Vol 1, No 2 - October 1992 - "A Heart Fixed on the Treasure"

Ps 57.7: My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Our text finds David in the midst of dire circumstances. His soul is "among lions," and "bowed down." He is surrounded by men who "have dug a pit" for him, "whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword [vv. 4, 6]." And yet he is able to cry to God that his heart is fixed. Marvelous stability! What does it mean experientially to have a heart that is fixed? What can so stabilize our hearts?

Scripture tells us, in Matthew 6, that where our TREASURE is, our HEART will be also. The treasure is the key. Yet we all know the disappointment of finding our hearts drawn off course. "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love." Have we not all felt the sorrow of knowing Jesus to be worthy of unfailing devotion and undying love, and finding our affections falling short of the mark and our flesh responding to lesser pulls?

There is help for this condition in the 13th chapter of Matthew, as the Holy Spirit would open up to us the parable of Jesus concerning the man who found a treasure hidden in a field. Notice here that the treasure is hidden. Perhaps it is buried somewhere in the field, as we most often picture. But perhaps it is distributed throughout the soil, as nuggets of gold that must be mined from the earth, or even hidden to the eye, as the powerful treasure of fruitfulness is hidden in the seeds in the ground. Once the treasure is recognized, however, the whole field is bought for joy, even at the price of this man selling "all that he had."

Now this field represents the seemingly nonessential things in our life that we have to go through in order to come to the treasure. Jesus is the treasure; and He is of a different order than the natural order through which we must move in coming to Him. Are we willing, for the excellency of the treasure, to buy the whole field? God doesn't just "plop" Jesus into the midst of circumstances that are always pleasing to us! A field has to be worked -- tilled, cultivated -- in order to gain its yield. This speaks of the crucified life. We have to move through the field, pressing against the world, sowing to the Spirit daily, realizing that we are in the world, but not of it.

This is where Christians need to understand that our coming into possession of the treasure will demand a heart that is fixed! A heart that is absolutely convinced that its real treasure is Jesus, and will be willing to go through whatever is necessary to possess Him. We will find ourselves fainting quickly if there isn't worked into us, by the power of the Holy Ghost, an absolute persuasion that Jesus is worth it all. No natural wisdom, no intellectual endeavors, no amount of study will persuade us of the magnificence of the great treasure which is ours in Christ Jesus. It must come under the power of the Holy Ghost! If our hearts are wandering hearts, going from one thing to another in an effort to attain satisfaction for our being, we need to cry out for the stabilizing, steadying influence of the Holy Spirit, Who will ever do the thing He is best at doing: making the things of Christ real to our hearts. When those things are real, it will be amazing how much extraneous activity will fall by the wayside.

Now on the level of intellectual understanding, of theoretical knowing, none of us has a problem with this; but it is an altogether different thing when this truth actually begins to take hold in our lives. For God doesn't present Himself as Truth in the intellectual realm; He presents Himself as Truth in the inmost part of man: in our hearts, in our flesh-and-blood experiential definition, where we have to work through some things in order to come to Him Who is our treasure. Perhaps we've been inspired by the treasure, and yet nonetheless, the world through which we have to move could still be a trap. If the enemy can succeed in clouding over the vision of the beauty of the treasure that is ours in Christ Jesus, then all too soon we will find the world holding out for us its own beauties. So often we say that all we want is Jesus, but if we are honest, we find that we try to dictate to God the terms in which Jesus will come to us. There is always the danger that the crucifixion required will not be to our liking, and we will settle down. This is why we are admonished to the stirring up of the gift within us.1

Ultimately, our only safety from the enemy's tactics, and the deceitfulness of our own hearts, is to be totally taken over by the Spirit of God. We need God's divine operations, until every area of our mind, every area of our emotions, every stratum of our being is under the influence of Him Who gave Himself for us that we might be made alive unto Him! Then, out of the stability of a heart that is fixed, will be true spontaneity of the Spirit. It will come to pass, what is spoken of in the Scriptures, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."2 Divine elusiveness is our portion! The enemy will not be able to keep up with us!

Notice the thought that comes immediately after David's testimony that his heart is fixed: "I will sing and give praise." Not, he will sing and then his heart will become fixed! When we can say with David, "My heart is fixed," we will have a joy in the Holy Spirit which we have never yet known. We will cease to dwell on what we are enduring, and will instead be taken up with Him.

If you are at all bogged down over the seemingly non-essential things you are going through, read prayerfully the 32nd chapter of Jeremiah. Ask the Holy Spirit to open up to you the Gospel truths of this prophetic action on the part of Jeremiah, in buying a field. Take in the hopelessness of the prophesied inevitable captivity. Take in the tremendous faith required to purchase a field at God's instruction, when the circumstances contradicted any hope of possessing it. Take in the glorious promise of God, regarding future purchases of fields to follow, showing Jeremiah's act to be but the earnest of a great inheritance. See herein the One Who bought a field at such a great price, for the sake of His Chosen. Consider the risk He took, as the field was infiltrated with the seed of Satan, the tares already sown under his dominion. And now the Spirit answers to the blood, telling us to follow where He has trod. As Jesus bought the field by the shedding of His blood, so we possess God by dispossessing ourselves.

God has a treasure now in the earth, because of Jesus' obedience. Jesus was the first One to buy the truth and sell it not, and now we can come along in His train, buying up, buying up, redeeming the time. As we now take His yoke upon us, putting our hands to the plow, and learn of Him, we will praise Him for the wisdom with which He has chosen to hide the treasure in the field. We will praise Him for the glory which is His in concealing the treasure, and the grace with which He enables us to have the honor of searching it out!3 For there is no limitation in God; He has purchased the whole field. "We're marching through Immanuel's ground!" The way may not be easy, but it is sure.

-From teachings by Annette Marsnik,
edited and compiled by DLS.

__________
1. 2 Ti 1.6
2. Jn 3.8
3. Pr 25.2

Vol 1, No 2 - October 1992 - "Growing Up Before Him"

Is 53.2: For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

There is a wonderful truth in this, not only for the historical unveiling of Jesus Christ to the world, but also for the operations of God in the lives of His saints. For He is the "pattern son"; and, as we are expressly told in the letter to the Hebrews, both He that sanctifies, and we who are sanctified, are all of one: one in suffering, one in His work in our lives, one in glory. We are told by Paul that we are called, by the gospel, "to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ [2 Th 2.14]." Does this thrill you?

The question before us is whether we will allow the work of the Son -- which is to say the operations of the Father toward the Son, bringing Him into full perfection -- to take place in our lives, even as Jesus allowed that work in His life. Many people in the church are confused on this point, and have become passive, no longer pressing toward the mark for the prize; but we want to be clear on it from the outset. We are called to obtain, and yet there are conditions which you and I must meet, if we are going to obtain all that God has purchased for us at Calvary. "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him [2 Tim 2.12]." Note the very clear requirement. The fact is that we must be prepared by God's own operations to bear that eternal weight of glory. This preparation takes place here, and now, while we occupy these mortal bodies, and experience time. We need to live this short time in the eye of God's Eternity. Let your moments be your preparation; let them tell for Eternity, with God having His full work of deep cleansing and regeneration! It is in light of this that I want to consider our subject text.

Let us look first at the historical unveiling of Christ to the world and to His people. "He grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." These words paint a vivid picture of the condition of Israel into which Jesus was born. It was a condition of total hopelessness, with all past glory gone, and no prospect of revival short of the miraculous intervention of God Himself -- and God had not spoken to His people in 400 years. According to Alexander Maclaren, the "tender plant" meant a sucker, and the root was more properly a shoot from the original root of a great tree which had been felled. If this was so, what a desolate condition it was, one contrived to break the heart of all who would see the glory of God. The tree was the house of David, humiliated and stripped of all its former grandeur. It was the same house that God promised to build for David, upon whose throne His seed would be established forever. That house was originally one of great splendor, and had swiftly grown into a mighty tree, a great kingdom which overshadowed all of the known civilized world in the times of David and Solomon. And what glory there was in the righteous reign of God through David and his rightful heir! I cannot now take the time to describe the glory, but would refer you to 2 Chr 9.27 (but read the whole chapter): "And the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycomore trees that are in the low plains in abundance." Note also verse 6, quoting the queen of Sheba: "...behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard."

But consider! At the time of the incarnation, there was no glory left. It was not just that there was no glory, but that all of the former greatness had been laid waste. This state of total humiliation was infinitely worse than one of expected dryness. Beloved, it's not just the difficulties: it's the disappointments and the shame, the broken hopes and dreams, that cause the worst sufferings. The splendor had departed; Ichabod was written on the door of the temple; Israel, God's Chosen, and the Guiding Light of the world, had become a slave to the ruling kingdom of that age. It was into such a hopeless situation that the Son of God was made flesh.

"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant." Note that it was not before the eyes of man that He grew and prospered. Natural man could not discern the divine potential in this tender shoot. There is no beauty in Him from our natural, carnal point of view. Only Calvary can truly show the nature and fullness of the glory of God, and the preaching of the Cross is foolishness and a stumbling block to the carnal mind. We cannot see Him in His glory until an operation of God has taken place within us, and we are born again. Just so, no man noticed or suspected the true nature of the young man who was the Son of God; no man expected anything out of Him. Do you remember what Nathanael said: "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth [Jn 1.46]?" He was rejected of man, but accepted of God, and grew up before Him. His life was one of tremendous activity, but an activity that was hidden from the eyes of man, for it was initiated by the Father within Him.

Very little is recorded in the scriptures of the childhood of Jesus, save that He "grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him [Lk 2.40]." This is God's testimony of Him, not man's. One incident occurred when He was twelve, in which He was found in the temple, astonishing the scribes with His understanding. We remember that when His parents found and rebuked Him (though there was no sin in Him; He was only going about His Father's business), He returned to Nazareth and was subject to them. And that is the last we hear of Him for eighteen years.

What happened in this time, hidden from the eyes of man? The deepest works of preparation are always secret works. Men could not witness the intimate communion between Him and the Father, nor would such communion have any meaning for the natural mind. There were men around Him, but they could not guess, and would not have liked, the true nature of His life, hidden, as it was, in the bosom of the Father. There was no beauty that we should desire Him; no form nor comeliness that would attract us.

Such was the state into which Jesus as born, and in which He was prepared for His ministry. It was one of hopelessness and lost glory, and only the Father knew that it was the perfect environment in which to nurture His only Son.

And now consider the condition of the believer: your condition, perhaps, or mine. Have you had any deferred hopes, or broken dreams? In your walk with God, have you received all that you expected? Have you experienced conflict with the world, and suffered loss? Many have, and some have almost lost hope altogether. Some are even embittered, feeling that God has ignored or forgotten them. The psalmist cried: "Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore [Ps 77.8]?" But it is never the fault of God if we find ourselves in dry situations, and we must not lose hope. Open yourself up to the reality of the Word of God: it was into such a situation that God spoke His Son, His final Word concerning you. Are you willing to let God's view of the situation prevail over yours? There is no scene so hopeless that God is not able to yet bring forth glory unto His Name.

Do you want to see Jesus come forth more in your life than you have yet known? There is a work that must be done in you, and that work is hidden from the eyes of other men. Don't be afraid of the quiet periods in your life when nothing seems to be doing: those are times that God has given you to experience the deep operations that concern His Son. Every believer must go through this hidden working if he is to come forth in the likeness of Jesus. You must experience the victories of the Word of God within yourself, and no man may witness these sacred transactions; and no man will, for they are too deep, and too tender, for any to see. Do not worry about the length of this period: it must not be rushed, and cannot be. Too many are too hasty. They never receive the full benefit of the private dealings of God; they want something more tangible, more public, more "real." But what a gift these times can be if we give ourselves over to these working that take place in the very presence of God, hidden from the prying eyes of men. Do you become impatient? Remember that eighteen years was not too great a time in the life of Jesus.

Finally, consider this: What happened at the end of this hidden time? Were those years of outwardly silent communion merely to prepare Jesus for a successful ministry? Or were they the first part of a continuing operation of God that would take Him all the way to Calvary? The deep work of God to prepare Jesus for the Cross was not over, but the surroundings did change. Men mistook Him in His public life as thoroughly as they misunderstood Him during His silent years. His suffering continued, as did His training in obedience, until the Father, knowing that His preparation was complete, graced Jesus to taste death for every man. And as with the pattern Son, so with us: the Father knows what we need to prepare us for Eternity, and He knows when we need it -- and we do not. We can trust God to provide just the right atmosphere and circumstances which will most enhance our growth. We must never believe that we know a man until we have seen the end of the matter, and that man's true character and nature are revealed by God. And we must never allow the opinions of men to define and limit us, but submit to the Father's dealings with us in Christ Jesus.

Are you willing to allow the activity of the Son to take place within you? Your true life is hidden with Christ in God, and you must go there, hidden from man, to find it.

-GHS

"So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how." - Mar 4.26-27

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is giv'n!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His Heav'n.
No ear may hear His coming;
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

From O Little Town of Bethlehem

Vol 1, No 1 - June 1992 - "Led By the Spirit"

Ro 8.13,14: For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

There is much talk and teaching, there are many testimonies in the Church today, about how to be led by the Spirit. This is rightfully so, because the Scripture makes it clear that only those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. It is a crucial issue, both in the lives of the individual saints, and in God's plan and purposes in the earth. The creation waits for the sons of God, groans for their manifestation, and will remain in the bonds of corruption until the sons of God experience and make available "glorious liberty." Even the sons of God groan, though they have experienced the firstfruits of the Spirit. And the very fact of the groaning and travailing shows that it is neither easy, nor trivial, to be perfectly led by the Spirit.

Again, much is said; but not all is to the point. The role of the Spirit in leading us is very misunderstood. He does not lead by a "voice," at least not fundamentally. Nor does He lead by "gifts of the Spirit," at least not fundamentally. Thank God that He does speak to us, and that He does gift us. But we hear other voices as well as His: voices that appeal to our carnal nature, yet deceive, because they appear to bring light and order. How can we know, and how can we be led?

The text gives us much valuable insight, if we will receive it, although we rarely hear verse 13 ministered along this line.

The Spirit will lead us if the flesh is under control. But to ask God to lead us by the Spirit, while expecting to gratify our flesh, is never to the point. The natural man "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned [1 Cor 2.14]." The relationship between the Spirit and the flesh was never meant to be an equal one, and there is constant conflict until we learn to mortify the deeds of the flesh. We all want to be led of the Spirit, but it is easy to become confused by all the influences of the world and the devil, which work in union with the sharp longings of the flesh. We think many times we are led by the Spirit when actually we are deceived, and cannot know the things of God. In such a state, where the flesh is allowed to reign, we cannot be led by God; "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be [Ro 8.7]." And yet, God intends for us to understand His Mind and Will, and for us to know what it is to be truly led of Him.

The above picture is not intended to dismay. If we were left to ourselves, we truly would be without hope or resource. But we have been given the Spirit -- that blessed witness of the crucifixion and the resurrection; that Power of God; the Spirit of Him who raised up Christ from the dead -- and by Him we are able to mortify the deeds of the flesh.

How we have cheapened the place and ministry of the Spirit! He is given to us to reveal Christ, and to guide us into all truth. He does not speak of Himself, according to Jesus, but instead, "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you [Jn 16.14]." We must thank God for every true leading of the Spirit, but always realize that His place and function is first to empower, and to show us Christ Jesus in all His fullness and glory. And so important is this ministry, that Jesus said it was better for us that He should leave, "for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come unto you." Through the power of the Spirit we are able to mortify the deeds of the flesh; and, when the flesh no longer controls, we can live, we can see, we can hear. It is only then that we can truly be led by the Spirit.

How is it that the Spirit gives us power to subdue the demands and deeds of the flesh? People so often want procedures and steps, and many are available on Christian bookshelves today. Yet, Godliness is a mystery. Our faith cannot be in knowing what God will do next, but in committing our way to Him in the midst of uncertainty.

Here is something for our meditation: the first direction in which Jesus was led, after He received the Holy Spirit, was into the wilderness. In fact, Mark uses even stronger language: "And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness [Mk 1.12]." He was not at first led to ministry, or to great works; all these would follow later. He was led to the place where the wayward tendencies of His flesh could be mastered. His flesh was no different than ours, though He had not once allowed this flesh to dictate His actions and style of living. No doubt, He was all His life led by God; but when the Spirit came to Him in a new way, descending upon Him, it was time to win a great victory. He endured all the temptations of the evil one, through the power of the Spirit. Here again, the Spirit did not speak of Himself, but led our Saviour to the bedrock of the Word. His answer to each guile of the enemy? "It is written!" He triumphed, gloriously, for you and me, though weakened by hunger and forty days of relentless temptation; for He found God's strength to be perfected in weakness. When He emerged from that wilderness, He came out in new strength, new understanding, and with new light. Thereafter, not much is said of Jesus being "led by the Spirit," but we know that He was led, and perfectly, over every mile He walked toward His ultimate accomplishment at Calvary.

Are we greater than our Master? We must be empowered by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the flesh if we are to be led by the Spirit as the sons of God. I can't tell you how He will do this in your life, but i Know that He intends to do it. As you come before Him in prayer, cry for the empowering presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit -- understanding your hopeless condition without Him -- and He will surely come to your aid. He will drive you into the wilderness, so do not become discouraged. He intends to see you victorious through His power.

-GHS

Vol 1, No1 – June 1992 - "Your Decision Is Made at the Gates"

Mt 16.13-20: When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living god. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

I want you to notice, first of all, the difference in the two ways that Jesus puts the question He poses in this text. In the first instance, He does not just say, “Whom do men say that I am? Rather, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” He uses a title which He omits when He turns His question more directly upon His disciples. I believe He asks the question two different ways because He expects two answers: one, when He asks who men have assessed Him to be, and another from the disciples’ own lips. Those who had been close to Jesus undoubtedly were expected by Him to have an insight that others did not have. There was an expectation in His heart that the disciples saw something in Him other than what the multitudes were seeing.

Notice the movement of this passage: Having begun His discourse by focusing on Himself as the Son of Man, He gets a most interesting answer from Peter, does He not? “That art the Christ, the Son of” – what? “The Son of the living God”! Now, those of us who have come in from the realm of the multitude of men, and have known something of sitting at the feet of Jesus, certainly should have a different answer to this question than the multitude “out there.” Do we know Jesus as “the Son of the living God”? Do we truly know Him in that way?

As we follow the movement of this passage further, we see Jesus establishing an important link between the source of this revelation to Peter, and the outworking of it, that “upon this rock I will build my church.” The source of this insight is the Father in heaven; no man can come to Jesus unless the Father draw him. Peter is experiencing an initial drawing on the part of the Father, and He lights up for Peter the reality of who Jesus is: the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus is saying to Peter, “Upon the foundation of what is revealed to you by My Father in heaven, will be something so secure, so stable, so certain that the gates of hell will not prevail against it!”

Let me say at this point that the only ultimate stability you and I will ever know is just this reality. Oh, we have a lot of what we think is stability; but if we analyze it, or let the world work on it long enough, we’re going to discover that it is not stability at all. The only true stability is this of which Jesus speaks in our text, a reality against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. Jesus could never put forth Himself as a foundation against which the gates of hell would never prevail on the basis of what man, unaided by the Holy Spirit, would say. Man’s assessment of Jesus, apart from the light of the Holy Spirit, becomes fuel for Satan!

The question I would like to explore with you now is this: What are these gates of hell that will never prevail against this reality that is made known to man, not by flesh and blood, but by God the Father revealing it through the power of the Holy Ghost? What are these gates which will never prevail against the reality that Peter identified?

Because I don’t want to immediately get into negatives, I ask you to consider another set of gates, spoken of in the 24^th Psalm. In this psalm, David poses a very important question: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place [v. 3]?” In other words, who has access to God? I love the way that David lays out the backdrop against which we will understand the answer! He describes the one that will qualify to stand in the presence of the Lord as having “clean hands and a pure heart,” having not partaken of vanity or deceit. But there’s no way that is possible except that there was an entering into the gates that are spoken of in the latter part of the psalm: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates… and the King of glory shall come in [v. 7].” Jesus must first go through the gates!

Can you imagine the drama, the holy happening, as Jesus, rending the veil in His death upon the Cross, begins to come through the gates of the heavenly order? The King of Glory is coming back to Father! “Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle [v. 10].” He has just won the victory of victories! He has won a victory against the forces of hell! Hell could not keep Him! Satan could not keep Him! Because of His perfect obedience, just when Satan and hell thought they had Him, the gates of God’s own most holy heart have opened up and released the life of resurrection for Jesus; and He begins His glorious ascension through the gates of the eternal kingdom!

It is an established fact that Jesus had to go into the realm of Satan and emerge from there in order to lead captivity captive. And He is first to enter into the eternal gates. But those gates through which Jesus entered are open to others. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Let us look at Isaiah 62, where we will find something of a little enhancement to what we see in Psalm 24.

The beginning of Isaiah 62 refers also to the Lord’s glory, as it is bestowed on the people of the Lord. “And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory; and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God [v. 2, 3].” When Jesus, nailing to the Cross everything that was working against man, is freed up by the Father to enter into the eternal gates, He, upon entering, is waiting for others to come in! Hallelujah! Jew and Gentile alike, all of whom will be “a royal diadem” in the hand of the Lord! He’s waiting; He’s calling; He’s expecting! He has something to share with you! Can you go through the gates? Let us read on.

Isaiah 62.10 reads: “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.” The King of Glory, Who has gone before us through the gates, is inviting us to “go through, go through the gates.” But, as wonderful as that summons and that invitation is, we hear: “Gather out the stones.” What are the stones? They are precisely those realities that prevent you from going through the gates. More specifically, those stones are disobediences to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Peter’s writings reveal that he understood this spiritual truth. Look at 1 Peter 2. It begins with “Laying aside all malice…” (Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.) Then he goes on to speak of the Lord Jesus as “a living stone, disallowed indeed of men.” (Recall Jesus’ question, “Whom do MEN say that I am?”) In verse 8, we find he speaks of Jesus as “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to those which stumble at” – at what? “At the Word, being disobedient…”!

You see, every time the Word of God, with its accompanying light, reaches us, and we disobey, there is a stone of stumbling set in our path. I wonder how many stones we will have to yet work through because of past disobediences? “Gather out the stones.” We either, in a vital faith response to the Captain of our salvation, receive His strengthening, life-giving Word, as He (so to speak) throws it back to us from His high heaven to bring us in; or we disobey it, and we find that the next time it’s harder to obey. We find that the light that God would shed upon our pathway is a little bit more diffused, because there is a stone there: a stone which is the result of our not having obeyed the Word.

Now, let us turn our consideration back to our question: What are the gates which Jesus was speaking about when He said, “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”? I believe we find the answer in the first epistle of John. 1 John 2.15, words which we have read so many, many times, speaks of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which John says are “not of the Father.” (Who was it that revealed to Peter? The Father!) These gates are the openings that Satan makes in our lives by his allurements, and by his suggestions, to bring us back to him. You see, the gates of hell are not hell, yet; but they open you into hell. Just as those blessed gates which we read about in Psalm 24 opened before the presence of the King of Glory, for the Father to receive Him back, so Satan would yet throw before us gates by which he can have us fall into his grip. And if we stumble by disobedience to the Word of God, in no time flat we will find the opening of the gates of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life becoming wider! I wish those gates were not there; but the Scripture does not say that those gates are destroyed. Yet it does say that they will not prevail against the reality that is built upon the sure foundation of a revelation of Jesus as He truly is.

There is a call coming from the Father’s heart through Jesus to every one of us, to cast out the stones and enter the gates of glory. (And I believe the gates we are called to enter into by Him are many.) But God will not force any of us in; not a one of us will be pushed through the gates. We must make a decision. I say that God will not force us through the gate; but do you know what He does? He sends His Word to where we are! And if we are not offended by that Word – if we let that Word do what it must, cut if it must, purify if it must, burn if it must, whatever it must do – WE FIND OURSELVES GOING IN!

So it was with Peter. Peter accepted the disclosure of God concerning Who Jesus is, and was not offended. He let the spiritual order come in and interpret for him, and was not offended. I know Peter went through some ups and downs. Don’t we all? And who knew more than Peter, perhaps, what it was to stand at the gates and be offended, as we see him on the eve of the Crucifixion? Yet, Peter had enough humility to cast out the stone; and we find him changed on Pentecost – never offended again, I believe, by the Word of God.

There’s an occasion being offered you today to enter another gate in the train of Him, the Lord of Glory, the Captain of our salvation. Will you eat the Word? Will you take it in and become strengthened thereby to enter in; or will you say, like those in the 6^th chapter of John, “This is a hard saying, who can take it in?” From that time on, John says, these followed Him no more. Will we follow? It is at the gates that our eternal destiny is being determined.

-Annette Marsnik
Sermon given Sept. 30, 1990.
Compiled and edited by DLS.

Vol 1, No1 – June 1992 - "Seeing Jesus"

1 Jn 3.2,3: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

From the above text, a two-fold truth can be shown: 1) our likeness to Jesus depends on how clearly we are able to see Him; and 2) the clarity of our sight is in direct relationship to our purity.

The grace which is associated with a sight of Jesus is a true gift of God. It cannot be presumed. It cannot be bought by any work or effort on our part. Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God; and that birth must be by the Spirit. “That which is born of flesh is flesh.” We can’t see Jesus with our natural eyes, not at this time. We must be born of the Spirit to see the things which only the Spirit can show us. We must have eyes opened to look upon the “things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal [ 2 Cor 4.18].”

Men of faith have always seen things that others could not. Moses endured because he saw Him who is invisible, and was able to forsake Egypt while he was yet called the son of Pharaoh. Elisha saw countless fiery angels when his young servant saw only the host of the Syrians. Abraham saw the day of Christ. Noah was moved by fear, because he was warned of God of things “not seen as yet.” The list goes on. According to the writer to the Hebrews, we are encompassed by a great cloud of witnesses; and, therefore, we are admonished to “look unto Jesus.” We must be born again in order to see; and the eyes of our understanding must be enlightened that we may see more clearly the hope of His calling, and the riches of His glory [Ep 1].

The text quoted above in 1 John is a great promise: we know that when he appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Do you believe this? You must, or you cannot endure. This is a critical hour, and, like Moses, our eyes must be focused on Him for strength and courage, mercy and grace.

John is not talking about everyone here. On some glorious day, not long hence, Jesus will appear, and many will not be able to abide the sight. They will look upon Him whom they have pierced, and shall wail because of Him. We have all been momentarily blinded because a light to which our eyes have not yet become accustomed has been turned on, or because we have gone into bright sunlight out of a darkened room. And yet this does not begin to describe the agony of unprepared eyes at the appearance of the Lord of Glory, where one white-hot glimpse must blind and seal the beholder to everlasting darkness. But we must believe that His appearing means wonderful salvation, because we are being prepared to see Him.

What is the nature of this preparation? It is this: that He is constantly appearing to us in the realm of the Spirit, and we are learning to see Him clearly. We do not see Him in the flesh, but we look unto Him, and hope to the end for grace which can only come by the revelation of Him to our hearts [1 Pe 1.13]. That word “revelation” is the same as the “appear” in 1 Jn 3. We are to see Him now, whether or not others around us see Him. To this end Paul prayed, and to this end we must also pray.

We must be qualified to see Him. And what is the qualification? It is simply this: heart purity! “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!” Why blessed? Because they are like Him, for they see Him as He is. Our text makes it clear that we are to be very active in pursuing purity. We are offered a wonderful hope: that of being made like Him. But we must read on. John says that those that have this hope will purify themselves, even as He is pure. This is not merely passive belief, as many take verse 2 to mean. We must long for it, cry for it, pray for it, seek it. We do not purify ourselves apart from God, or by our works of righteousness. But we have a responsibility to present ourselves to God for the working of a purity which only He can accomplish.

You and I need to enter into the presence of God: we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the Blood of Jesus. We need to have our sins covered; how gloriously they are covered by that Blood, taking away both the guilt and the power of the sin. Our consciences need purging; the Blood of Christ purges from dead works to serve the living God. We need grace; we boldly approach the Throne of Grace, and there find grace in abundance, and mercy, too. In every way, we are lacking; in every way He spills over unto abundance. But we must be very active in coming into His presence, in order that we might receive heart purity. We need to spend time in that abundant Presence, because there He will show Himself faithful.

Beloved, do you want to see God? He wants even more to show Himself to you. Do you want to come forth in His image? He wants it more. Do you want to know Him? He wants it more, and to know you as well. Is this hope in you? Undertake to be purified, and you will find that He undertakes for you. As never before, in this hour, present yourself in prayer, and by the Precious Blood, and prove Him in your life.

- GHS

13-Aug-06 - The Day of Death

“… the day of death (is better) than the day of birth.” (Ecc 7:1)

When we first read this verse, it’s hard to know what to do with it. It doesn’t seem to add up, because in our thinking, death could never be better than birth. But one way to begin to understand this verse is to apply it to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The day of our Lord’s birth marked the beginning of His earthly ministry, and in His earthly ministry, Jesus was able to minister to the Old Creation in new and marvelous ways. For example, in Luke 7:11-15, Jesus is able to restore earthly loss to a widow by reviving her only son. He made the “young man” rise, and “delivered him to his mother.” In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus heals a man sick of the palsy and forgives his sins. These are two marvelous examples of what our Lord was able to do for man while on earth, and there are countless others (some unrecorded, Jhn 21:25). He could heal the sick, make the blind see, cast out demons, revive the dead, and even forgive sin (“the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins” Mar 2:10). God was able to minister to the Old Creation in ways that He had not been able to before our Lord’s incarnation (“We never saw it on this fashion” Mar 2:12).

As wonderful as our Lord’s earthy ministry was, it had limitations. He could revive the dead, but not unto newness of life. He could forgive sin, but not make man a new creature. In order to give man what he really needed, He had to know the day of death. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone…“ (Jhn 12:24). Had Jesus refused to go through death, He would have made it back to the Father – but alone. He could have brought no one with him.

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (Jhn 12:32). All men, not just some men. While on earth, Jesus was able to draw some men unto himself. Peter said, “We have left all, and have followed thee,” but most men would have nothing to do with him. In the Cross of Jesus Christ, the whole human race is drawn to God – “…he be not far from every one of us” (Act 17:27). “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17). Any man; it does not matter who he is, or what his past is like. Our Lord’s death created a place in Christ for every man, and any man can come into Him and be new, and live. Every man has been redeemed, and every man is perfect in, and only in Christ Jesus. “Outside of Him, we are still old.” (Marsnik) We still get outside of Christ at times, and when we do, we look like our old selves.

The day of our Lord’s death marks the beginning of something far better for man than the blessings bestowed on the Old Creation in His earthly ministry. The one thing Jesus could not do until His death on the cross is make all things new. It would have been an awful thing for Him to be able to forgive sin, but not make man a new creature. What good is forgiveness if it does not change me? Paul’s “slough of despond” in Romans 7 would have been our portion: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (v24). The saying, “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven” is false. Christians are perfect; perfect in Christ Jesus. What the man in Mark 2 really needed was deliverance from sin. And our Lord’s death meant something far better for the widow and her son. The outcome of our Lord’s death is described in Eph 2:4-6. “(He) hath quickened us … and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

- D. Trzebunia

30-Jul-06 - The Yoke of Jesus

"... all things were created by him, and for him." (Col 1:16)

All things (including man) were created by Jesus, and for Jesus, and because he is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8), man was created to bear the yoke of Jesus – and the yoke of Jesus is the cross.

Most Christians believe that God's ultimate plan was to create the heavens and the earth and everything in them, including man, without the Cross. And because man sinned and things went wrong, God was forced to resort to another plan, which required the Cross. But He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8), and with Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (Jas 1:17). Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and the Cross was always God's ultimate plan. Man is not created (or born) yoke-free. Every man has to bear a yoke, and Adam was created to bear a kindly yoke – "my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Mat 11:30). He disobeyed and chose a yoke that was grievous to bear.

Adam was not born under the curse, he was free from sin, but he was not a finished product. He was created innocent, but he had to turn that innocence into godly character by obedience – the natural had to be transformed into the spiritual (Chambers). He needed to develop into someone who could bear up under a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17), and this meant the yoke of Jesus for him. He was being prepared for the chief activity in eternity, which is to sing praise to the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, and had he and Eve made it, and had man joined in that chorus, that would have been enough. The scene in Revelation 5 would have taken place even if Adam had never sinned.

The enemy’s object is to make the Cross odious to us. He wants to make it seem unnatural and repugnant, and something that could have been avoided, but we were created to bear that yoke. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light, said Jesus. The enemy would have us think that the Cross is the heaviest, most grievous burden a man can bear, but the Scripture says that “the way of transgressors is hard.” The hardest thing for a man is to not bear the yoke of Jesus, to be under a yoke he is not able to bear (Acts 15:10).

If we relegate the Cross to something that could have been avoided, it will make us look back at the Old Creation with fondness and longing, always wanting to patch it up and make it work, and looking for a Cross-free paradise, which God never intended. But the Old Creation is eternally broken; it’s irreparable. “Old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17). And God never intended a Cross-free paradise for man. God is interested in a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Pet 3:13), and a new heavens where creation sings praise to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The yoke will always be there; the Lamb and the Cross will grace eternity forever.

- D. Trzebunia

10-Jul-06 - The Limits of Our Extremes

Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23

Jesus took a journey that is hard for us to fathom – a journey from the highest high to the lowest low. In John 17:5, He refers to the glory He had with the Father before the world was. This is the starting point for the journey. In John 1:1-3, He is with God in the beginning. In verse 14, He becomes flesh and we behold His glory. The journey continues as He becomes sin (2 Cor 5:21). He is crucified, and Psalm 22 is a vivid description of the most desperate plight anyone will ever face. This is the lowest point; He goes from the glory He had with the Father before the world was to being brought into the dust of death (Ps 22:15). He tastes something that man will never have to taste; He tastes death for every man.

God raises Him from the dead by his mighty power and sets Him at his own right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:19, 20). He delivers him from the slough of despond and sets him not just above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, etc, but far above these things (Ephesians 1:21). This is the measure of God's mighty power.

We all have our highs and lows; we've all been in the slough of despond; we all know what it's like to be pressed by limiting circumstances. But our highs and lows are always within the boundaries set by Jesus; within the extremes experienced by Him. We can never know the highest high or the lowest low. Underneath are the everlasting arms (Deut 33:27). Calvary is the lowest point; we cannot go lower.

Paul says that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us who believe (Ephesians 1:19). If that power was effectual in raising Jesus from the lowest low and setting Him far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, we can be sure that it will avail for us and lift us from our lows.

- D. Trzebunia

25-Jun-06 - Eternal Hope

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." – 1 Cor. 15:19

In 1 Chronicles 29:15 David prays, "Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." The marginal note says, "There is no expectation." The Bible reveals that there is not much we can expect from this life. "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been" (Gen 47:9). There are countless references in the Bible to life being short and evil, full of sickness, disease, hope deferred, etc.

The most miserable person is someone who has determined that this life should be more than the Bible reveals it to be. We all have an idea of what our earthly life should look like, and there's always something in our life that contradicts that ideal. We say, my job should yield more for me than it does; my baby should be healthy and allergy-free; I should be able to eat normal food without getting sick; I should be able to afford a nicer house; I should have someone in my life who fulfills me. And we pray and wait for the Lord to intervene and set things aright in this life, but if that is the measure of our hope, we are of all men most miserable.

"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation ... the kingdom of God is within you" (Lu 17:20). Our desire for something as reasonable as health for our children is really a desire for a kingdom that comes with observation. There will come a time when everything around us reflects the kingdom within, but it will not happen in this life. God has chosen to let this order of things go and to create something new. Our hope is not healing or health or a little more prosperity or answered prayer. Our hope is that all things work together for good to them that love God, and that He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Claudia's death (or that of anyone who dies young) is an event that is both devastating and creative because it shatters every ideal we cherish about this life, and it makes us look for something more. In 1 Tim 1:1, Paul says that the Lord Jesus Christ is our hope, and He is a High Priest of good things to come. The best is yet to come, and we need to set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth (even the most reasonable and good things).

-D. Trzebunia