"And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace," is part of the refrain of the classic Christian song, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.
"That's not saying the struggles of life aren't there; it just means that comparative to our glorious future . . . " explains Jordan. "That gives me the ability to endure now. That's why Paul says in Romans 8: 24-25, [24] For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
[25] But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
" 'For that we see not,' is the glory to come. What gives us the capacity to endure? A perspective, an understanding, a reckoning, a thinking process. We understand why things are the way they are. We function now with that realm of knowledge.
"When you respond to the present sufferings by reckoning the glory to come more valuable than what's now, you know what you're doing? You're thinking and responding to sufferings the way Jesus did.
"Romans 8:17 says, [17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
"When Paul says we suffer with him--not for Him but with Him--listen, Jesus Christ is not suffering today. That's Roman Catholic heresy that says He's being sacrificed on the altar and suffering.
"The verse means if we respond to the sufferings in this world now the same way He responded to the sufferings He endured . . .
"Hebrews 12:2 says, [2] Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
"Jesus looked at the present suffering and the joy that was going to come because of it and He said, 'That's more valuable than this!'
"If you back through the crosswork of Christ, and you go through all those passages in Psalms and Isaiah and so forth where you look into His mind and you see how He's thinking, you see all that's out yonder is what's important; that's what sustained Him.
"When you think about the present suffering the way He did, you suffer WITH Him. That gives you the capacity to labor with Him because you think like Him. If you labor with Him because you think like Him, pretty soon you're going to be delighting in the things He delights in and that's the will of His Father and you have this personal relationship that develops in that.
"There's why the glory that's going to be revealed is the way it is. Romans 8:18-19 says, [18] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
[19] For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
"That's what everything's waiting on. It's for that when that glory which shall be revealed in us is manifest. Everything's waiting on that manifestation of glory out there in the future. That's the hope!"
*****
"When the peace of God is filling the heart and life, there is no feature that shows it forth as do the eyes," explains Bible expositor Cora MacIlravy (circa 1916). "When the bride gets her eyes upon Jesus Christ, and her love is fervently going out to Him, Christ begins to reveal Himself more clearly. Even in her physical eyes can be seen a look that comes from abiding in His presence and holding communion with Him . . .
"The bride is keeping her eyes upon Jesus so that deep, settled peace of soul and spirit is being perfected within her, and is becoming manifested before the eyes of those who know not God, and to Christians who have not entered into deep experiences with God. When our thoughts have become lost in the thoughts of God, this unearthly reflection is in our eyes.
"When we are seeking nothing for ourselves excepting to have the will of God done in our lives . . . when every thought has been brought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ, man sees the Christ looking out from our eyes . . .
*****
"Song of Solomon 7:4 says, 'Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.'
"We are not told that her eyes are like waterfalls. We are not told that they are like a river that is rushing seaward, its bosom covered with ripples and waves. We are not told that her eyes are like the ocean, which is moved upon by the moon, and is lashed into fury by winds and storms; which is tempest-beaten and tossed. They are like the pools of Heshbon; still, deep, quiet; none knowing whence this stillness comes or how it is fed.
"The word 'Bath-rabbim,' means, 'the daughter, or city, of a multitude.' These pools are at the gate of the 'city of a multitude,' where the throngs hurry by and crowd through the gate into the city; but the water is unmoved, unruffled. The joys and sorrows, the hurry and rush, the ambitions, desires and distresses of the multitudes have never moved those quiet pools.
"The bride may be at the very gate of Bath-rabbim, but there is tranquility in her eyes and appearance that the world can neither give nor take away. Her life is untouched, unmoved, unpolluted by the unrest and turmoil of the world and the crowds around her . . .
"Toward the eyes of the Bridegroom, the eyes of the bride are as doves' eyes; pure, holy, steadfast, watching for the dawn of the Eternal Day of His presence. None that pass by can see whence these pools are fed, but if they could look down into the depths of her life, they would see springs of living water pouring into her being from the very throne of God. Her eyes are not looking toward the world, but are steadfastly fixed upon her Lord . . .
"It is not when we separate ourselves from humanity as do the hermits, or isolate ourselves from mankind as does the recluse, that our eyes become as the pools of Heshbon. This holy rest and meditation are perfected when we are doing the will of God, and faithfully performing the duties He has given us to do . . .
"May the Spirit of God make us like the pools of Heshbon. Though there are wars and rumors of war, though there are tempests and tumults, none of these things move us as we abide, still and hidden away in His presence . . .
"It is easy to follow the Lord and look a little like Jesus when there is nothing to disturb us. Even the ocean and the large lakes reflect the skies with some clearness when there is a calm. But He would have us reflect Him as clearly in unfavorable, as in favorable circumstances.
"He would have the image of Christ shine as bright and clear in the darkest night, as at noonday. He would have Christ's reflection upon us unbroken and undistorted when we come up to hard things and face insurmountable obstacles; when we are maligned and persecuted; when we are hated and slandered for His Name's sake."
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Monday, July 29, 2019
Take it from wisest man who ever lived:
As someone who's always marveling at how many seemingly frivolous books ad nauseam continue to be published, I often think of Solomon's negative assessment in Ecclesiastes 12: "Of making many books there is no end."
Today in the newspaper was an interview with the 70-year-old New York City author of his new memoir, Idiot Wind. He summarized, "If you've ever, even briefly, fantasized about abandoning your present life and hitting the road for parts unknown to make a fresh start elsewhere, you'll likely find this account of what happened to me when I dropped off the map illuminating . . . (This is) the story of the journey that all people who have lost their way must take if they want to find their way back to themselves."
Nothing against the guy, but his endorsement of his own work makes me think of the words of Solomon in Proverbs 18: [1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
[2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
As Columbus, Ohio Preacher David Reid pointed out just yesterday in his Sunday morning study, next to Jesus Christ Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and his Book of Ecclesiastes is his greatest writing.
"The book doesn't start on a happy note; he begins, 'The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. [2] Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity,' " says Reid.
"The first definition of vanity in the Oxford Dictionary is, 'That which is vain, futile or worthless; that which is of no value or profit.' So what Solomon is saying is, 'This is the most pointless of things that are pointless. It's the most empty and worthless of all the things that are worthless.'
"Notice something about how the book ends in Ecclesiastes 12:8: 'Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.' The book starts out with that theme and ends with it.
"At the very end of his book, he concludes there is something that is not vanity: [13] Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
[14] For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
"But what he's saying is the vast majority of human activity is pointless, worthless, empty. I like a
quote by John C. Maxwell, a well-known commentator who's written a lot about leadership: 'You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.'
"If you were to fast-forward 10,000 years, what of the things in your current experience will still remain? Nothing you can see or touch because this earth is going to dissolve; it's going to melt away with a fervent heat.
"All of man's creations, his buildings, his efforts, are not going to endure. Paul writes in II Corinthians 4:17-18: [17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
[18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
"In your experience, really the only things that are going to exist are the things you can't see. To put it simply, there are three basic things that are eternal. No. 1 is God, No. 2 is the souls of men and No. 3 is the Word of God.
"The relevance of understanding this spiritual reality should inform how we invest our time. Have you ever heard the phrase 'rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic'? How much time should you spend putting the deck chairs in proper order? The answer is none. The whole vessel is about to be submerged. What does Paul say you can take with you? Nothing.
*****
"Ecclesiastes 1:3 says, [3] What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
"The question is what do we benefit from all the hard work we do? The phrase 'under the sun' is a phrase that appears only in the Book of Ecclesiastes and it appears 29 times. I would suggest to you the book is written from the viewpoint of the wisest man who lived based upon his perception 'under the sun.' In other words, apart from revelation God gave.
"How do you really know things that are spiritually true? Do you figure them out because you have impeccable logic? You can't.
"I Corinthians 2:14 says, [14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
'That's a fascinating verse. What it means is you can take the smartest lost man there is--the most knowledgeable, most intelligent, most well-read--and what spiritual understanding is he going to have? The answer is none because spiritual understanding comes from the Spirit of God.
"Again, Solomon is writing from the perspective of the wisest man, but apart from God's revelation. In other words, it's the following thought experiment: If you take the wisest man who ever lived and he thinks through and searches out, 'How does life work? What should I be doing with my time? How should I invest this life?' . . . The Book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon's investigation into that subject and the conclusions he reaches."
Today in the newspaper was an interview with the 70-year-old New York City author of his new memoir, Idiot Wind. He summarized, "If you've ever, even briefly, fantasized about abandoning your present life and hitting the road for parts unknown to make a fresh start elsewhere, you'll likely find this account of what happened to me when I dropped off the map illuminating . . . (This is) the story of the journey that all people who have lost their way must take if they want to find their way back to themselves."
Nothing against the guy, but his endorsement of his own work makes me think of the words of Solomon in Proverbs 18: [1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
[2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
As Columbus, Ohio Preacher David Reid pointed out just yesterday in his Sunday morning study, next to Jesus Christ Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and his Book of Ecclesiastes is his greatest writing.
"The book doesn't start on a happy note; he begins, 'The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. [2] Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity,' " says Reid.
"The first definition of vanity in the Oxford Dictionary is, 'That which is vain, futile or worthless; that which is of no value or profit.' So what Solomon is saying is, 'This is the most pointless of things that are pointless. It's the most empty and worthless of all the things that are worthless.'
"Notice something about how the book ends in Ecclesiastes 12:8: 'Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.' The book starts out with that theme and ends with it.
"At the very end of his book, he concludes there is something that is not vanity: [13] Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
[14] For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
"But what he's saying is the vast majority of human activity is pointless, worthless, empty. I like a
quote by John C. Maxwell, a well-known commentator who's written a lot about leadership: 'You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.'
"If you were to fast-forward 10,000 years, what of the things in your current experience will still remain? Nothing you can see or touch because this earth is going to dissolve; it's going to melt away with a fervent heat.
"All of man's creations, his buildings, his efforts, are not going to endure. Paul writes in II Corinthians 4:17-18: [17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
[18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
"In your experience, really the only things that are going to exist are the things you can't see. To put it simply, there are three basic things that are eternal. No. 1 is God, No. 2 is the souls of men and No. 3 is the Word of God.
"The relevance of understanding this spiritual reality should inform how we invest our time. Have you ever heard the phrase 'rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic'? How much time should you spend putting the deck chairs in proper order? The answer is none. The whole vessel is about to be submerged. What does Paul say you can take with you? Nothing.
*****
"Ecclesiastes 1:3 says, [3] What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
"The question is what do we benefit from all the hard work we do? The phrase 'under the sun' is a phrase that appears only in the Book of Ecclesiastes and it appears 29 times. I would suggest to you the book is written from the viewpoint of the wisest man who lived based upon his perception 'under the sun.' In other words, apart from revelation God gave.
"How do you really know things that are spiritually true? Do you figure them out because you have impeccable logic? You can't.
"I Corinthians 2:14 says, [14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
'That's a fascinating verse. What it means is you can take the smartest lost man there is--the most knowledgeable, most intelligent, most well-read--and what spiritual understanding is he going to have? The answer is none because spiritual understanding comes from the Spirit of God.
"Again, Solomon is writing from the perspective of the wisest man, but apart from God's revelation. In other words, it's the following thought experiment: If you take the wisest man who ever lived and he thinks through and searches out, 'How does life work? What should I be doing with my time? How should I invest this life?' . . . The Book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon's investigation into that subject and the conclusions he reaches."
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Wonderful oneness when he's her deliverer
Paul writes in Ephesians 5, [21] Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
[22] Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
"Notice that when Paul begins with the wife in verse 22 he's just talked about the Body of Christ submitting itself one to another," explains Louisville, Ohio Preacher Ted Fellows, leading a study at my church's summer Bible conference the other day.
"He says in verse 23, '[23] For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
"The husband is head. The issue of headship is not the idea of bowing to a general or king; it's the issue of leadership. Many times in the world people will twist and distort this issue. They dismiss the roles of marriage because they have no understanding of the Believer's aspect and the truth of God and how the Lord works.
"I'm convinced a lot of the disdain and the setting aside of the role of marriage and the institution of marriage is because so many people have failed at marriage they have no conception of what a real, joyful, Christian, Christ-centered loving marriage is all about.
*****
"In Exodus 18: 21-25 is where the heads are chosen for the nation of Israel as they come out of Egypt and begin their journey. There's three things about the headship: they fear God, they're men of truth and they hate covetousness.
"I Corinthians 11:3 says, [3] But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
"In each one of these three relationships there's oneness. When you think about Christ and God, doesn't it say Jesus Christ 'thought it not robbery to be equal with God'? There's total and complete oneness between the Father and the Son and yet what does the Son do? He voluntarily says, 'I will yield and submit my will to that of my Father and to the plan,' because there's roles to fill and there's a purpose to accomplish. You see the same thing in marriage.
"He says the head of the woman is the man. In marriage, is there equality? Doesn't he say in Galatians 3 that in Christ there is neither male nor female; we're all one in Christ?
"In marriage, two come together and become one flesh but there are roles to fill to accomplish His purpose. The head of the woman is the man. There's a voluntarily entered into role. She is the helpmeet, the servant.
*****
"God the Father exalts His Son and man is to exalt his wife. We see that in Ephesians 5. He presents her to himself holy. And doesn't Jesus Christ take the believing sinner 'and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus'?
"There's a wonderful oneness and yet . . . when he says 'wives submit yourselves unto your husbands,' there's the Body of Christ. He says, 'For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.'
"Headship is not boss-ism or dictatorial; it's that you're the saviour, the provider, the deliverer of the wife.
"Verse 24 says, [24] Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.' That's not a verse to say, 'What I say goes.' By the way, don't we always say it's important to recognize who the verses are talking to when we rightly divide the Word? Who is verse 22 written to? The wives. It's not a verse for the husband to beat his wife over the head with.
*****
"You know, the wife only has three verses, but the husband has six . The role of the husband is to love his wife. Verse 25 says, [25] Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
"The husband and wife love each other with a different motivation and perspective. Paul says in verse 24 that 'wives be TO their own husband.' The wife gives herself as a gift UNTO her husband. Your love is shown to your husband and he gives himself TO her.
"Isn't that what the Lord tells us in Romans 12: '[1] 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.'
"We give ourselves TO the Lord as a living sacrifice. With the husband, the issue is the sacrificial giving of himself FOR her. The Lord Jesus Christ, as a 'sweet savor,' presented Himself to the Father. How about that for your next marriage seminar? Husbands, here's how you should give yourselves to your wife, wholly and completely like the burnt offering and the typology associated with it.
"Listen guys, as we live our lives and function as husbands, it's not looking at our own things; it's giving ourselves TO God FOR our wife, the way the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself FOR us.
"Look how the husband is to exalt his wife. Ephesians 5:26 says, [26] That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
[27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
"This is the acceptance that we have before God as a saint. Husbands, the unconditional acceptance, even in difficult situations, is vital to understanding these things.
"Paul says, [28] So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
[29] For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
[30] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
[31] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
[32] This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
[33] Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
"The foundation is understanding the relationship with the Lord and transferring that into our home life. Not the gimmicks and the formulas and the stories that are told. We need to understand the issue of grace in our life--grace with the Lord and His grace with us--and transfer that into our marriage relationship.
"If you go by the formulas, the tendency is to say, 'Well, if you could just be a little more like that.' You notice the word 'if''?You know what that is? That's the wisdom of words! Paul says the 'preaching of the Cross is the power of God unto salvation,' and he says, 'Lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect.' "
[22] Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
"Notice that when Paul begins with the wife in verse 22 he's just talked about the Body of Christ submitting itself one to another," explains Louisville, Ohio Preacher Ted Fellows, leading a study at my church's summer Bible conference the other day.
"He says in verse 23, '[23] For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
"The husband is head. The issue of headship is not the idea of bowing to a general or king; it's the issue of leadership. Many times in the world people will twist and distort this issue. They dismiss the roles of marriage because they have no understanding of the Believer's aspect and the truth of God and how the Lord works.
"I'm convinced a lot of the disdain and the setting aside of the role of marriage and the institution of marriage is because so many people have failed at marriage they have no conception of what a real, joyful, Christian, Christ-centered loving marriage is all about.
*****
"In Exodus 18: 21-25 is where the heads are chosen for the nation of Israel as they come out of Egypt and begin their journey. There's three things about the headship: they fear God, they're men of truth and they hate covetousness.
"I Corinthians 11:3 says, [3] But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
"In each one of these three relationships there's oneness. When you think about Christ and God, doesn't it say Jesus Christ 'thought it not robbery to be equal with God'? There's total and complete oneness between the Father and the Son and yet what does the Son do? He voluntarily says, 'I will yield and submit my will to that of my Father and to the plan,' because there's roles to fill and there's a purpose to accomplish. You see the same thing in marriage.
"He says the head of the woman is the man. In marriage, is there equality? Doesn't he say in Galatians 3 that in Christ there is neither male nor female; we're all one in Christ?
"In marriage, two come together and become one flesh but there are roles to fill to accomplish His purpose. The head of the woman is the man. There's a voluntarily entered into role. She is the helpmeet, the servant.
*****
"God the Father exalts His Son and man is to exalt his wife. We see that in Ephesians 5. He presents her to himself holy. And doesn't Jesus Christ take the believing sinner 'and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus'?
"There's a wonderful oneness and yet . . . when he says 'wives submit yourselves unto your husbands,' there's the Body of Christ. He says, 'For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.'
"Headship is not boss-ism or dictatorial; it's that you're the saviour, the provider, the deliverer of the wife.
"Verse 24 says, [24] Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.' That's not a verse to say, 'What I say goes.' By the way, don't we always say it's important to recognize who the verses are talking to when we rightly divide the Word? Who is verse 22 written to? The wives. It's not a verse for the husband to beat his wife over the head with.
*****
"You know, the wife only has three verses, but the husband has six . The role of the husband is to love his wife. Verse 25 says, [25] Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
"The husband and wife love each other with a different motivation and perspective. Paul says in verse 24 that 'wives be TO their own husband.' The wife gives herself as a gift UNTO her husband. Your love is shown to your husband and he gives himself TO her.
"Isn't that what the Lord tells us in Romans 12: '[1] 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.'
"We give ourselves TO the Lord as a living sacrifice. With the husband, the issue is the sacrificial giving of himself FOR her. The Lord Jesus Christ, as a 'sweet savor,' presented Himself to the Father. How about that for your next marriage seminar? Husbands, here's how you should give yourselves to your wife, wholly and completely like the burnt offering and the typology associated with it.
"Listen guys, as we live our lives and function as husbands, it's not looking at our own things; it's giving ourselves TO God FOR our wife, the way the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself FOR us.
"Look how the husband is to exalt his wife. Ephesians 5:26 says, [26] That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
[27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
"This is the acceptance that we have before God as a saint. Husbands, the unconditional acceptance, even in difficult situations, is vital to understanding these things.
"Paul says, [28] So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
[29] For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
[30] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
[31] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
[32] This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
[33] Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
"The foundation is understanding the relationship with the Lord and transferring that into our home life. Not the gimmicks and the formulas and the stories that are told. We need to understand the issue of grace in our life--grace with the Lord and His grace with us--and transfer that into our marriage relationship.
"If you go by the formulas, the tendency is to say, 'Well, if you could just be a little more like that.' You notice the word 'if''?You know what that is? That's the wisdom of words! Paul says the 'preaching of the Cross is the power of God unto salvation,' and he says, 'Lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect.' "
Friday, July 26, 2019
It doesn't have to be hard
Two absolutely crucial but much misunderstood verses in Paul's epistles are Romans 8:16 and 8:26. Verse 16 says, [16] The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Verse 26 says, [26] 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.
"People get mad about that reflexive pronoun 'itself''; they say it's dishonoring to the Holy Spirit because He's not an 'it'; He's a he," explains Preacher Richard Jordan. "Well, your Bible knows that! If you look at verse 27, he writes, [27] And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
"Paul calls Him an 'it' in verse 26 and a 'he' in verse 27. So why does it say 'it'? One reason is that's the exact translation. In the Greek language, the word 'spirit' is a neuter noun. You have pronouns--he, she, it-- which are masculine, feminine and neuter.
"Words have shades of meaning. The word 'it' and 'itself,' when applied to a person, is designed to indicate honor, rank and status--to give dignity to it. 'He's a king and he acts like it.' He's acting like IT. What? That's the idea of status, like who he is.
"So it's a lack of understanding grammar to get upset about 'itself' and 'which.' If the translators know more about your language than you seem to know, well, don't be mad at them because they're more educated.
"When it says 'the Spirit itself,' it's talking about the function He's carrying on, not His person. You'll find sometime He's called the Holy Ghost and those verses talk about His person.
"It doesn't say TO our spirits. That's the way people usually read that verse. We say, 'I know I'm saved because the Holy Spirit bears witness to my spirit that I'm a child of God.' That's not what it says. It says WITH my spirit which ALSO bears witness that I'm a child of God. So you've got a double witness here bearing witness together.
"Then the question is, 'Who are we witnessing to?' That's why verse 19 says, [19] For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
"There's some people out there in the universe looking for what our testimony is about as members of the Body of Christ; what our being children is about and we're going to witness to them.
"We are witnessing that we are the children of God. He's talking about a status, an identity. We are the folks. The reason that's important is in the next verse: [17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
"What does it mean to be the children of God? 'Then heirs; heirs of God.' Oh, I see, our status means we have an inheritance. When you become a child, you become an heir of God. You will inherit the kingdom of God. We're joint-heirs with Christ.
"Paul starts out giving you a kind of attitude adjustment. He says, 'You know what the Spirit of God is going to lead you to do? Appreciate who you really are.'
"People get mad about that reflexive pronoun 'itself''; they say it's dishonoring to the Holy Spirit because He's not an 'it'; He's a he," explains Preacher Richard Jordan. "Well, your Bible knows that! If you look at verse 27, he writes, [27] And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
"Paul calls Him an 'it' in verse 26 and a 'he' in verse 27. So why does it say 'it'? One reason is that's the exact translation. In the Greek language, the word 'spirit' is a neuter noun. You have pronouns--he, she, it-- which are masculine, feminine and neuter.
"Words have shades of meaning. The word 'it' and 'itself,' when applied to a person, is designed to indicate honor, rank and status--to give dignity to it. 'He's a king and he acts like it.' He's acting like IT. What? That's the idea of status, like who he is.
"So it's a lack of understanding grammar to get upset about 'itself' and 'which.' If the translators know more about your language than you seem to know, well, don't be mad at them because they're more educated.
"When it says 'the Spirit itself,' it's talking about the function He's carrying on, not His person. You'll find sometime He's called the Holy Ghost and those verses talk about His person.
"It doesn't say TO our spirits. That's the way people usually read that verse. We say, 'I know I'm saved because the Holy Spirit bears witness to my spirit that I'm a child of God.' That's not what it says. It says WITH my spirit which ALSO bears witness that I'm a child of God. So you've got a double witness here bearing witness together.
"Then the question is, 'Who are we witnessing to?' That's why verse 19 says, [19] For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
"There's some people out there in the universe looking for what our testimony is about as members of the Body of Christ; what our being children is about and we're going to witness to them.
"We are witnessing that we are the children of God. He's talking about a status, an identity. We are the folks. The reason that's important is in the next verse: [17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
"What does it mean to be the children of God? 'Then heirs; heirs of God.' Oh, I see, our status means we have an inheritance. When you become a child, you become an heir of God. You will inherit the kingdom of God. We're joint-heirs with Christ.
"Paul starts out giving you a kind of attitude adjustment. He says, 'You know what the Spirit of God is going to lead you to do? Appreciate who you really are.'
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Appropriate attire for walk
To appropriate anything into your Christian walk, there are two things you have to have.
"The first thing is you've got to know about it; you have to see what you already have in Christ," explains Jordan. "Get a grip on the riches that are yours in Christ Jesus with a literal reality of your current identity at this moment in Him.
"The key to the Christian life is knowing your identity and you can never know it if you don't study the Bible rightly-divided.
"The other component is you not only have to know who you are, you have to be aware of your NEED of it. Because you'll never reach out and appropriate into your experience something unless you know that you really need it.
"That's what happened to Paul in Romans 7. He wasn't identifying himself as God did. He slipped back into identifying himself as HE identified himself.
"Paul says in one little phrase in Galatians 20, 'Yet not I, but Christ.' You got to have those 'It's not I' moments where you become aware of your bankruptcy so that the riches of Christ become the thing that's the need of your heart.
"Appropriating into your experience is closed to all but the needy heart. It's available only to those who'll say, 'It's not I, but Christ.' And with those two things--a conscious awareness of faith-trust in who you are and then a realization of your absolute need in every moment for it--you then need a lifetime of spiritual growth.
"Friend, it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work that process into the details of your life. That's why Romans 7 is not in Romans 2 or 5.
"We've all experienced this where you get on the mountaintop and it's, 'I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart,' and then a little while later you're down in the doldrums and you say, 'I don't think I'll ever see the mountaintop again for the clouds.'
"When you're in those moments of need, rather than being mad or depressed, that's a moment to say, 'You know, here's a Not-I experience. I'm down here because I've been trusting me. Here's an opportunity to grow because that's exactly what God's grace is trying to get me to . . .'
*****
“Colossians 2:10 says, ‘And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.’ But then look at chapter 4:12: ‘Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.’
“Wait a minute—I thought they were complete?! Why is Epaphras praying and laboring that they would BE complete?
“If you’re complete in Him, there’s nothing to make your more complete. All you need to do is appropriate the completeness you already have—bring it in to your experience. Have the practical, experiential possession of what already belongs to you.
“That is to experience the joy of, ‘I am forgiven.’ Whew! That’s a wonderful thing. Let that inform your mind so that your emotions know how to relate to reality.
“Paul says, ‘Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.’
“God desires adults for children and He brings us to that maturity day by day as we see, ‘It’s not I; it’s Christ.’ And our redemption and forgiveness is according to the riches of His grace that produces that.”
"The first thing is you've got to know about it; you have to see what you already have in Christ," explains Jordan. "Get a grip on the riches that are yours in Christ Jesus with a literal reality of your current identity at this moment in Him.
"The key to the Christian life is knowing your identity and you can never know it if you don't study the Bible rightly-divided.
"The other component is you not only have to know who you are, you have to be aware of your NEED of it. Because you'll never reach out and appropriate into your experience something unless you know that you really need it.
"That's what happened to Paul in Romans 7. He wasn't identifying himself as God did. He slipped back into identifying himself as HE identified himself.
"Paul says in one little phrase in Galatians 20, 'Yet not I, but Christ.' You got to have those 'It's not I' moments where you become aware of your bankruptcy so that the riches of Christ become the thing that's the need of your heart.
"Appropriating into your experience is closed to all but the needy heart. It's available only to those who'll say, 'It's not I, but Christ.' And with those two things--a conscious awareness of faith-trust in who you are and then a realization of your absolute need in every moment for it--you then need a lifetime of spiritual growth.
"Friend, it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work that process into the details of your life. That's why Romans 7 is not in Romans 2 or 5.
"We've all experienced this where you get on the mountaintop and it's, 'I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart,' and then a little while later you're down in the doldrums and you say, 'I don't think I'll ever see the mountaintop again for the clouds.'
"When you're in those moments of need, rather than being mad or depressed, that's a moment to say, 'You know, here's a Not-I experience. I'm down here because I've been trusting me. Here's an opportunity to grow because that's exactly what God's grace is trying to get me to . . .'
*****
“When we’re talking about the 'blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,’ we’re talking about the love, the joy, the peace, the longsuffering.
“God has taken your sin and set you free. He’s taken the guilt and sent it to Calvary. He said, ‘I’ll remember it no more. I’ll not connect it back with your identity again. I’ll do it permanently and forever. You never have to come and ask me to accept you. I already have. You never have to ask to please forgive me my sins. I already have. I’ve made you complete. I’ve blessed you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Now all I want you to do is take what I’ve already given you and bring it into the experience of your life on a daily basis.’“Colossians 2:10 says, ‘And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.’ But then look at chapter 4:12: ‘Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.’
“Paul says in Ephesians 1, ‘You’re accepted in the beloved.’ In II Corinthians 5:9, he says, ‘Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.’
“You say, ‘Wait a minute—I thought I was accepted!’ That’s the difference between your standing and your state; your position in Christ and your practice in time; your identity in Him and then that identity living in your experience now.“If you’re complete in Him, there’s nothing to make your more complete. All you need to do is appropriate the completeness you already have—bring it in to your experience. Have the practical, experiential possession of what already belongs to you.
*****
“I was at a Bible conference in Tennessee where a woman driving to the event was in a bad car wreck. She was injured quite severely and had a limb amputated and people asked, ‘Why?!’ But there was something in this lady’s inner man that gave her joy in spite of it all.
“You see, it’s ‘according to the riches of His grace.’ (Eph. 1:7) You can feel forgiven even when the circumstances don’t make out like you ought to. But you got to remember, no Believer ever fell into maturity overnight. This is a lifelong process of spiritual growth, of learning over and over, ‘It’s not I; it’s Christ.’
"You take little baby steps at first and then you become a person who can walk. But it’s always, ‘Not I but Christ.’ It’s always seeing the riches that are mine in Him and becoming aware of my need of that. Seeing and needing brings us from a child that’s meandering around to a responsible, specific walk of faith. It’s called maturity; it’s called being an adult.“Paul says, ‘Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.’
“God desires adults for children and He brings us to that maturity day by day as we see, ‘It’s not I; it’s Christ.’ And our redemption and forgiveness is according to the riches of His grace that produces that.”
Monday, July 22, 2019
BE who you really are
A favorite LP record of mine from childhood is the soundtrack of the masterfully filmed 1973 movie, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Neil Diamond sublimely sings the song "Be," but it's misinformation:
Lost
On a painted sky
Where the clouds are hung
For the poet's eye
You may find him
If you may find him
There
On a distant shore
By the wings of dreams
Through an open door
You may know him
If you may
Be
As a page that aches for a word
Which speaks on a theme that is timeless
And the one God will make for your day
*****
The Good News for the Believer today is God is not out there, way off yonder, to be found and known in a dream.
John 1:14 says, [14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
In II Corinthians 6, Paul relates, "As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
[17] Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
[18] And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Jordan explains, "You see how He says 'I will be'? He didn't say, 'I'm going to be LIKE a Father,' or that you're going to be LIKE a son or daughter. He said, 'I'm going to BE.'
"This is the reality of the relationship and the way the Father relates to you and me today. We literally have this personal, intimate, real, genuine, authentic relationship with God the Father that allows us to relate to Him on exactly the same basis that Jesus Christ does. Now, that's a fascinating thing. You literally can know your heavenly Father.
"He doesn't relate to you in His godheadness; omniscient, omnipotent, the Holy Other, the Transcendent One. He comes and relates to you, not in all the essences He has, but in His person. He isn't just all those other things; He's also life and love; He's personal, relational.
"Every member of the godhead, the way they live together is each one of them lives for the benefit of the other. Nobody in the godhead lives for themselves. They spontaneously and forever live for the good and the benefit of the other members. They're always looking out for the others in the godhead. That's God's life and it's that kind of relationship that you and I in Christ now have and that's what the Holy Spirit's job is . . .
"One of my favorite verses in Ephesians is Ephesians 2:18: [18] For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
"It's the function and the work of the Holy Spirit to take you, and by that WORK of the Holy Spirit, lead you into that intimate, personal, authentic, genuine relationship with the Father that Jesus Christ has provided for you. That's a wonderful, fantastic kind of relationship."
Lost
On a painted sky
Where the clouds are hung
For the poet's eye
You may find him
If you may find him
There
On a distant shore
By the wings of dreams
Through an open door
You may know him
If you may
Be
As a page that aches for a word
Which speaks on a theme that is timeless
And the one God will make for your day
*****
The Good News for the Believer today is God is not out there, way off yonder, to be found and known in a dream.
John 1:14 says, [14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
In II Corinthians 6, Paul relates, "As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
[17] Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
[18] And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Jordan explains, "You see how He says 'I will be'? He didn't say, 'I'm going to be LIKE a Father,' or that you're going to be LIKE a son or daughter. He said, 'I'm going to BE.'
"This is the reality of the relationship and the way the Father relates to you and me today. We literally have this personal, intimate, real, genuine, authentic relationship with God the Father that allows us to relate to Him on exactly the same basis that Jesus Christ does. Now, that's a fascinating thing. You literally can know your heavenly Father.
"He doesn't relate to you in His godheadness; omniscient, omnipotent, the Holy Other, the Transcendent One. He comes and relates to you, not in all the essences He has, but in His person. He isn't just all those other things; He's also life and love; He's personal, relational.
"Every member of the godhead, the way they live together is each one of them lives for the benefit of the other. Nobody in the godhead lives for themselves. They spontaneously and forever live for the good and the benefit of the other members. They're always looking out for the others in the godhead. That's God's life and it's that kind of relationship that you and I in Christ now have and that's what the Holy Spirit's job is . . .
"One of my favorite verses in Ephesians is Ephesians 2:18: [18] For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
"It's the function and the work of the Holy Spirit to take you, and by that WORK of the Holy Spirit, lead you into that intimate, personal, authentic, genuine relationship with the Father that Jesus Christ has provided for you. That's a wonderful, fantastic kind of relationship."
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Only reasonable to receive it by faith
To glorify God's Word is simply to believe it; make it the absolute final authority for faith; what your confidence rests in.
Paul writes in II Thessalonians 3, "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. [2] And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith."
Jordan explains, "Look at the Thessalonians and see what they did with it. As Paul says in I Thessalonians 1:5, 'For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.' They received it and then they believed it, and when they believed it, it worked. How is the Word glorified? When it's received, acknowledged, honored and believed.
"I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
"You see how important it is to have that attitude about the Book you're holding in your hand? By the way, that is a great verse about where they got God's Word. When you hear the Scripture, there's the idea of a received text.
"That term didn't just come out of the air. The Elzevir brothers didn't just invent that term in 1624 when they published their Greek text. That was a term that came out of the Scripture. That was a Bible term about people's attitudes about the Word they had.
"They didn't receive it as the Word of men; they knew it was God's Word. When you think about how God's Word was passed down to you, you're not thinking about it being preserved through history the way God preserved Shakespeare or Homer.
*****
"As a young preacher there's a verse that meant an awful lot to me and has all through the years. I worked in the Mobile Rescue Mission back in the mid- to late-'60s and that's where I started preaching.
"The first five years I preached was in the mission and I was privileged to preach anywhere from 10-15 times a week. When I was at Mobile College in the ministerial association with all the preacher boys (60-70 guys studying for the ministry) some of these guys were just dying to preach and I'd say, 'Well, come on down to the mission and I'll let you preach anytime,' but I couldn't get them to come. They wanted to go preach in a church.
"I was preaching so often that it was not a startling thing for me to preach. But one of the things you'd do in the mission is preach the gospel to lost people primarily and I noticed that Borther Reynolds, when he would preach, he'd preach maybe only 15-17 minutes. He was ill and not in good health and he had to sit on a stool and hold onto the pulpit. But he would preach and this verse was the verse that described his preaching to me:
Acts 14:1 says, [1] And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.
"When it says they 'so spake,' Paul says in I Corinthians 2, '[1] And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
"Paul's saying, 'I didn't come in with good words and fair speeches. I didn't use my education.' Paul was a advanced-degree rabbinical scholar. He knew all the 75-cent words. He said, 'I didn't come with all the big talk. I didn't come blowing smoke down your pipe. I came doing one thing, determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I just wanted to preach the gospel of the grace of God to you and nothing else mattered.'
"I used to watch people come to the mission and I'd watch Brother Reynolds get up in front of a group of 50-60 men, most of whom we'd never seen before, and in his physical infirmity, he'd preach to them and see 8,10, 12 guys trust Christ.
"When I say that, I don't just mean walk an aisle and shake a preacher's hand; I'm talking about men that I would deal with and sit down and talk to them about what they understood and what they were doing and see them really, genuinely get saved.
"Then I'd watch in the evening meetings after Brother Reynolds had gone home and we'd have churches come, and they'd use all the techniques and all the psychology and all the other stuff, and maybe one or two would respond out of a group of 100.
"I used to ask myself, 'How can Brother Reynolds preach to the smaller group of 50-60 guys just there for lunch and see a harvest, and these other guys preach and have all the bells and whistles and entertainment, and just see a little handful?'
"That verse right there in Acts 14, I'd say, 'You know, I got to figure that one out,' and I studied Brother Reynolds for all those years and got to know him, and what I wanted to learn from him was, 'They so spake that a great multitude believed . . . '
"You know what I discovered? When Brother Reynolds would preach, he'd have something of a little outline. One of my favorite messages that he would preach, one that I used to preach on the street, had three points. No. 1 was 'heaven's greatest testimony': 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.' No. 2 was 'the first greatest tragedy': They rejected Him and took Him out and crucified Him. No. 3 was 'man's greatest trust': 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'
"Now, that's pretty much the gospel, isn't it? And in between there, Brother Reynolds would quote about 15-20 verses from memory; he'd just look at you and give you the verses one right after another.
"A lot of times you'll hear me preach and I'll string verses together. I learned to do that watching Clyde Reynolds do that.
"I learned that when he preached, all he was using was the power of God's Word and it would penetrate dark, hardened hearts in a way that all the other stuff never did.
"Paul 'so spake.' He took that Word and made it the issue. And when he praised the Thessalonians, he said, 'Pray that my ministry of preaching the Word wouldn't be the object of all this interference and that the Word of God may be glorified; that we could so speak that a great multitude would believe.'
"The hindrance to the free course of the Word was going to come from unreasonable and wicked men. He was in Acts 18 when he wrote that from Corinth; he'd already had some experiences the Thessalonians knew about.
"When Paul goes into Thessalonica and some people get saved, Acts 17:5 says, [5] But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
"You see that? It says they 'moved with envy.' There's a spiritual, sinful, wicked motivation. It says they 'took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.' They reached out to a bunch of characters of ill-repute; they literally reached into the criminal underworld and gathered a company and 'set all the city on an uproar . . .'
"When he says they were unreasonable, that means they weren't people you could sit down and reason with. They were not people who were going to think the thing through with you. They were wicked. Their unreasonableness came from their wickedness.
"Through the years that verse has proved itself over and over, because you'll discover that people are out to resist the ministry and it will make no sense to you. When you find people being unreasonable, you'll find there's something sticking them and it's going to be some sin. The wickedness, the envy, causes the unreasonableness.
"When God tells Israel, 'Come now let us reason together,' Paul says '[1] 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.
"There is a reasonableness to God's grace, to the gospel, and when people are unreasonable, what you have to learn is that reasoning with their unreasonableness isn't going to get you anywhere. That's why arguing the science, or the philosophy, to people--arguing on their terms of unreasonableness never gets you anywhere. There's a wickedness in the heart that has concluded . . .
*****
"When I graduated from high school I was working at the mission and I actually wanted to go to Moody Bible Institute. Brother Reynolds was a graduate of Moody, the secretary of the mission was a graduate of Moody.
"I would have come to Chicago and gone to Moody in the late '60s had I been able to but my dad was ill. He had a rare blood disease and I couldn't go up there and leave him in the sick condition he was in with only my mother to tend to him and so I didn't have the opportunity to leave.
"So I went to Mobile College (now Mobile University), which was only 3-4 years old (Southern Baptists started it) and it was a good school. Brother Reynolds sat me down after I was accepted and said, 'I want to give you two verses for you not to forget while you're at college.'
"They were Proverbs 18:1-2: [1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
[2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
"It's through desire, so that you might discover what you want. A man 'having separated himself,' means, 'I'm going to get a higher quality of life. I'm going to be one of the elite.'
"He 'seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.' Is that a good thing to do? All wisdom? A fool does that. You remember that verse in Romans 1: 'Professing themselves to be wise they became fools.'
" 'The fool hath said in his heart there's no God.' A fool, someone who professes himself to be wise, hath no delight in understanding but that his heart may discover itself. He studies and tries to get wisdom and understanding for one thing; he wants an alibi to do what he wants to do.
"I remember reading that verse and thinking, 'Wow! I got to be careful.' Can I tell you that people don't reject God's Word out of intellectual honesty. They reject God's Word out of moral corruption. They become fools because they think they should be God.
"Paul says, 'I want you to pray for me because the people I'm dealing with out here are unreasonable and wicked.' And then he says, 'For all men have not faith.' Duh! That's sort of like a sarcastic backhand.
"You read the commentaries and they do all kind of stuff about that phrase. You know, when you just read that, that's just plain sarcasm. Paul says, 'They're unreasonable and wicked because they don't have any faith!' "
(new article tomorrow)
Paul writes in II Thessalonians 3, "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. [2] And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith."
Jordan explains, "Look at the Thessalonians and see what they did with it. As Paul says in I Thessalonians 1:5, 'For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.' They received it and then they believed it, and when they believed it, it worked. How is the Word glorified? When it's received, acknowledged, honored and believed.
"I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
"You see how important it is to have that attitude about the Book you're holding in your hand? By the way, that is a great verse about where they got God's Word. When you hear the Scripture, there's the idea of a received text.
"That term didn't just come out of the air. The Elzevir brothers didn't just invent that term in 1624 when they published their Greek text. That was a term that came out of the Scripture. That was a Bible term about people's attitudes about the Word they had.
"They didn't receive it as the Word of men; they knew it was God's Word. When you think about how God's Word was passed down to you, you're not thinking about it being preserved through history the way God preserved Shakespeare or Homer.
*****
"As a young preacher there's a verse that meant an awful lot to me and has all through the years. I worked in the Mobile Rescue Mission back in the mid- to late-'60s and that's where I started preaching.
"The first five years I preached was in the mission and I was privileged to preach anywhere from 10-15 times a week. When I was at Mobile College in the ministerial association with all the preacher boys (60-70 guys studying for the ministry) some of these guys were just dying to preach and I'd say, 'Well, come on down to the mission and I'll let you preach anytime,' but I couldn't get them to come. They wanted to go preach in a church.
"I was preaching so often that it was not a startling thing for me to preach. But one of the things you'd do in the mission is preach the gospel to lost people primarily and I noticed that Borther Reynolds, when he would preach, he'd preach maybe only 15-17 minutes. He was ill and not in good health and he had to sit on a stool and hold onto the pulpit. But he would preach and this verse was the verse that described his preaching to me:
Acts 14:1 says, [1] And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.
"When it says they 'so spake,' Paul says in I Corinthians 2, '[1] And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
"Paul's saying, 'I didn't come in with good words and fair speeches. I didn't use my education.' Paul was a advanced-degree rabbinical scholar. He knew all the 75-cent words. He said, 'I didn't come with all the big talk. I didn't come blowing smoke down your pipe. I came doing one thing, determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I just wanted to preach the gospel of the grace of God to you and nothing else mattered.'
"I used to watch people come to the mission and I'd watch Brother Reynolds get up in front of a group of 50-60 men, most of whom we'd never seen before, and in his physical infirmity, he'd preach to them and see 8,10, 12 guys trust Christ.
"When I say that, I don't just mean walk an aisle and shake a preacher's hand; I'm talking about men that I would deal with and sit down and talk to them about what they understood and what they were doing and see them really, genuinely get saved.
"Then I'd watch in the evening meetings after Brother Reynolds had gone home and we'd have churches come, and they'd use all the techniques and all the psychology and all the other stuff, and maybe one or two would respond out of a group of 100.
"I used to ask myself, 'How can Brother Reynolds preach to the smaller group of 50-60 guys just there for lunch and see a harvest, and these other guys preach and have all the bells and whistles and entertainment, and just see a little handful?'
"That verse right there in Acts 14, I'd say, 'You know, I got to figure that one out,' and I studied Brother Reynolds for all those years and got to know him, and what I wanted to learn from him was, 'They so spake that a great multitude believed . . . '
"You know what I discovered? When Brother Reynolds would preach, he'd have something of a little outline. One of my favorite messages that he would preach, one that I used to preach on the street, had three points. No. 1 was 'heaven's greatest testimony': 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.' No. 2 was 'the first greatest tragedy': They rejected Him and took Him out and crucified Him. No. 3 was 'man's greatest trust': 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'
"Now, that's pretty much the gospel, isn't it? And in between there, Brother Reynolds would quote about 15-20 verses from memory; he'd just look at you and give you the verses one right after another.
"A lot of times you'll hear me preach and I'll string verses together. I learned to do that watching Clyde Reynolds do that.
"I learned that when he preached, all he was using was the power of God's Word and it would penetrate dark, hardened hearts in a way that all the other stuff never did.
"Paul 'so spake.' He took that Word and made it the issue. And when he praised the Thessalonians, he said, 'Pray that my ministry of preaching the Word wouldn't be the object of all this interference and that the Word of God may be glorified; that we could so speak that a great multitude would believe.'
"The hindrance to the free course of the Word was going to come from unreasonable and wicked men. He was in Acts 18 when he wrote that from Corinth; he'd already had some experiences the Thessalonians knew about.
"When Paul goes into Thessalonica and some people get saved, Acts 17:5 says, [5] But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
"You see that? It says they 'moved with envy.' There's a spiritual, sinful, wicked motivation. It says they 'took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.' They reached out to a bunch of characters of ill-repute; they literally reached into the criminal underworld and gathered a company and 'set all the city on an uproar . . .'
"When he says they were unreasonable, that means they weren't people you could sit down and reason with. They were not people who were going to think the thing through with you. They were wicked. Their unreasonableness came from their wickedness.
"Through the years that verse has proved itself over and over, because you'll discover that people are out to resist the ministry and it will make no sense to you. When you find people being unreasonable, you'll find there's something sticking them and it's going to be some sin. The wickedness, the envy, causes the unreasonableness.
"When God tells Israel, 'Come now let us reason together,' Paul says '[1] 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.
"There is a reasonableness to God's grace, to the gospel, and when people are unreasonable, what you have to learn is that reasoning with their unreasonableness isn't going to get you anywhere. That's why arguing the science, or the philosophy, to people--arguing on their terms of unreasonableness never gets you anywhere. There's a wickedness in the heart that has concluded . . .
*****
"When I graduated from high school I was working at the mission and I actually wanted to go to Moody Bible Institute. Brother Reynolds was a graduate of Moody, the secretary of the mission was a graduate of Moody.
"I would have come to Chicago and gone to Moody in the late '60s had I been able to but my dad was ill. He had a rare blood disease and I couldn't go up there and leave him in the sick condition he was in with only my mother to tend to him and so I didn't have the opportunity to leave.
"So I went to Mobile College (now Mobile University), which was only 3-4 years old (Southern Baptists started it) and it was a good school. Brother Reynolds sat me down after I was accepted and said, 'I want to give you two verses for you not to forget while you're at college.'
"They were Proverbs 18:1-2: [1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
[2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
"It's through desire, so that you might discover what you want. A man 'having separated himself,' means, 'I'm going to get a higher quality of life. I'm going to be one of the elite.'
"He 'seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.' Is that a good thing to do? All wisdom? A fool does that. You remember that verse in Romans 1: 'Professing themselves to be wise they became fools.'
" 'The fool hath said in his heart there's no God.' A fool, someone who professes himself to be wise, hath no delight in understanding but that his heart may discover itself. He studies and tries to get wisdom and understanding for one thing; he wants an alibi to do what he wants to do.
"I remember reading that verse and thinking, 'Wow! I got to be careful.' Can I tell you that people don't reject God's Word out of intellectual honesty. They reject God's Word out of moral corruption. They become fools because they think they should be God.
"Paul says, 'I want you to pray for me because the people I'm dealing with out here are unreasonable and wicked.' And then he says, 'For all men have not faith.' Duh! That's sort of like a sarcastic backhand.
"You read the commentaries and they do all kind of stuff about that phrase. You know, when you just read that, that's just plain sarcasm. Paul says, 'They're unreasonable and wicked because they don't have any faith!' "
(new article tomorrow)
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Are We Missing Something? Hardly
Is the greater victory to be delivered physically from infirmity or to be delivered spiritually while suffering infirmity?
This is the question Chicago Bible scholar C. R. Stam asks in his classic The Controversy. He writes, "Which is the greater blessing, to be healed by a miracle, or to be able to say with Paul: 'We faint not . . . our inward man is renewed day by day,' and to be able to add: 'For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory' (II Cor. 4:16-17)?
"Which evidences the greater faith and procures the greater satisfaction, to claim miraculous healing, or to be 'anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (to) let the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus' (Phil. 4:6-7)?
"Which is the greater triumph, to be delivered out of prison by an angel, as Peter was on two occasions, or to be enabled by grace to write from prison, as Paul did later, about 'sitting in the heavenlies in Christ' 'blessed with all spiritual blessings' (Eph. 1:3;2:6), referring at least seven times in one short epistle (Philippians) to 'rejoicing'?
"Which is the higher plane to live on, that which leaves much for sight, or that which leaves all for faith? Paul, by the spirit, answers:
" 'While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal' (II Cor 4:18).
" 'For we walk by faith, not by sight' (II Cor. 5:7)."
*****
"As with the crucifixion and resurrection, the Old Testament presents Christ, the Son of God, only in veiled phraseology and in types. The Trinity is only hinted at. This is one reason why the Jew insists that there is but one God and that He did not, and will not, have a Son. True, Psalm 40:7 says: 'In the volume of a book it is written of Me,' but again, who is the 'ME'? We do not find out until some time after the Son of God has appeared incarnate.
"The glory of His person is not revealed even in His ministry on earth, for from birth to death He suffers humiliation. The stable, the swaddling bands, the weariness, the hunger and thirst. He has no place to lay His head, the multitude throng Him, the leaders plot against Him, Martha rebukes Him, Peter denies Him, Judas betrays Him. His deity is veiled by His humanity; His glory is buried under poverty and shame.
"After His baptism by water He spoke of another baptism; that of the Cross: 'But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!' (Luke 12:50).
"Thank God we 'know Him no longer after the flesh' (II Cor. 5:16) for, as one has said, how could a Christ in straitened circumstances mean so much to us as the Lord of glory dispensing the riches of His grace and the merits of Calvary?
"Even in resurrection His glory was still veiled, else His disciples could not have beheld Him. Probably the greatest display of His glory, while on earth, took place at the transfiguration when, appearing with Moses and Elias, His face shone as the sun and His raiment was white as the light. Yet Peter could say: 'It is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias' (Matthew 17:4).
"Compare this with that light above the brightness of the noonday sun, which blinded Paul, as the glorified Lord appeared to him (Acts 26: 13-16).
"Once more it is Paul--and no one until Paul--who says: 'Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more' (II Cor. 5:16).
"In his one letter to the Colossians alone he presents Christ in His glory as all the other Bible writers together do not present Him.
"There he presents Christ as the Head of all creation--not just the material creation alone, but also things invisible. 'Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
[16] For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him' (Col. 1:15-16).
"There he presents Him also as the Sustainer of all, for 'by Him all things consist [i.e., cling together]' (1:17)
"There he presents Him as the Head of the Body and the Master of death. (1:18).
"There he declares that 'in all things Christ must have the pre-eminence and that it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell;' that He should be the Fount of every blessing, the Source of all supply (1:18-19).
"There he presents Christ as the sole Medium of reconciliation to God (1:20) and unfolds 'the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory' (1:27)
"There he shows Him as the One (2:3) in whom dwells 'all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power' (2:9-10).
"Little wonder he warns us lest any man 'rob' us, 'judge' us, or 'beguile' us (2:8, 16, 18) of the appropriation and enjoyment of our position and blessings in Christ!"
(new article tomorrow)
This is the question Chicago Bible scholar C. R. Stam asks in his classic The Controversy. He writes, "Which is the greater blessing, to be healed by a miracle, or to be able to say with Paul: 'We faint not . . . our inward man is renewed day by day,' and to be able to add: 'For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory' (II Cor. 4:16-17)?
"Which evidences the greater faith and procures the greater satisfaction, to claim miraculous healing, or to be 'anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (to) let the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus' (Phil. 4:6-7)?
"Which is the greater triumph, to be delivered out of prison by an angel, as Peter was on two occasions, or to be enabled by grace to write from prison, as Paul did later, about 'sitting in the heavenlies in Christ' 'blessed with all spiritual blessings' (Eph. 1:3;2:6), referring at least seven times in one short epistle (Philippians) to 'rejoicing'?
"Which is the higher plane to live on, that which leaves much for sight, or that which leaves all for faith? Paul, by the spirit, answers:
" 'While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal' (II Cor 4:18).
" 'For we walk by faith, not by sight' (II Cor. 5:7)."
*****
"As with the crucifixion and resurrection, the Old Testament presents Christ, the Son of God, only in veiled phraseology and in types. The Trinity is only hinted at. This is one reason why the Jew insists that there is but one God and that He did not, and will not, have a Son. True, Psalm 40:7 says: 'In the volume of a book it is written of Me,' but again, who is the 'ME'? We do not find out until some time after the Son of God has appeared incarnate.
"The glory of His person is not revealed even in His ministry on earth, for from birth to death He suffers humiliation. The stable, the swaddling bands, the weariness, the hunger and thirst. He has no place to lay His head, the multitude throng Him, the leaders plot against Him, Martha rebukes Him, Peter denies Him, Judas betrays Him. His deity is veiled by His humanity; His glory is buried under poverty and shame.
"After His baptism by water He spoke of another baptism; that of the Cross: 'But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!' (Luke 12:50).
"Thank God we 'know Him no longer after the flesh' (II Cor. 5:16) for, as one has said, how could a Christ in straitened circumstances mean so much to us as the Lord of glory dispensing the riches of His grace and the merits of Calvary?
"Even in resurrection His glory was still veiled, else His disciples could not have beheld Him. Probably the greatest display of His glory, while on earth, took place at the transfiguration when, appearing with Moses and Elias, His face shone as the sun and His raiment was white as the light. Yet Peter could say: 'It is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias' (Matthew 17:4).
"Compare this with that light above the brightness of the noonday sun, which blinded Paul, as the glorified Lord appeared to him (Acts 26: 13-16).
"Once more it is Paul--and no one until Paul--who says: 'Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more' (II Cor. 5:16).
"In his one letter to the Colossians alone he presents Christ in His glory as all the other Bible writers together do not present Him.
"There he presents Christ as the Head of all creation--not just the material creation alone, but also things invisible. 'Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
[16] For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him' (Col. 1:15-16).
"There he presents Him also as the Sustainer of all, for 'by Him all things consist [i.e., cling together]' (1:17)
"There he presents Him as the Head of the Body and the Master of death. (1:18).
"There he declares that 'in all things Christ must have the pre-eminence and that it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell;' that He should be the Fount of every blessing, the Source of all supply (1:18-19).
"There he presents Christ as the sole Medium of reconciliation to God (1:20) and unfolds 'the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory' (1:27)
"There he shows Him as the One (2:3) in whom dwells 'all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power' (2:9-10).
"Little wonder he warns us lest any man 'rob' us, 'judge' us, or 'beguile' us (2:8, 16, 18) of the appropriation and enjoyment of our position and blessings in Christ!"
(new article tomorrow)
Monday, July 15, 2019
Lest by any means I should run in vain:
Paul starts II Thessalonians 3 with, [1] Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
[2] And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
"Paul wanted the Word to be able to run and have freedom and not to be interfered with or hindered in any way; that the opposition out there against it wouldn't be successful," explains Chicago Preacher Richard Jordan.
"Notice he doesn't say, 'Pray for me that I get a new camel so I have something new to ride on.' He doesn't say, 'Pray for me that I be healed.' At this point in his life, he was sick.
"It's fascinating to me that when Paul talks about the difficulties of life, he never just points out one; he says, 'All of them and here's how God deals with them.' So whether it was sickness, persecution or opposition of people, he just lumps it all in one basket.
"Three times Paul prayed to the Lord and the Lord said, 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.' Paul's response to that instruction was, 'Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'
"Someone will say, 'How do you do that? Don't they hurt?' Yeah, they do. 'Don't they discourage you?' Well, that's the issue. Paul said the reason he gloried in his infirmities is 'for when I am weak then is the power of Christ my strength.' That's the issue because we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power might be of God and not us. We can say, 'It's not I; it's Him.'
"Nowhere do you see that more clearly in your life than in the weaknesses and infirmities. In the place that you can say, 'It's not I, I can't do it,' then you can say, 'Okay, but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,' and Paul says, 'I'll look at my infirmities and I'm not going to say those things destroy me.'
"Philippians 4:6-7: [6] Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
[7] And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
"There's not anything in your life you can't talk to God about and can't make your request known. Supplication is seeking help with thanksgiving, standing in the resources God's given you in Christ and applying them to the details of your life. Prayer's not just me shooting off some idea to God up there in heaven like He's a divine satellite and ricochet machine.
"Paul often used the terminology of running. You know the difference between sit, walk and run? When you stand, you aren't going anywhere; you're right there holding your ground. When you sit, you're resting in it. When you walk, you're making progress, but walking is kind of slow. But when you're running, you're making progress toward a goal swiftly. That's what Paul wants the Word to do; that there be nothing to hinder it as it goes.
"Psalm 147:15 says, 'He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.'
That's why you see the Apostle Paul pick up that phrase. Look at Galatians 2:2: [2] And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.
"He's not talking about, 'I ran up there.' He's talking about, 'I went there quickly, directly, with the intention of giving this and I don't want it to have been in vain.'
"Philippians 2:15-16: [15] That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
[16] Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
"That's the idea of the free course! You can't run if you're constantly being hindered. Hebrews says, [1] Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
"Isaiah 55:11 says, [11] So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
"Do you get the concept? God's Word will accomplish what He sends it to do. You can bind Paul and put him in jail but the Word of God isn't bound.
"In II Corinthians 13 is a wonderful verse that has been a great comfort to me through the years. He says, 'You can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.'
"People can do things against you, but they can't do anything against the truth. If they lie about it, does it change the truth? No. Eventually, ultimately, it makes the truth stand out even more.
"When Paul's praying this he's not worrying about God's Word working. He knows it will do its work and it's not bound. When he says, 'That it might have free course,' he's talking about 'my preaching of the Word; my ministry of the Word.'
" 'And be glorified.' I used to wonder, 'How in the world is God's Word glorified?' How is it that God's Word is lifted up and its importance and power is acknowledged?' Then I read the verse again and realized, 'Oh, the verse tells you.'
"How is the Word of God glorified? I Thessalonians 1:5 says, [5] For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
"The Thessalonians received the Word and then they believed it and when they believed it, it worked; its importance and power was demonstrated.
"As I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.' "
(new article tomorrow)
[2] And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
"Paul wanted the Word to be able to run and have freedom and not to be interfered with or hindered in any way; that the opposition out there against it wouldn't be successful," explains Chicago Preacher Richard Jordan.
"Notice he doesn't say, 'Pray for me that I get a new camel so I have something new to ride on.' He doesn't say, 'Pray for me that I be healed.' At this point in his life, he was sick.
"It's fascinating to me that when Paul talks about the difficulties of life, he never just points out one; he says, 'All of them and here's how God deals with them.' So whether it was sickness, persecution or opposition of people, he just lumps it all in one basket.
"Three times Paul prayed to the Lord and the Lord said, 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.' Paul's response to that instruction was, 'Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'
"Someone will say, 'How do you do that? Don't they hurt?' Yeah, they do. 'Don't they discourage you?' Well, that's the issue. Paul said the reason he gloried in his infirmities is 'for when I am weak then is the power of Christ my strength.' That's the issue because we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power might be of God and not us. We can say, 'It's not I; it's Him.'
"Nowhere do you see that more clearly in your life than in the weaknesses and infirmities. In the place that you can say, 'It's not I, I can't do it,' then you can say, 'Okay, but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,' and Paul says, 'I'll look at my infirmities and I'm not going to say those things destroy me.'
"Philippians 4:6-7: [6] Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
[7] And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
"There's not anything in your life you can't talk to God about and can't make your request known. Supplication is seeking help with thanksgiving, standing in the resources God's given you in Christ and applying them to the details of your life. Prayer's not just me shooting off some idea to God up there in heaven like He's a divine satellite and ricochet machine.
"Paul often used the terminology of running. You know the difference between sit, walk and run? When you stand, you aren't going anywhere; you're right there holding your ground. When you sit, you're resting in it. When you walk, you're making progress, but walking is kind of slow. But when you're running, you're making progress toward a goal swiftly. That's what Paul wants the Word to do; that there be nothing to hinder it as it goes.
"Psalm 147:15 says, 'He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.'
That's why you see the Apostle Paul pick up that phrase. Look at Galatians 2:2: [2] And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.
"He's not talking about, 'I ran up there.' He's talking about, 'I went there quickly, directly, with the intention of giving this and I don't want it to have been in vain.'
"Philippians 2:15-16: [15] That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
[16] Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
"That's the idea of the free course! You can't run if you're constantly being hindered. Hebrews says, [1] Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
"Isaiah 55:11 says, [11] So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
"Do you get the concept? God's Word will accomplish what He sends it to do. You can bind Paul and put him in jail but the Word of God isn't bound.
"In II Corinthians 13 is a wonderful verse that has been a great comfort to me through the years. He says, 'You can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.'
"People can do things against you, but they can't do anything against the truth. If they lie about it, does it change the truth? No. Eventually, ultimately, it makes the truth stand out even more.
"When Paul's praying this he's not worrying about God's Word working. He knows it will do its work and it's not bound. When he says, 'That it might have free course,' he's talking about 'my preaching of the Word; my ministry of the Word.'
" 'And be glorified.' I used to wonder, 'How in the world is God's Word glorified?' How is it that God's Word is lifted up and its importance and power is acknowledged?' Then I read the verse again and realized, 'Oh, the verse tells you.'
"How is the Word of God glorified? I Thessalonians 1:5 says, [5] For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
"The Thessalonians received the Word and then they believed it and when they believed it, it worked; its importance and power was demonstrated.
"As I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.' "
(new article tomorrow)
Friday, July 12, 2019
By faith emotions know who's boss
Israel experienced direct empowering and intervention by God in the Old Testament, but it wasn't based on faith. That was the way their program was designed to work.
"One of the biggest handicaps people have in believing God empowers them and strengthens them to a successful, victorious life is they're asking God to do something He isn't going to do instead of doing by faith what He says He is doing," explains Preacher Richard Jordan.
"II Timothy 3 says, [16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
[17] That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
"The new bibles change the word throughly to thoroughly. It's the same word but it's not the same word. Thoroughly means it's completely done. But when you walk through a room, what does that mean? You were back there and you came up here; you go through the whole thing. The reason it says throughly is because the emphasis is not just that it's completely done, but that it's done through. It's God's Word working through you.
"I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
"That word effectual is like the word throughly. You see, it's the Spirit of God--the Word of God that the Spirit of God wrote says, 'The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.'
"Those words come into your spirit, that's how they get in, and your heart believes them and says, 'That's the standard by which I'm going to live.'
"Your mind has those things, thinks those things. Your will makes choices in life based upon that truth and that then tells your emotions, 'This is what's true, this is what's real,' and then you function based on it. God's Spirit works through His Word working through you, inside out, when you walk.
*****
"In Philemon, the last of Paul's epistles, he's praying for Philemon and the saints at Colossi 'that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.'
"God's Word becomes effectual when you acknowledge who you are in Him and see your identity for who He sees you. You see the resources He's given you in that circumstance to deal with it.
"When you live in a faith reality, trusting in the reality of who God has made you in His Son, your faith is to become life. As long as you're trusting your resources, your wisdom, your smarts, it doesn't work. You short-circuit it to that extent.
"The default position is faith. Faith is a choosing. I set my affections, I seek those things, I make a conscious . . . Paul says in Romans 12, [1] 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.
[2] 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.
"I'm living in a conscious choice of faith in the identity God gave me in His Son. It's called active living. The default of unbelief, the opposite of that, is your flesh running you. You're going to live under the tyranny of the revolt of your emotions, which means you're all out of whack.
*****
"The old-timers had a discipline of spending quiet time with the Lord every day and they understood you needed some time focused on God's Word. So here's a story passed on to me:
"One day John got up and told the Lord, 'I want to improve my Christian life so I'm going to start getting up every morning at 5, an hour before I have to leave for work, and spend an hour in the Scripture, meditating and praying, looking at the Word.'
"John set his alarm clock and when five o-clock came the next morning and the alarm went off, he said, 'Oh, okay, it's time to get up,' but his emotions said, 'WHAT?!' and pulled the covers up. They started screaming, 'I'm not going, I'm not going . . . What are you doing, you idiot?! You crazy nut!' They said, 'Look at him, he's getting up!! Oh no, we're not going to let him . . . .'
"John's emotions just pitched a fit, and all the way over there to his chair where his Bible was, his emotions were still, 'This is terrible,' and continued to condemn and holler at him. But he just decided, 'I'm going to go anyway.' He sat down and his emotions whined, 'Look at him, he could be laying in bed, but what's he doing?!'
"His emotions just wouldn't cooperate and the next day when the alarm clock went off they didn't even wait for him to wake up. They started screaming, 'He's gonna get up again and I don't want him to get up!'
"For a week John goes through that kind of revolt with his emotions. They're just hollering and pitching a fit: 'We'll stick him there and make him hurt over here.' In the middle of the afternoon they'd say, 'I know what we'll do. Let's thrash him real good now and make him feel bad because he's tired.'
"They did everything they could to stop him but John had made the resolve, 'I'm going to do it,' and he stuck with it. About the middle of the second week of getting up every day, his emotions said, 'Agh, the alarm's gone off; wonder if he's going to get up today. Yeah, he's getting up. I tell you what,' but they weren't quite as loud.
"Third week into it, the alarm clock goes off and the emotions say, 'You know, he's going to get up anyway. We might as well just go on with him.' They go with him, saying, 'Look at the fool, he thinks reading that book's going to do him some good.'
"Fourth week comes and the alarm clock goes off and his emotions say, 'Yeah, he's getting up. Hey, he don't look so bad today, does he? You know, this looks like it might be doing him some good so let's just let him go.'
"Fifth week he gets up, his emotions say, 'You know, I think this is doing him some good. Hey, John, get up! Wake up! Time to go!'
"Sixth week the emotions are saying to him, 'Hey, John, it's time to get up! Let's go! That stuff over there in the chair, we're enjoying it!'
"You follow the sequence? Those emotions that have been used to running the show so long aren't going to give up like that, but with the power of the Spirit of God working in your heart through His Word . . . How does His Word work? By faith. It transformed even John's emotions.
"When the emotions don't become the willing servants of your will, you say, 'Tough apples, we're going anyway.' Because the fact, the truth, trusted by faith, will produce the fruit and eventually the feelings may or may not come in support of it, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is the truth. What matters is what's right.
"Somebody says, 'I don't know what I'm going to do.' I say all the time to people, 'Do what's right.' You say, 'I don't feel that way.' It's got nothing to do with how you feel; it has do with what's right.
"You know what happens after you do what's right? At first, your emotions get convicted because they've been wronged, but then they get converted. Paul prayed that you'd be 'strengthened with might by his spirit in your inner man,' but that's not just him praying, 'Oh, Lord, go do it for them.' That's praying that God the Holy Spirit can work through you the way He's designed you to work because that's the only way you can walk by faith."
(new article Sunday. I will drive back to Chicago tomorrow with four new tires but a rotted out exhaust system that nobody wanted to fix for under $1 grand. I better take it slow.)
"One of the biggest handicaps people have in believing God empowers them and strengthens them to a successful, victorious life is they're asking God to do something He isn't going to do instead of doing by faith what He says He is doing," explains Preacher Richard Jordan.
"II Timothy 3 says, [16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
[17] That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
"The new bibles change the word throughly to thoroughly. It's the same word but it's not the same word. Thoroughly means it's completely done. But when you walk through a room, what does that mean? You were back there and you came up here; you go through the whole thing. The reason it says throughly is because the emphasis is not just that it's completely done, but that it's done through. It's God's Word working through you.
"I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
"That word effectual is like the word throughly. You see, it's the Spirit of God--the Word of God that the Spirit of God wrote says, 'The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.'
"Those words come into your spirit, that's how they get in, and your heart believes them and says, 'That's the standard by which I'm going to live.'
"Your mind has those things, thinks those things. Your will makes choices in life based upon that truth and that then tells your emotions, 'This is what's true, this is what's real,' and then you function based on it. God's Spirit works through His Word working through you, inside out, when you walk.
*****
"In Philemon, the last of Paul's epistles, he's praying for Philemon and the saints at Colossi 'that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.'
"God's Word becomes effectual when you acknowledge who you are in Him and see your identity for who He sees you. You see the resources He's given you in that circumstance to deal with it.
"When you live in a faith reality, trusting in the reality of who God has made you in His Son, your faith is to become life. As long as you're trusting your resources, your wisdom, your smarts, it doesn't work. You short-circuit it to that extent.
"The default position is faith. Faith is a choosing. I set my affections, I seek those things, I make a conscious . . . Paul says in Romans 12, [1] 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.
[2] 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.
"I'm living in a conscious choice of faith in the identity God gave me in His Son. It's called active living. The default of unbelief, the opposite of that, is your flesh running you. You're going to live under the tyranny of the revolt of your emotions, which means you're all out of whack.
*****
"The old-timers had a discipline of spending quiet time with the Lord every day and they understood you needed some time focused on God's Word. So here's a story passed on to me:
"One day John got up and told the Lord, 'I want to improve my Christian life so I'm going to start getting up every morning at 5, an hour before I have to leave for work, and spend an hour in the Scripture, meditating and praying, looking at the Word.'
"John set his alarm clock and when five o-clock came the next morning and the alarm went off, he said, 'Oh, okay, it's time to get up,' but his emotions said, 'WHAT?!' and pulled the covers up. They started screaming, 'I'm not going, I'm not going . . . What are you doing, you idiot?! You crazy nut!' They said, 'Look at him, he's getting up!! Oh no, we're not going to let him . . . .'
"John's emotions just pitched a fit, and all the way over there to his chair where his Bible was, his emotions were still, 'This is terrible,' and continued to condemn and holler at him. But he just decided, 'I'm going to go anyway.' He sat down and his emotions whined, 'Look at him, he could be laying in bed, but what's he doing?!'
"His emotions just wouldn't cooperate and the next day when the alarm clock went off they didn't even wait for him to wake up. They started screaming, 'He's gonna get up again and I don't want him to get up!'
"For a week John goes through that kind of revolt with his emotions. They're just hollering and pitching a fit: 'We'll stick him there and make him hurt over here.' In the middle of the afternoon they'd say, 'I know what we'll do. Let's thrash him real good now and make him feel bad because he's tired.'
"They did everything they could to stop him but John had made the resolve, 'I'm going to do it,' and he stuck with it. About the middle of the second week of getting up every day, his emotions said, 'Agh, the alarm's gone off; wonder if he's going to get up today. Yeah, he's getting up. I tell you what,' but they weren't quite as loud.
"Third week into it, the alarm clock goes off and the emotions say, 'You know, he's going to get up anyway. We might as well just go on with him.' They go with him, saying, 'Look at the fool, he thinks reading that book's going to do him some good.'
"Fourth week comes and the alarm clock goes off and his emotions say, 'Yeah, he's getting up. Hey, he don't look so bad today, does he? You know, this looks like it might be doing him some good so let's just let him go.'
"Fifth week he gets up, his emotions say, 'You know, I think this is doing him some good. Hey, John, get up! Wake up! Time to go!'
"Sixth week the emotions are saying to him, 'Hey, John, it's time to get up! Let's go! That stuff over there in the chair, we're enjoying it!'
"You follow the sequence? Those emotions that have been used to running the show so long aren't going to give up like that, but with the power of the Spirit of God working in your heart through His Word . . . How does His Word work? By faith. It transformed even John's emotions.
"When the emotions don't become the willing servants of your will, you say, 'Tough apples, we're going anyway.' Because the fact, the truth, trusted by faith, will produce the fruit and eventually the feelings may or may not come in support of it, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is the truth. What matters is what's right.
"Somebody says, 'I don't know what I'm going to do.' I say all the time to people, 'Do what's right.' You say, 'I don't feel that way.' It's got nothing to do with how you feel; it has do with what's right.
"You know what happens after you do what's right? At first, your emotions get convicted because they've been wronged, but then they get converted. Paul prayed that you'd be 'strengthened with might by his spirit in your inner man,' but that's not just him praying, 'Oh, Lord, go do it for them.' That's praying that God the Holy Spirit can work through you the way He's designed you to work because that's the only way you can walk by faith."
(new article Sunday. I will drive back to Chicago tomorrow with four new tires but a rotted out exhaust system that nobody wanted to fix for under $1 grand. I better take it slow.)
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Answer to heart trouble
Heart trouble, or at least the kind you face emotionally, is designed to tell you there's something not matching up with the norms and standards you've placed in your inner man.
"People talk about how the world is losing morality but, no, you always have morality," says Jordan. "Couples come to me and say, 'We're having trouble in our marriage because we're not communicating.' No, you're always communicating. The problem is what you're communicating isn't good.
"If the standards in your conscience aren't out of the Word of God . . . we're watching that out in the culture. It's not that people have become immoral in the sense of they have no morality. They're system of norms and standards is no longer the norms and standards of the Bible. It comes from somewhere else. Humanism, materialism, whatever. But they have a system of norms and standards they go by because that's the way we're made to work. When Paul talks about having a defiled conscience that's what he's talking about.
*****
"Jesus Christ says in John 16:33, 'These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'
" 'That in me ye might have peace.' That's the opposite of heart trouble. I can have peace inside.
"Ephesians 3 says, [16] That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.
"The key is your will making the choice of faith to trust what God's Word says is true; 'to obey from the heart that form of sound doctrine.'
"Romans 5 starts, 'Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
[2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
"The default position for a Believer is faith. The default position for unbelief is flesh. If you don't exercise the positive volition of your faith to make choices based on God's Word . . . if you don't 'set your affections on things above' . . . If you don't seek those things, if you don't make a conscious choice of faith, you wind up with the flesh running you.
"It's called 'the obedience of faith' to make your faith say, 'I'm trusting God's Word and I'm going to make that choice on what God says, not what my emotions say.'
"When Paul says God's going to 'strengthen with might by his Spirit in the inner man,' why does He want that?
"Verses 18-20 answer: [18] May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
[20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
"The reason is so that you can use your mind the way He intends your mind (your thinking process) to be used.
"It takes the Spirit of God for you to take the thinking of truth and make it the foundation of your life. The satanic program--the world, the flesh and the devil--can become so programmed into a person. It takes God's power, not simply to give you His life, but for that life to live in you daily.
"You won't default to godliness. You only come to it by faith in an intelligent understanding of God's Word rightly divided. If you don't become oriented to the grace of God to us in Christ through the rightly divided Scripture, your will has no basis of absolute truth to rest on. That's why this is all so important."
(new article tomorrow)
"People talk about how the world is losing morality but, no, you always have morality," says Jordan. "Couples come to me and say, 'We're having trouble in our marriage because we're not communicating.' No, you're always communicating. The problem is what you're communicating isn't good.
"If the standards in your conscience aren't out of the Word of God . . . we're watching that out in the culture. It's not that people have become immoral in the sense of they have no morality. They're system of norms and standards is no longer the norms and standards of the Bible. It comes from somewhere else. Humanism, materialism, whatever. But they have a system of norms and standards they go by because that's the way we're made to work. When Paul talks about having a defiled conscience that's what he's talking about.
*****
"Jesus Christ says in John 16:33, 'These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'
" 'That in me ye might have peace.' That's the opposite of heart trouble. I can have peace inside.
"Ephesians 3 says, [16] That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.
"The key is your will making the choice of faith to trust what God's Word says is true; 'to obey from the heart that form of sound doctrine.'
"Romans 5 starts, 'Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
[2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
"The default position for a Believer is faith. The default position for unbelief is flesh. If you don't exercise the positive volition of your faith to make choices based on God's Word . . . if you don't 'set your affections on things above' . . . If you don't seek those things, if you don't make a conscious choice of faith, you wind up with the flesh running you.
"It's called 'the obedience of faith' to make your faith say, 'I'm trusting God's Word and I'm going to make that choice on what God says, not what my emotions say.'
"When Paul says God's going to 'strengthen with might by his Spirit in the inner man,' why does He want that?
"Verses 18-20 answer: [18] May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
[20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
"The reason is so that you can use your mind the way He intends your mind (your thinking process) to be used.
"It takes the Spirit of God for you to take the thinking of truth and make it the foundation of your life. The satanic program--the world, the flesh and the devil--can become so programmed into a person. It takes God's power, not simply to give you His life, but for that life to live in you daily.
"You won't default to godliness. You only come to it by faith in an intelligent understanding of God's Word rightly divided. If you don't become oriented to the grace of God to us in Christ through the rightly divided Scripture, your will has no basis of absolute truth to rest on. That's why this is all so important."
(new article tomorrow)
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Mind mustn't think emotions know better
God wouldn't put emotions as part of our soul and body if they weren't critically important, but they're not to be the source of our thinking, says Jordan. "They're not the basis of your choices; they're designed to be RESPONDERS to what your will has decided upon as truth.
"If truth sets you free, error binds you. Now, that's the way you're made to function. Emotions are designed to identify for you, in your thinking, what's going on in your inner man.
"You've never seen your soul. You've never seen your spirit. You've never felt your spirit because it's a non-experiential thing. You've never felt your will. The way you know what's going on inside of you is through your emotions.
"Emotional pain, for example, is designed to tell you there's something wrong with the way you're functioning inside. You have no other way to know what the actual status of your inner man is. It's a matter of the flow being in the right direction. While God says it's 'spirit, soul, body,' Satan says, 'Body, soul, spirit.'
"If your mind is programmed by error, it's going to be produce some real predictable emotions and desires that come out of error. Ephesians 4:31 is a verse that will just change your whole life. It says, [31] Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.
"You know where all that stuff comes from? Dumb, bad, erroneous thinking authored by your old sin nature. It comes from the 'sin that dwelleth in me.' Jesus said, 'It's by the heart things that come out of a man defile a man.'
"The things that defile you are not the places you go and the things you see. What defiles you is the response you have to those things in your heart.
*****
"Instead of programming the mind with error, I need to program it with truth, because programming with error causes you to produce some actions that are counter-productive. If I program my mind with truth, facts, then I can take actions based upon faith that will produce some fruit and the feelings show up later.
"Have you ever noticed that your feelings . . . I have never walked up to an elliptical machine and said, 'Man, I'm just so happy I'm here.' But there's a strange thing. If you get on it, in about 10 minutes, you think, 'This wasn't near so bad.' About 20 minutes later, you say, 'Well, you know, I think I can do another 10 minutes.'
"You get the body and the endorphins going and you feel differently about it. Emotions do that. They'll follow but you had to make that choice over there. They're not to be the ones that inform you truth; your mind is to be programmed by God's Word.
"Volition is a function of our will where we make choices. We make choices based upon what's in our mind, this memory center we have. Those thoughts become reality to our emotions because your emotions don't think; they're dumb. They have no intellect; they are only designed to be responders to what you're thinking.
"This is critical. You think about something, you have the information, you make a choice what to do based upon the truth in your heart and your emotions see that choice that you've made and say, 'There's reality,' and they respond appropriately.
"When they respond, that's what they're for--the word emotion is for motion. They are to produce activity but they're not to be the source of the action. When they become the source, where the action comes from, all of a sudden, rather than the truth residing in your mind being what your will makes its choices based upon, your emotions become the ones running the show.
"The 'tyranny of emotional revolt' is when the emotions say, 'I'm going to be the one to sit on the throne and I'm going to be the one who decides what we do!'
"You face a difficult situation and your emotions say, 'I know what we better do!' and your mind says, 'Okay, okay, okay, okay.' Your mind begins to think your emotions know what they're talking about so your mind begins to think what your emotions are feeling is true.
"What's your will going to do? He's got to make choices based upon what your mind is programming, so now your will winds up making good choices or bad choices? Well, it might be as good of a choice as you can make under bad information, but the problem is the whole source is backwards. So now what's running you? Error. If you can get that concept in your thinking it will change everything."
(new article tomorrow)
"If truth sets you free, error binds you. Now, that's the way you're made to function. Emotions are designed to identify for you, in your thinking, what's going on in your inner man.
"You've never seen your soul. You've never seen your spirit. You've never felt your spirit because it's a non-experiential thing. You've never felt your will. The way you know what's going on inside of you is through your emotions.
"Emotional pain, for example, is designed to tell you there's something wrong with the way you're functioning inside. You have no other way to know what the actual status of your inner man is. It's a matter of the flow being in the right direction. While God says it's 'spirit, soul, body,' Satan says, 'Body, soul, spirit.'
"If your mind is programmed by error, it's going to be produce some real predictable emotions and desires that come out of error. Ephesians 4:31 is a verse that will just change your whole life. It says, [31] Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.
"You know where all that stuff comes from? Dumb, bad, erroneous thinking authored by your old sin nature. It comes from the 'sin that dwelleth in me.' Jesus said, 'It's by the heart things that come out of a man defile a man.'
"The things that defile you are not the places you go and the things you see. What defiles you is the response you have to those things in your heart.
*****
"Instead of programming the mind with error, I need to program it with truth, because programming with error causes you to produce some actions that are counter-productive. If I program my mind with truth, facts, then I can take actions based upon faith that will produce some fruit and the feelings show up later.
"Have you ever noticed that your feelings . . . I have never walked up to an elliptical machine and said, 'Man, I'm just so happy I'm here.' But there's a strange thing. If you get on it, in about 10 minutes, you think, 'This wasn't near so bad.' About 20 minutes later, you say, 'Well, you know, I think I can do another 10 minutes.'
"You get the body and the endorphins going and you feel differently about it. Emotions do that. They'll follow but you had to make that choice over there. They're not to be the ones that inform you truth; your mind is to be programmed by God's Word.
"Volition is a function of our will where we make choices. We make choices based upon what's in our mind, this memory center we have. Those thoughts become reality to our emotions because your emotions don't think; they're dumb. They have no intellect; they are only designed to be responders to what you're thinking.
"This is critical. You think about something, you have the information, you make a choice what to do based upon the truth in your heart and your emotions see that choice that you've made and say, 'There's reality,' and they respond appropriately.
"When they respond, that's what they're for--the word emotion is for motion. They are to produce activity but they're not to be the source of the action. When they become the source, where the action comes from, all of a sudden, rather than the truth residing in your mind being what your will makes its choices based upon, your emotions become the ones running the show.
"The 'tyranny of emotional revolt' is when the emotions say, 'I'm going to be the one to sit on the throne and I'm going to be the one who decides what we do!'
"You face a difficult situation and your emotions say, 'I know what we better do!' and your mind says, 'Okay, okay, okay, okay.' Your mind begins to think your emotions know what they're talking about so your mind begins to think what your emotions are feeling is true.
"What's your will going to do? He's got to make choices based upon what your mind is programming, so now your will winds up making good choices or bad choices? Well, it might be as good of a choice as you can make under bad information, but the problem is the whole source is backwards. So now what's running you? Error. If you can get that concept in your thinking it will change everything."
(new article tomorrow)
Monday, July 8, 2019
Starting out in finished work
In an old sermon entitled "Follow the Money," that I listened to driving from Chicago to Dayton, Ohio, Preacher Richard Jordan discussed Ephesians 4:25-28: [25] Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
[26] Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
[27] Neither give place to the devil.
[28] Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Jordan told the congregation, "We're going to be truth-tellers. We're going to speak the truth in love but it's going to be truth that we talk. We're going to take the doctrine of the truth of God's Word and that's what we're going to communicate because we're members one of another. We're going to live in truth.
"Verse 26 is not like what most people tell you. It's not saying, 'You know, if you get mad with your husband or wife, be sure to settle it before the day's over because you don't want to carry it into the next day.' That's a bunch of psychobabble, but that's not what the verse is talking about.
"Paul is saying, 'Don't quit being angry with sin. Don't sunset your anger at sin.' A 'sunset law' in the government says, 'It's going to end at a certain point; it only lasts for a certain time.' When you don't tolerate sin you're not going to be passive about it.
"In the next verse he says, 'Neither give place to the devil.' Don't let the devil have a place. Satan wants to attack your life, so frustrate him and don't give him a place in your life.
"Verse 28 means you're going to become a giver; a complete transformation of your attitude and lifestyle. All of a sudden, you're not just a truth-speaker and someone who doesn't put up with sin and seeks to frustrate the Adversary, you're going to live a life that expresses the giving nature and heart and thinking process of grace.
*****
"God's mandate to man is in Genesis 1:26: [26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
"If you're made in the image of God, you're going to be His representative, and if you're made in His likeness, you're going to be God-like, which is what godliness is. It's god-likeness.
"When you're like God, you understand why God created you, what creation is for, what's going on, and you're going to be able to labor WITH God in like manner. You're going to work like God would work.
"Godliness is not just knowing what God's doing, and it's not even just laboring with Him in it, it's having the delight in it that He has.
"That verse in Jeremiah says, [24] But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
"God is saying, 'Don't glory in your wisdom, your money, your pomp and all the other stuff. Glory in this, that you know what I delight in!'
"In Hebrews 10, quoting Psalm 40, Jesus said, '[7] Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.'
"The psalmist says, 'I delight to do thy will.' When the Lord Jesus Christ came, He came delighting in what the Father's will was. The verse says, 'For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame.'
"You understand His will and then it consumes your heart and becomes the joy of your own heart. That's God's plan for Adam and for Eve.
"God designed for them to be the ruler of creation and He equipped man to do that. He gave him a world. I love chapter 2:1: '[1] Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.'
"God took Adam and Eve and placed them in a finished work. Do you know of another finished work? Calvary? He took you and me and put us in the finished work of His Son. That's a fascinating thing. It starts right there in chapter 2 of Genesis; God thinking about FINISHING a work."
(new article tomorrow)
[26] Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
[27] Neither give place to the devil.
[28] Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Jordan told the congregation, "We're going to be truth-tellers. We're going to speak the truth in love but it's going to be truth that we talk. We're going to take the doctrine of the truth of God's Word and that's what we're going to communicate because we're members one of another. We're going to live in truth.
"Verse 26 is not like what most people tell you. It's not saying, 'You know, if you get mad with your husband or wife, be sure to settle it before the day's over because you don't want to carry it into the next day.' That's a bunch of psychobabble, but that's not what the verse is talking about.
"Paul is saying, 'Don't quit being angry with sin. Don't sunset your anger at sin.' A 'sunset law' in the government says, 'It's going to end at a certain point; it only lasts for a certain time.' When you don't tolerate sin you're not going to be passive about it.
"In the next verse he says, 'Neither give place to the devil.' Don't let the devil have a place. Satan wants to attack your life, so frustrate him and don't give him a place in your life.
"Verse 28 means you're going to become a giver; a complete transformation of your attitude and lifestyle. All of a sudden, you're not just a truth-speaker and someone who doesn't put up with sin and seeks to frustrate the Adversary, you're going to live a life that expresses the giving nature and heart and thinking process of grace.
*****
"God's mandate to man is in Genesis 1:26: [26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
"If you're made in the image of God, you're going to be His representative, and if you're made in His likeness, you're going to be God-like, which is what godliness is. It's god-likeness.
"When you're like God, you understand why God created you, what creation is for, what's going on, and you're going to be able to labor WITH God in like manner. You're going to work like God would work.
"Godliness is not just knowing what God's doing, and it's not even just laboring with Him in it, it's having the delight in it that He has.
"That verse in Jeremiah says, [24] But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
"God is saying, 'Don't glory in your wisdom, your money, your pomp and all the other stuff. Glory in this, that you know what I delight in!'
"In Hebrews 10, quoting Psalm 40, Jesus said, '[7] Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.'
"The psalmist says, 'I delight to do thy will.' When the Lord Jesus Christ came, He came delighting in what the Father's will was. The verse says, 'For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame.'
"You understand His will and then it consumes your heart and becomes the joy of your own heart. That's God's plan for Adam and for Eve.
"God designed for them to be the ruler of creation and He equipped man to do that. He gave him a world. I love chapter 2:1: '[1] Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.'
"God took Adam and Eve and placed them in a finished work. Do you know of another finished work? Calvary? He took you and me and put us in the finished work of His Son. That's a fascinating thing. It starts right there in chapter 2 of Genesis; God thinking about FINISHING a work."
(new article tomorrow)
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Ours is a privilege like no others . . .
In the time of the Apostle Paul, the Greco-Roman world was one in which the literacy rate had reached a pinnacle in ancient history.
"Historians say the Roman civilization was based on the book and the register, meaning no one, either free or slave, could afford to be illiterate," says Jordan. "The written word was all around them both in public and private life. The republic amassed huge archives of reports on every aspect of public life. But when the Roman Empire fell, literacy became a fleeting thing.
"In the period called the Dark Ages, only about 30 percent of the population in Europe could read. They were the clergy or the wealthy who had time to do it and teach their kids.
"Imagine if you lived in say 1,000 A.D. and you didn't have a Bible because back then they were all handwritten. If you had one you couldn't read it. But the verse says, 'Study!' You think, 'Oh, geez, I need to apply my mind to the acquisition of knowledge by reading, but I can't read by investigation reflection or thinking deeply. I got to go find somebody to read it for me.'
*****
"If I told you I was going to send you to a remote island all by yourself where you're not going to see anybody for ten years and I want you to study God's Word, what books would you take with you as study aids? The King James Bible, an English dictionary, Strong's Concordance, a Bible dictionary, a few commentaries?
"Do you realize Strong's Concordance was first published in 1890? It's the first English concordance. In 1885, if you wanted to find a verse, you had to remember where it was. You ever do that? 'I know that verse is in here somewhere, where is it?'
"Nowadays everybody has an app on their phone for that. Do you understand you are a privileged group of people that in church history didn't exist!
"The printing press was introduced by Gutenberg in 1445. By the way, in 1437 there was a fleet of Chinese vessels that went up into the Mediterranean and delivered to Pope Edmond information from the Chinese emperor, part of which was printed books.
"The Chinese had developed the printing press long before. They had mapped the circumference of the planet. They developed latitude and longitude. That's the reason Columbus' Venetian mapmaker that everybody talks about, the map he had came from China.
"When the printing press was introduced in Europe in the 14th century, the time Wycliffe first translated the Bible, 80 percent of English adults couldn't spell their name. By the 17th century literacy went up to 60 percent and by the 18th century it was ubiquitous.
*****
"Do you know the first eyeglasses were introduced in the 1200s? Nero and Seneca in the First century were the first people in recorded history who talked about magnification, but it wasn't until the glass-blowing industry got going in the 11th and 12th century that they made looking stones, as they called them. The first glasses put in frames were in the 12th century.
"So, if you could get a Bible and you could read, you still couldn't see. In Galatians 6, when Paul says, 'You see what large a letter I've written you,' he wasn't talking about how long it was. Galatians is a short little book. He's talking about, 'I wrote this with my own hands and I wrote in big letters because I needed that to see.' If you write the letters big enough you can see them.
"Do you understand how privileged you are? It ought to humble you to understand. I was in Walmart the other day and bought a King James Bible with a nice cover on it for $9.95. Until 1450, if you had a Bible it had to be handwritten.
"Several years ago, a guy out of New York hand wrote the King James version. He wanted to figure out how long it would take to hand write it. It took him 4 years.
"Now, if you were in Wycliffe's day in the 14th century, and you had a Lombard Bible that Wycliffe translated into what was English at the time (English just began in the 1300s), you know how he did it? He didn't have a nice fountain pen with a big reservoir. He had a quill tip and he dipped it in ink.
"Before that they first started writing with chalk. Then they figured out how to add wax and graphite together. Then they added wax and color together for crayons. Before that, they chiseled it into rock. Can you imagine toting a Bible around chiseled in rock? well, you couldn't do it!
"Don't you see how privileged you are? You stick the thing under your arm, tote it home, throw it on the couch and don't think about it. Now, that guy with a felt-tip pen writes that Bible for four years. How many quills do you think he went through? Lots. And that's just to get one copy! How much is four years of your life worth, and if you had a copy by that means, do you think you'd be giving it away?!
*****
'I bought those Bibles at Walmart because we send them to prisoners. For 10 bucks we can provide a Bible to a prisoner. You think if it took me four years to write it I would send it to him? I wouldn't give it to you!
"Today you can research everything over the internet and never even leave your family room. Some days I don't even put on my shoes.
"We're privileged like no other age. We talked about those commentaries and stuff. Strong's Concordance was published in 1890. The first English American dictionary was published in 1828 by Noah Webster. The Bible was not finally put into English until 1611. What did you do before that when you wanted to know where a verse was?
"Do you understand the study aids you have?! The dictionaries, the information where people have studied, put it together, wrote it in a book, put it out there and you read it. Listen, sometime I'll study for hours and days to figure something out and i'll stand here behind the pulpit and teach it to you in 10 minutes and you've got it.
"It took me days and weeks sometime to figure it out and put it all together, but I can give it to you and you go, 'Woo-hoo, that's great, Brother Rick!' and go home. I don't get mad at you; I'm glad that you got it. You see, you benefit from the studying. That's what the ministry's all about.
*****
"Paul said, 'Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.'
"Look at all the privileges you and I have at our disposal that we didn't do anything to produce. The Body of Christ produced it, put them under our hands.
"We call this the Information Era, and it really is, but you see, it's that information that people need to hear. We need that humility of mind that comes from just appreciating what God has provided for us.
"You and I live in a time where the Body of Christ has produced truth, made it available. There ought to be no other course for your life or mine than to proclaim God's truth so that others can hear it.
"How can we just sit on it? How can we just take our laptop or notepad and turn it off and just leave it on the couch?
"We need that humbleness of mind, overwhelmed with the privilege you and I have of possessing God's Word in our own hands, and the tools to study it, and investigate it, and look at it, and examine it, and analyze it, and to think deeply and reflect about it. Paul says, 'Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding.'
"God help us not to just leave it on the table. 'To whom much is given much is required.' The thing that changed Paul's attitude was seeing all the abundance of what God had given for him in Christ.
"The thing that can give you the humility of mind grace produces is to take a moment and think about all the wonderful privileges God's given you in your life. I'm not talking about just in Christ; I'm talking about how it's impacted your life and then let that motivate you."
(new article tomorrow)
"Historians say the Roman civilization was based on the book and the register, meaning no one, either free or slave, could afford to be illiterate," says Jordan. "The written word was all around them both in public and private life. The republic amassed huge archives of reports on every aspect of public life. But when the Roman Empire fell, literacy became a fleeting thing.
"In the period called the Dark Ages, only about 30 percent of the population in Europe could read. They were the clergy or the wealthy who had time to do it and teach their kids.
"Imagine if you lived in say 1,000 A.D. and you didn't have a Bible because back then they were all handwritten. If you had one you couldn't read it. But the verse says, 'Study!' You think, 'Oh, geez, I need to apply my mind to the acquisition of knowledge by reading, but I can't read by investigation reflection or thinking deeply. I got to go find somebody to read it for me.'
*****
"If I told you I was going to send you to a remote island all by yourself where you're not going to see anybody for ten years and I want you to study God's Word, what books would you take with you as study aids? The King James Bible, an English dictionary, Strong's Concordance, a Bible dictionary, a few commentaries?
"Do you realize Strong's Concordance was first published in 1890? It's the first English concordance. In 1885, if you wanted to find a verse, you had to remember where it was. You ever do that? 'I know that verse is in here somewhere, where is it?'
"Nowadays everybody has an app on their phone for that. Do you understand you are a privileged group of people that in church history didn't exist!
"The printing press was introduced by Gutenberg in 1445. By the way, in 1437 there was a fleet of Chinese vessels that went up into the Mediterranean and delivered to Pope Edmond information from the Chinese emperor, part of which was printed books.
"The Chinese had developed the printing press long before. They had mapped the circumference of the planet. They developed latitude and longitude. That's the reason Columbus' Venetian mapmaker that everybody talks about, the map he had came from China.
"When the printing press was introduced in Europe in the 14th century, the time Wycliffe first translated the Bible, 80 percent of English adults couldn't spell their name. By the 17th century literacy went up to 60 percent and by the 18th century it was ubiquitous.
*****
"Do you know the first eyeglasses were introduced in the 1200s? Nero and Seneca in the First century were the first people in recorded history who talked about magnification, but it wasn't until the glass-blowing industry got going in the 11th and 12th century that they made looking stones, as they called them. The first glasses put in frames were in the 12th century.
"So, if you could get a Bible and you could read, you still couldn't see. In Galatians 6, when Paul says, 'You see what large a letter I've written you,' he wasn't talking about how long it was. Galatians is a short little book. He's talking about, 'I wrote this with my own hands and I wrote in big letters because I needed that to see.' If you write the letters big enough you can see them.
"Do you understand how privileged you are? It ought to humble you to understand. I was in Walmart the other day and bought a King James Bible with a nice cover on it for $9.95. Until 1450, if you had a Bible it had to be handwritten.
"Several years ago, a guy out of New York hand wrote the King James version. He wanted to figure out how long it would take to hand write it. It took him 4 years.
"Now, if you were in Wycliffe's day in the 14th century, and you had a Lombard Bible that Wycliffe translated into what was English at the time (English just began in the 1300s), you know how he did it? He didn't have a nice fountain pen with a big reservoir. He had a quill tip and he dipped it in ink.
"Before that they first started writing with chalk. Then they figured out how to add wax and graphite together. Then they added wax and color together for crayons. Before that, they chiseled it into rock. Can you imagine toting a Bible around chiseled in rock? well, you couldn't do it!
"Don't you see how privileged you are? You stick the thing under your arm, tote it home, throw it on the couch and don't think about it. Now, that guy with a felt-tip pen writes that Bible for four years. How many quills do you think he went through? Lots. And that's just to get one copy! How much is four years of your life worth, and if you had a copy by that means, do you think you'd be giving it away?!
*****
'I bought those Bibles at Walmart because we send them to prisoners. For 10 bucks we can provide a Bible to a prisoner. You think if it took me four years to write it I would send it to him? I wouldn't give it to you!
"Today you can research everything over the internet and never even leave your family room. Some days I don't even put on my shoes.
"We're privileged like no other age. We talked about those commentaries and stuff. Strong's Concordance was published in 1890. The first English American dictionary was published in 1828 by Noah Webster. The Bible was not finally put into English until 1611. What did you do before that when you wanted to know where a verse was?
"Do you understand the study aids you have?! The dictionaries, the information where people have studied, put it together, wrote it in a book, put it out there and you read it. Listen, sometime I'll study for hours and days to figure something out and i'll stand here behind the pulpit and teach it to you in 10 minutes and you've got it.
"It took me days and weeks sometime to figure it out and put it all together, but I can give it to you and you go, 'Woo-hoo, that's great, Brother Rick!' and go home. I don't get mad at you; I'm glad that you got it. You see, you benefit from the studying. That's what the ministry's all about.
*****
"Paul said, 'Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.'
"Look at all the privileges you and I have at our disposal that we didn't do anything to produce. The Body of Christ produced it, put them under our hands.
"We call this the Information Era, and it really is, but you see, it's that information that people need to hear. We need that humility of mind that comes from just appreciating what God has provided for us.
"You and I live in a time where the Body of Christ has produced truth, made it available. There ought to be no other course for your life or mine than to proclaim God's truth so that others can hear it.
"How can we just sit on it? How can we just take our laptop or notepad and turn it off and just leave it on the couch?
"We need that humbleness of mind, overwhelmed with the privilege you and I have of possessing God's Word in our own hands, and the tools to study it, and investigate it, and look at it, and examine it, and analyze it, and to think deeply and reflect about it. Paul says, 'Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding.'
"God help us not to just leave it on the table. 'To whom much is given much is required.' The thing that changed Paul's attitude was seeing all the abundance of what God had given for him in Christ.
"The thing that can give you the humility of mind grace produces is to take a moment and think about all the wonderful privileges God's given you in your life. I'm not talking about just in Christ; I'm talking about how it's impacted your life and then let that motivate you."
(new article tomorrow)
Friday, July 5, 2019
Pipelines for undeserved privilege
Paul begins I Corinthians 4 with, [1] Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
[2] Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
Jordan explains, "A steward is not the owner, not the boss; he's a servant who, faithful to what the Master says, takes the Word to others: 'I'm just the guy handing out the stuff.'
"I Thessalonians 2:4 says, [4] But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.
"Notice we were allowed of God. That's saying, 'I've been given by God this undeserved privilege to preach this.' He's taken His goods and entrusted them to me. I then give them out as a wise steward. I'm just a minister. I'm just the pipeline. I'm not the issue; He's the issue! The message is the issue!
"Paul writes in Ephesians 3: [7] Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
[8] Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
"That word unsearchable means untraceable. When you can't trace something you can't search it out. It's too deep, it's too broad. He says it 'passeth understanding.' You can't get your mind around it. Paul prays that you would comprehend it because it's just so big.
"Paul recognizes, 'I've got this message and I've been given the privilege of preaching it,' and that changed his whole thinking process.
"In Acts 20, Paul says, 'Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
[19] Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
[20] And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
[21] Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
"He talks about that lowliness of mind in Ephesians 4: [1] I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
[2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
"Humility and lowliness means not thinking you're something you're not. How do you do that? You look at the greatness of what God's done. It's THAT mental attitude that humbled Paul.
*****
"I want you to think for a moment and consider how privileged we are and think about some of the things we take for granted.
"I Corinthians 8 says:[1] Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
[2] And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
"II Timothy 2:15 says, [15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
"The word study means 'the application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge as by reading, investigation or reflection; to research, or a detailed examination and analysis of a subject.' The verb form is 'to apply oneself to the acquisition of knowledge; to endeavor, to think deeply, to reflect, to consider.'
"If you look at Ephesians 3:4 ('Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ') and I Thessalonians 5:27 ('I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren'), there's an issue of taking God's Word and reading God's Word and considering God's Word and thinking about God's Word.
"Romans 10:17-18 says, [17] So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
[18] But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
"You notice it didn't say faith comes by reading? How in the world has their sound gone into all the world and their words unto the ends of the world? How did that happen? Well, that's a quote from Psalm 19 where he talks about 'the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.'
"There's not a language where the testimony of God's reality isn't made through His Creation. That's why when you talk to an atheist you don't have to argue about God. Everybody knows there's a God. You can't live in creation and not know there's a creator. Creation witnesses and your conscious witnesses. God fixed you that way.
"Romans 10:14-15 says, [14] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
[15] And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
"There's a process that brings faith to people. There's a sending and a preaching and a hearing and a believing. It was heard because it was preached, because someone was sent. It starts with the possession of His word, but it also starts with taking that Word and preaching it. Being a minister, putting it out there--the heralding of it and the hearing of it creates faith in what's said."
(to be continued tomorrow...)
[2] Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
Jordan explains, "A steward is not the owner, not the boss; he's a servant who, faithful to what the Master says, takes the Word to others: 'I'm just the guy handing out the stuff.'
"I Thessalonians 2:4 says, [4] But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.
"Notice we were allowed of God. That's saying, 'I've been given by God this undeserved privilege to preach this.' He's taken His goods and entrusted them to me. I then give them out as a wise steward. I'm just a minister. I'm just the pipeline. I'm not the issue; He's the issue! The message is the issue!
"Paul writes in Ephesians 3: [7] Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
[8] Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
"That word unsearchable means untraceable. When you can't trace something you can't search it out. It's too deep, it's too broad. He says it 'passeth understanding.' You can't get your mind around it. Paul prays that you would comprehend it because it's just so big.
"Paul recognizes, 'I've got this message and I've been given the privilege of preaching it,' and that changed his whole thinking process.
"In Acts 20, Paul says, 'Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
[19] Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
[20] And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
[21] Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
"He talks about that lowliness of mind in Ephesians 4: [1] I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
[2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
"Humility and lowliness means not thinking you're something you're not. How do you do that? You look at the greatness of what God's done. It's THAT mental attitude that humbled Paul.
*****
"I want you to think for a moment and consider how privileged we are and think about some of the things we take for granted.
"I Corinthians 8 says:[1] Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
[2] And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
"II Timothy 2:15 says, [15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
"The word study means 'the application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge as by reading, investigation or reflection; to research, or a detailed examination and analysis of a subject.' The verb form is 'to apply oneself to the acquisition of knowledge; to endeavor, to think deeply, to reflect, to consider.'
"If you look at Ephesians 3:4 ('Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ') and I Thessalonians 5:27 ('I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren'), there's an issue of taking God's Word and reading God's Word and considering God's Word and thinking about God's Word.
"Romans 10:17-18 says, [17] So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
[18] But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
"You notice it didn't say faith comes by reading? How in the world has their sound gone into all the world and their words unto the ends of the world? How did that happen? Well, that's a quote from Psalm 19 where he talks about 'the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.'
"There's not a language where the testimony of God's reality isn't made through His Creation. That's why when you talk to an atheist you don't have to argue about God. Everybody knows there's a God. You can't live in creation and not know there's a creator. Creation witnesses and your conscious witnesses. God fixed you that way.
"Romans 10:14-15 says, [14] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
[15] And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
"There's a process that brings faith to people. There's a sending and a preaching and a hearing and a believing. It was heard because it was preached, because someone was sent. It starts with the possession of His word, but it also starts with taking that Word and preaching it. Being a minister, putting it out there--the heralding of it and the hearing of it creates faith in what's said."
(to be continued tomorrow...)
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
World itself could not contain the books...
Psalm 139:16 is a verse that would have puzzled people until the '70s and '80s.
“There’s something Satan didn’t see studying man from his beginning as he did. What he was looking for was, ‘How’s God going to use man to beat me?’ He’s looking for any hidden danger in man, any potential in man to defeat him and he looks, observes, but he can only see the physical.
Describing the creation of man, David says to God, "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."
Jordan explains, “DNA is not a random sequencing of stuff; it’s a genetic package that’s in your chromosomes that is a 'book' of your life, pre-written the moment of your conception. David knew that 3,000 years ago. Modern science figured it out 50 years ago. Stick with your Bible; you’ll be way ahead of life.
“You see how he says 'my substance was yet unperfect, but in this book you wrote’?
Jordan explains, “DNA is not a random sequencing of stuff; it’s a genetic package that’s in your chromosomes that is a 'book' of your life, pre-written the moment of your conception. David knew that 3,000 years ago. Modern science figured it out 50 years ago. Stick with your Bible; you’ll be way ahead of life.
“You see how he says 'my substance was yet unperfect, but in this book you wrote’?
“When you read that expression ‘thy book,’ and you see here it’s talking about David’s genetic coding, well, God wrote another book, didn’t He?
“Isaiah 34:16 says, ‘Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read.’ Where’s the book of the Lord? That’s the Bible. So not only did God have this book of DNA He wrote, He wrote a book called the Bible.
*****
*****
“They discovered DNA in the 1950s, but they began to understand how to operate it and read it in the ’70s and ’80s. DNA is the basic building block of our life and it’s WRITTEN.
“When David says ‘thy book,’ DNA literally is written like a book. At first they thought it was just a bunch of trash, but now we know DNA has letters that make words that form sentences. There are periods, stops and paragraph marks.
“It literally has letters that make words that make sentences that tell a story and everything you are—the color of your eyes, the color of your hairs, the look of your hand . . .
“Your mom’s 23 chromosomes joined with your dad’s 23 chromosomes to make the 46 chromosomes that made you, and when you were conceived, all of the identity, the genetics of who you are, what you’re going to look like, was determined right there. Everything else is just letting it grow, letting it come out, doing just what that verse in Psalm 139 says.
*****
“Your mom’s 23 chromosomes joined with your dad’s 23 chromosomes to make the 46 chromosomes that made you, and when you were conceived, all of the identity, the genetics of who you are, what you’re going to look like, was determined right there. Everything else is just letting it grow, letting it come out, doing just what that verse in Psalm 139 says.
*****
“There’s something Satan didn’t see studying man from his beginning as he did. What he was looking for was, ‘How’s God going to use man to beat me?’ He’s looking for any hidden danger in man, any potential in man to defeat him and he looks, observes, but he can only see the physical.
“What Satan’s trying to counterfeit and duplicate is this. In Psalm 139:15, David is describing our creation. He writes to God, ‘My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.’
"He’s talking about how we were made out of dirt. You’re not a real high-class cut of meat. 'From dust thou art and dust thou shalt return.' You're of the earth earthy. Listen, there’s more valuable minerals in my cell phone than there is in your body.
“But notice something else happened: ‘I was made in secret.’ David understood that the real him was that soul. You could see the body, you could see the spirit but it's I, the part of me that can never be shared with anybody else, that is my soul. So there’s a secret part of him that was made by God. Even though our physical part isn't very valuable, that part is!
*****
*****
“Now, there’s an interesting comparison all through the Scripture between the book He wrote and your DNA and the Book He wrote called the Bible.
“As we learn from Psalm 139:16, that DNA is a book of your life. You know what the Bible’s called? Philippians 2:16 says, ‘Holding forth the word of life.’ What’s that? That’s that Book. Philippians 4:3 talks about those ‘whose names are in the book of life.’
“You know why it’s important to have your name in the Book of Life? Revelation 20:15 says that people standing at the White Throne Judgment to see whether they’re going to be cast in the 'lake of fire' or not, everybody’s name that is not written in the Book of Life gets cast into that lake.
“It’d be an advantage of have your name in the Book of Life, wouldn’t it? You have to have the life that that Book of Life gives you and that life is Jesus Christ, who said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ Jesus told his apostles in John 6:63, ‘The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.’
“The Book of Life is a LIVING word of the living God, and that written word puts you in connection with the LIVING Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. So there’s going to be a connection between the structure of your existence, the way God made you in the DNA, and His Word and the Lord Jesus Christ.
*****
“When you study DNA, you’re studying a science called genetics. When you study genetics, Genesis is a book of genetics, beginnings. Genesis 5:1 says, ‘This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.’ The verse is saying, ‘Here’s the genetic coding structure of Adam’s descendants.’
“You see that phrase, ‘this is the book’? That’s the first time that term ‘book’ occurs and it occurs in connection with the encoding of what Adam’s descendants are going to be about.
“By the way, if you look at verses 30-32, you learn Genesis 5 starts with Adam and goes to Noah, the 10th from Adam. When you take a DNA structure, it has two panels; two side posts. It’s like a ladder and there are 10 strands that make up the DNA package. It just happens that in ‘the book of the generations,’ in the genetic structure of Adam, there are 10 generations there.
“I’m trying to get you to see that there’s a connection between the physical creation and the spiritual creation.
“Luke 8:11 says, ‘Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.’ What’s in a seed? It’s the DNA, or genetic coding, of a plant. And the seed is the Word of God. You see the connection between the two?
“Now, with ‘the book of the generations of Adam,’ you have the seed. This Book that God wrote, that book David calls ‘thy book,’ it was written in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew language has 22 letters. DNA has 22 amino acids that make up the words that make up the DNA. Your New Testament, the second half of the book, is written in the Greek language, which has 44 letters.
*****
“By the way, you have 22 chromosomes in your cells. The 23rd chromosome is the one that determines whether you are a male or female. In a female, it’s called XX. In a male, you’re an X and a Y. What’s the difference between those two things? One rib is taken out. Now you know something about Genesis 2 that you didn’t know before.
“The way you make one flesh is by taking the combined 46 chromosomes and there you are. That’s described for you in Genesis 2:23: ‘And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ You become one flesh in the 23 and 23 becoming 46 in your children.
“If you sat down and took Genesis 2: 23-24 and counted the words in Adam’s quote, you’ll find there are 46 words. In the quote in your Bible that tells you about being one flesh, it just happens to have the right number of words that that one flesh produces.
“In chapter three, if you go through the first five verses and count the number of words Satan speaks to Eve, you get 46. The Bible says in Romans 5:12 that ‘by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin.’ The way Satan enticed Adam and Eve into sin, and into producing an offspring who are genetically, physically and spiritually contaminated by sin, He only used 46 words.
“Romans 1:28 says, ‘And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.’ God lists 23 specific things that life and culture will be filled with when people don’t want to retain God in their knowledge. In verse 32, it says that people who do those things are worthy of death.
“You go into that culture, you don’t need to call a sociologist or a politician to tell you where it came from; that verse told you 2,000 years ago! You see, this stuff’s been written in the encoding of our being.
*****
“When you trust Christ as your Savior, there’s a miraculous thing that happens in your spiritual DNA. Colossians 3:11 says, ‘Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.’
“In every Believer, Jesus Christ has come to be our life, not be some entity that floats around in you. Verse 16 says the Word of Christ literally DWELLS in your spiritual life, in your soul.
“How this happens is in I Peter 1:23 says, ‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.’
“What does it mean to be ‘born again’? Jesus defined the new birth in John 3:6 when he talks to Nicodemus he says, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’
“That’s fleshly DNA. So just like your physical birth produces life, your spiritual birth produces life. Just like there’s a combining of the 23 and 23 into a new creature here, there’s a spiritual union that your spirit has with the spirit of God. Verse 23 says it’s by the Word of God. There’s the spiritual DNA that gets implanted into your spirit that produces this new life.
“James 1:21 says, ‘Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.’
“What He does is He literally grafts into your spiritual DNA Jesus Christ’s life. How does He do that? By His Word: ‘Because the words I speak unto you there are spirit and they are life.’ You and I literally have the spiritual DNA of the life of Christ engrafted into our inner man and we are begotten, given life, by the gospel. That’s why there’s a comparison.
*****
“Now, Satan looked at man and all he saw was the physical, so he missed the real source of God’s life. If all you look at is the physical, you don’t really see the real Church the Body of Christ. Where’s the real life of God today? It’s not in the outward. Jesus told the apostles, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and the physical will be added.’
“That’s always the way it is. Paul says ‘the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, joy and peace and the Holy Ghost. It’s always the spiritual first that then lives itself out. The real genuine working of truth, the Body of Christ is a spiritual body of Believers.
“That’s why ordinances, rites and doing this and that won’t help you. It has to be a supernatural transaction that God accomplishes in your inner man when He implants and engrafts His word into your spirit because you believe it.
“I Thessalonians 2:13 says, ‘For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.’
“The real genuine working of truth is in the inside by His Word working.
“Satan’s trying to counterfeit that. He’s trying to join together God and the earth by physical means; by genetic manipulation. God wrote a DNA code and man’s trying to read it and rewrite it. God wrote a spiritual DNA and man reads it and tries to rewrite it. You need to understand where your spiritual life is and let it make the choices for you."
“Your body is equally divided into two parts by your spine, right down your back. One side of you will be stronger than the other. For a left-hander, his left side is stronger than his right.
“You know how many bones are in your spine? 33. How many books are there in the Bible? 66 books. The Bible’s divided into what we call the Old and New testaments, but the real way to divide the Bible is between prophecy and mystery. You’re really dividing it between law and grace ‘and what the law couldn’t do because it was weak . . .’ There’s a weak side and ‘you can be strong in the grace that’s in Christ Jesus.’ See how that kind of thing works out there?
“Half of 66 is 33, so your Bible’s going to have a spine through it. There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible. Half of that is 594.5. That means you’d have 594 chapters before that one and 594 after and that’s going to be the middle chapter, which is Psalm 117 (the middle verse is Psalm 103).
“How many parts does that Psalm have? You see any others that have just two verses? How many parts are there to a spine? Two. If you counted the number of words in that Psalm, there are 33. divided into two parts. It has to do with your back.
“When I think about that, I think about Moses. He told the Lord, ‘I want to see your glory. Show me your face.’ God said, ‘You can’t see my face and live, but I’ll let you see my backside,’ and He went by him and Moses saw God’s back side.
“You know where that’s at? Exodus 33. Moses wanted to see God’s face. Your face is part of your skull. You know how many bones are in your skull? 22. The No. 22 in the Bible is the number that talks about revelation, knowledge, showing forth something.
“By the way, you need to be careful when people come along and say, ‘Well, it doesn’t really matter how these verses are translated,’ because what I’m telling you is only going to be true in a King James Bible.
*****
“John 19:17 says, ‘And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.’
“What was happening at Calvary? God was in Christ reconciling the world. If you want to see God revealed, where would you really look? If you want to see the love of God, where do you look? God commended His love toward us that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for you--at the place of a skull; a place of God revealing Himself. There’s something in your DNA that compares to what God’s doing over here in His Word.
“Again, the number 22 in the Bible is associated over and over again with making things known; revealing things with knowledge being made known.
“Revelation 22:3-4 says, [3] And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
[4] And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
[4] And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
“Where are they going to see His face? It’s going to be in chapter 22 of the Book of Revelation.
*****
“It just so happens that I Corinthians is the 46th book of the Bible. It just so happens to quote that verse in Genesis 2 about one flesh. I Corinthians 6:16 says, ‘What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.’
“The problem is Believers shouldn’t be joined to the harlot so in verse 19 he says, ‘What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.’ So the temple and your body, it’s the dwelling place of God.
“You go back in the Old Testament and God had a temple that He dwelt in. That temple in the Old Testament is a picture of your body. Before Solomon built the temple, God gave Israel a tabernacle which was a temple made out of skin.
“When God told Solomon how to build that tabernacle, He gave him a pattern and said it was going to be a tent, and He said on the north side He wanted 20 boards, and 20 boards on the south side. On the back were to be six. That adds up to 46 boards holding up the tent.
“He said to ‘make it like I made the pattern in the heavens.’ My point is, there’s a repetition going on here. You see how that structure works? He wrote up there, He wrote it here, then He wrote it in YOU!
“Repetition is the first law of pedagogy. You say it over and over and over again and pretty soon it gets in between that mush in your ears and sinks in.
*****
“I Kings 7:21 says, ‘And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and he called the name thereof Boaz.’
“In the temple, Solomon’s going to be put a pillar on each side of the entrance. If you read the text, you know how high each one of those things are? 23 cubits high. That’s just fascinating.
“In the structure of DNA you have two pillars, two panels. Those two panels are made out of sugar phosphate.
“In Revelation 10, John says he ‘took the book and ate it and it was sweet.’ Sugar is sweet. Phosphate gives light. ‘The entrance of thy word giveth light.’
“In DNA, the ladder up is a twisting one. It’s a spiraling staircase. Every 10th spiral you get a period and start a new one, so you have that panel of DNA but it’s got those two pillars on the side and the 10 spirals of a ladder on the inside.
“I Kings 6:7 says, ‘And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.’
“I Peter 2 says that Israel’s made with lively stones, talking about the members. Verse 8 says, ‘And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.’
“So they’ve got a staircase, a ladder, but it’s not just a straight ladder. By the way, in Genesis 28, you read about Jacob’s ladder. The top is in heaven, the bottom’s on the earth. The ladder’s designed to bring heaven and earth together. Who does that ladder represent? In John 1:51, Jesus said, ‘That ladder represents me. I’m the one going to bring heaven and earth together under God’s authority.’
“You see, there’s a connection between your DNA, that Book and the Lord Jesus Christ. The thing that God wrote in creation reflects what He’s done spiritually in His Word.
*****
“God wrote with His finger the 10 Commandments. By the way, He wrote them on two stones.
“Romans 2:14 says, ‘For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.’ Any culture you go into, anywhere on the planet, no matter what the level of sophistication is, they all know it’s wrong to murder. They all know it’s wrong to steal, lie. That’s something written into the spiritual DNA of every person. The problem isn’t that they don’t know it; they know it’s WRONG. God fixed you with His Word written into your spiritual DNA.
“Verse 15 says, ‘Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.’ You don’t know these things because of man’s law; you know them because of God’s law and God’s Word. The problem is they hold it in unrighteousness."
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