Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Knowledge of God Pt.4

Glory! Amen! Let's turn to Philippians and see if we can get a little further along in this. I want to take a little bit of time and review some of this third chapter, and then get into the Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1 passages we've been talking about and begin to see what Paul was saying to us is the spiritual and eternal purpose for this process of coming to know Him.

It's not for ourselves as we've come to understand clearly in these last months. It's not about us, it's not to bless us, to make life better. It's about the eternal weight of God's determinate counsel and being able to embrace that and to let it effectually work in our lives to begin to see from the eternal perspective instead of the temporal perspective. As the Apostle who was that example that went before us, to be able to really come to the place to declare, "For me to live is Christ and death is gain." It's not just talking about the natural death, it's talking about death to self, to our own will. One of the interesting sayings, I have a lot of quotes that I've written in the back of my Bible here, one of them is very applicable to what we've been talking about. In this particular one, (Let me see. There are so many here) one of these quotes--I don't remember who some of these are from but one of the statements says, "If we will not die, then we must die." If we find it difficult to allow that process to take place in our lives, then it becomes even more necessary. If we're shrinking from it, if we're fearful, then it has to occur in our lives so we can be free to know the goodness and the love of our Father, because to really understand God's goodness is to fear and not be afraid. To embrace that goodness, to be able to reverence God and stand in awe of Him and at the same time allow ourselves to be filled with all of His graciousness, and His kindness, and His goodness, and understand that everything has a good, eternal purpose, not only for us will it work out for good but for the momentary purposes of God.

In the Ephesians and Colossians passages we get a glimpse of that understanding of the purpose for this coming to the knowledge of God. When we go to those passages and we talk about being filled with the fullness of the knowledge of God, don't forget the definition that we've been spending all these hours trying to bring forth. The knowledge of God is death to self. It's not knowing about God, we know enough about God. We don't need to know any more about God, we need to know God. It's important, then, that we're able to understand that and as we come to that it will change our lives. It's very important that we allow the visitation of His Spirit to radically change the course at all times, and it's momentary in our lives.

So Paul says in this third chapter of Philippians, as we were leaving off this morning in verse 14, he said, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." We're not going to emphasize this aspect of the Scripture tonight, but as we've taught so many times in the past we see the fervency of Paul's heart here. Like so many people have not been able to do, Paul took this zeal that he had for his own glory and his own purpose and was able to transfer it to his pursuit of God. A lot of people are not able to do that. Many of us are very zealous about building our own kingdoms, about building our own program, and then when it comes to the things of God we're satisfied with mediocrity. We can't say it was the character of Paul, because it was misused. It was for self-gain, so he lacked character in the truest sense, but he was a person who tasted the goodness of God, and it created in him a jealousy for the holiness of God. The same Spirit that Jesus had in the temple when He said, "The zeal of Your house has eaten me up." That's what God wants to work in our lives, and this is what was motivating Paul. This wasn't something that was just a pursuit based on mediocrity, he said, "I press toward the mark." That word "press" means to extend oneself completely, to go to the "nth" degree, to use up all of your strength, all of your energy, all of your ability. It also talks about an immediacy. It's a very interesting word. It means we respond quickly, we respond immediately. When God speaks we don't say, "Let me go bury my father and then I'm able to come." When Jesus asks for that little donkey we don't say, "He's tied up." When He says, "Come and follow Me," we don't say, "I have a job here, I have a family to take care of, I have an obligation to the government." We rise up from the money table and we follow Him. When He says, "Come, I'm going to make you fishers of men," we don't say, "Wait a minute, You don't understand, there's a family business here, this is our livelihood." You just leave the nets on the rocks and you pursue with speed the things of God. "I press toward the mark." How quick are we to hear that voice? "This is the way walk in it." What does it take to respond when you've heard? Even when you don't respond the first time you hear--and those of us that are believers, if you don't respond, you haven't heard, amen? If you don't respond you haven't heard. That reminds me, I think there's another thing back here. "To respond [I think this one is from Tozer] is to pursue." There is no pursuit if we're not responding to the momentary voice of God. In other words there has to be some action. Faith without works is dead. We say we know the truth, but truth that's divorced from our everyday life isn't truth it's just knowledge. So we have to come to the place where we're being moved by our pursuit. There's an ever-increasing approach, we're drawing closer, we're not static as we shared on Wednesday night. This life is a life of pressing in, we know Him better today, we're more yielded today, we're more like Him than we were.

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Then he makes an interesting statement he said, "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded." (Verse 15). You see, the fact of the matter is, there are a lot of us here that just don't want to be perfect, we're content with mediocrity. Many of us have said, "well, you know, bless God, the Bible says, there is 30, 60, 100 and I'm 15. One of these days I hope to grow into a 30." Are you content? You see, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can set the standard of how much fruit we're going to bear and still be pleasing to God. He places us in the body as it pleases Him. Have you discovered what He's called you to be? You may be satisfied with where you are; is God? In your limited knowledge you may think that what you are doing is sufficient and that you have no more abilities than those you are exhibiting. Well, maybe you don't, but I wonder what could be done if it was put in the hands of God. Are you comfortable that everything has been put into His hands and that He's doing all with you that can be done? Then we're not finished yet in our pursuit are we? Then we're not pressing toward the prize the high calling of God. "Let us therefore as many as would be perfect." That word "perfect" means mature or complete. Not sinless, not perfect, as He is perfect. The Bible says, "Be perfect as He is perfect." That's talking about coming to completion, to be all that we can be--and I don't mean the Army. The other day someone said, "Pray for America's finest that are fighting over." I can't remember what it said, our finest.and they said something about our smartest, finest, whatever, young men. I thought, "Have you looked at the Army lately? Come on, it's one thing to pray for them, it's another thing to lie." I don't want to say too much, I know some of us have family there that joined. So many are there because they can't get a job anyplace else. What about this Army of God? Do you know that you don't join? This is not a voluntary arm. Do you know you're drafted? We didn't choose Him, He chose us. You can't join this army, you can't just come, you have to be drawn, and there's a standard of perfection that He's established. And He says, "As many of you would come to that then you have to be of this same mind," diligent pursuit, death to self, disciplined, as we establish ourselves in the pursuit of the eternal perspective.

And so he goes on and says, ".and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded [here's the good news, say it with me], God shall reveal even this unto you." Aren't you thankful for the conviction of the Holy Spirit that He'll speak to you and say, "You're not what you think you are, you're not where you should be. This production is not acceptable with Me I've created you to be more than that." And you say, "I think I'll just take a little break," and He'll remind you and say, "No, do you remember when you committed to perfection? I'm reminding you of that. I'm holding you to your vow, to the grace that was enabling you at that moment to experience the knowledge of Myself, and I will finish that good work in you, and I'm not letting you subordinate yourself to any less than what I called you to be." When we go over to Ephesians, you're going to see that it has to do with the predestination of God, the determinate counsel of God. This pursuit of the knowledge of God from a theological perspective is huge as it gets into sovereignty, as it gets into the foreknowledge of God and predestination. All of that is great from a theological perspective, but what about the daily walking out of this momentary death? He said, "Nevertheless [verse 16] whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." That which you've come to, God has brought you here. The same rule, the same thing that brought you to where you are is what's going to continue to bring you to perfection.

Paul makes this statement, and it should be one that all of us would desire to make, preferably that we could make it to our families. "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample" (Verse 17). "Be followers together of me." What a privilege to be able to stand and to make that kind of declaration--a boldness, a statement made in fear and trembling. He says we should be able to come to that place, every one of us to where you can just say, "Hey, you want to make it? Follow me." Paul had that kind of zeal and he was stirring those around him.

Now what was it that Paul was focused on? Look down, if you would, at verse 20. You see, Paul was "other world" minded. He says in verse 20, "For our conversation [we know that word means our living, our existence, what all of our time and energy and focus is on is what this word "conversation" is talking about. Our lifestyle, our living] is in heaven." You know, it's where we're focused. "I press toward the mark, the prize, the high calling of God that's in Christ Jesus." It's what we're focused on, it's where our treasure is. The Scripture says that's where our heart is. So many of us that are distracted by attractions, that interesting word that Jesus used in His Parable of the Sower. As the Scripture speaks, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of other things that enter in and choke the Word of God out of our heart, these things that are the enemy of our soul. (Mark 4:19). You can always tell how full your heart is of Jesus by how much you think you need external things, because if you're full of the knowledge of God you need nothing from without. You don't need man's acceptance, you don't need man's help. You don't have to have anything external to cause contentment in your life. Paul, as he's embracing this and he's talking about our life being in the heavens, he said, ".[it's] from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body..."

Paul really hated his body, didn't he? He was a man that understood what it meant to buffet himself. He was a man that became--the more he walked in the spirit, the more he hated the natural man that he was. He was a moral man, he was a man that kept the law. This is a guy that kept the Ten Commandments. We all would have called him a great guy. He honored mother and father, he didn't lie, he didn't steal, he didn't covet. As he embraced the glory of God's holiness he understood the vileness of his self-righteousness, he understood the vileness of the total depravity of man, he understood what true idolatry was. Idolatry isn't stone images and idolatry is not causing our children to pass through the fire to Moloch. Idolatry is the replacing of God's will with our own. The more Paul understood what men today would call great assets of vision and diligence and a man that had what we would call this intestinal fortitude, he said, "I have to tell you, it's all dung. It only produces death. The Kingdom in which we function, the Kingdom to which you and I have been called gives no credit to any of the things that in the natural we would want to esteem." You want to be strong? You have to be weak. You want to be great? You have to be a servant. As Paul was embracing that and dying to all that made him a success in the natural, he said, "[Jesus will] change [verse 21] our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." So as he admonishes each one of us to embrace this death and to realize that our conversation is now in the heavenlies and all that had been acquired in the realm of self and self-righteousness, the works mentality of approaching God, the embracing of this new-found grace that Paul is bringing forth to the Philippians here, he said, "don't think it's a grace without responsibility, don't think that it's a grace that doesn't require character and pursuit, but it's God that's at work within us to will and to do His good pleasure," he said in the second chapter (Philippians 2:13).

We see Paul in Philippians having experienced his Gethsemane, and each one of us has our own. Coming to the knowledge of God, we've seen what it takes now. The avenue that we're going to have to travel is one of death, it's one of humility, it's one of pain, this way of the cross, but when we've been crucified with Him, then we're going to be raised with Him, praise God! When we're willing to die with Him, then sin no longer has power and dominion over us according to Romans 6. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead quickens our mortal bodies on a daily basis, and it will even begin to show itself in our physical health as we're made strong, praise God! And if for some reason He chooses not to heal us, it will evidence itself in our joy in the midst of the trial as you're going to see in Colossians in just a moment. Death to self is always expressed by thanksgiving in adversity--a grace that enables us to always declare the goodness of our God, and His good intentions toward us.

In Ephesians, chapter 1, let's look over there. We see probably one of the greatest revelations of God in the introduction of Paul's epistles. Most of us, in Ephesians chapter 1, we really are a people that emphasize verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." The thing that we need to come to understand is God wants to bless you, praise God. There's only one thing that really holds back the blessings of God in many of our lives, and that's our unwillingness to be pruned so He can bless us, so that He can bring forth His purpose in our lives. It's our fear, it's our disobedience, it's our lack of knowing Him that keeps the blessings of God from being able to come to fruition. Most of what we have are just token blessings compared to what He could do if we'd fully yield ourselves to Him. He just blesses us in spite of ourselves, but He wants to reveal Himself and pour out His blessings upon us. Now remember, we're not talking external, we're talking about internal, we're talking about being full of the knowledge of God.

Now remember when we're talking about the knowledge of God and coming to know Him, I don't want to get side-tracked here, but remember who we're talking about, we're talking about an infinite Being. So can we as finite individuals with finite minds ever know God who is infinite? Can't do it. So all we can know of God is what He can reveal to us in the limited scope of our finiteness. No matter how spiritual we become, no matter how victorious we are in walking victoriously and casting out devils, and healing the sick, in bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit, in receiving revelation, in having words of wisdom and words of knowledge dropped into our hearts, of being able to be crucified to where we become servant of all, we only have a glimpse of Him. He's bigger than anything you will ever know in this life. Then when you're renewed and you receive a transformed mind and body, you still won't know Him because we're the creature and He's the Creator. Amen? What am I saying? He's big, praise God, and He's able to do exceeding abundant above anything we could ask or even think. So when we talk about the knowledge of God, remember He's an infinite Being who reveals Himself to us through what we call attributes which in and of themselves do not total God, they're only things that cause us to come to a knowledge of Him. He's bigger than His attributes because the attributes of God are only the expressions of Himself to finite beings. Okay, I said we don't want to bog down here. Pretty soon we're going to be going aaah! We don't want to do that, that's not what we're looking at. The thing that I'm trying to do is to get you in the pursuit of Him, to know Him and not try to know about Him, because you're not going to exhaust who He is. You can come to know the revelation of Himself and the greatest revelation of Himself is in the person of Jesus, because He says, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." Now I don't want to mess things up, but He's still just speaking of the Father in relationship to His purpose in reconciling man. God is bigger than redemption, God is bigger than man and His dealing with man. And what He's revealed Himself to be in the Bible is not all there is to God, it's all that He needs to reveal to get man reconciled back to Himself. He's bigger than that, praise God!

So he says in this first chapter of Ephesians--this is a fabulous chapter--so the Scripture says that He's ".blessed us with all the spiritual blessings [necessary] in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in Him [self] before the foundation of the world" Aren't you glad He has chosen you? We sit here tonight because God has chosen us, and if He's chosen us then He's for us. He that's begun this work in us will finish it. Can you say "Praise God" for that? So He's chosen us in Himself from the eternal perspective from before the foundations of the world. He has chosen us so that we can enjoy life, be glorified, and have Him as our servant--that's how some people think about God and what He came to do. ".He hath chosen us from before the foundation of the world, that we should be [say it, look at the word, what?] holy." You're going to see that the revealing of Himself is for the purpose of making us holy and without blame before Him in having partaken of His love. Everything that He does in the revelation of Himself, in the bringing us to the knowledge of Himself--now when I say that, remember what we said to use as your definition. It doesn't just mean to have more Bible knowledge, it doesn't mean to become an expert on the attributes of God, we're talking about coming to the place of obedience, of submission to His lordship, because hereby we saw Wednesday night in 1 John, do we know that we know Him if we...say it. It's all about bringing us to obedience. If we say that we know Him and keep not His commandments, we're liars. "I'm a Christian, I just don't obey the Bible." You're a liar is what you are, and you're of your father the devil, because anybody that has knowledge of God will keep His commandments, and they will not be grievous unto him. When we don't keep them and we sin, we confess our sin and He's faithful and just to do what? Forgive us and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. "But I've written these things to you that you sin not." So there's no justification for a life of sin. "But when that occasional sin occurs, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. I have called you from before the foundations of the world and My purpose is to reveal Myself to you that you might be holy and without blame." That's what this whole thing is about.

Verse 5, "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." That's a mouthful. You take about three months, study that, and you'll just be getting into that verse. So let me explain it to you here in about two sentences. What is Paul saying to us here? Predestinated us! "Well, you know, we're not Calvinists, we don't believe in predestination." Of course we believe in predestination;, it's in the Bible, amen? I don't know about you, but I'm glad I'm predestinated. When you read about predestination here in Ephesians, chapter 1, when you read about predestination in Romans, chapter 8, the thing that we understand is this, we are predestined from before the foundations of the world. The omnipotent, eternal, sovereign God said, "I'm going to make you like Me," praise God, and nothing is going to stop it! Can you say "Praise God" to that? When you do, remember what we taught this morning. When you say, "Praise God, nothing is going to stop it," that means you. Amen? He's going to get you where He wants you, and many of us will go kicking and screaming, but He's predestinated us. As we heard this utterance this evening, I would encourage you to listen to that small voice and not have Him have to take everything from you to get you there, but He will work His will in you.

So we understand the revelation here, and he says, "Listen, here's what it's all about, I have predestined you to adoption." Now, we're not going to go over to Romans 8:29, but these two verses parallel one another. I don't want to get off course here but we remember we've done an extensive teaching on adoption. Adoption has nothing to do with the way we perceive adoption here in America. Adoption is not that we run down and adopt one of the little Asian babies from Vietnam, and take this child other than ourselves and legally make them part of our family. Spiritual adoption, as we see it here, is the ability of God to make us a natural child of Himself, and then mature us to the place where He can position us to rule in His stead and represent Him in His Kingdom. He says we have been adopted to the purpose of God. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according [what a fabulous statement this is] to the good pleasure of his will, [He who is working in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. Everything He's doing in your life is to bring you into the will of His pleasure, to do those things that are pleasing in His sight] to the praise of the glory of His grace..." What poetic power the Spirit speaks in here! Language can't do justice to the truth that's trying to be conveyed, but the bottom line is this, verse 6, He's made us accepted in the beloved, praise God! You feel worthless? Your worth is in Jesus. You feel helpless? Your help is in Jesus. You feel alone? Your companionship is in Jesus. You feel alienated? Your reconciliation is in Jesus. You feel temporal and finite, this is eternal life that we might know Him, Jesus, our Lord and our Savior, John 17 says.

So Paul speaks to us and he says, "In whom [verse 7-11] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; [all of it done] even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."

We've talked about our steps being ordered of the Lord, we've talked about Him working in us to will and to do His good pleasure; we've talked about the pruning process in our lives that we could bring forth more fruit; we've talked about the fact that we're not a people that are not subject to fate, but a people whose steps are ordered by God. Nothing is chance in our lives. We look back many of us in our lives, and things that psychologists would tell us are the things that have perverted our lives, and scarred us and caused us to become dysfunctional. How about a God that can work all things together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose? You mean God was the author of me being molested, and God was the author of me being abused, and God was the author of those drunken relatives that would harass, and God's the author? No, no, no. It says He takes and works all things for good, amen? What you realize is, you know what, all that I've experienced showed what life is like outside the Father's house. It showed that Satan is a hard taskmaster and that the wages of sin is death. What I experienced there contrasts the goodness, and the mercy, and the tenderness of my God. One of the deacons was sharing just the other day about a lady in our fellowship that said, "You know my life was one where my parents put so much of their attention into my siblings' lives, and I was kind of left out, and because of that, I just don't know how to be a parent, and I don't know how to be a good parent." I said, "Go back and tell that person to just stop for a moment, and get their focus off themselves, and say, "What are all of those things my parents didn't do for me?" and do that for your child and you'll be a good parent." But, you see, we get so caught up in us, and how we didn't get a fair break, and how things didn't come our way. Take it and learn from it, praise God. Your parents didn't give it to you, give it to your kids, praise God. Becoming a good parent doesn't come naturally, being a parent doesn't come naturally, being selfish does. But being a good parent is death to self, being a good parent is making decisions to do what's right for our children, to be consistent, to die to ourselves that they might be birthed into the image of Jesus. He who does all things, who works all things after the counsel of His own will. "That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ" (Verse 12). And now he's beginning to come down to this statement of the knowledge of Himself that we want to spend some time on, and we're going to have to do that Wednesday it looks like.

This first chapter of Ephesians is so rich. You just can't exhaust it, there's no way. You can study this thing for years and you can't exhaust this first chapter. But what Paul's revealing to us here is the purpose of God to reconcile man back to Himself, and His desire to reveal Himself to man and to free man from his tainted knowledge of God, and his self-confidence in his own knowledge of life and all that the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil has deluded him with. God wants to transform man back out of that trust. Remember whom he's writing to here. At what time and point in history is Paul writing, and what culture is he addressing here when he writes to those in Ephesus? Do you remember where Ephesus was, what country? The Greeks worshipped what? Knowledge. These were a people that were very confident in knowledge, they were very satisfied with knowing about. Paul's saying it's not enough to know about God, you need to know Him. "I want to talk to you about this unknown God," when he ministered to those in Athens. "God isn't hidden from us, He's revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ, and God isn't an impersonal God but a personal God who is reconciling, drawing you as an individual to Himself." He wants to reveal Himself to you and in you, is what he's saying to these in Ephesus. And he says, my prayer for you, I do not, verse 16, "Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." "You who have received the earnest, the guarantee of the inheritance," verse 14, "those of you who were sealed by the Holy Ghost," verse 13, "you I pray for." Now wait a minute, these are a people who have already been sealed, a people who have already been chosen from before the foundations of the world, and Paul says, "I have prayer for you." Most of us would be satisfied with that. Chosen from before the foundations of the world, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the guarantee of our inheritance, he said, "I pray for you," "That the God [verse 17] of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: [so that] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; [what will this knowledge of God bring? Look at it] that ye may know [get it in your notes, number 1] what is the hope of his calling, and [number 2] what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, [number 3] And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward.," and fourthly, the mystery of the body of Christ and how you and I as individuals live, and move, and have our being corporately as members of a body. You will not know God to yourself, you will only know Him fully as you interact with the body of Christ. You will not please God to yourself, but only as you're positioned and served, and are served in the body of Christ. So as we go on into Wednesday's teaching, we're going to talk about that functional knowledge, that ability of God to show Himself through His body as each one of us is used to provoke one another to love and good works that we could come to the full knowledge of His will, that that He's predestined from before the foundations of the world. He called you, He placed you, He will prepare you, and He will fellowship with you, and His presence will be our reward.

Father, we thank You tonight for the visitation of Your Spirit, and we ask that as You reveal Yourself to us in Your Word, that we would allow this living expression of Yourself to come into our hearts and fill us with the knowledge of Yourself. Not about You, but the awareness of Your presence in our lives. Not head knowledge, heart knowledge. Father, it's our desire that You would reveal Yourself to us in a new and vital way. We come to You, Father, and we ask that You would cause us to embrace the cross, whatever that might be in our lives, and that we would be satisfied with the infilling of Your presence to the place where we require nothing else externally to give us a reason to live. For we understand that our lives are just the sum total of our desires. Where our treasure is that's where our heart is. Cause us to focus on the cross, to focus on the empty tomb, to focus on the ascension, to have our conversation in the heavenlies, because while we're focusing on You, we can't see ourselves. Work it in us, Father; we'll give You all the praise, in Jesus' name.

Hallelujah! Let's stand before the Lord and just take a few moments and worship Him. Thank Him for what He's doing in our hearts.

As Gary plays for us, and our minds hearken back before history to a time in eternity when there was no time, and He chose us in Himself. Before there was a man, before there was an Adam and an Eve, God chose you to be conformed into His image. Are we going to let Him do the work? The cross was not God's intention, the garden was. Adam brought us the cross because he broke order and let his wife usurp authority. Because of that we each have a cross. Oh, how good it is to do it God's way. You want to know how to avert a cross? Get your house in order. Get your goals your ambitions in order if you want to avert a cross. But if you insist on disorderly behavior, God will reconcile you to Himself through His determinate counsel. He has predestinated us, and He will bring you by way of the cross, but He will bring you to Himself if you have a heart for Him, those who have been predestined. But what about those of us who won't bow our knee and the cross won't affect us? You're not called, you're not predestined, you'll go the way of all flesh, and you will stand and be judged in His holiness, and your knee will bow, and your stiff neck will be broken without remedy. But to those who have ears to hear come rejoicing in the call from before the foundations of the world as He chooses to reconcile us to Himself in Jesus Christ; as He desires to bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; as He desires to call us His own very inheritance. Look, as Paul said, into the heavenlies now and have your conversation there, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim.

As we prepare to sing this chorus, gaze into the heavenlies and let your treasures be there. Let's sing it together and worship Him. "Open Our Eyes Lord, We Want To See Jesus."

Hallelujah! As our eyes are focused into the eternal, into the heavenlies, could it be that there is another course? You just haven't seen it because you've been so focused on objects other than pressing toward the mark, the prize. Is there a willingness to hear and to do? Can you walk away from your nets? As Father is working as I've shared, in my life I don't know what He's doing yet, I don't know. Everything I have is on the chopping block. You can have it all it's all up for sale right now. You can have everything but my wife, and my children, and my grand babies, and God can have them. But as we prepare our hearts, as we're getting ready to go over to Africa, we've already made enemies of two very powerful people over there just because we won't compromise the Gospel. We don't know what He has for us, we could go over there and just stay. We'll send your kids back, maybe.

What's He doing in our life? How quick can we respond as we press toward the mark? When He has touched your heart do you immediately obey? Then you can say your conversation is in heaven, then there's a rest. I found a place of rest, uncomfortable in the pain, but at peace, rest in the Spirit, anticipating the glory of God and looking forward to seeing Him and being like Him. I know that's where the majority of the hearts are that are gathered here with us to one degree or another. There are those that are among us that have no intention of doing God's will, but the majority do. We're going to see in this study that those are the people that we give our lives to, those are the people that we follow, those are the people that we sow into. It has nothing to do with natural blood, it has nothing to do with natural family. As Jesus hung on that cross, He looked into the eyes of His mother and He said, "woman, behold your son," and then he looked at that one that He loved and said, "Behold your mother, she's not mine, she's yours." This is the providence of God. God has orchestrated His will, and His will is that what the world would say was a natural obligation and a natural response. He has supernaturally transferred love, care, and commitment from the eternal perspective. Who is my mother, my brethren? Those that do the will of God. As He shows us the knowledge of Himself you'll be able to walk away from the money table, the nets, the mother, the wife and the children when you've heard that voice. And you can say, "into Your hands I commit my Spirit, You've brought me beyond reason. You've brought me to the place where I cry my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. You've brought me to the place like Job to where I finally understand where I've missed." We're talking about humanity in general. Each one of us here has to come to these places the same that Job did, and the same that Jesus did. It's just going to happen in our lives in different ways, but you're going to have to come to that place to where like Job you just say, "I'm just going to put my hand over my mouth, the Lord gives, the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord." And like Jesus, "Into Your hands I commit My Spirit." There is no greater rest.

Make it real Father, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Into His hands I've committed my Spirit." Praise God. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print