The Word of Truth Ministries
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To Endure Until
The End
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A few days ago, I was discussing with a class of young college students what it will take to live the life of the mind and take a degree from the university, for which they have come. New from high school, many of them have come into college with the same attitudes they had in high school, and they assume that perspective and ethos will be enough in this brave new world of higher education. But as a college teacher, it is my responsibility to guide them, tell them, and teach them the rigors of a life of the mind. And to my many spiritual brothers and sisters who, without ever knowing or experiencing those rigors of intellectual endeavor, crudely and frequently attempt to take me to task for my occasional touting of the need for intellectuality in many of our churches and among many who actually believe that ignorance is akin to holiness or rather befriends one to God, I say this: Acquiring things intellectual is closely akin to acquiring things spiritual. And that the life of the mind is so closely paralleled to the life of Christ that there are important lessons they would do well to learn. The words of Jesus in Matthew 11, verse 12, where he said, "...The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force." are almost the anthem of the would-be intellectually college educated person as well as it is the anthem of those who understand the mind of God, as much as that is possible. It is the hallmark of those who would receive anything from the Lord and stand in His council. This statement by Jesus parallels the travail of a student's attempt to acquire higher levels of thought--and travail it often is. Let me explain. Jesus, in Matthew 11, discusses the idea of acquiring the spiritual life needed to be a Christian and to attain the perfection that is in Christ. He is suggesting that the Christians cannot be the type of spiritually neutered Christians in many of today's churches. To be a Christian/saint of God, one must go beyond the supposed refinements of the humanistic Christian ethos that is modernly projected as refinement, sophistication, and intellectuality. That type of Christian is not a Christian at all but a pretender who is only masquerading before men but have no standing with God. Instead, Jesus is detailing the continued process needed to enter the kingdom of God/heaven and to go back and forth into the spiritual things of God. Let me explain further. Man likes to think of himself as civilized, having a certain pattern of behavior, thought, and refinement that enables him to accept certain principles of human behavior that may be disagreeable to his own thought or behavior, even when the actions of another go contrary to his interests and desires. It is what men do as some type of collective covenant and convention we have pieced together and accepted in order to live among other human beings. And live among them we must because human beings are a gregarious lot--look at Adam; he was lonely, so God made him a companion, the woman Eve. [Gen. 2:18] This gregarious nature of man was created by, pronounced by, and declared by God. But for man to live with others (the gregarious nature of man) he has to live with others in a way that will accord others with courtesy, dignity, respect, and the same level of reciprocity he desires.* That is generally what civilized people expect and give. Suppose a man, without money and on the street begging others for their money, says to one who approaches him, "Give me your money, a dollar or two." And the approaching man says, "No, I will not give you my money." Generally, that is enough in civilized societies to fend off the street beggar. And even though that beggar may actually need money desperately, he knows that in order for him to continue living in this society he must accept the word given by another about his own money or things--he must accept the "No." Indeed, there are laws that mandate human behavior to guide the unlearned and uncivilized in proper methods of civility. This is standard convention in most societies. But suppose that beggar is simply unwilling to accept the "No" of the man asked. Suppose the beggar overpowers the man physically and takes his money by force or fear of force. That beggar has gone beyond standard conventions generally accepted, beyond the law established; he has breached the protocols of standard, civilized society. He has taken the man's money by force, and in so doing, he has identified himself as a wild and unruly man who is unwilling to live by the conventions and covenants of civilized society. This discussion above is an allegory, a parable of earthly things to reveal spiritual truths; such truths of God are all around us if we will see them, hear them, and know them. [Psa. 19:1-4; Rom. 1:19-20] The beggar has become a violent man, one who goes beyond the boundaries and the standard fare of accepted society and resorts to extreme measures to get what he wants. He takes it by force! Now let us return to the words of Jesus in this Matthew passage, Jesus is not talking about some physical war going on in heaven to take something out of heaven or to get into heaven. There is no war going on there. When Satan would be rebellious, he was expelled out of heaven quickly. [Luke 10:18] But to understand this passage of scripture, we must understand the terms used here, as they are meant by Jesus. The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are used interchangeably by Jesus. On another occasion recorded by Luke's gospel, Jesus says this: "The law and the prophets were until John; since then the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it." [Luke 16:16] Notice that this is the same concept of Matthew 11:12, where Jesus says the kingdom of heaven and violent men take it. This passage also illuminates the Matthew 11 passage. The term that must be defined is the Kingdom of God/heaven. Notice Jesus' words again on the Kingdom of God in Matthew 6, verse 33: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." So we see that the Kingdom of God is something that must first be sought after; Matthew 11 and Luke 16 instruct us on how to seek it and with what intensity we must employ in order to attain it. Apparently, these scriptures describing the attributes and attitudes needed and demanded of God have been overlooked by many non-Holy Spirit filled "Christians."** The Matthew 11 and Luke 16 passages are passages I occasionally use to show the level of intensity needed for college work and for the work of God. Often, I think of some pitiful ministers in a number of our misguided churches who love the sound of doctor in front of their names but are unwilling to pay the real cost for the degree of doctor. So they take on false degrees of no value and that require little to no study to possess. These thieves and robbers of unearned and meaningless degrees will steal other things as well--a thief who will steal one thing will steal all things! These are ungodly men wanting that which others have paid greatly for, to be given to them free of costs; they are lazy and unwilling to work honestly for that which all others have worked for--can a thief be defined better than that? And many of them thrive in God's house as con artists for a while, but they will be, the scriptures say, soon cut down like the grass and wither like the the green herb. Indeed, the Lord will cut all remembrance of them from the earth. God will even kill their children with death! [Pas. 3416; 37:2; Rev. 2:23] But these are gluttonous men, evil doers who are clothed with the mantle of God's anointed, but they have no idea or care of the eternal harm they are doing to their children. They are concerned only about this present world and the sounds and tastes of their carnal senses in this present world. But they and their children, because of them, will die as Abner died--like a fool dies, so died Abner! [2 Sam. 3:33-35] The Apostle Paul gives us further illumination on the Kingdom of God that allows us to see more specifically what Jesus was referring to. Paul writes to the church at Rome, saying that the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. [Rom. 14:17] To get the righteousness of God (only it is accepted by God), to get the peace of God that will surpass all our understanding, and to get the joy of the Lord (which is the strength of saints), you must get in the Holy Spirit of God. These attributes are only in the Holy Spirit, and we must, therefore, get the Holy Spirit within us to get them. And that is what Jesus said in Matthew 6, seek the kingdom of God and that is done by going beyond anything this earth requires! Seeking the Kingdom of God is more than merely saying I seek you Lord. That is the vanity of this present church-world that Jude warned us about. The honest truth that most students of higher education do come to before they ever achieve the treasures of the intelligentsia is that it takes more than a mere desire and a head-fake to acquire the treasures of intellectual thought and knowledge. It takes long hours of continuous and intense study that is a weariness to the flesh. Likewise, it takes more than a mere word to acquire the things of God. [Eccl. 11:12] How many want to be able to speak and create reality, even as God does (and that is within the realm of the child of God upon this present earth today), but without first paying God's price? They are unwilling to go beyond their physical, carnal selves into the realm of God. For, you see that takes becoming violent as we have above expounded what Jesus said. Most Christians today are unwilling to pay that cost--they are unwilling to consider God's word long enough to even see the road to this reality of which I speak. Think about it, my dear reader, doesn't what I am now saying sound like mythical notions rather than sound Christian teaching; mere notions we fantasize about but do not really believe, accept, or even think of as occurring in this present life? That is how far away from the Living God human beings and most "Christians" really are. The promises of God are indeed Yea and Amen, but we have allowed Satan to blind us and set the terms of our non-salvation, while we have this form of Godliness without the power of God. And we think that that position is OK. A man such as I is probably considered by many of you reading this sermon now as an extremist--too extremely educated to be Christian; too extreme in my vigorous teaching and belief in God's Holy, Precious, and Divine word; too extreme with the idea that we must obey every word that proceeds out of His mouth. Indeed, many of you may consider me far out of the mainstream, because I believe God as He has spoken in his rightly divided word. That mindset and perspective you have of me is your own self-appraisal of where you stand with God, which is a definition of a non-believer who is feigning Christianity. The things of God are precious, holy, and valuable; more valuable than anything in this life; they are pearls and gems. [Mat. 7:6] Hence to acquire them will require that an individual go beyond himself spiritually and reach a level of spiritual intensity that classifies him as spiritually violent. Such a person will reach a depth that is uncommon but heavenly. It is a depth that is in man but seldom reached by man; it is a spiritual capacity that was in man from his very creation when he regularly had fellowship with God, his creator, but he lost when man transitioned into sin. I have seen in my personal experiences and other people's experiences with God that only desperate and violent men are saved and can reach into the spiritual realm in times of trouble and desperation and extract the good things of God. When I was without hope and without the ability to change the conditions of my son's deployment as he served as a US Marine in Iraq, I sought the Living God, whose child I know I am and who loves me and hears me as any loving father hears his son when I have called upon him. God, of course, worked his miracle working power to deliver him out of harm when the harm of death was heavily upon him as the thickness of the dust in a dust storm. A suicide bomber pulled up alongside his truck and detonated; the soldiers all around him were sadly killed and he was blown into the air, but he called mightily upon the name of the God in whom we served, and that God, not another or luck, brought him out of that situation with only minor bump on his face that is hardly noticeable to anyone except him. Oh, yes, I know in whom I have believed! I prayed fervently while he was in Iraq and went beyond the boundaries of intellectual and carnal civility to take the promises and power that belongs to saints of the Living God by spiritual force. I decreed that my son would come back alive and unharmed, regardless of the conditions. And night after night I alone, away from my wife, cried out to God and talked to him as one talks to his father in vigorous contention, telling God that I had lived for Him, walking perfectly before him and that the promises that he said were mine, I as a son of his, was now claiming. I asked and commanded God concerning his promises that He not break my heart by allowing anything to happen to that son. I knew the promises of God and I knew how to become violent and take the things of God by spiritual force. I cried out to God in my desperation and knew that He would and did hear me. Allow me to speak to you who actually know something about what I speak. When you have real and repeated communion with the Living God, you know when you have broken through this world's veneer that often binds and limits that communion, and gotten through to the throne of grace, which we are told to come boldly to. During the time of my son's deployment in Iraq, I lay in my private space of prayer and talked to God through tears and fervency until, I night after night and day after day, broke through fleshly bounds and earthly limitations and reached the Spirit of God to commune with Him. often I said, "God, you will not break my heart. I have no one but you in this time of trouble. You are the God of all the earth; you are here and there and everywhere. Now be God in my need and desperation as I have allowed you to be God in my life, governing my behavior, my thoughts, and every step I take. God, protect that son, which you have given me that is now in danger. You have given me these children as my strength and none is lost; I refuse to lose him." *** I talked to God about the angel of the Lord that encamps round about us to deliver us, that that angel deliver my son from the wrath of Satan who would destroy him. As I talked to God, I knew that I had gone to another level; the level of the spiritually violent man who was pressing his way into the presence of God--"While on others He was calling, I asked the savior to not pass me by."
I went boldly to the throne of God and presented my petition to
him as any loved son would do. And as I prayed in California,
God was working there beyond my imagination. Not only had he
assigned and activated His protective angel to encamp around my
son, he had opened my son's mouth there in Iraq so that he was
teaching and encouraging his fellow Marines that they were in a
land where the Living God has worked many and mighty miracles,
and He will work a miracle for them. That son was there
decreeing the mighty powers of God like he had never done
before. And, yes, of course, God was making my son's
(His son) words stand as if they were God's word. God was doing more than
I thought or asked: He was unsheathing His mighty sword to fight
for my son and using him to evangelize, even as he spoke and God
made what he said come to past; God had him preach and teach
others about the word of God. As he and another brother each day
would get together and read their Bibles and seek the face of
God, other soldiers would gather around them and hear the good
things of God--they held their own church that was always
attended by other soldiers. [Even as I write the marvelous
workings of God, I am now overwhelmed by God's Spirit and His
answering beyond the things I can think or ask!!!] I have not developed this message as I should have, but I will continue the fullness of this message next week. Until then, my brothers and sisters and friends, go with God, in Jesus name--Jesus is God! [3,700 words]
______________________ **Many have not sought the things of God with the intensity that is required by God, yet, not having put forth that intensity and thereafter received the spirit of God with all the evidence God gives of having received it, they declare that they have God's Holy Spirit baptism anyway. God is God, not man. And God the greatest of intensity that God has to offer. Notice that he said this, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled." [Mat. 5:6] "...For he that cometh to God must believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. [Heb. 11:6] Jude, looking down the eyes of time, saw the condition we would be in today, said that the faith that was once delivered to the saints must be earnestly contended for, because he saw through the eyes of God that certain ungodly men would creep into the house of God, but they were ordained to do so, and reverse the things of God so as to render ineffectual the faith of many, as they play church. [Jude 3-4]Notice the intensity found in these passages of scripture, and many, many more, about the faith and the intensity needed, yea, demanded of God to actually know and acquire the things of God. To have conversation/fellowship with God man must go beyond his mere plebian level and reach a level of intensity greater than any he knows and has exhibited toward the things of this life. But it is an intensity that is deep within each human soul, for God has placed it there, if one will but call to his deep and find it. [Psa. 42:7; Rom. 12:3] see the sermon, Deep Calls Unto The Deep. ***I have not cited scriptural references in how I petitioned God, but if you are scriptural, you can readily see that what I was saying to God is what He said to say to Him. I brought his word and promises back to him, as a child does to his father. A young child relies on what his father has said to him. That child knows that if he has done all that is required of him, he can go to that father with absolute certainty and demand that his father fulfill his word. That is what I did to God and commanded God by his word that He do as He promised He would do. And God who cannot lie fulfilled his promise to beyond that which I could think or ask! Going boldly to the throne of grace as I did and described above is faith in action. Faith is not some mental thing or one getting a headache trying to believe God. Faith is accepting what God's correctly understood word is and demanding by your standing in God as an obedient son that He do all that He has promised. And although that seems scary to us because our sight is limited, there is no danger there. God controls all factors of life. We often look at the largeness of the situation instead of the largeness of our God. God showed for me and my son His raw, naked power like many saints of God will never see in their lifetime of walking with Christ, and for that I am thankful!
The next day, my son called me from the
hospital bed he was in, touting the mighty powers of God and how
he had actually felt the spiritual power of God pull him out of
danger after landing out of the air. And as he talked and
testified to me over the phone, the spirit of God moved and
resonated in me as he spoke. After three days in the hospital,
they placed him back in the field. But when he was discharged
and back home, he said that he could not stop testifying of
God's mighty powers.
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Oakland, CA 094603