'Right now!' attitude

For Believers, the knowledge of what we have as our inheritance is the motivator to endure the pressures of this present time. The sufferings in this world simply aren’t worthy of even being considered with the glories that are ours in Christ.

“If you understand your sonship position in Christ, and the fact that you’ve been made an heir of God--but not just that, a joint-heir with Christ—you know everything that belongs to Him belongs to you,” says Jordan. “That’s what’s called ‘co-per stirpes’ in legal jargon. It’s to have equal shares. Everything that Jesus Christ inherited from God the Father, we inherit. Whee, doggy! Occupy your mind with that! Be stabilized by that.

“Paul is saying, ‘Your understanding NOW of your sonship position isn’t just all this pie-in-the-sky-bye- and-bye, that life is yours right now and it affects your walk right now.

“Do you know if you go out and serve the Lord what’s going to happen? ‘Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.’ You begin to get rebuffs, Satan comes against you, the religious system comes against you, the world system, your friends, your relatives, your neighbors.

“Everybody comes against you and tries to make you feel ashamed and dirty for serving the Lord; for not being under the law system, not being under the legalism.

“He says, ‘Hey, that’s no big deal.’ In the passage here, you begin to suffer pain, you get sick, your old body wears out. What do you begin to do? Are you going to begin to cry and moan and squall? That’s what the average Believer does.

“Listen, God Almighty expects you and me to live in light of who we are! And Paul says when you begin to realize just who you are, he said, ‘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.’

“That’s a mental-attitude dynamic. I have a mental attitude. He said, ‘Hey, man, I understand some things about who God’s made me in Christ!’

“Paul says, ‘Here’s the way I look at it. When you keep that eternal glory out there in front of yourself, and that privilege of sonship position and joint-heirship with Christ, here’s what it does. It lets you look at this over here and you say, ‘This light affliction is but for a moment. And it works a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ He said, ‘This thing down here it isn’t even worth talking about! Let’s talk about that up there! We don’t want to talk about this and that in the same breath!’

“You listen to me, God Almighty wants tough sons. You write that down, would you please. God Almighty expects us to be tough and He’s fixed it so we can be!

“Hey, folks, it doesn’t mean that when you stump your toe and you go crying to the Lord, it doesn’t mean He’s mad at you. It doesn’t mean He won’t listen. But God has equipped us to be grown-up Believers. Recognize who it is God’s made you, and who you are, and live consistent with that.

“Endure hardness. He didn’t say it’s all going to be lace pants and sunshine. He said, in order to get the job done that I put you here for in that Body of Christ, be tough! Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

“You know what a soldier does? When the ol’ enemy comes along and takes a pot shot at him does he go squalling back to the battalion leader? Why somebody would kick him in the seat of the pants or lock him up on a Section 8. What does he do? He shoots back! You expect a soldier to be able to endure hardness.

“Talk’s cheap, gentlemen. Talk’s cheap. Easy to say that and ain’t so easy to do it and live it and walk in it unless you’re strong in the grace that’s in Christ Jesus.

“How do you do it? Well, here’s an example. Hebrews 12: ‘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.’

“You know something, fellows, in your ministry, you don’t have to fear poverty, you don’t have to fear war, you don’t’ have to fear the government, you don’t have to fear the congregation, you don’t have to fear relatives and in-laws. You don’t have to fear but one thing and that’s sin.

“The only thing you need to fear is sin. I hope that will sink into your head. ‘The sin which doth so easily beset us.’ That’s the one that comes along so innocently looking like it might be so easy.

“You can’t run with patience with that sin out there. You see, it messes you up. What you’re doing is you’re messing yourself up.

“If you want to endure the sufferings you do what Christ did. He kept some information in His mind at all times that allowed Him, and helped Him, and motivated Him and empowered Him to endure.

“Romans 8:19: ‘For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.’

“The idea there is it’s like a kid with his head stuck out the window looking for his daddy to come home. He’s eagerly anticipating. In other words, creation out here is waiting for what? Man, it’s waiting for the time the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and we’re put in the heavenly positions up there . . . He comes back to the earth, sets up His kingdom on the earth and then the whole shooting match out here is brought under the headship of Jesus Christ and is liberated.

“The globe out here, the whole universe, is waiting for the time the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and take up His inheritance which, as you recall from Hebrews 1, has to do with universal dominion over the heavens and the earth.”

 

 

 

 

Owning His as King

There’s only one time the term Calvary appears in Scripture and it’s in Luke 23:33: “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.”

Jordan says, “We sing that song that goes, ‘Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified at Calvary.’ That’s a term that in Christian parlance is the essence of the gospel.

“Do you know that term’s not found in any of the new Bibles? It’s completely taken out of all the English Bibles after 1881. They say, ‘Well, it’s a bad translation because it should say the skull.’ Well, notice John 19:17: ‘And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.’

“Golgotha is the Hebrew term that means the skull. Calvary is a Latin term that means the same thing. It’s a perfectly good translation, and the fact that you can translate it and it be legitimate, John 19 tells you that.

“Over and over Luke crafts his gospel to point to Christ, not simply as Israel’s Messiah, but Israel’s Messiah through whom all the nations of the earth are going to blessed. So it’s not surprising that Luke would have a term that would focus on the Latin.

“Why that gets to be important is in the next two verses: ‘Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
[19] And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.’

“All three languages have ‘This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.’ It’s written over His head so that everybody can see it. It’s written for all of mankind to see: ‘Here He is.’

“God is the God who invented languages. He never confined His Word to only one. He designed it to be available in the language of the nations and this is an illustration of that.

“Isaiah 53:9 says, ‘And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.’ Verse 12 goes on, ‘Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.’

“In His death He’s going to die and He’s going to be identified with the rich and with the wicked. He dies between two thieves, numbered with the transgressors, and outcast with the malefactors on either side.

“Before the evening’s over, He’s buried in a rich man’s tomb. Just little details like that dovetail in with what the Scriptures say.

“Psalm 22. Crucifixion was invented originally by the Phoenicians and it was taken over by the Romans who loved the viciousness of it, but that was centuries after David wrote these words. Verse 2 says, ‘O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.’

“Here is literally a glimpse into the mind and the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ when He’s hanging on Calvary. And it extends all the way down to verse 21. You notice verse 18: ‘They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.’

“When you’re reading in John, you’re reading events that are compressed together, that contain all of these various sundry passages.

“Pilate wrote a title and put it on the Cross. Luke 23:38 says, ‘And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.’

“There’s an argument about what did the Cross look like? There’s a thing called ‘St. Stephens Cross’ and it looks like an ‘X.’ Then there’s the cross the way we usually draw it and it looks like a ‘T.’ Then there’s some people who say it’s just a stake with no crossbar at all. His hands were just nailed and He hung down.

“Well, when he says there a superscription placed over His head that helps you kind of get an idea what the Cross must have looked like. Because if it was on a stake with His hands up here like this it would be hard to have a superscription where His hands were. With an ‘X’ there’s nothing over His head to put a superscription.

“Like many cowards, Pilate had a vindictive streak in him and he took every cheap shop he could, and then if he had a shot that wasn’t a cheap shot, he took it in spades. And that’s what he does when he adds in ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ because it was embarrassing enough to call Him the ‘king of the Jews,’ but to say He’s from Nazareth. In Israel’s thinking, that was a reprehensible cheap shot. A mean kind of a thing to do. It was scorned and it was a not so subtle shot at Pilate at the Jews.

“For example, John 1:46 says, ‘And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.’ He said, ‘You got to be kidding. There is nothing good that comes out of Nazareth. That’s a scorn; that’s a putdown.’

“That’s the reputation it had. Every city has a part of town like that. ‘He comes from the wrong side of the tracks, dude. You know nothing good comes out of that crowd over there. Bunch of rejects; in fact that’s what the name means.’

“So when Pilate put that up there it’s really prophetic because what had they just done to their king? You see, all those Jews came into town for the Passover. Acts 2:5 says, ‘And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.’ Verse 8 says, ‘And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?’

“Look at all the different tongues in verses 9-12. All those different languages of the Jews that were there in Jerusalem to worship! They were there for Passover!

“They go out of the city, they see these crucifixions, and they see this big placard: ‘This is Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.’ It isn’t just the Jews in Jerusalem getting this; now the Jews are the whole nation spread across the world getting this message about who He is!

“So verse 21 says, ‘Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.’

“They said, ‘Write not.’ You see they knew they were crucifying one who said He was king of the Jews; one who in plain terms had offered himself as the Messiah, the King of Israel, and then been rejected by Israel.

 

“Pilate understood who He was; he said He was the innocent one. Three times Pilate calls him the innocent man, the just man. Pilate knew who He was.

 

“And they say, ‘Write that he said,’ and Pilate grew a backbone. Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I’ve written.’ Now, that’s a little late to get a backbone but that stubborn stance demonstrates the sovereignty of God.

“The question is often asked, ‘Where did that thief on the Cross come up with the idea that Jesus was a king and going to have a kingdom?’ Perhaps it was the inscription that was the source for the conversion of that thief.

“The Roman soldier would watch Jesus die and say, ‘Surely this is the Son of God,’ out of nothing except watching the way He died. And that thief watching the mocking crowd saw what was happening in the Savior as He died. He sees the inscription over His head. I can’t prove that but that when Pilate left it there. the result was that that thief was converted and his conversion was a statement of faith in the message on that inscription.”

 

 

Outlaws in the right

Pilate delivers Jesus to be crucified. “That’s an interesting thing,” says Jordan, “because, when you read that, you think Pilate’s doing that on his own, but if you go to Luke 23 it says, ‘And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.’

“Pilate was doing it in reaction to and as the requirement of the Jews. That’s why in Acts 2 Peter would say to the leaders of Israel, ‘Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.’

“Well, they didn’t physically do it. The people who drove the nails in the hands of Jesus Christ were Romans. You need to remember that when you hear people talk about Romanism.

“There’s a lot of motivations behind it all. The Jews want Him dead; Pilate sentences Him.

“There’s a lot of discussion about what’s right, and our rights, and what we have a right to do and, ‘You have no right to treat me that way,’ and people have no right to do this or that or the next thing.

“Read Psalm 94. Here’s a Jew calling out to God to show vengeance against His enemies. Verse 20 says, ‘Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?’

“I read that I say, ‘Wow, they’ve got wicked laws on the books. They framed mischief by laws. They pass laws that produce mischief in reality.’ Ever see a law like that? We see a lot of them around today.

“The next verse says, ‘They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.’ It’s a fascinating world we live in. That same attitude prevails in our day.

“In the last two decades, that kind of a framing mischief by law has taken control of the culture of western civilization and it’s taking control of the culture of America, and you now have mandates that are the law of the land, that really are nothing but the framing of mischief and iniquity.

“You’ve got cultural mandates that allow a young woman at the Olympics to stand up and just make the comment that she’s a virgin and what happens to her?

“She was mocked by the media for being out of touch: ‘How can you be 29 years old and still follow . . .?’ Then you have the young teenager who won a gold medal and she gives the Lord glory for everything and it rankles them.

“Now you have the same crowd win the gold medals and they can be sluts and harlots and they’re glorified. The media touts them. Those are not just attitudes but those have become the accepted norms of our culture. It’s almost as if you’re an outlaw if you’re going to be different than that.

“Psalm 94 is a Jew during the tribulation period but also it’s what’s happening back here.  Now before you get too bent out of shape about it happening to you, whether it’s in your personal relationships where people are unjust to you and you’re made to endure those kind of things, or it’s a cultural kind of thing like this where it’s the government, understand the Lord Jesus Christ had the same type thing happen to Him. The difference is He had no deserving of it.

“Isaiah 53:7 says, ‘He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.’

“Isaiah says he was taken from prison, then he’s going to be taken to the judgment and from the judgment he’s going to be taken to death. The normal order of trials and execution aren’t going to be followed and the pattern in Isaiah is he’s taken from prison, then he’s taken from judgment and then to death.

“What happens in John 19? Prison, judgment, death. They don’t know anything about the prophecy or the type. They’re not thinking about that at all. In the blindness of their unbelief they’re fulfilling what the Scripture said was going to take place. Every detail of what happens in this passage it’s crafted in such a way that what God said in time past about what was happening comes to pass.

“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.’  You go back to Exodus 29 and you’ll see that God said the burnt offering is to be sent forth out of the camp. It’s not to be offered in the city. It’s to go forth outside of the camp to be offered.

“Hebrews 13 said it took him OUTSIDE the camp. They’re not doing it because they want to fulfill the Levitical laws; they’re doing it because of their hatred and their anger, and yet God uses the wrath of men to praise Him and do it exactly the way He said they would do it.

“Genesis 22:2 says, ‘And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.’

“God gave this place a prophetic name called the mountain of the Lord and that name, if you go over into Solomon’s reign, when Solomon picks a place to build the temple in II Chronicles 3, he builds it on that mountain where Abraham offers Isaac. Isn’t that fascinating? Right outside of the city of Jerusalem, as far back as Gen 22, on the same location where later on the Lord Jesus Christ is going to go out and be crucified, he’s offering Isaac!

“Verse 3 says, ‘And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.’

“Abraham knows he’s going to go there, he’s going to sacrifice His Son, and he and the lad are going to come back. Abraham believed in resurrection. ‘And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.’

“Who carried the wood for the offering fire up the hill? It was on the back of Isaac. So when the Lord Jesus Christ here is to be crucified, ‘bearing His cross he went forth’ outside the camp to the very spot where Abraham’s going to offer Isaac, He goes forth to take the burnt offering.”

(Editor’s note: To be continued tomorrow . . . )

 

Goin' South . . .

I watched an old conference tape from 1996 held in Florida, sponsored by all the grace churches down there.

A preacher who I wish I had been able to know is Darryl Mefford. He died in 2004 of a sudden illness. He was only in his late 30s.

In this particular conference, focused on prayer, he said, “Every person born into this world has within themselves an internal witness to the fact that there is a God. Everybody has that understanding. Folks run around and say that they’re atheists and they’re this thing and they’re that thing but all they’re doin’ is lying. They’re lying to you and they’re lying to themselves. Everybody has that internal witness and they know this. God has put it inside of every man and they know this. They know there is a God, but you see what they do with that truth is verse 18: ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.’

“They take the truth and they suppress it. They take the truth and they bury it and they push it aside and they don’t want to hear it and they don’t want to recognize it.

“As you look out into the creation you clearly have a witness, a testimony from God Almighty that He’s there and that He’s the Creator and men know this as they look out and they see the creation and they view it.

“I like to tell people all the time; Hank Williams Jr. has got that song, ‘If heaven ain’t a lot like Dixie than I don’t want to go.’ Somebody said the other day, ‘I never been to Tennessee,’ and I said, ‘You saved the best for last, ain’t you?’ When folks from Florida come to Tennessee they want to move there.

“You look out at the beautiful creation that God has made and you see a testimony of Himself to man and men know this, but what men do is they suppress it, and they hide it, and they develop all kinds of systems and things to suppress this knowledge that they know, and to put it aside and not have to think about it and not have to recognize God but you notice He says, ‘So they’re without excuse.’

“Folks think that them there over in Africa and places like that; they’re these innocent things but you know, folks, they’re not innocent, they’re not without excuse. They have this witness within themselves-- they have that external witness. They know there’s a God but they suppress that truth and hold within unrighteousness.

“He says, ‘Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.’

“They know God. They know Him. They become vain in their imaginations, in their thinking, in their thoughts and ideals. They become vain and that’s what always happens when you reject truth.

“When light is given--and God gives light and men reject it--then they’re going to stumble into darkness. That’s always the result.  Notice their foolish heart is darkened and they change God ‘into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.’

“They live their life in the vanity of their mind. That’s those vain imaginations . . .  Folks, that sword of the Spirit you’ve got there will go into men’s hearts and will cast down those imaginations and will open their hearts and cause them to understand! It will cause them to understand their lost estate and show them the Savior who loved them and went to the Cross of Calvary and suffered and died and fully paid their sin debt and offers them a free gift.”

Epiphany 'on the Riviera'

Just got back from my second oral surgery in a month. The surgeon pretty much sliced open the deepest part of left lower mouth and gutted it out to insert bone from some stranger. It's called a bone graft. I had no idea it would be so invasive and INTENSE! The surgery was an hour from start to finish!!!  He must have put 15-20 stitches in!!! He re-shot me with Novocain a half-dozen times during the procedure!

I’m now in bed, elevated by five pillows and still bleeding with gauze in my mouth to catch it. I’ve got an ice pack on my swollen cheek and the pain is super raw! Thank goodness he gave me a little Vicodin (only 12 pills but I imagine I'd be dead without it right now!!!). I was literally crying in pain when the Novocain first wore off and I was still driving home after waiting over a half-hour for Walgreens to fill the RX!

I made the horrifying mistake of unwittingly bending down at a newspaper rack while exiting the pharmacy to look at today’s Chicago Sun-Times, reading for a moment the cover story about how Rahmbo’s ego must be smarting with Motorola’s news that it’s cut 700 jobs designed for Chicago.

Suddenly awful shooting, stabbing, throbbing pain radiated from my lower mouth and blood was running at a scary pace. Once in  my car, I oh so carefully placed more gauze in my mouth and drove the mile back to my apartment with my head up in the air so high my bi-focals were out of focus. I was moaning the whole way, actually dizzyish from the pain and fear that I had broken through my stitches.

I'm now just trying to take my mind off it all with my head propped up and all. Wouldn’t you know, my converter box reception for the TV is real weather-goofy this afternoon and I can’t even get PBS with a steady screen. About the only thing to watch is “I Dream of Jeannie” and I’ve never cared for that show!

*****

Here is another piece I started writing before the above update:

I was about a quarter-way through a very invasive hour-long oral surgery late this morning in downtown Oak Park when the epiphany came. I was focused on a framed print of a watercolor of the Italian Riviera. The surgeon sliced open my lower left mouth and inserted somebody’s else bone for a bone graft to prepare for a future implant.

I had been in another one of his operating chairs for a molar extraction not even a month ago when there was only a watercolor of a bicycle race through downtown Manhattan to try and escape through. This surgery today was probably even more intense than that first one but they both rank right up there!

Looking at this hilly downtown waterfront scene from Italy, and seeing a little stone castle-type tower at the very top of one of the hills, I recalled a PBS travel show I’d seen several years ago in which a real hairy skinny guy in a robe had carved himself a cave abode inside a big hill in a remote desert of Egypt. He had a Bible and other religious books and spent his days alone, communing with God and nature. He was happy!

“You should write as if there’s no audience,” the thought came to me in my reclined, ultra-Novocained state. Many years ago I had first read this same advice from a very famous author I admired and I thought, “That’s crazy! You have to have an audience in mind. It’s impossible not to!”

Now I’ve come to this strengthened realization that what is meant by the creative directive is you shouldn’t see yourself as the writer trying to influence or impress anyone, etc. It should be what’s in your heart that flows out onto the page without regard for “what will people think” or “is this any good or not?”

Knowing I was heading into another major habit-modifier trial again starting today (with a bleeding, gauze-filled mouth, ice pack on the face, only cold liquids to consume and super raw pain that Vicodin doesn’t cut through—plus only very soft food for 3 weeks!) I popped in a learning tape on writing (“If You Can Talk, You Can Write”) to go with my LSD-to-Congress-to-Eisenhower commute to the dental appointment.

The guy giving the audio lesson, Joel Saltzman, an established New York City-born author who gives classes on writing, actually said  in one segment from side two, “After you shoot your wad of two or three great stories that really happened, then what do you write about? Face it, if your life’s anything like mine, it’s just not that interesting. . . . Don’t tell us what happened. Tell us what might have happened. Invent something. Make it up. Make your story interesting and compelling even if your real life isn’t. Whatever you do, do not listen to Sergeant Friday. Do not stick to ‘Just the facts, ma’am.’ Sticking to just the facts you’ll find yourself chained to what writer Ralph Lombreglia calls ‘the tyranny of actuality.’ . . . ‘But that’s the way it happened,' is no excuse for a boring or meandering story . . . 'So what do I do with the facts of my life, 'you ask. I say, ‘Hold a mirror up to your life but make it a fun house mirror. Change the facts; distort them. Take reality and shape it the way you want it to go. Remember it doesn’t matter if that’s the way it really happened. All that matters is if it interests the reader.”

Just think about that in relation to the Bible and its stories!!!! Fortunately I have never--and will never—subscribed to this kind of logic! The truth is where it’s at in all its nitty-grittiness and it will SELL!!! This is one of the most basic messages of God’s Word! The Bible still remains the most widely read literature out there!

A very close old friend (one of my longest and dearest ongoing friends—much like a family member although I rarely see him or even speak with him over phone) recently called me and we got on the subject of why I wasn’t writing anymore. He tried to give me his best kick in the pants.

Just the night before last I got an email from him that read in part, “You need to write a paragraph that doesn't review something someone else has said or written, and you need to be snarky, sarcastic, scathing, plaintive, critical, holier-than-thous (plural of thou, which you SHOULD know already....Phttthth!!), smart-assed, mean-spirited, and only, ONLY marginally based in any sort of logical reasoning or in facts. It can be anything from a news story to a basic flaw of appliance design to all the stuff that DNA scientific types on CSI could find out about you from the crap that ends up in your sink trap.”

Well, that’s definitely a case of what you call “creative differences”!!! I will use this time in recovery to write some pure, unadulterated stories of truth that are not based on any audience my mind can conceive and see (or not see) whether anybody’s interested. What I will do is just let the Spirit lead me!!!!

He loveth him that followeth after

There are five times in John 13 where, to the end of the book, John refers to ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’; the beloved disciple.

Jordan says, “What I noticed is that each time he refers to him, in the context where it’s said, you see the effect on the soul of somebody who delights himself in the love of Christ in these closing scenes from the Lord’s life.

“John 13:23 says, ‘Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.’ Nowhere in the Book of John is it personally identified who this disciple is. Most people say it’s John. I’ll show you why. John 21:24 says, ‘This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.’ John means ‘the gift of Jehovah.’ The idea is the Book of John is written by the disciple whom John loved.

“The biggest problem with that is the people who say John wrote the Book of John—that’s (Roman) Church tradition. The Book of John didn’t have ‘the gospel according to John’ as the title. In the 2^nd Century, Church father Polycarp, who was said to be a follower of John, said it was John who wrote the book, but his tradition also says John wrote the book between 90-95 A.D. and I know that’s not true because in John 5 it’s clear the book was written before 70 A.D.

“John 11, talking about Lazarus, says ‘Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.’ People say, ‘See, the only person ever identified in the gospels that Jesus actually loved, and it’s actually said that He loved him, is Lazarus, so obviously Lazarus must be the disciple in whom Jesus Loved.’

 “The problem with that is if you go to Mark 10, in the interview Jesus has with the rich you ruler, it says, ‘Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.’ So there’s another guy, the rich young ruler, who it says Jesus loved.

“When the Bible doesn’t tell you something specifically about a certain thing, I have a real difficult time getting too waxed up about it.

“There are three prominent people in this passage in John 13 outside of Christ. One is Judas, who had no love for the Lord at all. He loved money. He had the bag in his hand and the devil in his heart and he’s going to go betray Christ.

“There’s another character here—Peter. Peter was a man who was ardent in his love for the Lord. He was confident in how much he loved the Lord. Every time you see Peter, he says, ‘Lord, I love you! Let me prove it!’

“You go down through the text and Jesus washes their feet. Pete says, ‘You’re not washing my feet, Lord! I’m the one who loves you!’ Jesus says, ‘If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.’ Pete said, ‘Wash me all over, man! I mean, I’ll take the whole dose. Give me all of it! I love you, Lord!’

“Pete’s the one who told Christ, ‘I’ll go with you to prison; I’ll go with you to death. All these others might be offended in you. I’ll never be. I love you; I’ll stick with you.’

“In Chapter 18, when a couple hundred soldiers and the henchman come to get Him, Peter pulls out a sword and tries to chop the guy’s head off but gets his ear instead because the guy ducked. He said, ‘I’m willing to demonstrate unto death my love for you,’ but what’d he do? He failed miserably when he got confused and under pressure.

“Peter was a commercial fisherman. You never met one who was a coward. They’re tough; they know how to get into the sea and water. I’ll tell you what he wasn’t ready to do, though, and that was to give up! When Jesus said, ‘Let’s surrender,’ he said, ‘No, not without a fight!’ and Jesus said, ‘I said shut up and sit down.’ And Pete got offended: ‘You’re not doing it my way. I love you, Lord, and I want it done this way.’ And Peter wound up failing because his confidence was in HIS love for Christ.

“Then there’s this other ‘disciple whom Jesus loved.’ He was resting in, delighting in the love of Christ. Look at verse 3-4, where it says, ‘Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
[4] He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.’

“These disciples are watching the Lord Jesus Christ humble Himself and become a servant. In Luke, He says, ‘I’m among you as a servant of all.’

“Here’s God laying aside the splendor of mastership and becoming a servant. By the way, you see how He did that in verse 3. The humility that allowed Jesus Christ to humble Himself and become a servant came out of the confidence He had in His identity in the Father’s eyes, knowing that the Father had given Him all things. Knowing that He was come from God, knowing who He was in the Father’s eyes gave Him the confidence and freedom to humble Himself and become a servant of all. That’s where humility comes from.

“I’ve said many times that while we talk about the ‘days of his humiliation,’ that’s a human viewpoint of it. When He looked humiliated, embarrassed and ashamed, He took that for you. But when the Bible describes His mindset in it, it says ‘He humbled Himself.’ Humiliation is something heaped upon you against your will. He TOOK willingly because He understood who He was and is in the Father’s eyes and His understanding of how the Father viewed Him gave Him the freedom to humbly serve.

“The writer says, ‘I was there and I was leaning on his bosom.’ Now, people make a big deal about that. If you understand the culture you understand what he’s talking about. They wanted an intimacy; a nearness and a connection and John said, ‘You know, when He was loving us, I was loving it. I was just loving being loved.’

“John 13: 22-25 says, ‘Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.
[23] Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
[24] Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
[25] He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?’

“Peter was trusting in his love for the Lord: ‘I love you Lord, I’ll never forsake you. I’m going to go out and beat the world for you.’ But when it came time to know what was on the Lord’s heart, it was the one who was trusting in his love, not his love for the Lord but the Lord’s love for him, that was near enough to the Lord to learn what was on his mind.

“The disciple who was trusting in his love had to ask the one who was reveling in the Lord’s love, ‘What’s He talkin’ about?!’ and then he said, ‘Who is it?’

“If you go to the account in Matthews 26, the disciples begin to ask among themselves, ‘Is it I? Am I guilty? Am I gonna fail Him?’ but the disciple whom Jesus loved never said, ‘Is it I?’ he said, ‘Who is it? Obviously it’s not me; who is it?’ He’s trusting in, ‘Look how much He loves me. He’ll never fail me. Obviously it’s not going to be me. He’s keeping me. But who is it?’

*****

“The next time you see it it’s at the Cross. Chapter 19:25 says, ‘Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
[26] When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!’

“Where was Pete when this was going on? He was off in some lonely place, broken-hearted, weeping tears of bitter shame, of betrayal, of failure. But the one who had been nearest to the Lord, the disciple who was resting in Christ’s love for him, he was as near to Christ as he could be right there at the Cross.

“The result of that was he was a vessel fit for the master’s use when the service was needed. He was entrusted with the most precious possession the Savior could have had—His mother.

In Chapter 20, you’ve got the two guys again. The passage reads, [1] The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
[2] Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
[3] Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
[4] So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.’

“You’ve got Pete and the disciple whom Jesus loved and Pete goes first; he takes the lead: ‘I love him; I’m going to go find Him. What did they do with Him?! I’ll defend Him!’

“But you know what the other disciple did? He outran Peter and got their first! The one whom Jesus loved, focusing on His love, allowed him to take the lead in a very critical moment.

“In chapter 21, Pete goes back to his old occupation before he met Christ and he’s a man of influence. And you know what following his own mind and going back to his old self did? They call it ‘nothing.’ It profiteth nothing. Worse than that, when they saw Jesus standing on the ship, the disciples didn’t know who it was. They had no spiritual perception to identify who He was.

“John 21: 5 says, ‘Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.’ He showed them the uselessness of all that effort without His direction. ‘And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.’ You follow His direction, you get the fruit.

 “Verse 7 says, ‘Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.’

“I read that and I say, ‘Wow, the one trusting in the Lord’s love is the one who knew the Lord in the face of defeat!’ He was the one who could say, ‘That’s the Lord!’ It gave him the ability to look beyond the circumstances and the failure of self-effort and to say, ‘There’s God working both to will and do His good pleasure. The spiritual perception to understand who you are in the details of your life and apply it was the result of reveling, not in his love for God, but God’s love for him.

“In verse 15 you see it again. You see the provision that God’s grace makes for one who’s trusted in self and his confidence and his love, as opposed to the one who just trusted God’s love for him. Because when he talks to Peter, he doesn’t bring up one word about his denial. He doesn’t mention his failures. The inward root of the failure was his confidence in himself.

“He says, ‘Do you really?’ Three times he asked him those questions. Three times Peter denies Him. The key in these things are in the answers that Pete gives because the progression is in the answer. Finally he says (verse 17), ‘Lord thou knowest all things.’

“He puts himself in the Lord’s hands and he’s not going to trust himself and his love. He says, ‘You know thy heart and I’ll leave it to you to estimate my love and tell me what to do.’ No longer is he telling the Lord that he loves Him or what he’s going to do. He just rests and says, ‘You know, Lord, you tell me.’

“What was He telling him to do? ‘Here’s what you do, Pete. Follow me. You want to glorify me; follow me.’ The Lord in His infinite love just tells the restored apostle what He’s going to enable him to do.

“Notice verse 20 because here comes the disciple whom Jesus loved. It says, ‘Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?’

“So the writer says, ‘When Peter turned around, after all that exhortation, after all that restoration from his self-effort, he looked around and saw me and I’m just, ‘Wooh-hoo, I can’t get over how much He loves me and I’m just enjoying it!’

“The man who trusted his own love for Christ had broken down, had to be restored and be exhorted to follow, but not so with the disciple whom Jesus loved. The guy who rejoiced in Christ’s love for him was already following.”

A matter of perception

“People always say, ‘Oh, we want something practical,’ ” Jordan always reports from the pulpit. He then always explains, “Your Bible is the greatest practical thing there is in the world!”

In a recent sermon he further explained, “There are basic things in Scripture so that when you’re reading the doctrine in Romans, for example, you see it LIVING! I train guys to preach and they say, ‘What books of illustration—what sermon books should we buy?’ I say, ‘You’ve got the greatest sermon book illustration you could have! Read Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.’

“You see, they want a book of stories that are indexed so they can just go to the index and find three stories and it didn’t cost them anything. It would cost you some hours of study to find the illustrations in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, not to mention Numbers and Joshua and Genesis, and all the other stuff back there.

“I got to be honest with you, most preachers are lazy and they don’t study. They study books about sermonizing in order to get up and do it because all they’re really interested in is running the program instead of the godly edification that’s in faith, and that means you have to GET IT before you can give it to others.

“But you see most people in the pews are lazy too because Jeremiah told Israel, ‘The prophets prophesy lies and my people love it so.’ If the church didn’t put up with it, the dudes in the pulpit couldn’t get away with it.

*****

I Samuel 20:16 says, “So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David's enemies.
[17] And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.”

Jordan explains, “Now, you read that verse and you say, ‘Who loves who?!’ or you read it one way and it’s , 'Jonathan loved David as his own soul. 'By the way, loving someone as your own soul—we use the term ‘soulmate.’ That’s a Bible term that comes out of Deuteronomy 13 when the Bible gives the definition of a friend.

“And then there’s Proverbs when he says, ‘There’s a friend that sticks closer than a brother.’ You know who that friend is? That’s talking about your spouse. Deut. 13:6 talks about a person’s friend who is ‘as his own soul.’ A real friend is someone who loves you because of what’s inside of you; because of who you are, not because of what you do for them. That’s a high standard.

“Jonathan loved David as his own soul. But you know, you can turn that verse around and look at it the other way. David loved Jonathan. See how the little verses can look kind of ambiguous so when you read it you say, ‘Who is loving who? He who?’ Either way it’s right.

“You know who Jonathan was? David said, ‘You be loved.’ Jonathan looked at David and said, ‘You be loved. You’re my beloved. You’re as my own soul. You’re one in whom my soul delights.’ So when David is talking about Jonathan, is there anybody in Saul’s family, this wretched enemy family, that I can go show kindness to?’ ‘Why, David?’ ‘Because of my beloved friend Jonathan.’ He wants to show kindness for the Beloved’s sake. That’s Ephesians 1:6.

*****

“Mephibosheth has fallen because he believed a false report; a lie. I love it down in verse 8, when he says about himself, he it says, ‘And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?’

“He wasn’t just a cripple; he’s a dead dog. Dogs in the Bible are pictures of the Gentiles. He said, ‘I’m dead. I’m cut off and I’m like that prodigal off in a far country, out there among the Gentiles as a fugitive, running.’

“Mephibosheth’s in tough shape so what did David do? I love verse 5: ‘Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar.’

“One of the great privileges of being raised Down South is you have a lot of Bible in your terminology normally. You know, ‘Go fetch that for me.’

“You know who took the initiative? Mephibosheth didn’t send a message to David saying, ‘Boy, did you remember the covenant you had with Jonathan?’ He didn’t even know about the covenant but the king did. It was made before he was born. Now you’re back in Eph. 1:6

“II Samuel 9:6 says, ‘Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant!’

“By the way, Mephibosheth was living down in poverty in Lo-debar, sort of like the prodigal eating the husk that the swine didn’t eat. David fetches him and look what he does: he said, ‘Mephibosheth.’

“I don’t know about you, but I wonder what it must have been like for Mephibosheth to be brought in before the king. He’s a cripple and he bows down to him to the earth, prostrating before him, and he hears the king call him by his first name.

“Obviously the king’s not going to be mad at him. I think of that verse in Galatians 4, where Paul says, ‘When you were known of God.’ Does it fascinate you that the Creator of heaven and earth knows you by name; that He’s as personally devoted to you as He is to His own Son? We’ve received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness that we might reign in life by one, even Jesus Christ (Romans 5).

“Mephibosheth was brought from Lo-debar (meaning ‘no pasture; no provision’) to sit at the king’s table and eat of the wealth of the king. You read that and you say, ‘Wow.’ He said, ‘I’ll give you back all of the estate of your family. I’ll let you sit at my table.’

You go from want and poverty to abundance and exceeding riches. Verse 11 he said, ‘As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king's sons.’

“David’s saying, ‘I’m going to adopt the boy, put him up here and make him a full-fledged member of the family.’ Once an alien, he’s now been adopted, a child of the king, and he can reign in life. Why’d he do it? For Jonathan’s sake. That means it’s secure, it’s never going to go away. He’s accepted in the beloved. All the provisions.

*****

“In chapter 16 is a sequel. David, by the way, was one lousy daddy. He was a man after God’s own heart but he was an absolute failure and a flop as a father. One of his boys, Absalom, went out with a kiss and stole the kingdom from him and David had to flee from his own son who’d politically overthrown him.

“As David fled, when he was a little past the top of the hill, a servant of Mephibosheth met him. II Samuel 16:1 says, ‘And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.’

“He brought provisions for the fleeing king and the king said, ‘Where is thy master’s son.’ See, David wasn’t so concerned about the stuff. He could get something to eat for his troops. He said, ‘Where’s the boy? You’re his servant; where’s Mephibosheth?’

“II Samuel 16:3 says, ‘And the king said, And where is thy master's son? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem: for he said, To day shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.’

“Now that doesn’t sound so good, does it? What an ingrate rube Mephibosheth must have been? As soon as the king got in trouble, he said, ‘I’m gonna get mine now!’

“Well, that’s not exactly the story. Come over to chapter 19. David flees away thinking, ‘Mephibosheth has betrayed him because that’s what his servant told him. But eventually David comes back. Absalom is killed and David’s restored back to his throne.

“He’s on his way back to Jerusalem to where he needed to be. Chapter 19:24 says, ‘And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace.’

“From the day David left to the day he came back, Mephibosheth mourned. He didn’t care about his crippled condition and the degradation of his feet, he didn’t trim his beard, he didn’t try to get spruced up, he didn’t wash his clothes. He must have been a stinking mess. He’s mourning.

“Jesus told the disciples of John, ‘When the bridegroom’s here you don’t mourn. It’s when he’s gone that you mourn.’ Mephibosheth’s real heart in the departure of David was with David so, verse 25 says, ‘And it came to pass, when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said unto him, Wherefore wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth?’

“ David says, ‘What’s this deal about you staying in Jerusalem, thinking that they’re going to restore Saul’s inheritance to you? I already gave you all that, boy! What are you betraying me for?!’

“Now notice what he said: ‘Why didn’t you go with me?’ He doesn’t condemn Mephibosheth. He gives him a chance to answer for himself. You ever had anybody do that for you? People say, ‘Well, why did you do such and such?’, and they don’t know whether you did it or not, they just heard somebody say you did it.

“Paul calls that ‘evil surmisings.’ Think evil of people. He’d gotten a bad report about Mephibosheth and Mephibosheth wasn’t there! And yet David still gave him a chance to answer for himself. That’s sort of the integrity of David’s heart.

“And he said, ‘And he hath slandered thy servant unto my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God: do therefore what is good in thine eyes.’

“Mephibosheth said, ‘You know what Zeba did? He tricked me and then he came down and lied to you about me! But David I know you, I know your heart, and whatever you think’s right, is what you ought to do. I know your wisdom and I trust your grace. I’ve experienced it. I know about it.’

“David restored him. If you go to chapter 21:7 it says, ‘But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.’

“Mephibosheth had people condemn him before David and yet David didn’t condemn him. You go through life and you need to remember that the greatest factor on how you view yourself is your perception of what the most important person in your life thinks about you.

“What you need to do is acknowledge that the most important person in your life is God Himself and what the Father thinks of you is you’re ‘accepted in the beloved.’ And all the rest, the circumstances, enemies, whatever, faulty or accurate opinion . . .

“I think of the thing in John 13 when the Lord is in the Upper Room with His disciples, He starts out in verse 3, ‘Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God.’

“I read that and I say there’s Philippians 2: ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.’ What was it that allowed God the Son to become the servant with the towel, washing the feet of His disciples? It was verse 3. He was secure in the knowledge that He was the beloved Son of the Father, in whom the Father is well-pleased.

“He had a consciousness of His acceptance in His relationship with the Father that allowed Him to humble Himself. You see, true humility, humble yourself to be a servant, obedient even unto death. To say, ‘It’s not I, it’s Christ.’ ”

“That doesn’t come with pride; pride doesn’t do that. That doesn’t come from self-confidence. It comes from confidence in who God has made you in His Son. You learn to, ‘Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.’

“Then you’ll understand Mephibosheth when he came in before the king and prostrated himself and did reverence. Then you can understand Mephibosheth when the king left and he tried to go, and he couldn’t because he was crippled, and yet his heart went with David and his heart came back with David.

“In II Samuel 8:19 David tested Mephibosheth’s heart. He said, ‘Mephibosheth, let me let you demonstrate to me where your heart is. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll take all of Saul’s inheritance and give it to you and Zeba and let you all divide it equal.’

“But Mephibosheth said, ‘I don’t want that. Let him have it all. I just want you. Because when I’ve got you I’ve got everything that counts.’ ”

 

   

PBA vs. His love

In Romans 6, Paul says, “It’s not you, it’s Christ.” In Romans 7, he says, “Here’s what happens when it’s you.”

Jordan explains, “You learn there why it can’t be you. Look down at verse 15. See how confused he is about who he is? He says, ‘For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.’

“He’s going to argue with you and prove to you he’s sold under sin but he’s not; he’s free in Christ. He says, ‘I know I shouldn’t do these things but I do them anyway, and what I know I should DO, I don’t.’ Does that sound familiar?

“He goes on to say, ‘If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.’

“Wait a minute, Paul—you just said you did it! How come it’s no more you doing it?! Well, then who is doing it?! You read commentaries and they’ll argue all day long about who Paul’s talking about. He’s talking about himself!

“He says, ‘I did it. No I didn’t. I did. No. Yeah, you did. No you didn’t.’ You know what? He’s a little bit confused about who he is! You ever get that way? You’re a saint of the Most High God and you’re living like you’ve never been changed? Why? Because you’re not living consistent with who you are.

“Look at this conclusion. Verse 18 says, ‘For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
[19] For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
[20] Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

“What?! ‘Well if I did it, but I didn’t do it, then who did it? I did it! But it’s not me; it’s sin that dwelleth in me. The sin is me!’ And you go, ‘What?!’

“He goes on, ‘I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
[22] For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
[23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.’

“He’s arguing verse 14: ‘I’m carnal sold under sin, but how did that get way? There’s a law of sin that holds me captive.’ So his conclusion is, ‘I’m a wreck.’ He says in verse 24, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’

“He’s saying, ‘I’m an absolute, total wreck. I’m a dead man. I’m unable to function. Totally confused, totally ineffective.’ Why? He’s confused about who he is.

“ ‘Am I free in Christ? No, looking at my experience, I’m sold under sin. If I walk by faith, who am I? If I identify myself the way God the Holy Spirit identified me in Romans 6, who am I? I’m God’s free man. If I identify myself by my performance the way I could look at it, who am I? I’m carnal, sold under sin.’

“First there’s the way grace looks at it, but when the law looks at me (when I look at my performance and judge it based on that) I’m an absolute failure.’ What does that get him? He’s in the slew of despond.

“That’s verse 24. What Romans 7 is about is bringing you to that verse right there. Self is our great enemy. Law-keeping keeps self going.

“That identity thing is the source of overcoming the failures. If you’re going to deal with God on the basis of your performance, you’re not going to make it. There’s a little subtle thing over in John 1:17 when John says, ‘For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’

“I missed that verse for years. The law is given but grace and truth came. You see, I can give you something from a distance but grace and truth, He came down and became one of us. The law’s a schoolmaster to teach them their failures.

“The strength of sin is in the law. It’s in looking at my performance, my strength, to accomplish the thing. What’s happening to Paul here is he gets confused in his mind about this law. It’s the ‘if then principle.’ If you perform, then you get the blessing.

“There’s this cycle in Romans here that’s a fascinating kind of a thing. . . The first thing you read in chapter 7 is he condemns himself. ‘Who am I? I’m not the Lord’s freeman. I’m carnal, sold under sin. I’m not just dead; I’m an absolutely worthless person. I don’t have any worth. I’m valueless. I’m a slave to sin.’

“In verse 24, he gets down to the depths where he says, ‘Oh, wretched man that I am.’ You know what a wretched man is? That’s somebody who’s absolutely, totally unloved and unlovable. You get way down here to the bottom. ‘I’m chopped liver that’s spoiled.’

“And then what do you do when you get down there? Verse 15. ‘You know what, I think I’ll try again,’ and you start to try again. And you know what happens when you try again? Verse 19, 20, 21 . . . You fail again! Now where are you? You’re right back at verse 15. That’s the way law is programmed to work you in this cycle that always brings you right back there except at a lower level each time ‘til pretty soon you’re in absolute, total functional defeat.

“So what does grace do? ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.’

“There’s a system of grace where if you looked at that, when you sin, it doesn’t say, ‘I’m condemned,’ it says, ‘I’m forgiven. There’s no condemnation. I’ve been forgiven because of Jesus Christ. There’s the thing He died for 2,000 years ago. I’m not only forgiven; I’m free. I’m not in bondage to sin. I’m in Christ Jesus and you can’t separate me from His love.’

“That’s the grace principle, and when you understand that, you can go fix it. I can go make it right as best I can. I can fix it and get on with future correct behavior.’ That’s called victory. That’s Romans 8! In Romans 7, Paul demonstrates for you in his life what happens when you forget, ‘It’s not I.’ ”