|
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 13:43) |
|
Now here is the point. The sudden maturing of Christ in His people has been prophesied for the last days. |
|
Notice the following: |
|
But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. (Revelation 10:7) |
|
In the days of the seventh trumpet the mystery of God should be finished or accomplished. The mystery of God is Christ in us, the hope of glory. |
|
Micah prophesied concerning the bringing forth of the Ruler. |
|
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. (Micah 5:2,3) |
|
Christ, the Ruler, was born in Bethlehem. |
|
But Christ must give up His own people, the Jews, until the Christian churches bow in travail and bring forth Christ in the believers. |
|
Then Christ's brothers, those of whom He is the Firstborn, will return to the children of Israel. |
|
Wherever you see Christ being formed in Christians today you will notice their strong desire to return to the land and people of Israel. It is Christ in them longing after His own family, the Jews. |
|
Another very important passage is as follows: |
|
A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies. Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. (Isaiah 66:6-9) |
|
Christ was born in Zion apart from any travail of the Church. |
|
Christ will be born once more in Zion, but this time as a result of the travail of the Church. |
|
The earth shall be made to bring forth in one day. A nation shall be born at once. This means that the holy nation, the royal priesthood of which Jesus Christ is the chief Cornerstone, will suddenly come to maturity. |
|
It is a comfort to us Christians to understand that what God has begun in us He will finish. That which has been conceived in us will be brought to birth and there is no power of darkness that can prevent it. |
|
The royal priesthood shall indeed appear suddenly. The holy city shall come to the earth. The new Jerusalem shall be established. All of the saved nations will come up to Jerusalem to learn the righteous ways of the Lord. |
|
Let us be glad and rejoice at the happy prospect. Let us then turn our attention to the Lord to make sure our conduct is such that we will be prepared for God to bring forth Christ in us. |
|
Our task is to keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles so that Christ may be formed in us. God's part is to bring forth Christ, the Ruler of all nations for the ages of ages. |
|
I'm sure glad I'm a Christian. How about you? |
|
A one-liner for you: the salvation that cost God everything to fully achieve costs man everything to fully receive. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. (John 15:1,2) |
|
There is no more wonderful and no more terrible passage in the Scriptures than the above two verses. |
|
The wonderful part is that Jesus is the true Vine. The Father is the farmer. The fruit is Christ. The believer is the branch growing from Christ. The branch that bears Christ will be pruned and then bear Christ more abundantly. |
|
The terrible part is that the branch, the believer, that does not bear Christ will be removed from the Vine, removed from Christ. |
|
I'm sure the people who teach that once you are "saved" you never can be lost, once you are in Christ you never can be removed from Christ, have an answer for this verse. But it looks pretty plain to me! I think they are taking an awful chance believing and teaching such a thing! |
|
The whole purpose of being in the royal priesthood is for us to bear fruit. When we don't bear the fruit of Christ the purpose of our calling has been aborted. |
|
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16) |
|
I would like to stress that the fruit is Christ. The life flows from the vine into the branch and brings forth Christ. It is not just a better person that is the fruit, it is Christ that is the fruit. |
|
Picture a race of mankind gone bad. God looks down and plans to do something about it. What is God's plan? It is first of all to perfect the kind of person He wants on the earth. Then to use that person as a vine and to graft branches into that vine. When the branches bear fruit, the fruit will be the kind of person God wants on the earth. It is as simple as that. |
|
There are two behaviors God wants to find throughout the Church and then throughout the saved nations of the earth. The two behaviors are righteousness and praise. Not just righteousness and not just praise but righteousness and praise. God wants His priesthood and all the nations of |
|
the earth to be filled with His righteousness and His praise. Won't that be marvelous when it comes to pass? |
|
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. (Isaiah 61:11) |
|
Each Christian is a garden. Christ has been planted in that garden. If the Christian obeys the commandments given by Christ and His Apostles, Christ will grow in His garden. |
|
To be continued. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Christ does not spring up overnight. It requires a period of time for Christ to be formed in us. It is command upon command, rule upon rule, a little here, a little there. The Holy Spirit creates Christ upon His body and blood within us as we pray, read the Bible, worship with fervent Christians, serve as God enables, and give of our means. We must read the Bible and do what it says. Otherwise Christ will not be formed in us. |
|
As Christ is formed in our personality we are able to behave righteously and to praise God in every circumstance. |
|
The light of our testimony is the good works that proceed from Christ in our personality. When people see these good works they will glorify God. |
|
Peter exhorts us as follows: |
|
Having your conversation [behavior] honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. (I Peter 2:12) |
|
Scholars believe the "day of visitation" to be the time of God's judgment. The idea is that God wants to be proud of His people. When God judges the nations He wants to be able to point to His elect as being examples of what He expects from people. He wants the nations to see the good works of the saints. |
|
We have a destructive bias operating in our Evangelical thinking. It is that the only righteousness there is is that which is imputed. But the nations cannot see imputed, ascribed righteousness and therefore there is no testimony. |
|
If you do not think that bias is strong, let me quote from a popular Evangelical edition of the Old Testament. I am not going to mention the title of the edition because it is not my desire to give a bad name to this translation which in many respects is quite helpful. Nevertheless the particular passage under consideration is very destructive of God's intention. |
|
The quotation is from Isaiah 62:1,2: |
|
. . . until her imputed righteousness and vindication go forth as brightness . . . . And then in verse two: And the nations shall see your righteousness and vindication—your righteousness and justice [not your own, but His ascribed to you] . . . . |
|
To my knowledge there is no basis in the Hebrew text for the insertion of "imputed" or "[not your own, but His ascribed to you]." These insertions are pure bias and the integrity of disciplined scholarship forbids their inclusion. |
|
Also, it is not even logical. How can imputed righteousness go forth as brightness? Do we mean by this that we glorify God by telling unsaved people that God has forgiven us and loves us even though we still do wicked things? Are we not messed up royally? |
|
The insertion of "imputed" in verse one is particularly dangerous because there are no parentheses, italics, or brackets to indicate it is not part of the original text. |
|
I am not one to become incensed over the modern translations. I have been acquainted enough with scholarly research in the university to know that while a professor may have a questionable moral life he will be the soul of integrity when it comes to his discipline. |
|
To be continued. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It seems to be that the New American Standard and the New International Version follow the original languages closely enough to be useful. I employ both when I am preaching. |
|
But the above insertion is not a debatable translation, it is pure doctrinal bias, a bias that has all but extinguished the moral light of the churches in America. |
|
World history teaches us that the fruit, Christ, has not been formed in God's people to the extent they can overcome the wickedness in the world. |
|
The Crusades were conducted by European Christians during the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. If Christ had been formed in those believers they never would have set out to invade the holy land by force. Christ does not do such things. |
|
In more modern times the Holocaust is proof that Christ has not been in evidence in God's people to the extent we would desire. Although there were very many Lutheran Christians in Germany at the time of the Holocaust, Christ was not in them in sufficient strength to prevent the slaughter of the Jews. There were, of course, notable exceptions. |
|
Today genocide is occurring in Africa. Many parts of Africa have been evangelized, and this to some extent by Pentecostal people. Yet Christ has not been brought to a maturity sufficient to prevent the civil wars. |
|
Today the moral decline in America, England, France, Germany, and Scandinavia, all historically Christian countries, is astounding. The crime and witchcraft in South America, Central America, and Mexico, traditionally Catholic countries, equals the sin in the Protestant nations. |
|
There simply is not enough of Christ in the believers to arrest the downward slide. We have to have more of Christ, and more of Christ is on the way for everyone who will pray and obey the Lord. |
|
You may ask, "Is it God's will that the fruit of Christ come into the churches to such a degree that crusades, holocausts, genocide, immorality, crime, and witchcraft can be prevented?" The answer is, this is the whole purpose of bringing forth Christ in the elect! |
|
"But don't we have to wait until we get to Heaven for Christ to be formed in us and bring an end to sin?" |
|
Good night nurse! The Bible says nothing about righteousness and praise springing forth in Heaven. God's will is done in Heaven. It is the earth that Satan is making his playground. |
|
Notice the following. It is a Word from God and it surely shall come to pass in totality. |
|
He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. (Isaiah 27:6) |
|
Jesus Christ is the Olive Tree of God, the true Israel. Christ shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit. The fruit will be borne on the branches. Righteousness and praise shall spring forth in the sight of the nations. This is the only possible manner in which crusades, holocausts, genocide, immorality, crime, and witchcraft, can be brought to an end. |
|
To be continued. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When the Lord Jesus appears from Heaven He shall come with His saints, with those who are bearing Christ in their personality. Christ in and with His saints shall bring justice, righteousness, and peace to this old world of ours. |
|
Hallelujah! |
|
This is why Christians must bear fruit. It is not an option. It is the whole game! |
|
The believer who, after a suitable period of time, is not bearing the fruit of Christ but the fruit of the flesh, is near the judgment of God. |
|
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. (Hebrews 6:8,9) |
|
Notice in the above verses that thorns and briers do not accompany salvation. There are better things that accompany salvation. The better things are the moral image of Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, righteousness and praise. These are what the Farmer, God, is waiting to receive. |
|
The Apostle Peter speaks of new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell. The coming world of righteousness is not Heaven, the spirit realm. The coming world of righteousness will be found on the earth. |
|
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (II Peter 3:13) |
|
Today there is wickedness in the heavens and consequently on the earth. But there are new heavens and a new earth on the way and they will be filled with righteous creatures. The righteousness will be that which comes from the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ. The righteousness will not be imputed but actual righteous behavior proceeding from Christ and working in and through His saints. |
|
When we think of the coming of Christ we picture the going of the Church to Heaven. Where did we ever get this idea? Certainly not from the Scriptures. |
|
The coming of Christ according to the Prophets is to bring justice and peace to the world. |
|
He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. (Isaiah 42:4) |
|
The Lord is delaying His coming until we are ready to appear with Him and bring justice to the saved nations of the earth. We are not ready to appear with Him until the fruit of Christ comes forth in our personality. |
|
God the Father is exercising tremendous patience while He is waiting for the fruit of Christ to come forth in His people. |
|
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. (James 5:7) |
|
As we understand it the early rain fell during the Book of Acts. The early rain is the fall, or former rain of which the Bible speaks. |
|
To be continued. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The latter, spring rain brings the wheat to maturity. We think we are in the time of the latter rain now and that Christ will be formed in the saints to a much greater extent than we previously had thought could be true during our life on the earth. |
|
The parable of the sower may be the most important of the parables of the Kingdom of God. We notice that the Seed, the Word of God, or Christ if you will, is sown in four kinds of ground. |
|
The Seed does not enter and germinate in the first kind of ground. |
|
The second kind of ground is stony and the Seed does not develop a good root system. In times of trouble the plant withers and dies. Christ planted in the stony heart withers and dies! |
|
The growing plant is choked out by weeds in the third kind of ground. |
|
Christ is sown in the first three kinds of ground but does not bring forth permanent fruit. This is worthless to the farmer. |
|
The fourth kind of ground is an honest and good heart. Unless we have an honest and good heart we never will bring forth the fruit of Christ. |
|
In the fourth kind of ground the Seed may bring forth thirtyfold, or sixtyfold, or a hundredfold. This means that all people do not bring forth Christ to the same extent. |
|
What governs the amount of Christ we bring forth? |
|
Perhaps the destiny planned for us from the beginning of the world. |
|
Perhaps the amount of pruning we are willing to receive. |
|
Perhaps the diligence with which we pursue Christ. |
|
I think we get out of Christ whatever we put into Christ. |
|
Two people own grand pianos. After thirty years one can play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The other can play all the Beethoven sonatas. It depends on what you put into it. |
|
I think there is this about God. Perhaps you were predestined to be a corporal in the army of the Lord. But if you surprise God by the amount of diligence you apply to seeking Christ you might end up a general. |
|
Every aspect of the Christian salvation is an opportunity. What you do with your opportunity depends to a great extent on the choices you make each day. There simply is no place in Christian thinking for a spirit of fatalism or inevitability. |
|
Never, never, never let life beat the idealism out of you. With God all things are possible. Are you very young? What does it matter? Are you very old? What does it matter? So many trips around the sun, that's all. No real significance in trips around the sun. |
|
Why don't we surprise God? Why don't we go after Christ until the Lord says "Well done My servant!" with a real note of astonishment in His voice. |
|
We certainly can't lose anything by serving the Lord with our whole personality. We have all eternity to rest! |
|
Well, fruit's the thing. God has ordained us in Christ that we might serve as models of righteousness and praise for the rest of His creation. We could never accomplish such virtue in our adamic nature. But if we do what Christ and His Apostles commanded there is no reason why we cannot reap Christ a hundredfold. |
|
Let's go for it. |
|
Here's a one-liner for you. Christ came to change what we reap by changing what we sow. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God. And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke 9:27-31) |
|
Moses and Elijah! |
|
What, then, is the Kingdom of God? It sounds like it is Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. If we add Peter, John, and James, we have six men. Six is the number that symbolizes the Jewish Day of Atonement and symbolizes consequently the thousand-year Kingdom Age. |
|
The thousand-year Kingdom Age is often referred to as the "Millennium." It is the age that will take place as soon as the Lord returns. |
|
The thousand-year Kingdom Age is the great kingdom-wide fulfillment of the Old Testament Day of Atonement, the period when people, beginning with God's Church, are reconciled to God through confession, repentance, and deliverance from all the bondages of sin. |
|
In fact, we think that some of the aspects of the Jewish Day of Atonement are being fulfilled today but that a much more complete fulfillment will take place after the Lord returns, and that this further fulfillment will affect both the Church and the saved nations of the earth. |
|
As we have explained previously, the two witnesses of Revelation, Chapter Eleven, will portray in themselves the coming Kingdom Age and the Kingdom Age will proceed from their personalities. If you haven't read the previous essays titled "God Always Sends Two Witnesses," please do so now. |
|
It looks like we will have in the Kingdom of God (and consequently in the personalities of the two witnesses) the Lord Jesus, that which Moses represents, that which Elijah represents, and that which Peter, John, and James represent. |
|
Moses and Elijah were actually there with Jesus discussing His crucifixion. Think of it! I wonder just what we will be doing after we die and before the Day of the Lord? It sounds interesting to me, how about you? Daniel was supposed to rest until the Day of the Lord but it sounds like Moses and Elijah were active. |
|
Well anyway, we know we shall have Jesus with us in the Kingdom. We know we shall have people, as represented by Peter, John, and James. |
|
But what do Moses and Elijah represent? |
|
Moses and Elijah represent two very different aspects of the Divine witness. I think the spirit of Moses and the spirit of Elijah will be present with the disciples during the great latter-rain revival, the revival of the two witnesses. We see in Revelation Eleven the water being turned to blood (Moses) and people being destroyed by fire (Elijah). |
|
Moses represents our involvement with people. Elijah represents our involvement with God. I understand this description is oversimplified but I am separating the two forms of the witness for the purpose of analysis. |
|
Moses is that part of us that God uses to contact people and bring them out of the world and (through Moses' extension in Joshua) into the land of promise. |
|
Elijah is that part of us that belongs to God and loves to hide away with God. Moses of necessity had to work continually with the problems of people. Elijah was remote. There is a part of us that is to work with the problems of people. Then there is a part of us that is to be remote, that is to go often to the mountain of prayer with God. |
|
To be continued. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
