside of pursuing “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” He says his all-consuming desire is “that I may win Christ, and be found in him.” In Philippians 3:10, he writes, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

Jordan says, “When Paul wrote that he’d been saved at least 35 years. He says, ‘I just want to know Him more.’ You know that word intimacy—‘In to me, see.’ I want to know Him; He’s my goal. Before he says, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ ‘He’s going to be my mind, my goal, my strength, my life.’ It’s what J.C. Baxter called a 'Christ-intoxicated life.' And when you 'press toward the mark,' that’s what you’re pressing toward.

“I love Philippians 3:12: ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.’

“Now, if the Apostle Paul could say that, what do you think we ought to say? ‘I’ve arrived; I am somebody!’? Paul says, ‘Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ There’s an old saying I used to hear Down South: ‘The closer you get to the light, the better you see the dirt.’ If you want to see how dirty your finger nails are, get under a good bright light.

“The closer you get to the Lord, the less you’ll think of yourself and the more you’ll see your own inadequacies. I’m convinced, after being saved over 50 years, that the only real thing you ever really genuinely learn in the Christian life and grow in is, ‘It’s not I, it’s Christ.’ Isn’t that how you got saved?

“People hear the gospel and you say, ‘Why aren’t you saved?’ and the reason is because they still think they can do it. You never get saved ’til you get lost. Until you know you’re a hell-bound, hell-deserving, lost, helpless, bankrupt sinner, you’re never going to get saved.

“Preachers say, ‘Go out and tell people God’s got a great plan for their life,’ and a man says back, ‘God must be pretty smart; I’ve got a plan for my life, too!’ You say, ‘God loves you!’ and they say back, ‘Well, I love me, too!’ You don’t get saved until you get lost, when you can’t do anything and it’s, ‘Either you help me or I perish.’ That’s when you trust Christ exclusively.

“Paul says he’s ‘apprehended of Christ Jesus.’ I love that. Have you ever been apprehended, where the cop stops and arrests you? Paul, Saul of Tarsus, is going on the Road to Damascus, breathing out threatenings--he’s got letters, he’s going to go capture people, put them in jail and torment them. Men and women, an equal opportunity abuser. And injurious person, persecuting. And the Lord says, ‘Saul, Saul,’ and he knew who the God of the Bible was. He was a rabbinical scholar, trained in the best seminary, sat at the feet of Gamaliel.

“I’ve had the opportunity in the last few years to meet with some Jewish rabbis at the Chicago Temple. There’s a young man with two Phd degrees in the Old Testament and I sat and talked with him about the Hebrew Bible and the gospel. The guy knows more about Paul than most denominational preachers I’ve ever met. These rabbis think today that Gamaliel was one of their great scholars.

“So when the heavens opened up and God speaks to Paul, he knew instantly that that was Jehovah God. When Paul says, ‘Who art thou, Lord?’, in my heart I have to believe he’s thinking, ‘Please don’t say Jesus!’

“And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’ By the way, Barnabus was Saul’s brother-in-law. Don’t you know he’d been to some nice family get-togethers. Paul said, ‘What would thou have me to do, Lord?’ He did just what any Jew was supposed to do. He confessed Jesus to be Lord. And he went right to, ‘What do I do now?’

“That encounter took a guy who was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against people and turned him into a guy who would write, ‘Love worketh no ill toward his neighbour’ . . . And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.’

“I think, ‘Woah, what is it that can transform this hateful, hating religious bigot, thinking he’s doing God’s service, into somebody who would write things like that?!’ 

"The only thing that can do that is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ; His life. What He did is He gave Paul a LIFE. He didn’t give Paul religion. He apprehended him. ‘In evil long I took delight until He stopped my wild career.’ That’s what happened to Paul.

"He writes in Galatians 1, [13] For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

[14] And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
[15] But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,
[16] To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.

(new article tomorrow)    

The way to find life's turning point

When Jesus said to His apostles, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” did He say it like, “You guys are just wearing me out; don’t you get anything?!” or did He say, “Wait a minute! I am the way! I am the truth! I am the life!”?

“I’m not sure," says Jordan in an old study. "I vacillate between the two and I’m almost overwhelmed with the desire to say He went, ‘Phil, Tom, you guys aren’t getting this. I’M the way, I’M the truth, I’M the life!'

“It stands as one of those clear statements that emphatically indicates who the Lord Jesus Christ is. First, there’s that definite article. But when He says, ‘I am,’ this is one of those ‘I Am’ statements.

“You remember in John 5:58 He said, ‘I am THE bread of life’? He said, ‘The only place you can get the substance of life is from me.’ ‘I’m the light of the world.’ THE light, meaning, 'There’s NO light, NO understanding, NO truth, nothing outside of what you get from me.' Paul says, 'In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'

“Then Jesus said, ‘I’m the door.’ 'It’s through me you get to God.' He then said, ‘I’m the good shepherd.’ (John 10). Then He said, ‘I’m the resurrection and the life.’ Then He said, ‘I’m the true vine.’ (John 15)

“Those Jehovah titles, seven of them in the Book of John, match the seven Jehovah titles that are connected with the seven Jehovah feasts of Israel back in Leviticus 23. Just as you have those seven compound names, they match. There’s no doubt about what He’s saying when He says this and He pulls out those three things: 'I’m the way, because I’m going away and I’m preparing a place for you.'

******

“That term ‘the way,’ by the way, became sort of the shorthand description of the followers of Christ. Acts 16:17 says, ‘The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.’ It's that little expression 'the way.'

"In chapter 18 when Apollos shows up at Ephesus, verse 26 says, ‘And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.’

“You see 'the way' picks up sort of a personification to it. In Acts 24:14, when Paul is giving his defense before Felix, he says, ‘But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.’

“The way--the doctrine Paul followed--they called heresy. What Christ is talking about when He says, ‘I am the way,’ is, ‘I am the way to the Father. I’m the way to God.’ And that’s the whole issue about the way of God. The whole issue is how do you get to God? You get to Him through Jesus Christ, no other way.

*****

“Hebrews 10:19-20 says, ‘Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

[20] By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.’

“This is talking about the new covenant. The new and living way is in contrast to the old ministration of death in the Mosaic law. What the Messiah’s going to do is He’s really going to get them to God. He’s bringing the disciples to a place where He’s going to talk to them about the new covenant.

“He’s saying to them, ‘Here’s the whole scope of what ought to keep your heart from being troubled. I’m going to go away and I’m going to come back and you’re going to reap benefits over here because I am the way; I’m the one who’s going to provide this new and living way that’s going to accomplish that. I’m the truth. Thy word is truth. I’m the life.’

“By the way, without Him there is no life. He’s the Creator. Everything in life is about Him. He said, ‘The words I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.’ The real issue in the life there is He’s the resurrection and the life. He’s already told them that in chapter 11. He’s the way because He’s the truth. He’s the truth because He’s the life.

"The great proof of the fact that He is the truth and the way is that He’s the life. It all hinges on His resurrection. His resurrection says sin has been put away by the sacrifice of Himself. And now He appears the second time without sin to accomplish His purpose.

******

“I figured out that no matter what I did and no matter how hard I worked at it, tomorrow I’d be able to look back and say, ‘Boy, I could’ve done better.’ I told the Lord one day, ‘You know, Lord, if the success of the Body of Christ is dependent upon me serving you, there's trouble,’ and it was along in there that I began to realize that it isn’t really what I’m doing for Him that’s the issue; it’s really that I’m in Christ and He’s in me and it’s His life in me that’s the real issue. And you know that is a turning point in your life.

“When you realize it’s really not what you do for the Lord or you striving, being on the treadmill with, ‘Gotta get there, gotta accomplish it’ . . .  the Christ life is really Him in you, living out through you.

“Now, that’s wonderful to understand in theory, but you’re like I am and we’re both like Paul was in Romans 7. He said, ‘To will is with me, present with me . . .  I got all the will you want. My problem isn’t willpower; my problem is WANT power. Because the good I would do, I don’t, and the evil that I don’t want to do, I do. How to perform I can’t find a way . . .’

“See? I know you know what I’m talking about. You’re not any better than I am. And the answer to that in Paul’s case, in Romans 7, isn’t in what you’re doing. It’s saying that, ‘What I’m going to do isn’t going to be the issue.’

“The answer is in, ‘And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’ There’s the how to perform.

“The Word of God works effectually in you that believe and the Christ life is really Christ’s LIFE living in and through us, and we know it’s Christ living in us when we know we’ve got an objective standard of His Word. That’s why we want to study it rightly divided so we can understand it and know what He’s doing today, what it is we’re to believe and put our faith and trust in, and then we take that Word into the details of our life.

“People say sometime, ‘You guys are so doctrinal; it’s nothing ever practical.’ There’s nothing where God’s more involved in your life than when you take the truths of His Word and apply them to the details—the nitty-gritty of your life.

“I’ve told people for years, in Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3; if you took the instructions in Romans 12, or Ephesians 4 beginning in verse 25, and you wrote those things on a piece of paper, wrote on each one of them . . . And you just spent one day with each one of those things, trying to figure out how to have that live in you, you know what? You see, it’s that application.

“We’re complete in Christ; there’s nothing that’s ever going to be added to you. It’s now just an issue of a faith appropriation of that identity into the details of your life. And that’s the practical reality of Christ living in you. It’s not just words; it’s taking that truth and seeing that live in you.

“Grace isn’t just a theology to believe; it’s a life that LIVES. That’s what excites us, that’s what keeps us going; that’s what impels us along. Now, as Believers, and as we function as Believers, the thing that causes us to rejoice, and sustains us and keeps us going in that direction, is the patience of hope.

"That hope--every time you see in Paul’s epistles that he talks about hope, if you just see that word ‘hope,’ instantly think, 'Christ is coming.' Think 'Rapture' when you see that word. You’ll have the doctrine that he’s talking about and you’ll have the idea in your mind.”

(new article tomorrow)