TWO VISIONS OF DEATH

TWO VISIONS OF DEATH

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Cor. 5:1

The vision of those who go and those who are left.

What is death? Simply the moment when a person passes on to another plane, on to another level. Some might remember the exquisite, marvelous line in the course of the slave's dream in which the author describes the passing out of the slave into liberty through death, and speaks of the body of the slave as a worn-out fetter which the soul had broken and cast away. That is the Christian conception of death. I want to take again a side issue for a minute. I do not want anyone to imagine I am callous in the presence of death. I am not. I know its bitterness to those who are left. I hate the idea that no tears are to be shed in the presence of it, that we are to steel our hearts against emotion. I am looking at death from the standpoint, NOT OF THOSE WHO ARE LEFT, BUT OF THOSE WHO GO. This is the two views of death. The earthly tabernacle, the tent, dissolved; then a building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1). The earthly tabernacle dissolved. I remember Moody saying to a group of friends, "Someday you will see in the newspaper that Moody is dead. Don't you believe it. The day you read that in the newspaper, Moody will be more alive than ever he has been." That is the Christian outlook, triumph over death.

WAR GAMES

WAR GAMES

"All flesh is grass."  1 Pet. 1:24

The poor unsaved human being has only the flesh and its desires to lead their life about and I am speaking about fallen humanity; not humanity climbing up, but humanity helplessly and irrevocably going down, so that it never can rise, except by a miracle of Divine power lifting it out of the dust, that is being saved by grace and the spirit brought back to life. I am dealing with the fact and the moment a man sees the spiritual, and answers it by following Christ, he becomes conscious of CONFLICT with the flesh. The CONFLICT of the child of God with the flesh is the CONFLICT of the overthrow of a recovered empire. Before you were a Christian you lived in the flesh. Now that you are a Christian you live in the spirit. Your own spirit is enthroned. You had it in the prison and starved it and neglected it; dead, and sometimes even said that you did not possess it; that is how dead it was. In the moment in which you gave yourself to Christ He put that spirit, your spirit, back on the throne of your personality, quickened, you feed it and nourish it with the Spirits help, for He put it there in partnership with His own Spirit, in order to realize your whole life; and the first thing is that the flesh become subservient to it. BUT THE FLESH does not become subservient immediately. The flesh which so long was degraded and by the fact that you allowed it to have its own way by answering its desires, and dwelling wholly within it, when put in its right place, under the spirit, it REBELS. Regeneration does not mean a sudden convulsion, of such a nature that all the fibers of my flesh cease to make their own demands. The FIGHT is long and strenuous, and sometimes almost to blood. I want every young Christian here, every young man and every young woman who is fighting this fight, to remember that he or she is conquering a recovered empire. You have set up the throne, but you have to win and cultivate and restore the whole territory. A man can be cleansed in a moment by the Spirit of God, but there is then the whole campaign of conquest to go forward. What I do plead for is that you shall be patient. That very thought comes out in the words, "Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Gal. 6:9) That is a recognition of the fact that the flesh which has been rampant and masterful for years, when you take the throne in the fear and fellowship of the Holy Spirit of God, is not immediately conquered, the long habits of years are not immediately broken. But the Spirit of God will continue to renew your mind and refresh your heart towards the goal the Father has spoken (Matt. 5:48) and that Jesus says to "go and sin no more" (John 8:4). Many are told to pick up their cross and follow Him (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23), and I hope they have ears to hear (Deut. 9:24; Matt. 11:15; Mark 4:23; Luke 8:8). The cross brings death to the flesh and quickens the spirit (Eph. 2:1).

DIVERSITY IN THE BIBLE

DIVERSITY IN THE BIBLE

(CULTURAL)

Gal. 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

When Jesus Christ came to be born into the flesh and to live a life of sinless perfection, He died for those who would trust in Him. It mattered little who it was that trusted in Him because for all who would believe in Him and be brought to repentance would be saved. There is unity of the human race according to Jesus. God is never concerned about a person’s skin color or their national origin, because those who are the children of God are citizens of the kingdom, not a kingdom of mankind.

Acts 17:26-27 “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.”

The Apostle Peter reminds us “that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34) and “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Gal 3:26), “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27), because “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29). The Apostle Pauls’ main point in Acts 17 is that God doesn’t regard a person’s nationality but He desires that they seek Him and Christ so that they might be saved. We are all “made from one man” (Adam) so we all have the same human father. There are no races to God, only the human race.

Ezekiel 47:22 “You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.”

In ancient Israel, they were commanded to allow non-Israelites to become part of the nation and with no discrimination or prejudice. The sojourners who were obviously not descendants from Abraham but it didn’t matter to God. He was seeking a people for Himself and this includes us who are non-Jews. As Peter wrote, at one time, “you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1st Pet 2:10).

Colossians 3:11 “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”

Col. 3:11 is similar to other verses in the New Testament but also to Old Testament commands to not regard a person’s national origin. It didn’t matter to God where they came from or what their background was as long as they obeyed God because obedience to God is more important than whom or where a person is from. Paul quotes the Prophet Hosea in Romans 9:26 by writing, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved” so God declares, “I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God’” (Hosea 2:23).

Deut. 10:17 “I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Before we who are saved were brought to repentance and faith in Christ, we were children of the Devil and were separated from God by our sins (Isa. 59:2) and it was as the Apostle Paul said, “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:1-2), “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5). If we are God’s own people, it doesn’t matter what we look like, and neither should it matter to us.

Rom. 2:11 “For God does not show favoritism."

Paul’s statement that God does not show favoritism is placed against the tendencies of the human heart that we do show favoritism. All you need to do is look at how people seem to gather around those who are most like them and avoid anyone that’s different, but that’s showing favoritism in a sense. God does not approve of such things and is not pleased when we have regard for one group of people over another and especially if we regard them because of their language, their skin color, or national origin.

Rev. 7:9-10 “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

If you want to see how history unfolds at the end of this present age, you need only look at the Book of Revelation. After Christ’s return and the establishment of His kingdom, there will be a great multitude of people who come from every nation and every tribe; and people from every language will all come together to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords. God loves variety and has called people from every tongue and every nation and this group of God’s own people will be like a patchwork quilt of different peoples from around the globe that will be beautifully displayed before our great God.

When the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven (Rev 21:1-2) and the kingdom of God is established here on earth, it will be said that “God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev 21:3), but “the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality” (Col 3:25).

Cultural diversity was brought about by the judgment in the beginning at Babel. The unity in these verses above was brought about by the threefold ministry of Christ. The division of Satan and his workers is done away by the washing and cleansing of Christ.

To be a child of Abraham means nothing if you do not trust in Christ, so that would be the very worst thing you can do, because to reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is to reject the only way you can be saved (Acts 4:12), and without Him, your future is more horrible than can even be described (Rev 20:12-15; 21:8).

JEALOUSY

JEALOUSY

In Godly jealousy is there any sense of vindictiveness. The Hebrew word might be rendered with equal accuracy "zealous." That is to say, it is a word that marks intensity, even fiery intensity. It is certainly used to describe that which is evil in some cases. It is equally true that it is used, as in the case of God, to refer to that which has in it no element such as that of petty vindictiveness, which we as Americans tend to associate with the word.

            The declaration that God is a jealous God simply emphasizes the irrevocable nature of His laws, and the fact that we cannot escape from them. These laws we need to remember are all the outcome of His love, and are in the interests of men.

            Jealousy is used in three senses in Scripture; (1) as intolerance of rivalry or unfaithfulness; (2) as a disposition suspicious of rivalry or unfaithfulness; and (3) as hostility towards a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage. Sense 3 approximates envy. God is jealous for His people Israel in sense 1, that is, God is intolerant of rival gods (Exod. 20:5; 34:14; Deut. 4:24; 5:9) One expression of God's jealousy for Israel is God's protection of His people from enemies. Thus God's jealousy includes avenging Israel (Ezek. 36:6; 39:25; Nah. 1:2; Zech. 1:14; 8:2). Phineas is described as jealous with God's jealousy (Num. 25:11, 13, sometimes translated zealous for God). Elijah is similarly characterized as jealous (or zealous) for God (1 Kings 19:10, 14). In the New Testament Paul speaks of his divine jealousy for the Christians at Corinth (2 Cor. 11:2).

    Num. 5:11-30 concerns the process by which a husband suspicious of his wife's unfaithfulness might test her. Most often human jealousy involves hostility towards a rival. Joseph's brothers were jealous (Gen. 37:11) and thus sold their brother into slavery (Acts 7:9). In Acts 17:5 a jealous group among the Jews incited the crowd against Paul. Jealousy, like envy, is common in vice lists (Rom. 13:13; 2 Cor. 12:20; Gal. 5:20-21). Jealousy is regarded as worse than wrath or anger (Prov. 27:4). James regarded jealousy (or bitter envy) as characteristic of earthy, demonic wisdom (James 3:14) and as the source of all disorder and wickedness (James 3:16).

ENVY

ENVY

"For he knew that for envy they had delivered him." Matt. 27:18

"For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy." Mark 15:10

Webster-A feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, QUALITIES, or luck.

The Bible defines envy as a painful or resentful awareness of another's advantage joined with the desire to possess the same advantage. The advantage may concern material goods (Gen. 26:14) or social status (Gen. 30:1). Old Testament wisdom frequently warns against envying the arrogant (Psa. 73:3), the violent (Prov. 3:31), or the wicked (Psa. 37:1; Prov. 24:1, 19). In the New Testament envy is a common member of vice lists as that which comes out of the person and defiles (Mark 7:22), as a characteristic of humanity in rebellion to God (Rom. 1:29), as a fruit of the flesh (Gal. 5:21), as a characteristic of unregenerate life (Tit. 3:3) and as a trait of false teachers (1 Tim. 6:4). Envy (sometimes translated jealousy by modern translations) was the motive leading to the arrest of Jesus (Matt. 27:18; Mark 15:10) and to opposition to the gospel in Acts (Acts 5:17, 13:45; 17:5). Christians are called to avoid envy (Gal. 5:26; 1 Pet. 2:1). 

    Envy is sometimes a motive for doing good. The Preacher was disillusioned that hard work and skill were the result of envying another (Eccl. 4:4). Paul was, however, able to rejoice that the gospel was preached even if the motive were envy (Phil. 1:15).

    The KJV rightly understood the difficult text in James 4:5, recognizing that it is a characteristic of the human spirit that it "lusteth to envy". Contrary to modern translations, the Greek word used for envy here (phthonos) is always used in a negative sense, never in the positive sense of God's jealousy (Greek zealos). God's response to the sinful longings of the human heart is to give more grace (James 4:6).

Wicked men promote envy to enrage people to evil ends. Such was the case for Jesus and His death brought about by those who were envious of His acclaim. Politicians today are using envy of the classes to bring about the destruction of a country that was named the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. They are bringing about the separation of the classes that were UNITED to bring hope to many around the world. Our constitution and its laws brought unity to the diversity of this great country that was being used by God. In His Kingdom there are no politics for there is one view that rules in unity of the Spirit. All others are said to be dealt with using a rod of iron as we who have entered His Kingdom blameless to rule and reign with Him will see the removal of all that fights the sanctification of the Kingdom inhabitants.

WHAT GOD REQUIRES

WHAT GOD REQUIRES

"do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with God." (Micah 6:8)

I go back to Deuteronomy and find that God requires of man that he should love Him and serve Him, and keep His statutes, quoted in Matthew. I come to Micah and I find that God requires that man should "do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with God." (Micah 6:8) In each of these declarations the word "require" is used in our translation, but the Hebrew words are different. They both convey the same idea, but there is a difference of emphasis. The Hebrew word in Deuteronomy means, this is what God asks; this is what God asks. When Micah wrote he used another word with more fire in it, more force in it, which we may safely translate, this is what God insists upon. When the law was given it declared, in our simplest sense of that word, what God requires. But the law having been broken, Micah, calling the people back from their sins, used another word with another emphasis: God insists. The things that God insists upon are that a man shall walk with Him, shall do justly, and shall love mercy. In the New Testament I find the requirements of God in words of Jesus, spoken in answer to a cynical question by a lawyer, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets." (Matt 22:37-40) Everything that Moses and Micah said lies in this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.... Thou shalt love thy neighbor." Hear one other word of Jesus in answer to our question. It occurs in the middle of the manifesto. More criticism has been spent on it than on any other of the sayings of Jesus, criticism of an order more perilous than all higher criticism, criticism which attempts to accommodate the great words of Jesus to the low level of the living of people who think they are Christians and are not "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:48) What does "perfect" mean? The exact opposite of sin. Sin, the word most commonly used in the New Testament, means missing the mark. The root idea of perfect is hitting the mark. "Ye therefore shall be perfect." You shall not miss the mark, but hit it. You shall not fail, but succeed. You shall be all God meant you to be. Whether that is a PROMISE or a COMMAND does not at all matter. Whether the mood be INDICATIVE or IMPERITIVE is of no consequence. If it be a command, all His commands are promises. If it be a promise, all His promises are commands. See also 1 John 3:2; Luke 6:40, Rom. 8:29, Col. 1:22; Jude 24; Eph. 4:13.

But what is the revelation of these terms? That God requires from every human being perfection, the realization of the ideal. That is God's 1st requirement. God expects me to be what He made me to be. That is perfection. God does not expect us to be angels, because He has not given us the angelic nature. He expects a man to be a man. He expects a woman to be a woman. He expects a child to be a child. There is nothing more out of harmony with the will of God than a child that ceases to be a child before it has ceased to be a child. There is nothing more out of harmony with the will of God than a man who does not come to manhood when he does come to manhood. Nothing insults high heaven more than a woman who does not become a woman even when she becomes a woman. Your perfection and mine will be as different as are our different lives in outward expression; as identical as are our two lives in life principle. I am not attempting to deal with the outward expression. In a group of people as those that read this article there are as many different expressions as there are people; but the inner essential thing in all life is likeness to God, that is, perfect love and perfect truth. Under the command of these two, all the things of the life are to be realized, the artistic, the mechanical, the business; whatever is in us to be realized at its profoundest and its best. That is the will of God.

God requires from me perfection (Matt. 5:48). That is, the ideal. I cannot give it Him. What does He do for me? He provides for me in Christ forgiveness for my sins (Eph. 4:331-32), and power to go and sin no more (John 8:11). Now what does He require of me? That I take what He provides, that I crown the King He presents, that I trust in the Savior He sends, that I receive the life He places at my disposal. That is the first requirement for the sinning soul. God presents the one all-sufficient Savior, REVEALING THE PATTERN, PROVIDING THE POWER, AND COMMANDING MEN EVERYWHERE TO REPENT AND BELIEVE "INTO" THE SON WHOM HE HAS SET FORTH.

The requirements of God in grace are man's fulfilling of His requirements in law. The actual requirements are realization of the ideal requirements. Am I putting these two things into opposition to each other? By no means.

Has God ever given up His ideal requirement for you or for me? Never. Does He by Jesus Christ consent to take something less than perfection in our life? By no means. Is the work of Jesus Christ that of asking God to excuse and let into heaven multitudes of incompetent souls? By no means. Was the work of Jesus Christ the making of a provision by which a man can be hidden out of God's sight in his impurity? By no means—a thousand times, by no means. Did Jesus Christ come to fling a cloak of righteousness over the filthiness of my rags? By no means. A cloak of righteousness, a robed righteousness, surely yes. I can still sing what my father sang.

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress; 'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed With joy shall I lift up my head.

The robe of His righteousness is never placed upon the filthiness of rags to hide them. The work of Jesus Christ is not that of bringing into the Kingdom of God men who are paralyzed and incompetent; but men made perfect. That is the meaning of the mission of Jesus. God's actual requirement is that man shall believe on Jesus, in order that His ideal requirement that man shall be perfect may be fulfilled. “Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy." (Jude 24) Was anything more stupendous than that ever written? That is what God requires. Nothing less than that will ever satisfy Him. He begins with the actual requirement that we submit ourselves to the perfect Savior Whom He has provided, in order that that Savior may realize in us all that we failed of, and all that we have lost.

CREATION AND RATIONAL THOUGHT

CREATION AND RATIONAL THOUGHT

What is the rational process? Given an object—I do not care what object, sun or star, bird or animal, tree or man—given an object, say a tree for the sake of illustration, behind that tree is a thought. Nothing ever has been, so far as human observation has any right to declare, but that the deed, the act, the fact, was preceded by a conception, an intention, a thought. Begin with the simplest thing in the wide world. I take in my hand this glass—an object. Behind it is a thought. It was seen before it was made. It was intended before it was constructed. Or take the most splendid and matchless building that your eyes have ever seen—the whole thing was thought before it was erected. What is true there we believe to be true everywhere. Here is a tree, a flower, more wonderful than the most splendid cathedral that man ever raised, far more mysterious than the most magnificent piece of machinery that man ever constructed. We may call it argument from design. I know it is the fashion to declare that argument exploded. I say it has never been answered. The rational process, then, is this. Behind the object is a thought; behind the thought is a thinker, for you cannot have a thought without a thinker, a mental mood without a mind, a conception without a conceiver. The rational process in the presence of the world is to pass through the object, sun, star, river, animal, to the thought behind it, and through the thought to the thinker, and in the presence of the thinker to bow in worship and service.