Radium

RADIUM

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Pierre and Marie Curie succeeded in isolating polonium and radium from uranium. In order to do so they had to work with a considerable amount of pitchblende, an ore from which uranium can be extracted.

So it is today. There exists a great amount of “pitchblende,” referring to all of those who profess belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves His believers, and if they persist in their hope they will be saved in the Day of the Lord.

While being saved in the Day of the Lord is of the greatest benefit to any person, it does not solve God’s problem—the problem of rebellious angels and people. In order for the problem of rebellion to be solved there must be found in the mass of believers a quantity of “radium”—people who will give their all that God’s will might be performed throughout His creation.

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And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. (Hebrews 12:11)

So it is today. There exists a great amount of “pitchblende,” referring to all of those who profess belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves His believers and if they persist in their hope they will be saved in the Day of the Lord.

Salvation may be thought of in three levels. The first level is that of being forgiven through the blood atonement, and then being born again of the Spirit of God.

The second level has to do with the work of the Spirit of God. As we determine to sow to the Spirit each day we discover we are being changed in our moral nature, and also that we have received abilities by which we can build up the Body of Christ.

The third level has been known to outstanding saints of history but is largely unknown to today’s believers. Many of us have come as far as Pentecost, but there is confusion as to what is to follow. During the last fifty years there have been various areas of excitement, and some new, unscriptural doctrines have been advanced. It appears that the current refreshings do not compare in godliness, understanding, and power with the genuine moves of God that preceded them.

The last great move of God was the Pentecostal revival of the turn of the twentieth century. The Charismatic impetus, which appeared in the middle of the twentieth century, was part of the Pentecostal revival, not a major step forward in the Kingdom.

The third level of redemption is portrayed symbolically by the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. It has to do with our being made the eternal residence of the Father and the Son, along with the Holy Spirit. This is the fullness of God. It is “that which is perfect.”

The third level is the Kingdom of God. The blood of the cross gives us the authority to enter the Kingdom. The Holy Spirit provides the wisdom and power to take the Kingdom. In other words, the blood and the Spirit enable us to enter the third level, which is the Kingdom of God, the undisputed rule of God from within us.

You may have noticed the current emphasis on the Kingdom of God, both in music and in preaching. This is an indication of the burden of the Spirit of God.

The customary preaching of our day stresses lawless grace, the pre-tribulation “rapture,” and eternal residence in Heaven.

By contrast, the preaching of the Kingdom of God stresses the application of Divine grace such that we become righteous, holy, and obedient in behavior; prepared for the resurrection that will take place when the Lord appears; and a participant in the establishing of the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The customary preaching is not scriptural but traditional.

The preaching of the Kingdom of God with its emphasis on righteous, holy, and obedient behavior, is found throughout the Scriptures.

In order to move past Pentecost and into Tabernacles, so to speak, we have to learn stern obedience to God. This is the essence of the Kingdom—the doing of God’s will on the earth as it is in Heaven.

First we must declare to God that we want to learn to do His perfect will. Then we must remain faithful and obedient as God brings us through the many fires and prisons that result in the forming of obedience in us.

This is where we are today. God is looking throughout the great mass of “pitchblende,” as it were, to see who loves Him enough to be strictly obedient even though it requires the surrender of numerous idols, hopes, and dreams. Those who will follow God faithfully are the “radium” He is seeking.

As soon as God has succeeded in bringing forth the pure radium, He will use these people to move the remainder of His people toward obedience. Finally, through the entire Church, all the nations of saved peoples on the earth will learn obedience to God.

Apart from strict obedience there is no kingdom, no paradise—nothing that will satisfy our longing for love, joy, and peace.

In several instances in the Bible there are accounts of a remnant of people being drawn from the main body of the elect. The major type is Gideon’s army. But there also are David’s mighty men. In addition, the prophets of Israel represented a very small minority of faithful servants of the Lord during times when most of the Israelites were living in sin.

As Paul says, there is a remnant.

And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. (Romans 11:4,5)

I like to think about Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. But can you imagine how the other disciples felt when they heard that Moses and Elijah had appeared with a glorified Jesus and they had not been invited to the party?

We are going to have to get used to the fact that God chooses whom He will and does what He wishes with them. This is difficult for us to accept because of the influence of democratic thinking. Since the monarchies of Europe have been largely done away, we are not always willing to obey commands given from the top down. We have become arrogant with the notion that we are our own god and are ready to defy anyone who interferes with our desires. We need humility, for there is nothing we can do to stop God when He decides to act.

So we see there is the pitchblende, and then there is the uranium and finally the radium. The process is one of refining, refining, refining until the desired purity is attained.

This is what is taking place today. God is working with the whole body of believers, refining, refining, refining, refining, until those who are willing to serve God in every respect are identified. To serve God to this ultimate extent requires faithfulness, hope, and courage. The weak, fearful, and double-minded cannot possibly overcome the accuser, unless they are willing for the Lord to change them.

In order to bind the strong man we have to trust that the blood of the Lamb is adequate to forgive our sins and also to render them powerless so we can cease obeying their temptations and compulsions.

In order to bind the strong man we have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit until He perfects the testimony in us of God’s moral nature and God’s power.

In order to bind the strong man we have to love not our life to the death. This is the issue today. Who among us will deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the Lord Jesus? Who among us will stay in the prison where God puts us until the Lord releases us—even if it means our release will not come until we die?

Who among us will live day after day, praying, obeying God, and yet seeing little change in our circumstances? Who among us will suffer thirst, being denied our most fervent desires, until those desires become cold ashes?

Who among us will trudge up the mountain with our Isaac, knowing that God may take him?

Who among us will obey God to the uttermost, and keep a cheerful attitude meanwhile?

When God began to repair the damage done by Satan He chose the Word—the Word who had proceeded from the Person of God. God sent the Word to earth as flesh. There the Word suffered many things. But far, far worse than any of the other pains and perversities was the fear of losing fellowship with the Father. No doubt the demons were telling Him that if He went forward with the plan of redemption, bearing on Himself the sins of mankind, He would be cut off from God for eternity.

This was a terrible challenge to Christ’s faith and obedience!

But the Son of God prevailed, and so we are saved.

Now the “Radium” had been isolated and refined.

However, God is not satisfied with this. His plan is to plant Christ as a Vine so from Him would grow a multitude of branches. Each of these branches is to bear the fruit of obedience to God, or else it will be removed from the Vine.

Some branches will bear Christ to a certain extent. Some, to a greater extent.

But this is not enough. God wants some branches who will bear the fullness of Christ.

So it is today. As Jesus spoke, “Many who are last will be first.” I believe this means many who are last in time will be first in the Kingdom of God.

There is no doubt that today the Holy Spirit is seeking for believers who are willing to reap Christ to the fullest extent possible.

The issue is that of pruning. How much pruning will we allow? How much of our life will we permit God to cut away? The only hindrance to how much of Christ we can bear is the extent of pruning of our personality we will permit.

We cannot prune ourselves. We cannot launch out in some severe asceticism hoping to persuade God to include us among those of full stature. It is even more difficult than this. We have to wait, wait, wait on the Lord, not running ahead or lagging behind. Until we are willing to take the least place in the Kingdom we can forget about moving ahead to a higher throne.

Until we are joyously willing to clean up behind the horses in the royal parade we have no chance of riding in the front chariot.

“We would be on your right hand in Your kingdom!”

“It is not Mine to give. The Father has prepared such places of exaltation for certain people. The decision is His alone.”

We would not present such a petition today because we are largely ignorant of the Kingdom of God, supposing we all are going to Heaven to live in mansions. But this is changing now as the Spirit begins to make the Kingdom real to us.

I think there are many thrones that are to be filled in our day. Those thrones have been prepared for people who will be born in the closing days of the Church Age.

Even though your name or my name may be on one of those thrones, this is no guarantee that we will finally ascend to our designated position. It is entirely possible that we will not remain faithful to God. In which case our predestined position will be given to another. Remember the parable of the talents!

Those of us who are pastors of churches may discover God is dealing sternly with us. Each day there is a new challenge to faithfulness. When we stumble we are to pick ourselves up, do what Christ requires, and press forward in the Lord.

The members of the congregation will be sorely tried. Some will leave. Some will be added. We must keep in mind always that Christ is building His Church. Little is accomplished with a congregation of believers who have settled back, being pleased with their progress to this point. Every member of the congregation must be seeking the Lord fervently. Otherwise, what are they doing in the Lampstand of God?

The Christian religion is one thing. Discipleship is another matter. God is looking for disciples who will serve Him to the final breath. Then they become part of the “radium” that will bring obedience throughout His creation.

We Christians look forward to the day when the Glory of God fills the earth as the waters cover the sea, in fulfillment of the utterances of the Prophets of Israel. Perhaps we do not realize the Day of the Lord will come to the earth from within Christ and His saints. It will not drop down from the sky.

The Day of the Lord, the endless age when Christ alone is exalted, is being created now in the personalities of the warlike remnant. I say “warlike” because they compose an advance guard of the army of the Lord. The conflict of the ages, the war between God and Satan, already has commenced.

The thousand-year Kingdom Age (Millennium) has begun now in the personalities of the remnant.

When Christ is ready to appear to the world, the remnant will be gathered to Him—not the entire Church, for most of the members are not prepared to work with Christ in the task of installing the Kingdom of God on the earth. They themselves have not learned to be sternly obedient to God. How then can they make the nations obedient when they themselves are not obedient?

Christ followed by His godly remnant on the white war stallions will descend through the clouds and wage war against the forces of evil. They will deliver Jerusalem from the hand of Antichrist. Then the Spirit of God will be poured out on the physical nation of Israel and the Jews shall be saved, just as Saul of Tarsus was saved by a sovereign act of God.

Christ shall ascend to the Temple Mount, there to be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. His mighty men, His warlike remnant, will surround Him. This partial coronation of Christ is symbolized by the installation of David over Judah, prior to His installation as King over all Israel.

And the time David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. (II Samuel 2:11)

The members of the remnant, the royal priesthood, will then be directed by the Lord to their positions as rulers of the nations.

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—“He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery”—just as I have received authority from my Father. (Revelation 2:27,27)

Now all that has been created within the remnant will come forth. They themselves are strictly obedient to the Father and will enforce obedience on those members of the nations who were saved, who survived the Battle of Armageddon.

All of the love, joy, and peace that has been formed in the remnant will be applied to the people of the world.

Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed. (Isaiah 61:9)

The members of the royal priesthood will destroy sin wherever they find it. The power of Satan, his angels and his demons will be destroyed from the peoples of the earth. The wicked will be held in captivity to await the final judgment of the White Throne.

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 4:1-3)

The smallest child will play with wild beasts and poisonous reptiles, in that Day, without any fear or harm. This is because the power of the Spirit of God will flow from the members of the royal priesthood.

It is obvious if we are going to work alongside Christ in that Day we must be prepared in advance. We must not only be forgiven, we also must be accustomed to obeying the Holy Spirit. In addition we must be the throne of God and of the Lamb. We must be the chariot of God, the presence of God on the earth, until people say: “Surely God has visited us!”

This is what it is all about, you know. God has created multitudes of people and He loves them all. He has no intention whatever of throwing them all into the Lake of Fire. The Lake of Fire has been prepared for the devil and his angels, and only the truly wicked of mankind will be assigned to the horrors of that place.

Instead, God is building a house for Himself, an eternal dwelling place. This is the tabernacle of God, the Bride of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem, the holy city, the Christian Church. The Christian Church will be installed on the new earth as the capital city. The Holy Spirit will be there as a river of life. The sons of God will be growing by the river of life, being trees of life. They will bear many kinds of fruit and their leaves will bring healing to the nations of saved peoples on the earth.

Now God has what He wants. He has children who love Him and surround Him at all times. He has judges, rulers, a Bride for the Lamb, brothers for Christ. This is God’s family, those who are called by His name. They are separated from all sin by the huge wall that surrounds the city.

Outside are the nations of saved people. God loves them also. They are the inheritance of Christ and of Christ’s coheirs. But this new world will not be in effect until Christ has been crowned as King over all creatures and all members of the Church know the Lord, from the least to the greatest, in fulfillment of the promise of the new covenant.

Back now to the partial installation of Christ. The rule of Christ over the nations who are left alive after the Battle of Armageddon will last for a thousand years, whether literally or symbolically. As we have said, the warlike remnant, the victorious saints, will govern under Him.

If we are to return with Christ and govern with Him we must press forward to greater maturity. It is obvious that worldly, lustful, self-serving believers are not fit to ride behind Christ in the Battle of Armageddon and then govern the nations of saved people with the rod of iron.

The point of this present essay is as follows: We have been saved by receiving the atonement made by the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. We have received the Holy Spirit of God. We are learning, some of us, to cooperate with the Spirit as He creates the testimony in us. The testimony consists of our transformed moral nature, and also of the power the Spirit gives us to proclaim the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of the Lord.

Now we have come to the greatest challenges of all, the most penetrating demands we have faced. God is asking us to love not our life to the death. He is requiring that we turn away from everything else and devote every breath to Himself. There is no room here for the tiniest bit of self-will, self-preservation, or any other form of rebellion. We must serve the Lord with a perfect heart.

From the mass of pitchblende must emerge the pure and perfect radium. This refined spirit of obedience will affect the thinking and actions of all who encounter it.

Sometimes it is painful for us as we consider the totality of God’s demands on us. It helps when we realize what it will mean to God and to other people if we press through in utter faithfulness. Look at how we have profited from the absolute obedience of Jesus Christ. Can we do less?

We are never going to have another chance to show our devotion to Christ, our love for God. This is the time—right now—when we make that eternal decision to serve God to the point of death to all we desire, or to draw back in the hope we can continue with our religious Christianity without anyone being the wiser.

Perhaps we can draw back and still not be destroyed in the Day of the Lord. Perhaps we can. Perhaps we cannot! But in any case our eternal loss will be incalculable.

Some have commented on the price one must pay to serve Christ with a perfect heart.

What about the price we pay when we do not serve Christ with a perfect heart?

The Lord commanded us to lay up treasures in Heaven, not on the earth. This we must do if we intend to lead the totally victorious life. Everything and every relationship we treasure must be placed on the altar of God. Sooner or later our valued object will be called for. God will not permit His saints to worship other gods!

The land of promise toward which we are to be pressing each day, our Canaan, is resurrection life. The Apostle Paul had set gaining the resurrection from the dead as his chief goal.

But resurrection life comes only out of death. Everything we are, do and possess must be brought down to death and raised again in Christ. God must make all things new. We are to become a new creation in which all the old has passed away and all the new is of God. No aspect of our adamic life can possibly inherit the Kingdom of God.

How many of us today will pray that God will be in every thought we think; every word we speak; every action we take; every motive, imagination, desire, hope, and prayer? Are we ready to press into God to this extent? Are we prepared to forget all that is behind, to forsake all, to have the gaining of Christ as our single objective?

To gain Christ is to gain the resurrection from the dead. He Himself is the Resurrection. To live by the power of His resurrection requires that we share His sufferings. Sometimes as we minister we must fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ. We do this on behalf of His Body.

There is pitchblende. There is uranium. And then there is radium. Great benefit has come to mankind because Pierre and Marie Curie persevered in the laborious task of extracting radium from uranium.

Great benefit will come to God, great benefit will come to the saints, eventually great benefit will come to the remainder of mankind, if you and I will set aside all else in order that we may gain Christ to the fullest extent.

The Lord told us when our eye is single our whole body is full of light. This means when we have a single objective before us there is no darkness in us. We are not wavering. We are not double-minded. We are not putting our hand to the plow and then turning back.

We are not wondering if this program is correct or that new excitement is of God. We have our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are listening to Him. We are waiting on His every word and desire. We are not launching out in some new endeavor to save the world. We are doing more praying than reasoning.

I think God is closer to us today than ever before. When we look up to Jesus we seem to get a sense of His will. Sometimes He actually gives us words. He knows what He is doing. The building of the Church is His responsibility, not ours. The saving of the world is His responsibility, not ours.

Our responsibility is to present our body a living sacrifice, to seek the will of Christ every moment of the day and night. His responsibility is to keep us from harm and to bring us to the end of our days in perfect victory. This He will do if we remain faithful.

Once again: Remember—it is not just for your sake that you are to be totally obedient. Untold multitudes of people, as well as Christ Himself, will profit from your unswerving faithfulness.

This is your one opportunity in eternity. Make the most of it!

(“Radium”, 3121-1)