Sun, Apr 27th - 11:40AM

Discipleship - Persecution

Can You Stand Alone?

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.  Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

  Jn. 15:18-20

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.  2Tim. 3:12

 “Boy, it’s really gonna get rough when that persecution comes!  Pretty soon they’re going to take all of our freedoms away, and we won’t be allowed to worship together or even read our Bibles, right?  Look, it’s already happening in China, and in many other places in the world.  It’ll be happening right here before long.  I just hope I can get my kids through college and get my home paid off and have a little stashed away in my various accounts and investment plans before it hits.  I’m sure that the rapture will take place, though before the Antichrist takes over anyway, and all of us Evangelicals will be taken out a here by then.  But it sure will be bad for all those ‘left behind’ here on this earth.”

          I wonder if the monologue above is characteristic of the hidden thoughts of many a church-goer in America today.  “Comfortable Christians” would be a good label for scores of professing believers in Christ who are well-integrated into a godless, God-hating, self-loving society today.  Oh yes, they abide all of the laws, and vote, and set a “good example” of moral rectitude before their non-professing neighbors and fellow citizens, somewhat, anyway.  Well, they do attend “conservative” churches that supposedly proclaim the correct, orthodox Gospel, and are involved in many of the activities therein.  Compromise of truth and lifestyle?  Maybe just a little, just to let people know that Christians are human too, and like to have fun and need to “live a little” like everyone else.  But basically, they’re good, church-going people, and successful at what they do, too.  And when that real persecution comes, like forbidding the possession of a Bible, they’ll just line up for the buses to go off to the concentration camps where they can have their contemporary praise services before they’re all killed.  The Lord wouldn’t allow that to happen in America, anyway, at least not before the rapture.

Oh, really?  That’s probably true, but for a different reason than might be expected.  Persecution can’t happen when and where no one is presenting a true witness of godliness and righteousness through Jesus Christ.  Little compromises help people to adjust their minds and hearts to larger ones and make them safer from the ire of the world.  The world’s God haters and their corrupted social system must be challenged and threatened, as it is and has been elsewhere and in times past in order for it to resist the move of God in His people.  Voting and rallying against abortion and other social evils may bring some resentment and resistance, but, by and large  these things just make the world yawn.  Why?  Firstly, moral causes do not necessarily strike at the heart of society’s moral problem, and secondly, the kind of causes engaged in today are little more than attempts to sway public opinion in one direction or another.  What really challenges the world is a true and living witness presented by persons entirely sold out to Christ and willing to suffer for it in smaller, as well as bigger ways. 

This total commitment is largely lacking in professors of religion and in their collective fellowships in the Western churches today.  It has been supplanted with things such as the “let’s win them” philosophy that essentially imitates the world for the sake of gaining favor with its subjects, with the supposed object of swaying them toward Christ.  This, of course is contrary to the entire message of the New Testament with regards to separateness and holiness.

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.  Gal. 1:10

What we have produced in modern Evangelical Christianity is a generation of moral-spiritual cowards who can’t stand the heat of rejection from the world around them.  They have been deluded into a false form of witness, that results in a false expression of evangelism rooted in a false gospel, that is little more than a philosophy of worldly acceptance and success.  The world glorifies the self-life with its concepts of “self-esteem” and “self-worth,” whereas the Word of God exhorts the would-be disciple of Jesus to deny self and to take up the cross to follow Him.

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.  Matt. 16:24

How easy it has become to be a “Christian” nowadays.  Just attend some fun (and safe) youth activity at some seeker-friendly church, or for adults to attend such a church with like-minded and successful “yuppies,” and to mimic some verbal formula about “accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour,” and you’re in.  The real question is “Are you truly in God’s kingdom when you make a shallow commitment following a vague message about a misrepresented Christ?”  Then, after making this commitment in ignorance of the true cost of following this Christ through a path of self-denial and suffering, the challenge of obedience and self-denial is either minimized or absent altogher from thence on in that new believers church life.  In fact, the very opposite is the case.  What I am stating here takes place in varying degrees in our American churches, but is by no means an exaggeration of the real experience of professing Christians in them today.

          Now here is the challenge for those who would truly follow Jesus.  First of all, forget what the crowd says and does.  It’s actually a mixture of truth and falsehood that only brings confusion to the mind and soul of the one who really wants all of God and His kingdom in his life.  Read the New Testament again, but without the colored glasses of modern Evangelicalism.  Just read it under the Spirit’s guidance and let Him be your guide.  Let Him adjust your thinking and your conscience, and let Him fill you with a desire for grace and holiness, as only He can.  Let the Spirit convict you of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, as Jesus promised He would do, and allow Him to transform you into the new creation that all His beloved children are, and are becoming in the very likeness, morally and spiritually of their blessed Lord Jesus Christ.  Quit listening to the voices around you telling you to compromise your faith and to live by human sight.  Repent!  Turn with all your heart and being to God in humble recognition of your neediness of salvation and grace.  Finally, be willing to stand and, having done all, to stand alone in this world with Jesus as your only support.  When even those closest to you cannot understand what is happening in you and what you are doing, and their rejection threatens your greatest level of security in this world, just stand, and let Jesus Christ defend and affirm you.

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring [it] to pass.  And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.  Ps. 37:5,6

          Are you willing to stand alone, my friend?  If you are, then you will find that you truly are not alone, but you must be willing to be alone, that is in regard to the people and the systems and all the security and comfort that this world has to offer you.  Then will you find the true comfort and security that Christ bestows on His precious own.  Then will you know Him, in the truest sense of His power in resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.  Then will you see that the Lord is compassionate and gracious, and that He would not forsake any that put their trust in Him.

...and thou shalt know that I [am] the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Isa. 49:23

Thu, Apr 10th - 10:07PM

Spiritual Inheritance

Three Blessings of the New Covenant

For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 

Heb. 8:10-12

            We are exhorted and encouraged earlier in this epistle to move on to maturity (Heb. 5:12-6:1ff) in our relationship with Christ.  Indeed, there is truly no middle ground in the Christian life that can be rightly accommodated.  It is a life of either progress or regression.  Maturity, or perfection as it is called in chapter six, verse one, entails a striving forward to the attaining of a full understanding of Gospel truth and the apprehension and employment of that truth in the life of the believer.  Today’s churches seem to be largely populated with what might be termed “half-way Christians,” that is those who have initially believed in Christ for forgiveness, and perhaps striven toward holiness in a measure.  But these have some how stopped short of the goal and settled into a place of complacency and contentment with their old ways and thinking patterns.  Sadly, the shepherds in many of their churches have compromised their messages in order to accommodate such carnal living.  They, themselves have often opted for church growth schemes that gather in numbers to fill pews in large sanctuaries, and, of course increase the revenues that sustain large organizations, rather than challenge the sheep to forsake all in following Jesus.

But, for the few who choose true discipleship, and who are aware of the personal cost associated with this pursuit, there remains a great wealth of grace available for the enlarging of the mind and heart.  They are the ones privileged to experience this “so great salvation” spoken of in Hebrews 2:3.  But before the full experience of salvation can be enjoyed, there must come an understanding in the mind as to what has and is taking place for and in the believer.  These truths are, very clearly and progressively laid out in the epistle alongside warnings and admonitions to be heeded.  Mere intellectual knowledge of the facts are not sufficient to bring about change in the heart and eventually in the life.  Here is where the saying that “knowledge puffeth up” comes to play.  Many a knowledgeable teacher of truth has fallen by the wayside morally and spiritually because he failed to allow the knowledge he possessed to be applied practically to his heart.

          In order for a proper understanding of the New Covenant under Christ to be had, a comparison must be made with the Old Covenant under Moses.  The New Covenant finds its life and identity by superceding the provisions and conditions of the Old, by satisfying its requirements, and by fulfilling its uncompleted purpose in the lives of those for whom the Old was inadequate.  In short, the Old Covenant is a mere shadow of the New.  It contained numerous ceremonial ordinances that pictured a larger spiritual transaction accomplished by Jesus Christ, the mediator of the New, by His death and resurrection, and by His mediation and present intercession in heaven.  The Old Covenant was inadequate in bringing about a continuing obedience in the lives of its adherents, the Jews.  It fell short, as was apparent by the falling short of the people to whom it was given.  The New Covenant was given in view of this shortcoming, and demonstrates its superiority in every way over the Old.  It was sealed with the blood of Christ, rather than the blood of animals.  Its priesthood is continuing in the power of an endless life by Jesus Christ, whereas the priesthood of the former covenant was temporary, being conducted yearly, because of the imperfection of the priests and the covenant itself.  And, because of the temporal ness of the Old Covenant, it was unable to fully cleanse the heart and conscience from sin, but could only cover it year by year through its typical sacrifices.  The New Covenant, on the other hand made a once for all atonement (Heb. 9:28; 10:10) for sin to do away with it altogether.

          In the eighth chapter of Hebrews we are made aware of the announcement of the New Covenant in the Old Testament, as predicted in Jeremiah 31:31ff. Three blessings are noted in this prophecy that were unavailable and unattainable under the Old Covenant.  The sequence of these blessings is not in order in this prophecy, but the blessings are, nevertheless stated therein. 

1.  Pardon for Sin 

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  V.12

This pardon entails more than just a remitting of and escape from punishment.  There is a putting away of our sins out of the mind of God, a willful forgetting, and removal of consciousness of them.  “... It implies acceptance, complete restoration to the favour, the heart and the home of the Father.”[1] 

2.  Sanctifying Grace:  God’s Law in the Mind and Heart

 I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts...v. 10

The power for holy living is granted by virtue of the bestowal of a heart knowledge of the work of Christ upon the cross, its sanctifying effect upon the converted soul (see Rom. 6:1-11), and a heightened awareness of the moral precepts of God in the consciousness.  The power of sin in the life of the believer has been effectively cancelled in a legal sense.  The law is no longer a threat, but becomes a desirable object to be obeyed out of love.  Therefore, the notion so prevalent that one must sin, that some manner of sin is inevitable to some degree is proved false.  Under the old covenant atonement for sin was a constant necessity, because it was only typical, rather than actual and complete.  This until the time in history that the once for all sacrifice for sin would be made on the cross.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  Heb. 9:13,14

Not only is the consciousness of guilt for past sins removed from the believer, but his conscience was purged from the propensity to live holy by his own virtue.  Sin and self-effort were completely cancelled in their jurisdiction and power.  This is very liberating news for one whose lifestyle has been crippled by the ongoing effects of continuing sin.  Sinning, while it may occur, is no longer a necessity.

3.  Fellowship in the Presence of God

...and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people... : for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

The direct teaching of the Holy Spirit in the spirit of the believer, and the direct fellowship of God by the presence of the Spirit, is so often negated by those Christians, who have come only partially to the realization and appropriation of this truth.  Without a full understanding of the breadth of pardon, and the implications of the writing of the Law upon one’s heart, and the resulting power for holiness,  this intimacy of knowing God in the New Covenant sense of immediate presence and fellowship is greatly hindered, diminished and even voided altogether.  There is a certain confidence and boldness in the living presence of a covenant God that can only be enjoyed by the one willing to press on to the appropriating of the preceding two blessings, pardon and practical sanctification.  One’s confidence may be falsely placed in head knowledge, or in a general absence of visible sin in his life, or upon any other of a number of other natural factors.  But the soul who leans wholly on the promises and provisions of the New Covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ, who is the Surety of this covenant has a joy unspeakable, a strength that cannot be overcome by any natural means, and a hope that is sure on earth and in heaven.*

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose I will not, I will to desert to his foes;  That soul, tho’ all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

George Keith, “How Firm a Foundation.”

*Much of these thoughts were taken from “Holiest of All,”  by Andrew Murray, chapter LXIII.