Golden nuggets to 'hear' in English

"The Book of Job is the first and oldest book written in Scripture and there's something really fascinating about this," relayed Missouri Pastor Matthew Coatney near the start of his message at last week's Bible conference in Chicago.

"Some of you here love 'golden nuggets' from the Scripture, where there's some little thing and you compare this verse with that verse and 'Boom!' the Word lights up like electricity.

"Does anyone know how many times the word 'inspiration' is used in Scripture? Twice. The first instance is in Job 32: [8] But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

"Now look at II Timothy 3, where Paul's answer to William Tyndale's dying goal is this: [16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

"God hung the word 'inspiration' on the first book of your Bible and God hung the word 'inspiration' on the last book of your Bible. From one end to the other it's bookended by that same word that Tyndale died for.

"If you notice in Job, the first 'inspiration' gives understanding. The last 'inspiration' gives Scripture. 1600 years apart, sealed on both ends with one stamp.

"What's interesting is Tyndale was burned at the stake and on his dead bed, in his death cell, he's fighting for the Word of God to be translated.

When Paul writes II Timothy 3 what does his life look like? Same exact thing in another death cell waiting to be killed.

*****

From Michigan Pastor Bryan Ross' afternoon seminar:

"The Middle English period is from about 1100 to 1500.  How many of you remember your high school English class with Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales? Am I the only one who had to read that in high school? That is true Middle English and the Middle English period generally ends with the setting up of that first printing press in England.

"The early Modern English period is the era of Tyndale and Shakespeare. I would submit to you that Tyndale is almost solely responsible for creating Modern English. If there is no Tyndale there may not be any Shakespeare. The connection between the two of them is so important in the history of the language.

"Tyndale's life span fits from 1494-1563 and this is a linguistic sweet spot for the Bible to begin to be translated into English and therefore printed on a printing press.

"A bunch of books have been written in 2026 commemorating the anniversary of William Tyndale's work. One author, David Crystal, said Tyndale's grandparents could have spoken to Chaucer in Middle English and a grandchild of anyone living in the 1520s could have spoken to Shakespeare. So there's a massive change that happened in the English language and it is spearheaded, I believe, by William Tyndale and his translation of the Bible into English."

*****

From Indiana Pastor Ray Keable's study:

"Paul says about Jesus in Colossians 2: 'In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'

"Our message is all internal. Wisdom, knowledge and understanding--those three words are used in nine verses of the Bible and the first eight are in the Old Testament.

"The last one is in Colossians 1:9: [9] For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

"He puts the word 'spiritual' in front of the word 'understanding.' It's not done before that. Spiritual means it's internal and I'm glad of that.

Romans 10: [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.

Now go back to II Samuel 7: [22] Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

"It says 'heard with our ears' so you see that premise carries through the Bible from beginning to end. It's too simple; that's why people don't get it. Because religion is so strong. They make you feel like you're doing something, whatever job they give you, and you're doing something for yourself, but all you're doing is obeying somebody who's making a paycheck."

Root cause of the problem

Here's another sermon outtake and will post conference notes tomorrow now:

Isaiah 5: [20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

[21] Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
[22] Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
[23] Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

Verse 22 is sarcasm; it’s the Lord’s way of being sarcastic. You got these guys here who are considered heroes; the ones considered valiant ones, and the leaders in your culture, and they’re leading you into all this dissipation and what are they doing it for?

“They justify the wicked for reward.” There’s a completely corrupt government, legal system, society. That’s the result of all these things.

Verse 24: [24] Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

The unseen source of the life, the root, is going to be rottenness. What’s giving life to the culture of this sinful nation is rotten, so the bloom, the outward manifestation of the fruit, is dust; it’s nothing.

The root cause of the problem is they’ve cast away the law of the Lord. They’re just a bunch of rotten dirt bags because they despise God’s Word; they want nothing to do with His Word.

[14] Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
[15] And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

The satanic policy of evil opens its mouth wide; it can take all comers. And the glory, and the multitude, and the pomp of all the stuff they’re doing goes down to destruction.

[25] Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

All of this stuff they’re seeing, the judgments they’re seeing in these first four courses of judgment—he says that’s just Act 1. Act 2 is going to start in verse 27.

They’re not in the fifth course yet and He keeps holding out that opportunity: “but his hand is stetched out still.”

[26] And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

He’s still the sovereign of those nations and He’s going to summon those nations to come and take the nation Israel and scatter them in the earth.

[27] None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

The whole idea there is they’re going to come, and there’s no stopping them because “they’ve despised my Word.” 

The way the world works

Here's an outtake from study on Ezekiel 28 and will have a new article on the Bible conference tomorrow:

I Timothy 6: [10] For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

"It's not money that's the root of all evil; it's the covetousness. It's the love of money. The love of money becomes evil when it causes you to err from the truth. When it carries you away from what's right. When gain becomes more important than anything. That's when it becomes filthy lucre. They love money because they err from the truth.

Colossians 3:5: [5] Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

" 'Covetousness, which is idolatry' is the opposite of what Jesus Christ taught Israel. Matthew 16:

[24] Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
[25] For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
[26] For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

"The issue isn't satisfying yourself; the issue is satisfying the Lord. The offer that God makes is, 'This isn't about you getting rich, getting what you want. This is about obeying me.' That's why Christ says, 'This is truth,' and they'll take the truth and turn it into a lie.

"It's this way with everything in the world; Satan's system. Look, it's this way in politics, anything in the social world, not just religion. Everything out there is designed to follow that pattern: 'I can get privilege, I can get position, I can get wealth, I can get fame.'

"You either stand for the truth, folks, wherever it is with whatever it is, or you sell out for gain. That's the way the world works because that's the way Satan designed the world to work. Money, influence, power, position.

Ezekiel 28: [5] By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:

"He takes those things and a third of the upper echelon of the angelic host followed him as he trafficked. He sold his goods to them, trained them to be salesmen and sent them out to traffick it to the other angelic host, then developed a fulfilment system to traffick it out with them and it went all the way through . . . 

"You need to understand the motivation. The merchandising and the trafficking; the scheme that he developed had to do with, 'I'll make you rich; I'll make YOU the center of attention.' What's the middle letter of the word 'sin'? Middle of the word 'pride'? I Timothy 3:6 says, [6] Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

"Paul said don't be lifted up by pride because you'll fall into the condemnation of the devil. When Satan developed the lie program, the satanic policy of evil (Isaiah 14), everywhere it's 'I will, I will, I will, I will.'

"He said, 'I'll change the truth of God into a lie and worship the creature more than the Creator.'

The deification of the creature is the lie program because he said, 'I will be like; I'll take the position of the Most High.'

"Then he'll tell you, 'You can come up on the throne with me.' That's the lie of the Adversary but that's the attractiveness. Every time sin enters your life it's because you take that approach; you say, 'I'll do it my way.'

"The religious system is operating by that and that's why Paul, when he talks in Philippians 3, he says, [7] But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. about what things were gain to me

"In Galatians 1 he says, [14] And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

"He's saying, 'I was making a fortune. Not just financially, but in position, in popularity, fame, reputation. I was going places.'

"In fact, when you look at Paul's life in Acts 9, he was leading his nation in rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the guy in which the leaders of his nation had entrusted to take the leaders of the 'little flock' captive and force them to recant.

"Paul's literally leading the charge. They had that kind of confidence in him and he had that kind of position. Going for it; that's the lie program and the Adversary. That's the hook that he uses. That's the hook he uses for everything, not just religion. That's how the whole system works.

"You watch out in the world; you watch yourself out in the world and you see that if there's money in it . . .  Old Bob Jones used to say, 'If it doesn't make sense there's a buck in it somewhere,' and that's a dying truth.

"The reason for that is Ezekiel 28: [15] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.' Till this plan to say, 'Gain is godliness.' Paul says, 'From such turn away.' "

Song: 'Gonna die on the battlefield, die in the war'

3. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of all before His judgment seat;
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on. --"Battle Hymn of the Republic," first published in February, 1862 by The Atlantic Monthly.

Headlines online today were about how Emmanuel Macron said France is facing its "toughest situation since World War II."

As the London Telegraph reported: "Mr. Macron told workers: 'We have a situation that is more difficult than at any time since the Second World War. We must be realistic: the coming weeks will be tough, and we must persevere. The key is urgency, resilience.'

"A new heatwave bringing temperatures of 40C is expected to hit France within the next 24 hours . . .  Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the Spanish interior minister, told reporters: 'Today and tomorrow are absolutely decisive days, because from Wednesday the weather forecasts become highly unfavourable for firefighting efforts.' "

*****

My pastor's son, Rick Jordan Jr., who is the longtime pastor of Southwest Bible Fellowship in Tempe, Ariz., used his speaking time at the Chicago Bible conference last week to remind us in an infectious, passionate way that we are at war.

He even started his message saying he wished the songs sang earlier in the meeting had included, "I'm in the Lord's Army":

 I may never march in the infantry,

ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery;
I may never zoom o'er the enemy,
but I'm in the Lord's army.
I'm in the Lord's army.
I'm in the Lord's army.
I may never march in the infantry,
ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery;
I may never zoom o'er the enemy,
but I'm in the Lord's army.

Jordan Jr. emphasized at the start, "One of the definitions of the Lord is war, dissension. The Lord in Matthew 10 said: [34] Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

"In Exodus, Moses calls the LORD Jehovah 'a man of war.'

(Note: Exodus 15 begins: [1] Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

[2] The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him.
[3] The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.)

"You think about Revelation 19. He's not coming back singing 'Woo-woo-woo, everybody get along.' He's coming back taking aim! War.

Revelation 19: [11] And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

"Look further: [15] And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

[16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

"I mean, He's not coming along to hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya.' He's coming back to do what? To make war.

*****

"What's the church at large look like? It looks like II Timothy. I'm a firm believer that II Timothy 3 is talking about the church the Body of Christ. I don't need chapter 3 to be about the world; I've got Romans 1 to know what the world looks like.

"What's happened in II Timothy 3? They've lost the war; they've lost the conflict. Look at II Timothy 2: [14] Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.

"What have we been studying about all week? The Word, the w-o-r-d-s, inspired words, preserved words, translated words, life-giving words.

"What are they doing in verse 14? They're talking about 'words to no profit.' That's the warfare. We need to know the weapon of choice, do we not? We need to know what we're going to be doing in this warfare, which is spiritual and doctrinal--to get your thinking out of where it should never have gone to begin with and that's verse 15:

[15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

"If you've ever handled weaponry, you learn how to break it down. You learn how to use it. You learn how to manipulate it. You learn how to put it in the sheath and pull it out.

Hebrews 4: [12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

"What are you going to do with your sword? You're going to study it. That's our great duty. God's approval is our aim, is it not?

"Do you know if you study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John there's no approval there? I didn't say you didn't learn something; it's just that that's not where God's working today. He's working here (in the dispensation of grace). Our one great goal is to be 'a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.' "

Seeing what the world doesn't

(still working on new article and will post tomorrow for certain)

"People say, 'The King James is so hard to read; we want something easier.' Why in the world would you want God to talk to you like your pal? Wouldn't you rather He talked to you like God?

"A writer for the Chicago Tribune once wrote just that. He said, 'I'm not a Believer but I think God ought to sound a little more like God than somebody's counselor.'

"You see, there's something about the Word of God that's different from anything else and people know that," says Richard Jordan. "When you try to dumb it down and make-believe that making it easier to read is going to make it easier to understand, you've cut the heart out of everything there is about understanding God's Word, because understanding it has nothing to do with making it easier to read.

"If you could read it in the original language He wrote it in, it isn't easy to read. Oh, yeah. When you get a passage in your Bible that's kind of knotty and hard to understand, you know what, you go read the Greek text or the Hebrew text and you know what you'll find out? It's kind of knotty and hard to understand there too.

*****

Hebrews 4:12: [12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

"The reason that first phrase is translated that way is the Word of God, it's not just that it's alive--it's alive and able to work quickly. Listen, when you take the solution God's Word gives you and apply it to your life it doesn't take forever to solve the problem. 

The verse says the Word is 'sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.'

"It can get right down to the nitty-gritty of what's going on in your inner man. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents . . . ooh, wait a minute. When you read that Book, it's reading you! That's why some of you don't like to read it.

"That Book is the only way as a Believer you can know whether you're walking in the flesh or in the Spirit; whether it's that old life that's running you or it's the new man.

"Look at verse 13: [13] Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

"Who is the 'him with whom we have to do'? That's God. But he says the Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of your heart because God knows what they are. In the passage, he talks about the Word of God doing what God does.

"When you're dealing with that Book, you're not dealing with any other book like it. There isn't another. God's design is that when you're dealing with God's Word you're dealing with God Himself. And if you're going to deal with the God of creation, you're going to deal with Him through His Word. That's how powerful that Book is. That's what that Book is. There's God literally talking to you and you've got it in your hand.

"The Bible Believer's attitude is, 'When I'm facing God's Word, I'm facing God Himself and that Book's going to be a discerner of what's going on inside of me in a way that I couldn't do myself--in a way that only God could do.' 

*****

"Let me show you an illustration. Here's how Paul thought about it. Romans 9:17: [17] For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

"If you go back to Exodus 9:16, the one who is talking in the passage is Jehovah. Jehovah says to Pharoah, 'Even this same purpose have I, Jehovah, raised thee up,' but who does the verse say said that? The Scripture said it.

"In Paul's mind, when you're reading the Scripture, you're reading what God says. The power and the authority of the Scripture is there because it's God speaking. Paul doesn't hesitate to use God and the Scripture interchangeably.

"That passage in Romans deserves some real cogitation. When God speaks it's the Scripture, and when the Scripture speaks, it's God speaking. That's where the power and the authority of that Book comes and it's not like any other book you'll ever read.

Galatians 3:8: [8] And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

"Folks, who tells the future? Only God can do that. But Paul doesn't mind saying the Scripture does what God does, because when you're reading the Scripture, you're reading what God's doing.

"A Bible Believer's viewpoint is that, 'When I'm dealing with that Book, it's God talking and if I want to talk to God, I've got to go to that Book to get it.' I don't go to dreams, spirits, seances, religious activities. I don't do a bunch of praying and asking God to talk to me. He already has and I've got it in a Book.

"David says in Psalm 138:2: [2] I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

"Write down by that verse Nehemiah 9:5 where it says 'blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.'

"In Philippians 2, Paul says, [9] Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

[10] That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

"His name is above everything and He takes His Word and puts it ABOVE that! That's God's attitude."

*****

"I used to preach on the street in Alabama and when I came to Chicago I'd go downtown into the Loop and stand and watch all these people going by. All these people running to and fro in darkness.

"We understand something that is of eternal value, but if you turn a little light on, people run like sour bugs. I don't know about you, but if I think about that enough I get aggravated and I get a little depressed," says Richard Jordan. 

"Shining His light in darkness is a challenging thing, is what I'm trying to say. It's challenging in every way and the world doesn't get it. Everything you do--you know, we do radio, TV, fair ministries, on and on. I just talked to lady yesterday telling me 'how frustrating it is that I have this information and my family just won't see it.'

"I want to look at a guy who faced the same situation--Noah. Hebrews 11:1 says, [1] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

"That actually is not a definition of faith; it's a description of what faith does. Faith is what provides the substance of things hoped for. You have this hope; this stuff out in the future, but you don't have any evidence right now that that's true. You have a promise and faith is what gives the conviction that what that future thing that's coming is a reality. It's the evidence of things not seen.

"Faith comes by hearing. Faith is dependent on what God says. You're persuaded. In Romans 4 it says Abraham was 'fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.'

"That's the better definition of faith. This is a description of faith's work; of faith's accomplishment. That's why he says in verse 6 that without faith it is impossible to please Him. There's that thing we know and yet you have to have faith to see it; faith to understand it. Because it's the Word that gives light.

Hebrews 11:7: [7] By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

"He was 'warned of God of things not seen as yet.' Noah was given some hidden information. We've been given some hidden information about a future event that was completely unbelievable by everybody you talked to.

"Noah says, 'Hey, God's going to destroy this planet with rain.' And you know what everybody said to him? 'That's scientifically impossible.'

"Look back at Genesis 2: [4] These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

[5] And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
[6] But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

"The ecology system before the Flood was that it didn't rain. There was a mist dew that came up and watered. The hydro-system was different.

"In Noah's day, when he was told, 'It's going to rain; the skies are going to open up and water is going to come down and cover the whole planet and destroy everybody,' he told others, 'I'm building a boat; you got to get into that boat.'

"For 120 years, Noah goes about building that boat because God told him what was going to happen in the future and He believed what God said. But he couldn't point to scientific evidence. He couldn't point to experience.

"Can you image how people horse-laughed him? Can you imagine what people said about him? What his kids had to experience when they went to school? Go down to the mall? 'Your old man's crazy, you know that?!'

"He goes over to the lumber yard and gets lumber and people say, 'Are you nuts?!' They say to the boys' girls, 'Why, you going to marry into that family?! Are you nuts?!'

"But what does light do? It reproves. So Hebrews 11 says he condemned the world. How? By building the ark.

"He didn't have any evidence to point to except what God said and the world didn't get it because nobody believed him. After 120 years he only had his family as converts. You think, 'Man, you talk about feeling like your ministry's not getting anywhere!' But he believed what God said.

"You and I are building an ark for people to get out of the world into the Body of Christ. All we have to do is point to God's Word, but you know the world doesn't see in God's Word what we see in it."

Letting God's Word rewire the brain

II Corinthians 3: [18] But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Referring to this verse, Pastor Tom Bruscha (Grace Bible Church in Warren, Michigan) said at the conference last week in Chicago:

That's absolutely amazing because we have the Bible that's told us who God has made us in Christ and told us the glory of Jesus Christ . . .  that is, when we read the Bible it's all written out there for us to see "as in a glass the glory of the Lord" and we're actually LOOKING in the Bible and SEEING what God has made us in Christ. As we see that, something happens. A transformation takes place.

Speaking to the nation Israel, Ezekiel 36 says God's going to put His spirit within them:

[26] A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

[27] And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

What did we already learn from Romans 8? That we have the "Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" in us and if we walk after that Spirit, we won't fulfill the lust of the flesh, but we'll fulfill the law.

Romans 8: [2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

[3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
[4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Paul is taking from what Israel will get in the new covenant where God will take away their stony heart, put His spirit within them and CAUSE them to walk in His ways and keep His commandments.

II Corinthians 2:16: [16] And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; 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.

That's what God is doing in us. God is IN us of a truth and He says He will walk IN us. It's not our walk; it's HIS walk and He will do that IN us and so therefore we need to separate from all the religious things, and all the sinful things, and allow God to live His life in us. We have the power to do it because we have the "Spirit of life in Christ Jesus."

We have the very power that raised Christ from the dead. We just have to mind the things of the Spirit of God rather than the things of the flesh.

I've noticed how, and I guess it's just natural, the different speakers here have been quoting Psalms 119. It's the longest chapter in the Bible and it's all about the Bible and the effect of the Bible.

When I think about walking circumspectly, I think about Psalm 119: [105] Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

When you think about that, I remember when I first learned about the customs of Israel. When they were carrying jugs or heavy things on their head and you're walking at night, how would you ever be able to see?

You can't carry a lantern. They'd strap lamps on their feet that would be a light unto their pathway. To me, that explains Ephesians 5 where Paul says we are to walk circumspectly. What we need is God's Word to be a light unto us.

Psalm 119: [97] O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. He loves His law because he meditates on it.

I want to tell you a little honest statement here. I used to think, "Why, Lord, did you put your Word and choose through the ages to communicate to us in a Bible, in the written form?" I mean, before it was written He had prophets and He was giving His Word out and they were speaking. He gave signs because otherwise it's hard to trust what a prophet had to say.

But to me I'm a listener. Reading is work for me. The last thing I would ever do is read a story novel: "The sun was glistening and the water was shimmering." Ha, I can't even quote how they do that. C'mon, just tell me what happened. I read for understanding, for information. I don't read at all for pleasure, but I do read the Bible because I realize the value of the Bible.

I say that so I can read this article to you. There's a lady at our church, Joyce, who puts out the bulletin and she put this in and I read it and thought, "Man, does that express the brilliance of God, not to put His Word out the way I think He should have done it, but to do it the way He did it by putting it in written form."

I was so pleased to read the article but before I quote it to you, I have to tell you Joyce forgot where she found it and I had to search the internet to find out who was being quoted. I found out it's C.S. Lewis and it's an article he wrote called, "How Repeating God's Word Rewires the Brain."

You see, if I talk to you about the Christian walk, we quote 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.

It's the Bible that renews our mind and that's what C.S. Lewis expresses and he does it so flowery, so clearly.

(NOTE: Here is the C.S. Lewis article passage as I found it online in a PDF):

"There is a quiet war that rages where no one can see it deep within the corridors of the mind. It does not announce itself loudly, but it shapes everything. I've lived through days where the real battle was not in circumstances or people, but in the quiet repetition of thoughts I could not turn off.

"Words looped inside me. Questions echoed. Regrets rehearsed themselves and fears drew their own conclusions before I could answer them. What I've come to see is this:

"Most of our outward struggles begin as inner whispers. What we repeat becomes what we believe. What we believe begins to shape how we live, how we love, and what we fear.

"We often try to fix our lives from the outside in. Changing habits, chasing peace, silencing the noise. But healing begins far deeper than the surface. It begins in the mind where thought becomes conviction and conviction becomes direction long before modern science mapped the brain's pathways or named the phenomenon of neuroplasticity.

(Neuroplasticity is the brain's remarkable ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Essentially, it means your brain is not 'hard-wired' like a computer but is more like dynamic plastic that can be reshaped by experience.)

"God had already spoken to this hidden terrain. Scripture wasn't only given to save my soul. It was also meant to heal my mind, to reshape what I dwell on, to renew how I interpret pain, temptation, time, identity, and hope. And it does this not through noise or speed, but through holy repetition.

"The mind is never empty, I've learned. It is always being trained by something. Either the world trains it by fear, distraction, and opinion, or God trains it through truth spoken again and again.

"What I rehearse inwardly, I eventually live outwardly. In seasons of confusion or anxiety, I used to assume I needed a radical shift in circumstances. But often what I needed most was a shift in focus. A turning from what was merely loud to what was deeply true.

"God, I discovered rarely shouts at the mind. He reshapes it patiently. One verse repeated in faith becomes more than memory. It becomes transformation. A truth spoken aloud each morning can become a shield by nightfall.

"This is not a religious slogan. It is architecture of the soul. Repetition in God's design is not mindless. It is restorative. It is the gentle rebuilding of the foundations we didn't realize were cracked.

"I used to read scripture for information or obligation. But now I've come to see that when I repeat God's Word, when I let it circulate inside me, when I speak it softly under my breath, when I write it down and carry it with me, it doesn't just comfort me, it rebuilds me. And that has changed everything.

"I used to think my thoughts were private and passing shadows that drifted in and out of my mind, harmless and forgettable. But I've come to realize that nothing shapes my life more quietly, more consistently than the words I allow to echo in my own mind. There is a voice inside me that never stops speaking.

"Sometimes it's anxious. Sometimes it's critical. Sometimes it's full of old lies that wear new disguises. But always it is forming something. With each repeated phrase it lays another brick. Thought by thought, belief by belief, a structure is being built within me. And whether I like it or not, I end up living inside the house my thoughts have built.

"Scripture says, 'As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.' Proverbs 23:7. It is not the outward noise that defines me. It is the inward dialogue. The story I repeat to myself becomes the script I follow. The words I dwell on become the shape of my soul. It makes perfect sense then that God would command his people to meditate on his Word day and night. Not because he is demanding performance, but because he is offering protection. His instruction is not to burden me, but to anchor me.

"If the mind is left unattended, I've come to understand it will still be taught, just not by truth. In the absence of God's voice, other voices take the stage. Fear, comparison, bitterness, shame. They do not need an invitation to speak. They simply fill the silence.

"God designed my mind not to be empty, but to be filled and formed by truth. His truth, his Word, was never meant to be a once a week reading or a quiet background hum. It was meant to be the dominant note, the firm foundation, the inner rhythm by which my thoughts are trained to trust rather than tremble.

"When I begin repeating His Word, even in the smallest phrases, You are with me. I am not alone. Your grace is enough. Something begins to shift. The lies grow quieter. The mind becomes steadier. The old fears don't disappear overnight, but they stop leading.

"This is not magic. It is designed. And slowly I begin to realize the mind God gave me was never meant to be a battleground of confusion. It was meant to be a sanctuary of truth shaped word by word until my thoughts begin to echo the voice of heaven.

"For much of my life, I thought repetition was for the weak-minded, those who needed reminders because they lacked resolve. I feared that repeating God's Word might become empty ritual, a kind of spiritual muscle memory without meaning. But now I know better.

"Repetition, when rooted in truth, is not lifeless routine. It is deep soul renewal. When God spoke to Joshua before he led the people into the promised land, he didn't give him a sword or a strategy. He gave him a sentence. Keep this book of the law always on your lips. Meditate on it day and night. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8.

"Before the battle, before the breakthrough, God pointed Joshua inward. Why? Because courage begins in the mind and faith must be trained long before it is tested.

"The more I sit with scripture, the more I see that repetition is not God asking me to prove devotion. It is God inviting me to practice truth until it becomes instinct. Until my first reaction is faith, not fear. Until his promises are not just words I know but reflexes I live by."

Inner motivations laid naked by Holy Spirit

A favorite preacher of mine, and I say that with the utmost appreciation and regard for all the men who spoke at the Bible conference this week (coming from places like North Carolina, California, Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Virginia, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Missouri) is David Reid, who was raised in Dayton, Ohio (where I currently live) and is head pastor of Columbus Bible Church in Columbus, Ohio. One thing we have in common is our love for Ohio State University and its football team.

The interesting thing about Reid, who has degrees from Yale and Duke, is he has spent his career as a lawyer and you can hear it in how he lays out his arguments and appeals to the audience.

In fitting with the theme of the conference celebrating the 250th anniversary of William Tyndale translating the New Testament into early modern English, Reid referenced Hebrews 4:12, as did many of the speakers: 

[12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Reid said, "Let me give you this example. Have you ever done something that you regret that you were ashamed of and then you were around someone who knew exactly what you did?

What did that produce in you? Discomfort, right? Guilt? What does the Word of God do? It discerns the "thoughts and intents of the heart."

Raise your hand if someone has said to you, "The Bible is full of contradictions." Now, most of the time when they say that they can't produce any. But what they'll do is find a list somewhere and say, "Well, I Kings says there's this many horses and, you know, Chronicles says there's this many," and so it's this big, alarming contradiction and "Woo-woo" panic.

Here's what happens. Upon faithful investigation, you realize all those "contradictions" are nothing of the sort. They don't actually contradict; they say different things and when you put the verses together you actually get a more accurate picture.

But here's the point I want to make. Did the Holy Spirit know before the world began that if the Holy Spirit wrote the verses those ways, men would claim it's a contradiction? The answer is "yes," because the Holy Spirit knows all things.

So, the Holy Spirit knew from the very beginning, "If I write it this way there's going to be a bunch of people who claim it's in error." So why didn't the Holy Spirit not do it that way to avoid the complaints?

Let me put it a different way. If I was writing the Scriptures, which of course I'm not, I would have a verse that says, "The Rapture is pre-tribulational." And then when you deal with nonsense, I'd just quote II Dave 3, "The Rapture is pre-tribulational."

II Dave has a verse, "The reason Paul baptized is . . . " There's a lot of things I wish there was a verse that specifically said something so that you could end some of these discussions, but there isn't.

Did the Holy Spirit know these discussions were going to come up? Had to have had. So why isn't there a verse that says the Rapture is pre-tribulation?

The answer is the Word of God is written with sufficient clarity for the believing and sufficient ambiguity for the unbelieving.

In other words, the Word of God discerns the thoughts and intents of the inner man of your heart, and if you want to come to the Scripture and find reasons to reject it, you can find them. It doesn't mean you're right--you're not right. But the Word of God is answering men according to the idols of their heart, just like Ezekiel 14 says.

Now that should make you somewhat fearful. It should make you realize, "When I'm approaching this Book, this is a sacred thing and I better be sure I approach it with the right heart attitude, or else I will find things that in my unbelieving heart I can use to justify my unbelief."

Hebrews 4: [13] Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

You know from Genesis 3, how do people act where they're naked? Well, there's shame, avoidance, fear.

So, here's what happens. The Bible is the most published book on earth, but in many ways, for being as published as it is, it is little read. Why is it read little?

The reason why is that when you read the Word of God, it's quick, it's living, it discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart.

It lays naked and open your inner motivations--the things that we don't speak about among ourselves that we hide behind the mask, but you can't hide that from the Word of God.

The reason why people don't read this Book is this Book reads them. That's just the reality of it. So realize when you deal with the Word of God, you're dealing with this living, supernatural thing that is essentially indistinguishable from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and, just as people have discomfort with the Lord, they have discomfort with the Word of His power.

I Thessalonians 2: [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.

Men should receive the Word of God as the Word of God. It's fully authoritative and His Word works powerfully in those that believe.

Matthew 7: [28] And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: [29] For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Mark 1: [21] And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. [22] And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.

What does it mean here about the Lord teaching as "one that had authority"? One aspect of that is Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, so He has the inherent authority as the Son of God.

I'm going to suggest to you He has something in addition to that. Jesus Christ believed the Old Testament and quoted it as it is without apology.

He says things like, "Ye do error not knowing the Scriptures." In other words, He says, "The reason you're in error is you don't know the Scriptures."

When He deals with Satan in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, how does He respond? "It is written." You'll notice one thing He never did is He never said, "A better rendering would be . . . " He never said, "The oldest and best manuscripts read . . . " He didn't say anything like that.

Now, this is my personal opinion and you can decide for yourself. Preaching that corrects the Word of God is wishy-washy and lifeless. It is the opposite of teaching "as one that had authority."

When you see people this week speak from the pulpit with authority, it is not their charisma. It's not their force of will; it is the absolute certitude of the authority we commonly possess.

Otherworldliness in KJV's All Caps

(well, I failed to come through on my promise and will have to postpone conference notes, etc., until this evening now. Tiredness hit me like a brick last night. My lack of sleep from a week away from home, where I was being awakened daily by noises at the crack of dawn and then getting up soon after to ready myself for the conference's 9 a.m. meetings that required driving through rush-hour traffic for almost an hour, combined with the late nights staying up talking, etc., etc.)

*****

An unexplained phenomenon in a King James Bible, one with no explanation from the translators, is the use of all-caps words and phrases. 

The first occurrence of it is in Exodus 3:14: [14] And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

"When you know how the translation was done, it was done by different companies of people, so the guys who translated Revelation were not the same guys who translated Exodus," explains Richard Jordan.

"There are more than two dozen places where there are whole long phrases that are in all upper case. Why did they do that? I've looked for 30 years and there's no explanation.

"Most of the instances are associated with the crucifixion of Christ but this was not something--I mean, all the translators agreed to the translation of LORD and GOD in upper case to represent Jehovah and they tell you that in their preface, but they don't mention any of this super-cap stuff.

"Like I said, the translators don't explain why they did it and there's no reason in the translation process that they would do it. They just all of a sudden came along and put in these super-cap words and phrases.

Exodus 6:3: [3] And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

"The translators did not always write all-caps LORD for Jehovah; sometimes they put Jehovah in the text. Here they capitalized it.

"Revelation 19 is the last time it happens. In a passage on the Second Coming, Revelation 19:16: [16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

"The first occurrence in Exodus 3 was identifying who Jehovah is; the last occurrence is identifying who the Lord Jesus Christ is. The first time talks about the ALPHA and the last time the OMEGA. 

"They first give God's name, I AM THAT I AM; tell them I AM sent you,' and then when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He's the KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

"There are seven words in that name. Seven is the number of completion. Exodus 3 has seven words in upper case. There are only three words in that phrase, I AM THAT. Two of them, I AM, are repeated three times. Three is the number of the trinity.

"A perfect revelation of the godhead, the triune God, stuck in there in caps. Nobody can explain why it's that way, it just is.

"When you study all the instances, and I commend that to you, you say, 'Nah, this is not really a mistake.' There are patterns throughout your Bible and it's fascinating when you study these super caps out.

"I see the otherworldliness of this Book and I see a reason to believe it beyond just saying, 'Well, I can prove historically . . .' and I'm willing to get way out on a limb and trust it even with my eternity, because the more I study it the more I see, 'Wow, there's things in this Book that isn't like ANY other book.'

"There's something otherworldly about the Book that the eye of faith will see. You can't even get other Believers, often, to see this. People say, 'You're just a bunch of superstitious numerologists.' I say, 'Okay, I'm not trying to build a doctrine on it; I'm just saying that it's fascinating to me.' "

Catholic Chicago, once citadel of truth

 (Upon leaving the conference today and heading north to the entrance ramp to 290 E toward Chicago, I went through the drive-thru at Portillos and ordered their large Italian beef sandwich "wet," meaning they're supposed to dunk the sandwich in a vat of "gravy" before wrapping it up. Well, when I pulled the sandwich out about an hour into my trip it was DRY! I should have known it wasn't right by the light weight of the bag that was handed to me. Big bummer but I have to say the wetless Beef was still super delightful.

The best part of the first segment of my trip home from the Elmhurst conference site was driving inbound on the Eisenhower, something I hadn't done in at least seven years! I totally went back in my head to all the million times I made that evening commute on 290 E back to Chicago's Northside from my job as a feature reporter and columnist at the Naperville Sun newspaper in the early to mid-90s. You talk about a grand finale to my Chicago trip! It was amazing how it seemed like just yesterday and yet for me to think how many years and life events have passed!

Like I said yesterday, I will have conference notes starting tomorrow. Right now as I write I;m forced to wrap my head around the reality that my vacation is officially over and I am returning to work tomorrow--yikes!. . . Oh, by the way, there were big-time wildfire smells in eastern Indiana and southwestern Ohio, including in my driveway bringing luggage in earlier this evening)

(new article tomorrow)

“Paul didn’t go into the mountains and the country; he went where the people were, the population centers. I’ve said for years, one of the greatest tragedies in fundamental evangelical Christianity in America in the 20^th Century is, in the middle of the century, the great host of evangelical Bible-preaching ministries fled the cities to the suburbs because it was easier to live in the suburbs than it was to live in the turmoil developing in the cities. ‘The flowery beds of ease,’ as the song says.

"When fundamentalist Believers fled, they left an absence of truth. For Chicago, since the latter part of the last century, it has been so tightly under the grip of Romanism," explains Richard Jordan.

“Where the people are is where the problems are. Where the problems are, people are going to solve the problems. If truth leaves, what’s the church? The pillar and ground of the truth. The problems will be solved with error, but the problems will get solved because the nature of man is he has to have that order. That’s the way God structured man and his society to function.

“If you go back to the 1920s, ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, Chicago was the citadel of fundamentalism in America. The pastor of Moody Church in the ‘40s, Harry Ironside was called the Archbishop of Fundamentalism.

“Pastor O’Hair of North Shore Church, our ministry, was right there are on the north shore of Chicago and reached out around the world from there, but it had the gospel-preaching center.

“One of the first radio stations in the country preaching the gospel was built in the bell tower of North Shore Church at Wilson Avenue and Sheridan Road in 1926. Chicago was a hub for fundamental Bible-preaching Christianity. New York City’s Isaac Haldeman of First Baptist Church. Philadelphia. These they were great centers of fundamental, Bible-believing, Scofield dispensationalism; they were recovering these truths.

“Historically, missionaries would go to a foreign country and they didn’t go to the cities; they’d go to the mountains and then get a following. Take pictures and come back home and show pictures of little babies and people in need and raise money.

“The first 300 years after Paul were the greatest years of evangelism, outreach, expanding the Body of Christ in all of church history. We’re going into a culture right now—our country is falling back into the culture that the world has been in for 2,000 years.

“You’re going to live to see in the next decade a world in America that is just almost exactly like the world Paul lived in, but remember what God did in that world for the Body of Christ because all the distractions were taken away and they just had truth."

God's love: 'World itself could not contain the books'

(sorry for all the delays. my church's annual summer Bible conference that I'm attending in Chicago ends tomorrow and I will be heading home and back to work Friday. I promise to have a first installment on conference notes, tidbits, insights, etc. Friday evening)

I John 4:10: [10] Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The first time the word love appears in the Bible is in Genesis 22: [2] 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.

The first time you read about someone loving someone is Abraham being told by God to take his son and offer him. The first occurrences of terms in the Bible are very important. They set the tone and definition of a word, says Richard Jordan. 

The first time it occurs it’s defined as the love a father has for his only son. Abraham did have another boy, Ishmael, but Isaac was the promised son. He was the one God had promised to him, produced by the miraculous birth when Abraham and Sarah couldn’t normally have children.

I John 4: 9: [9] In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

So the connection between the first time love occurs in the Bible, it’s connected right with God’s love at Calvary when He too sent His only begotten Son through a miraculous birth. To be a sacrifice.

Abraham’s given that information in Genesis 22, and one of the most wonderful pictures of the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary is found there as Abraham was told to take his son up on that mountain.

You see, the definition of love in the Bible is the love the Creator had for you and me. The love that would make Him step out of heaven, come down into our reality, into our flesh and our humanity and go to the Cross and die to pay for all of our sins. Give Himself completely for us.

John 3:16: [16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8: [8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You look at Calvary and you see what love is. I John 4:11: [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

You can’t love one another until you have the right motivation behind it. Trying to be good and love other people to get a paycheck doesn’t do it. You get the world we live in. Trying to be good and love other people just for the fact that it makes you feel good and it’s something you ought to do won’t get it.

Notice that the required motivation for producing love for others in the verse is “if God so loved us.” If you understood how God loved you, you ought also to love one another.

The required motivation for producing love for your brothers and sisters, for your fellow man, is to acknowledge that the Creator has come down to this planet as a man and has gone to the Cross and has died for our sins. He’s put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

That is information that is rejected by every hell-bound sinner on the planet. It’s rejected by the atheists, by the evolutionists, by the academics, by the humanists, by the religionists, by the whole culture out there today.

In fact, what God’s Word would say on the topic is so foreign to the world we live in that just basic definitions that are founded on the Scripture are considered hate mail and hate speech today.

If you stand in our culture today and say marriage is designed by its Creator to be one man and one woman for one lifetime, you’re guilty of hate speech. Just simply reading Matthew 19 and the words of Jesus Christ on the radio can get you charged with hate speech.

The foundation has been destroyed simply because God’s Word has been rejected and if you want to do something to help people, go out there motivated by an understanding of how much your Creator loves you and loves them and share with them the truth of His love and His grace. That’s the key.

Someone has said the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who brings God out from behind the curtain. That’s what that word “exegesis” means. It means you take it out from obscurity and put them on stage and put the light on them. And that’s what the Lord Jesus Christ does.

There’s not any religion on the face of the earth that does or ever has had anybody like the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s not a philosophy, or a religion, or a system of economics, or politics, or academia, that has anything like Him. No religion.

One of the fascinating things about these things is people talk about, “How do you know something is true?” There are a lot of evidences that are not just direct evidences but just common-sense evidences that come along.

I was reading a book where the guy made the point, “Where’s anybody that ever sang, ‘Oh, how I love Buddha, O how I love Buddha’?” Nobody sings, “Allah paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; Allah washed it white as snow.’

You know there are thousands of songs written about one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Love songs. You know, that’s the kind of songs people write. I mean, hillbilly songs, rock songs, contemporary songs—people write love songs. They write about what they love, they value, they esteem, what captures their heart.

John 20 says, “Many other signs did Jesus.” The last thing in the Book of John, he says, “If all the books could be written about the things that Jesus Christ did, the world couldn’t hold them":

John 21: [25] And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

So the songwriter says, “Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.”

How in the world do you explain the fact that no religion in the world has anybody writing love songs about their religion, how much it’s done for them, and along her comes the Lord Jesus Christ?! . . . Psalm 69 says “He’s going to be the song of drunkards.” Even drunks write songs about Him!

You get out into world . . . You remember the lyrics, “Chicago, Chicago, the only town Billy Sunday could not shut down.” You know that line? Why? They’re bragging about the fact Billy Sunday went all over America preaching the gospel and getting people saved . . .

You know, in northwest Alabama there’s a little town called Reform. The Billy Sunday of the South was a man named Sam Jones. He went all over the southern part of the U.S. doing what Billy Sunday did in the Midwest and Northeast.

He went into that town, and they were a mecca of gambling and the liquor trade and Jones went into that little town and preached the gospel for about three months and people got saved left and right, and the newspaper accounts of it are that by the time he got through with that revival meeting, if you wanted to cuss, you did it under your breath.

All the liquor establishments were closed down. All the bars were closed down. All the gambling houses were closed down and the city council voted to change the name of the town to Reform!

What is that? That’s the power of a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was it on the Cross shedding His blood? The Lord Jesus Christ. But whose blood was that? Who really was that on the Cross? It was God. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. And it was God’s blood that flowed through Emmanuel’s veins “and sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stain.”

You just keep on and on . . . you know just about everything you can think of you can think of a gospel song or hymn that takes that experience in life and relates it to a love affair with the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the one who brings God into every aspect and facet and experience of our life.

By the way, He does it because of the Cross. I John 4:7 is a fascinating verse of Scripture: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”

If you’re going to love people, you’re going to have to know God. And if you don’t know God, you’re not going to know how to love people.

Here’s the rest of the hymn:
“The love of God is greater far
  Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
  And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
  And pardoned from his sin.

 O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
    The saints’ and angels’ song.

When hoary time shall pass away,

  And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
  On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
  All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
  The saints’ and angels’ song.”

Abiding in constant, habitual expectancy

(ran out of time and will post new article tomorrow)

Martin Luther once said, “If you’re engaged in the battle for the truth at every point except the point at which the truth is being contended for in your life, you’re not really in the battle.”

Paul calls us “debtors” to “his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Love puts claims on your life. Love reaches down and puts a claim on your life that the law never could. Love is a motivator. It’s something that reaches into your heart and motivates you internally in a way no external compulsion can do, says Richard Jordan.

*****

Psalm 37 advises, [4] Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
[5] Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

How do you trust in the Lord; commit your way to the Lord? First, you’ve got to know the Lord and know His mind. How are you going to trust Him if you don’t know Him? How can you trust Him if you don’t know what to trust Him about?

To "delight thyself in the Lord" means you need to know some things about the Lord to be delighted about. People make all this stuff up; they say they talk to the Lord and He talks to them. They make a God in their own mind and delight in their own God.

James 4:3 says, "They ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." That’s what religion does! Religion is just designed to satisfy the lust of your flesh. And it will create a God who will do that for you.

But the way you do what’s in Psalm 37, and this is a tremendous psalm, is in verse 1: "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity."

*****

If you ever wanted to see some people who had reason to worry and the antidote for it, it’s this Believing Remnant in the tribulation looking out and seeing evil prosper. What are they to do?

Proverbs 3:6 says, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Jesus says, "If you abide in me, focus on who I am and value me more than anything else, and let your mind be controlled by my Word, you know what will happen? You’ll have the knowledge to ask the right things that ought to be accomplished."

By the way, do you remember the old adage about prayer? A-S-K. "Ask, seek, knock."  If you go back and read Matthew 7:7 ("Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you"), the people Christ’s talking to in the context are fruitful believers. That’s on the Sermon on the Mount.

John 15:8 says, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." When you are bearing fruit, the way you bear fruit is you abide in Him, you draw your resources from Him and you have your thinking regulated by His Word. If you do that, you’re going to bear fruit; the outward expression of that inner life.

*****

Jesus Christ says in John 15:4, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me."

In verse 7, He says it a little differently: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

That helps you define verse 4. "You abide in me, you keep your heart focused on me and you be occupied with me," Christ says in preparing the apostles to go through "the time of Jacob’s trouble."

To abide in something is to stay there. Constantly. You don’t leave. This is home. You’re going to dwell there. You’re going to be there not just occasionally, not sporadically, not fitfully, but this is where your heart’s going to be OCCUPIED.

“And if my word abides in you." There’s those two issues here. "Your heart’s going to be occupied with me, keep your eyes on me, look to Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith," it says in Hebrews, "but also have your life regulated by the Scripture."

They’re to be focused on who Christ is and what He’s provided for them. They’re to take their stand and just rest in who God’s made them, and the provisions God’s going to equip them with in Christ, and then let their thinking and their actions be regulated by what His Word has to say.

*****

By constantly, habitually communing with God through His Word until it becomes the substance of their inner being—that’s exactly what Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 tell them is going to take place.

He’s going to take His law and write it in their hearts and that law that He writes in their hearts is going to cause them—there’s going to be an internal compulsion that comes from the Word written in their heart that causes them to keep His commandment; that internal empowering. He’s talking about, "That’s the provision and that’s where you want to be.”