March 30, 2006

The essence of that “most precious message” which “the Lord in His great mercy sent” to us at one time long ago was the New Covenant” (NC). And the idea which the “messengers” had was that the NC is the promises that God makes in transforming the Ten Commandments from stern commands and prohibitions written in stone into most precious promises of righteousness in Christ. Conversely, the Old Covenant (OC) is the promises that we make to God to keep those Ten Commandments, which promises we break.

The NC makes life to be a joyous walking on air; “delight thyself also in the Lord [believe His promises!], and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4, for example. Over night? You have enough God-given common sense to know how that may not be reality because you see that Abraham is “[your] father” in believing the NC, and how long did he wait before the Lord’s promise to him of Isaac, the child of promise, was fulfilled? Yes, many years—BUT the apparently impossible fulfillment came! The Lord gave him “the desires of [his] heart”! And the long wait was worth it because of the immensity of the promise—Abraham became “the father of the faithful” of all generations! Everyone who at last will walk through the gates of the New Jerusalem will do so as a “child of Abraham.”

God’s timing will be just right for you as it was just right for Abraham. It may be a dream from your youth; the holy desire of your heart is His desire for you! “Grow up” “into Christ.” Come into the sunshine of the NC.

March 28, 2006

The prophet Malachi was as much inspired by the Holy Spirit in his little four chapters as the prolific prophets, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. His burden was family “heart”—pure and holy love of one true man for one true woman. Twice in 2:2 he rebukes the priests for their hardness of heart, their resistance of holy love; they do not “lay it to heart.” In 2:14-16 he rebukes them for marital infidelity, the heart-corruption that underlies adultery: “The LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your companion, and your wife by covenant..... Take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.”

He is not talking about multiple love affairs in youth, like bees sampling all the flowers. One torrid “relationship” after another is not the “love which we receive from Jesus.” The love of a pure man for one woman in youth is so intense that it is impossible for him to even think of adultery (or fornication!), or to be unfaithful; no other woman in all the world can entice him. The “love which we receive from Jesus” is so strong, says the Song of Solomon, that impurity or infidelity is impossible. “Close your heart to every love but mine; hold no one in your arms but me” (8:6, GNB). For the one who appreciates the love of Christ, the seventh commandment has become a promise—your love is locked in by the much more abounding grace of Christ. You simply cannot crucify Christ afresh; His love (agape) has constrained you to live “henceforth” unto Him who died for you and rose again (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). If you walk with the Spirit, you cannot do the evil things that your sinful nature would prompt you to do (Gal. 5:15-17).

Malachi’s concern for “heart” purity is seen again in his idea of what “Elijah” will do—”turn the hearts” of fathers and children (4:5, 6). That never-ending blessing through the decades is wrapped up in the first, pure love of “youth”! Malachi says God intends it to last forever.

March 26, 2006

Will Elijah’s message when he comes bear any relation to the “mark of the beast” that is also yet to come? Yes! It will be the message of Elijah that will enrage those who want to enforce the “mark of the beast.”

Elijah will proclaim the message of the “seal of God,” the antidote to the “mark of the beast.” As we read in Revelation 14:1-15, it is the “seal of God,” “the Father’s name written in their foreheads,” that distinguishes the 144,000 who “follow the Lamb [the crucified Christ] wherever He goes.” They are obviously those in the seventh church of Laodicea who have “overcome even as [Christ] overcame” and are seated with Him “in [His] throne” (3:21). They share with Him executive authority in bringing to a close the great controversy.

Elijah’s message will be controversial, not that he wants to stir up controversy, but the truth arouses opposition. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had sent emissaries all over their world asking each nation’s State Department to certify that Elijah was not hiding in their political domains. Baal worship was a highly sophisticated counterfeit of the true gospel that deceived Israel; but its true character was displayed in the persecuting spirit it produced.

Was Elijah intimidated by the bitter opposition he faced? Yes, and no; after Mt. Carmel, yes—Jezebel scared him into running for his life. At Mt. Carmel, no. He was a man of like passions as ourselves! Jesus has commanded us, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Over and over, God’s word has reiterated that message. In your human heart and in mine, the great controversy is being fought out, and we are all “of like passions” as was Elijah. There is one secret place where we overcome fear: kneeling ALONE with Jesus in Gethsemane, where we permit the Holy Spirit to “pour” into our selfish, worldly hearts the gift of love (agape; Rom. 5:5).

March 25, 2006

The very last words of the great Old Testament (944 pages in my Bible compared with only 285 in the New) give us hope. The LORD Jehovah (Yahweh, Yakweh—no one seems sure how to pronounce the sacred name) promises to send us “Elijah the prophet” on a blessed mission of reconciling hearts that are estranged. (We wish the people in Iraq would welcome Elijah; and our nation of 50 “united” states could also enjoy some welcome political reconciliations just now.)

But tucked in there as our very last Old Testament phrase is this ominous word from the LORD: “Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Mal 4:6). On the surface it appears to be a terrible threat of severe divine retribution if we treat the returning Elijah as Ahab’s and Jezebel’s Israel treated him long ago. The Lord appears to cap the Old Testament off with a final thunder appeal to raw fear—“straighten up or else!”

If we do a little research in the Old Testament about a “curse” and the suffering land, we come up with an interesting truth: whatever “curse” comes on the land is the direct result of the sin and rebellion of the people—not an arbitrary act of personal vengeance on the part of God. In a consistent pattern in the Bible, He takes the blame for evil that He does not (or cannot) prevent in this world of sin. He even takes the blame for the death of His Son, Jesus (see Isaiah 53:10, “yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief,” yet we know well that it was the scribes and Pharisees who tortured and murdered Him!).

There is an extended essay in 24:1-6ff about how to understand what appears to be a “curse [from the Lord that] has devoured the land.” The picture appears to be a dramatic divine temper tantrum of “scattering abroad the inhabitants of the land” and turning the poor earth upside down, etc., when in reality the truth is that “the earth is defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws,.... broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth....”

Stop and do a little thinking. “Elijah” is here; he wants to save us from destroying ourselves! Let’s listen. I remember a godly physician in my childhood telling us, “There are more blessings in God’s curses than in man’s benedictions.”

March 24, 2006

The promise of God that millions are pondering this week is the coming of that same “Elijah the prophet” who once turned the nation of Israel upside down. He is nothing, unless he turns the world church upside down again! There will be no fence straddling when he comes, no procrastination; there will be final decisions made within the church for heaven or for hell. His challenge long ago will ring again: “If the LORD (Jehovah) is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow Him” (1 Kings 18:21).

God’s solemn promise says that Elijah will “turn the hearts” of His people; he will not scare them into a temporary emotional response before they partake of a lush Sabbath dinner; “he will turn.... hearts”! He will not keep saying over and over, “we must be more faithful, we must read our Bible more, we must pray more, we must do more missionary work, we should witness more, we should watch fewer soap operas, spend less time at sports, we should watch our diet more, etc., etc.” For the first time since Pentecost long ago, “Elijah” will make possible a full demonstration of what happened at Pentecost—only in even greater effectiveness. “Elijah’s” message will coincide with the “other angel’s” message that “lightens the earth with glory” (Rev. 18:1-4). He will “turn HEARTS”! Elijah’s message will not be an Old Covenant demand, but a New Covenant enabling. It will not be Mt. Sinai, but Mt. Carmel—a body of God’s people whose heart is “turned.”

Let us pray that the new series of Lessons that now begins, on the Holy Spirit, will be a significant step toward what will glorify the sacrifice of the Son of God for His people. We don’t want to say goodbye to you, Elijah; we want you to work!  It’s time.

March 23, 2006

This week is special for millions of Christians around the world who as a corporate body are devoting personal study to the last promise God made in the Old Testament—to send “Elijah the prophet” just before “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (the second coming of Christ, Mal. 4:5).

Elijah is one of a special club of three in which membership is unique: the first is Enoch, who “was translated that he should not see death.... because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5). The second is Moses who had to come under the dominion of death, but was granted a special resurrection (Jude 9). And Elijah was the third—also translated without dying. So these three humans dwell somewhere in the vast universe as special guests of heaven. (The vast numbers of those who have “died in Christ” sleep until the resurrection.)

Elijah and Moses share the immense honor of being sent by the Father on a special mission for interview with the Lord Jesus shortly before He had to face the horror of His cross (Matt. 17:1-5). Moses and Elijah shared something in common with Jesus—both surrendered their souls to self being “crucified with Christ.” Moses loved backsliding Israel so intently that he asked (seriously!) to have his name blotted out of God’s Book of Life if God would not or could not save Israel (cf. Ex. 32:30-33).

Elijah knew the indescribable thrill of confronting apostate Israel on Mt. Carmel and praying for fire to fall and consume his sacrifice. From that stratospheric moment of exaltation, he descended to pray a prayer like that of Moses: “He prayed that he might die, and said, ‘It is enough! Now Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!’” (1 Kings 19:4). Utter despair akin to that of Christ as He hung on His cross in darkness of soul! This was not Elijah’s selfish desire to sleep until the resurrection; as with Moses, it was love for sinful Israel that constrained him, like Jesus to “pour out his soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12) in prayer for God’s people—the real thing, the second death. The two alone could understandably encourage the Savior on the Mount of Transfiguration to face that same death in His sacrifice of Himself for us. We thank our Lord for His giving Himself for us; thank you, Moses and Elijah, for encouraging Him!

March 22, 2006

It sounds impossible, but Jesus actually said it: the Father has hidden precious truth from “the wise and prudent” people! They may weary themselves in their search for it, to no avail. It’s a warning to us common, lowly people, not to let them do our thinking for us.

The context was Jesus “upbraiding the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.” Their refusal to repent gives us a clue to this apparently impossible prayer Jesus prayed: “I thank You, Father,.... because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes” (Matt. 11:20, 25). Wise and prudent people find it difficult to humble themselves. They gravitate toward becoming prophets of Baal. Heart-melted repentance is the only appropriate human response to Christ unveiling Himself in His revelations of truth. When the Holy Spirit meets the wall of arrogant human resistance, He humbly withdraws Himself and leaves the “wise and prudent” to patter on, unconsciously devoid of His presence.  The common people are bewildered, for they naturally detect that the Emperor has no clothes on. “The [vociferous] labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, for he knoweth not how to go to the [Holy?] city” (Eccl. 10:15, KJV).

Paul tells the lowly, humble people, “You see your calling,.... that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things.... to put to shame the wise,.... and the base things and.... despised God has chosen,.... that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:26-28). If you are one of the “common people” who hears Jesus “gladly” (Mark 12:37), don’t “glory” over the “wise” and “noble.” Be humble; the Father’s rejection of them is not total—just of “many.” They can repent if they will listen. If you were “wise” or “noble” you might be proud, too. Thank God we common people can welcome a mode of repentance always.

March 21, 2006

There are some very bad people in the world, rulers who have done great evil to their people and have threatened the world. It is popular to hate them; and unless one does hate them it is possible that some will consider that he is not “patriotic.”

But we have a problem with the words of Jesus, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies,.... do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matt. 5:43, 44).

Is that hopelessly wrong political and military wisdom?

Are we to say that there are some people so very bad that Christ did not die for them? That John 3:16 does not include them (“whosoever....”)? One of the world’s most autocratic and cruel rulers was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon; but because God had a few loyal and truly converted young people who had learned the gospel, God was able to convert that cruel, unfeeling ruler (Daniel 4). Something they did and said had touched his heart hard as granite and he was changed.

God told His people that “fear and dread” would “fall” on the unbelieving Egyptians (Ex. 15:16), and “I will send My fear before you.... among all the people” (23:27). God will send “four angels” to “hold” the terrible hatred of the enemies of God if His people will proclaim to the world His “sealing” message (cf. Rev. 7:1-4). It was surely God’s will that the new nation of America with their Constitution that guaranteed freedom and liberty of conscience should command something worldwide akin to that “fear of you and dread.” That does not mean that very bad people would necessarily be converted, but the Bible picture is clear that the demonstration of the truth of God can have a sobering effect on evil people in the world.

March 19, 2006

The true gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thoroughly Good News this dark world has. Every human being is by nature a descendant of the fallen head of the human race—Adam; the Bible calls that fallen nature “the flesh.” The “works” or “fruit” of the flesh is an endless catalog of evil that always ends in misery.

But Paul dares to tell us in Galatians that if we have chosen to give ourselves to Christ and to “walk with the [Holy] Spirit,” He will hold us by the hand so we won’t stumble into those allurements of sin, even though our sinful nature would push us into it. “Ye cannot do the [evil] things that ye would” ( 5:16-18).

One of those alluring temptations is fornication or adultery. “The lips of another man’s wife may be as sweet as honey and her kisses as smooth as olive oil, but when it is all over, she leaves you nothing but bitterness and pain. She will take you down to the world of the dead” (Prov. 5:3-5).

BUT.... Proverbs gives you the same Good News that Galatians does (“wisdom” is Christ, cf. 1 Cor. 1:24): “Wisdom.... will provide you with life—a pleasant and happy life. You can go safely on your way and never even stumble..... The Lord will keep you safe [from sin!]. He will not let you fall into a trap” (3:21-26). “Your insight and understanding will protect you, and prevent you from doing the wrong thing” (2:11, 12, GNB). Same as Paul’s Good News!

When life is over, you will take not an iota of credit to yourself. You will gladly confess, “By grace [I] have been saved through faith, and that not of [myself]. IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD” (Eph. 2:8, 9). Isaiah reminds us, “This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord” (54:17, KJV).

Believe that today, and your heart will overflow with gratitude. You’ll have heaven on earth.

March 18, 2006

Galatians 5:16, 17 has spiritual nuclear energy within it. It says that if we have made the choice to walk with the Holy Spirit and let Him hold us by the hand (isn’t that what baptism is?), He strives night and day 24/7 against our fallen, sinful “flesh,” our sinful nature. Yes—personally, individually. The result? The text says we “cannot do the things that [we] would.”

There are two ways we can read that: (a) we cannot do the GOOD things the Holy Spirit prompts us to do. (Is that good news?) If the mighty power of the Holy Spirit is striving against our “flesh” and we still can’t do the good things we’d like to do, that looks like the worst BAD news we could imagine. That would mean that sin is stronger than God. In other words, He has lost the great controversy—in principle. That’s an Old Covenant way to read Galatians 5:16, 17, popular but questionable.

(b) The other possibility is: if we choose to let the Holy Spirit hold us by the hand we cannot do the EVIL things that “the flesh” would prompt us to do. Paul goes on to detail “the works of the flesh” that the Holy Spirit saves us from doing: “adultery, fornication,....” etc., etc. A good list of things to be delivered from! But too often we seem to get entangled in them. Why? Have we misunderstood the gospel?

Then the apostle details some of the good things that the Holy Spirit prompts us (and enables us) to do if we “walk” with Him: “Love [agape], joy, peace,....” etc., etc. (vss. 22-24). That’s the best GOOD news we could imagine; it’s New Covenant news.

The traditional way to understand Paul is that we can’t do the good things we’d like to do, so Jesus just has to “cover” for our continued sinning, which is nice of Him to do but leaves Him ashamed before the universe for the failure of His gospel to save FROM sin (cf. Rom. 1:16). (Incidentally, we may have thought that Romans 7:15 is parallel to our text in Galatians, but it doesn’t talk about a Spirit-consecrated life, but a pre-Romans 8:1-4 life).

March 17, 2006

“Our beloved brother [the apostle] Paul” (2 Peter 3:15) writes something that seems strange—if you take it as it reads. It’s Galatians 5:16, 17 (KJV): “The flesh lusteth [strives] against the [Holy] Spirit, and the [Holy] Spirit against the flesh: and these [two] are contrary the one to the other [we’ve always known that, haven’t we?]: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” There are two ways to read that—”the things that ye would” are either good things or bad things; can’t be both. What Paul says doesn’t seem strange if we take it the popular way—the things you “cannot do” are the good things you’d like to do but can’t.

In other words, the popular idea is that it’s easy to sin while it’s uphill going to resist sin, to do good as we’d like to do. The allure of self and of the “flesh” and of the world is stronger than our desire to go to prayer meeting, for example. The idea long encouraged is that no matter how strongly you want to “overcome,” you should settle down to reality: as long as you have your bad equipment of a sinful nature inherited all the way from Adam, you’ll have to continue sinning until Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven and zaps you with new equipment—a sinless nature. Then it will be possible and even easy to do what’s right. For now, God doesn’t expect you not to sin. Jesus will “cover” your sinning with His white robe; the Father won’t even see your continued sinning, He’ll only see Jesus covering your sinning.

But that’s not what Paul actually says! In verse 16 we read, “Walk with the [Holy] Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh,” in other words, you won’t fall into sin! “The things that ye would” that “ye cannot do,” according to what Paul says here, are the sinful things your fallen nature prompts you to do. And yes, this does sound strange! It sounds contrary to all we’ve learned since childhood at our mother’s knee. We’ve always understood it’s hard to be good and it’s easy to be bad.

The Ten Commandments read with Old Covenant eyes are stern, dark prohibitions; read with New Covenant eyes they are sunlit promises of victory in overcoming. Which are they?

What is the bottom line truth that the Bible teaches? Time’s up; but if the Lord gives us a tomorrow we’ll delve a bit deeper.

March 16, 2006

When the Apostle Paul became zealous and wrote his “epistles” to the Romans, the Galatians, the Ephesians, Timothy, et al., was he slipping over the 50/50 line of “balance” between faith and works? Did God raise up the Apostle James to write his “epistle” in an effort to put the brakes on Paul?

It’s not difficult to understand this problem. If we let James have his say we see that he is in no way opposing Paul. He is simply saying that genuine faith produces works of obedience to God’s law (James 2:14). It’s not faith AND works. James is exactly in harmony with what Paul says when he writes that what’s important is “faith WHICH works” (Gal. 5:6).

Oh, may the dear Lord deliver us from our Old Covenant mindset of self: what’s important in these last days is not saving our own poor little souls and getting a crown to put on our own little heads, but crowning the Son of God to be King of kings and Lord of lords. We are not mere spectators sitting on the bleachers watching the great controversy being fought to a close; we are down in the arena fighting “with Him” (Rev. 17:14). Yes, we want to be saved, of course; but on this great Day of Atonement we have grown out of our childish concern for the ice cream and cake at the “marriage of the Lamb” and we have grown up to sense the concern of the Bride at the wedding. She is not thinking now of herself as she once did in her childhood, but of her Bridegroom. We can’t set the clock back nor can we hinder it telling the time of day.

Faith has come to be seen as a heart-appreciation of His love (agape); the egocentric kind of “faith” is transcended and that love of Christ constrains us “henceforth” to think and to live “unto Him who died for us and rose again,” and not unto ourselves (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). At last, self is crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20; 6:14), and He alone is honored.

March 15, 2006

We know we’re living in the last days. The “time of trouble” is coming (Dan. 12:1), and “the seven last plagues” (Rev. 16:1), and “days of vengeance” (Luke 21:22) when “men’s hearts [are] failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth” (vs. 26). With Peter each of us cries out, “Lord, save me!” (Matt. 14:30).

But what will He save us to? Being digits in “the great multitude that no man [can] number”? (Rev. 7:9). More than that! “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne,” says Jesus ( 3:21). That’s not an honorary decoration—that’s executive responsibility in bringing to a close the great controversy between Christ and Satan! No simplistic trust. It’s obvious: the Lamb needs them to stand “with Him” in this final “war” ( 17:14). They have a serious contribution to make!

An example of the kind of trust the Lamb will repose in them can be seen in the career of Elijah. The 3-1/2 year famine in Israel in the time of Ahab’s and Jezebel’s Baal worship was the result of the initiative that Elijah took. The Bible record is interesting; God threatened to write Israel off (Assyria would soon conquer them into captivity anyway; see the book of Hosea, for example). But the Lord allowed Elijah to express his heart of love for Israel (as with Moses, Ex. 32:31, 32). The famine was the last possible way to arrest their attention in their “rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing” (Rev. 3:17, KJV) attitude. As we read 1 Kings 17:1 and James 5:17, 18, the famine was Elijah’s idea! The Lord simply responded to his initiative in prayer both beginning the famine, and ending it. We need to re-evaluate Elijah; God put the nation of Israel in his hands, as it were, because He did more than love him. He trusted him.

Christ’s Bride-to-be (“the Lamb’s wife,” Rev. 19:7, 8) has something to do on her own in closing the great controversy. She “must make herself ready” for “the marriage.” The Lamb can’t do that. She must do it! He not only desires her; He needs her. Can He trust her to be “with Him” in that last trying hour?

March 14, 2006

Suppose you have lived most of your life under the Old Covenant and now only in later years you have discovered the New. You can glean some encouragement from Jacob.

His family gave him the terrible name of “Supplanter” at his birth, the name he had to go by. He lived up to it when he tricked his brother Esau into selling him the birthright for a meal of his tasty stew; then he had to flee for his life. At Bethel the Lord gave him a wonderful New Covenant promise (Gen. 28:13-15). Jacob spent decades doubting that the Lord could bless him that much. His future father-in-law, Laban, in turn tricked him in his heart-felt love for Rachel (you can love someone truly while still under the Old Covenant!), giving him Leah instead on the wedding night after his seven years of hard labor; now seven years more to have Rachel, the one he truly loved. Endless heartaches.

Finally, in later life, Jacob finds himself wrestling with an Angel in the dark, struggling, he thought, for his life. When dawn began to break, the Angel (Christ) said “Let Me go!” but Jacob, quick to seize what he saw as his initiative, said, “I will not let You go, except You bless me” (meaning, deliver me from this Old Covenant soul-bondage). The Angel was caught; He couldn’t wriggle free from Jacob’s grasp. Whereupon He changed Jacob’s name: “Your name [is] Israel [Prince with God], for you have struggled with God.... and have prevailed”! (32:26-28).

There’s no way to get that name of Israel except by fighting that same battle of faith—believing God’s promise “in Christ” in spite of doubts you think are from God! One thoughtful writer suggests that while they were wrestling, the Angel asked him how could He bless him? Wasn’t he too unworthy? We say it reverently, we have to “overcome” what even appears to be God’s will against us! To secure the name “Israel,” we must triumph over Him! Remember, the elite Israel Club is limited only by unbelief.

March 13, 2006

It’s all very good to believe what Peter says about “receiving” and believing the “exceedingly great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4), but what are the “promises” themselves? They must be understood and “received” into the heart; then they go to work and deliver the most sinful, polluted, selfish worldly heart so that we become actual “partakers of the divine nature.”

Well, let’s start with John 3:16: BELIEVE, appreciate, comprehend, the love that the Father gave in giving Christ to us forever. “Whosoever believes in Him” will not commit spiritual and material suicide (that word “perish” is in the middle voice of the Greek verb! I am indebted to a dear friend for this insight that somehow escaped me for all these many years). New Covenant!

Then look at the seven grand promises God made to Abraham under the New Covenant (Gen. 12:2, 3). You are his child by faith (Gal. 3:9). Therefore they are all promises God makes to you. BELIEVE them. (Someone will tell you that you must work hard in order for them to come true; let subtle Old Covenant thinking become New Covenant: the love [agape] of Christ will “constrain” you to work hard with no thought of reaping your reward.)

Then take a look at the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13). Jesus invites anyone in the world, even the most terrible sinner, to pray that prayer. The New Covenant goes to work because the one who will “cry out, Abba, Father!” receives “the Spirit of adoption” (Rom. 8:15). You can’t pray “our Father” without your heart being melted!

Then take a look at the 23rd Psalm. Anybody in the world, even the most hardened sinner, can pray sincerely, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and his stony heart will be broken in contrition. The New Covenant Psalm “works.” The word itself has power (Rom. 1:16).

March 12, 2006

The difference between the New Covenant and the Old is simply the difference between salvation by faith and salvation by works. When God makes a promise, there is life in the promise itself. This is astounding news to many: believing a promise of God changes your heart?! The Bible answer is YES! There “have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).

There are the glorious fruits of salvation in that one statement. (1) “Through” the promises themselves we become converted. (2) Through the promises we “escape corruption”—isn’t that our practical problem of daily living? Yes, by believing these “great and precious promises” we prepare for translation at the second coming of Christ.

It’s not by works. But that doesn’t mean that the good works are not there—they are there as the result of believing those “promises”! The Bible speaks of “receiving the promises” (Heb. 11:13, 17). That is the same as believing them. Such “receiving” God’s promises delivers men and women and youth from addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, pornography, the allure of fornication and adultery, drugs (yes!), for we read, “Having these promises [receiving them], beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).

Thus the New Covenant is the message of the latter rain and the Loud Cry that lightens the earth with glory.

March 11, 2006

To be confused between the Old and New Covenants is not necessary. The New is God’s one-sided promise to write His holy law on human hearts. The Old, the vain promise of the people at Mt, Sinai to obey perfectly.

The New is, “Believe and live.” The Old, “Obey and live.”

The New says that salvation is totally by God’s grace through faith. The Old says salvation is by faith yes, but it’s also by our good works.

The New is a heart-appreciation of the love (agape) which constrains to perfect heart obedience (2 Cor. 5:17). The Old is egocentric “trust” motivated by hope of reward or by fear of punishment.

The New Covenant is everlasting; the Old is dispensational.

The New produces “under grace” motivation; the Old, “under law.”

The New is represented by the miracle birth of Isaac; the Old by the lustful birth of Ishmael.

The New is seen in free-Sarah’s pregnancy “by promise”; the Old, in slave-Hagar’s pregnancy.

The New is justification entirely of grace; the Old is justification by obedience.

The New is righteousness by a faith “which works”; the Old is righteousness by “sanctified” works; we help save ourselves.

The New wants Christ to return for His honor and vindication; the Old, for our own reward, “so we can go home to glory.”

March 10, 2006

The apostle Paul was a gift to the followers of Jesus. He disdained any claim to be called “an apostle,” thought of himself as “one born out of due time,” “the least of the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:8, 9), “less than the least of all the saints” (Eph. 3:8).

He never forgot his hatred of Jesus Christ; he had “persecuted the church of God.” This was not a front; he understood corporate guilt. Whatever sin any descendant of the fallen Adam might commit, Paul saw he was capable of the same, for he understood the sinfulness of his natural-born genes inherited from the fallen Adam.

The Holy Spirit taught him, but it’s also true that never had a Jew (other than Jesus) studied the Bible as he did, gleaning truth that the Eleven had not understood, yet they were not jealous of him.

Grasping the reality of his sin, he grasped Christ’s righteousness (dikaiosune, Gr). The Father sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin,.... condemned sin in the flesh” (ours; Rom. 8:3). Deep in the human heart are the rootlets of sin (7:7-11; what woke him up was the conviction of breaking the seventh commandment!). The pure law of God had nailed him like the most common sinner.

The Son of God in our human flesh had met the grand Enemy in mortal combat in His human flesh and forever condemned sin there—a victory not one of earth’s billions of “saints” had accomplished except by means of “the faith of Jesus.” Alone, friendless, persecuted, rejected, Christ spent His entire life rejecting temptations to sin; His final test—the darkness on His cross. One sinful, selfish thought indulged would have cost Him His glorious victory.

He shares His victory with us; if appreciated, “the righteousness of the law” (dikaiomata, Gr) becomes “fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the [Holy] Spirit” (vs. 4, KJV). Those who so “walk” today are preparing for the soon coming of Jesus. “Unworthy”? Of course; but it’s His grace—greater than our sin.

March 8, 2006

God’s solemn promise to “send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” intrigues the people of God worldwide (Mal. 4:4, 5). What will “Elijah” specialize in? Beheading “prophets of Baal”? (We have some, even many, says a widely respected author.) Undoubtedly, yes; but Malachi says no, “Elijah” will specialize in “turning” hearts that have been alienated from one another and from God. This is clearly stated in the original Elijah’s prayer before all the people gathered at Mt. Carmel: “Hear me, O LORD [Jehovah, clearly distinguished from Baal], hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the LORD God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again” (1 Kings 18:37, KJV).

“Turning hearts” is reconciliation, and nothing but the proclamation of the love [agape] of Christ can “constrain” a modern alienated, worldly heart that is infatuated with the world’s pleasures and cars and houses and dress and entertainment, yet wants to get ready for the second coming of Christ. All the dire warnings of beheadings to come cannot “turn the heart.” The new “Elijah’s” message must therefore be “Christ and Him crucified” (1 Çor. 2:1, 2). Unthinkable as it may be, this will anger the new “Ahab and Jezebel.” But “Elijah” will again demand that everyone come out of the closet; the good news is now that those “7000” hiding in the closet will this time have the courage to take their stand with him (on Mt. Carmel not one dared say a word of support). And all together, God’s numerous “Elijahs” will proclaim a message that will “lighten the earth with glory.”

March 7, 2006

I have often thought, if I could only hear a Voice from heaven declaring unto me, “This is My beloved son in whom I am well pleased” and I could see the face of Jesus actually smiling upon me, I think I could be happy enduring any trial or disappointment. When we long for some human face to smile upon us, what we really want deep down is to see the smile of the Son of God.

But we are so conscious of our shortcomings, our failures, yes, our sins, so that we endure unhappy days. Clouds cover the sunlight we seek. In these last days of God’s great antitypical Day of Atonement, the Lord wants us to understand more clearly how good is the Good News of His “everlasting gospel” that is to be “preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people” (Rev. 14:6, 7). And Revelation describes a further message which will “lighten the earth with glory” which obviously will make the gospel truth crystal clear to every heart that’s willing to listen to truth (18:1-4).

But you don’t have to worry and wish you could hear that assurance spoken from heaven to you. When Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan and came out of the water, the Holy Spirit like a dove came down upon Him and the Voice spoke from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). But the Father was putting His arms around you too! The Bible makes it clear that when the Father accepted His Son, He accepted us “in Him.” When He “gave His only begotten Son” for us, He bought us with that Price; which means that he loves us identically as He loves His Son (cf. Eph. 1:6).

You may think that is hard to believe. Now think a moment: suppose you go to a shop and you pay say $20 for a certain item that you think is a good value. By doing what you did, you are declaring that you love that item equally with your love for the $20 you gave for it. The Father loves you as much as He loves His Son! He is “well pleased” with the purchase He has made. In Christ you are one of Abraham’s descendants, and the seven promises God made to him in Genesis 12:2, 3 are made equally to you!

Those promises and that declaration are the New Covenant to your soul. When you come to the end of your way, the only regret you will have is that you didn’t believe them as wholeheartedly as you should! Jesus believed the assurance given Him that day of His baptism; that’s why He succeeded in overcoming all of Satan’s temptations to Him in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). Get the point? That kind of faith is your victory, too. You get that faith from Him. Open your heart to receive the gift.

March 6, 2006

A pastor friend writes inquiring if I had ever heard of the story of “the Roman gospel.” It seems that history reports that when a Roman army conquered a city, the news that was taken to its inhabitants was “the gospel.” The news was “good” in that the people were told that they were now Roman citizens with all the rights and privileges thereto. This “good news” applied to all in the city. The only exceptions were those who might refuse to become Roman citizens and opposed the “news,” whereupon they became subject to instant death by the sword.

Whether this is historically true I do not know (maybe someone out there who knows can inform me please).

But there is therein something that reminds us of a shade of genuine “gospel” good news. Christ has prevailed in the “great controversy” with Satan and has conquered the world. All who will believe the good news become citizens of God’s eternal kingdom with all the rights and privileges thereto including of course eternal life. But there is no compulsion to receive the “news.” Those who wish to disbelieve and reject it may do so. But those who do reject willingly subject themselves to the death that the Bible calls “the second death”—they “perish.”

Throughout the history of the world, God’s character of love has shone clearly, for “God is love” (agape). He wants all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4) and if He can have His way all will be saved but He can not force anyone. Christ is known as “the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe” (4:10). Because of Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for the world, the Father can treat these “all men” as though they were righteous, sending His rain and sunshine on good and bad alike (Matt. 5:45) and keeping His door open as long as anyone still has that freedom of choice. Those who “believe” are those for whom John 3:16 was written.

March 5, 2006

The story of Jesus is the story of the great controversy between God and Satan. The Enemy hounded Him every day of His life on earth as the Son of God incarnate. No human being has ever been so hated, treated so despicably, as was Jesus. His pain was not only during those few hours when He was nailed to the cross; it began with His boyhood. As a Boy of 12 He surrendered His soul to death on the cross when He said to Mary and Joseph, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). They should have known, but even His mother could not understand Him; and as His mother she had to endure the pain of a sword thrust through her heart as no other mother in history has ever had to endure (cf. vs. 35).

On and on through His 33-1/2 years of sojourn among us Jesus in His sensitive human nature has had to endure the opposition of human beings inspired by the murderous hatred of Satan. Finally in His last hour of human breath He must endure what no other human has endured—the sense of the horrible condemnation of the “curse” of God. “My God, My God,” He cries in mortal anguish as death encircles His soul, “why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). He cannot even cry “My Father”! The loving Father has turned His back on Him, abandoned Him to be humiliated by the world, all are against Him, God allows Him to hang naked between heaven and earth. He cannot even pray to the heavenly Father to whom He gave us permission to pray! (Moses said you can’t pray if you’re on a tree, Deut. 21:22, 23).

When He told His disciples in Gethsemane, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (26:38), He meant the real thing—not the sweetness of our desired sleep. He was “pouring out His soul unto [the] death” that is, the eternal curse of the Ruler of the universe (cf. Isa. 53:12). Darkness, loneliness forever! Peter says He endured the pangs of hell itself—the second death (Acts 2:27). Here is the “width and length and depth and height” of the “love [agape].... which passes knowledge.” Jesus has been forced to wait for 6000 years to find a church, a corporate body of believers, who appreciate it in a sense adequate to enable them to “lighten the earth” with the glory of its message. The lukewarmness of His last-days’ church (Rev. 3:14-21) is the biggest problem He has had in these millennia.

March 4, 2006

For some weeks, millions of Christians around the world have been studying about happiness in the Christian home. This weekend they are studying about a somber aspect of so-called “Christian” homes: oppression and abuse in the family. The Lesson frankly states that it is possible that “home” can become a hell on earth—if some members are arrogant torturers of others in the family. There is no hope for these abusers but to “fall on the Rock and be broken” (cf. Matt. 21:42-44), which means a total crucifixion of self “with Christ” on His cross (Gal. 2:20; Luke 9:23). He or she must come to the place where Job was when he said, “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (42:6). A total, forever experience.

But what is the hope for the abused? One true answer: “fellowship with Christ” in His sufferings. He was abused; now your mind is lifted above your own suffering to realize that you are being honored to experience an always-to-be-appreciated closeness to Him (see 1 Peter 1:6-13; 2 Cor. 1:3-7; Phil. 3:10). And remember, Jesus does not call you to be a doormat; you will not be proud but you will respect yourself as someone purchased with His blood (cf. Rom. 12:3). Jesus says twice in John 14, don’t be afraid; “let not your heart be troubled” (vss. 1, 27). In other words, your heart cannot be “troubled” unless you choose to let Satan terrify you. It is possible that the abused as well as the abuser has repentance to experience! Thank God that the Holy Spirit gives it as a gift (Acts 5:31)!

March 3, 2006

Sincere Christian people who love the Bible, whose hearts are moved by the love of Christ demonstrated at His cross, wonder at Islam. What is it? What is the secret of its immense appeal to over a billion people? It’s the second religion in the world, Hinduism lagging behind with only 881 million (statistics from Islam for Dummies by Malcolm Clark). Is it a God-ordained religion gone awry?

There is a Judeo-Christian Bible translated into Arabic in which the ordinary word for “God” is “Allah.” But is the Muslim “Allah” the same heavenly Father to whom Jesus directs us to pray? His Son tells us, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:44, 45). Humble our hearts before Him as we may want to do, we find it difficult to see that spirit actuating those bloodthirsty mobs who riot in their streets chanting jihad and “death to Denmark” or America—because of those silly cartoons. Why does God permit Islam to be such a thorn in the flesh of the so-called Christian West?

As the second religion in the world statistically, does it merit mention in the Bible? Reverent-minded Bible scholars for centuries have said yes. Islam is the “star fallen from heaven to the earth” and the “smoke.... out of the [bottomless] pit like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit” in Revelation 9:1-21. “Fallen from heaven”!

The Revelation context is important: the “seven trumpets” have sounded the proclamations of truth that professed Christianity has also “fallen” so that God must declare at last, “Babylon the great is fallen” (Rev. 18:2). The simple, clear Biblical truths that once “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6) have been perverted by the impregnation of paganism into Christian teaching. God permitted Islam to arise in its beginning as a protest against this spiritual “fall of Babylon”—Christians venerating images, for example. The phenomenon of “post-Christian” culture today has afforded Islam another “jihad” fodder to fuel the original zeal that lured the Middle East and North Africa from Christianity to Islam. Even Billy Graham said that God must apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah for the immorality that so-called “Christian” “democracy” tolerates. The jihad enthusiasts shout, “We don’t want what you have!”

The God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not asleep. Now let’s stay awake in these tough times and “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth”(Rev. 14:4, KJV).

March 2, 2006

Is the Holy Spirit being withdrawn from the earth? He was involved in the creation of the world when “the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2, NKJV); all through ancient times “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21; and at Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection of Christ, the Holy Spirit was poured out in fullness upon the apostles of Christ (Acts 2:4). Ever since, those who have opened their hearts to welcome Him have basked in the bright sunshine of His presence and wherever people have “proclaimed liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants” (Lev. 25:10), there have been security, prosperity and happiness. Those blessings are a measure, a portion, of receiving the Holy Spirit of God. Is that blessed era coming to an end?

We see the hate-filled faces of mobs rioting where you dare not show a Western face in case you be mistaken for a Dane; it’s difficult to see the Holy Spirit actuating those mobs. Some Muslims are fortunate enough to live in lands where Christian patriots of past generations gave their blood to establish civil and religious liberty. They may now feel a constraint that hinders them from giving loose rein to resentful feelings they may have against freedom of the press; that is an evidence that the Holy Spirit is still “hovering over the face” of the land restraining the mayhem that would come if He were fully withdrawn.

History demonstrates what happens in highly cultured lands where the Holy Spirit is so repressed that He is withdrawn—the French Revolution, for example, and the land of the Holocaust. Recent news tells how Roman Catholics are reacting forcefully against cartoonists who they think have desecrated the Virgin Mary. Economic pressure is a prelude to future threatening those who will then insist on still believing in civil and religious freedom. Be thankful for your present blessings of the Holy Spirit; He is the reason you can drive home in comparative safety.

March 1, 2006

The man had been a bachelor until late in life; then he met the woman of his dreams. She responded and the two seemed as happy as twenty-year-olds. They were married in a civil ceremony.

Then she came down with cancer. C. S. Lewis was devastated; but then some good news—the cancer went into remission and once again they felt they had discovered Paradise. Now they were married by a Church of England priest. It seemed that God smiled on them; but again the cancer returned and Joy died.

Says one author: “Lewis experienced a devastating sense of distance from God,.... ‘the dark night of the soul.’ Lewis wrote: ‘But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double-bolting on the inside After that, silence.’.... The danger was not that Lewis would become an atheist. Instead, he wrote: ‘The real danger is coming to believe such dreadful things about Him’” (Art Lindsley, Case for Christ, pp. 60, 61, Inter-Varsity Press, 2005).

Before you condemn Lewis, take a good honest look at our own Judeo-Christian Bible: numerous of our Psalms express the same desperate feelings (88, 22, 69, for example; and of course Job). The greatest Psalmist of all eternity once cried out, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). But what Lewis could not understand was that Christ endured that soul agony so that we might never have to endure it; but his soul was darkened by the belief he had inherited of the immortality of the soul. That doctrine derived from ancient paganism but taught in the Christian church had darkened his view of the cross of Christ. Hundreds of millions now suffer likewise. God has called a people to tell the truth about the cross, what happened there. It’s what Malachi says “Elijah” will proclaim to our darkened world—reconciliation of soul with God and with one another (4:4, 5).