Armed And Extremely Dangerous

Armed And Extremely Dangerous
"READY FOR THE BATTLE"

Putting Fuel On The Fire

Friday, September 9, 2016

Salvation is He Whoo gave Himself

Salvation is He whom gave up himself and took sin and made sin Spiritual,

"O Lord, let thy ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the Prayer of thy servants who delight to fear thy name; and give success to thy servant today," (Nehemiah 1:11a RSV) A wall symbolize? One of the most famous landmarks in the world today is the Berlin wall, dividing the city in two. Ordinarily, though, a wall symbolizes strength and protection. What does it mean, then, to rebuild the walls of your life? Nehemiah is the account of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is a symbol of the city of God, God's dwelling place and the center of life for the world. In an individual life, then, the rebuilding of the walls would be a picture of re-establishing the strength of that life. 
We have all met people whose defenses have crumbled away. They have become human derelicts, drifting up and down the streets of our large cities, utterly hopeless and helpless. But God in grace frequently reaches down and gets some of those people and brings them out to rebuild the walls. This is the picture of the way the walls of any life, of any local church, of any community, of any nation, can be rebuilt into strength and power and purpose again. You will never build the walls of your life until you have first become greatly concerned about the ruins. Have you ever taken a good look at the rubble in your life? Have you ever stopped long enough to assess what you could be under God, and compared that with what you are? Have you looked at the possibilities that God gave you in your life, and seen how far you have deviated from that potential? Like Nehemiah, you have received a word, in some form or other, of the desolation and ruin there. When Nehemiah hears this report about Jerusalem, he weeps and prays for days, showing his intense concern. You will never rebuild the walls of your life until you first weep over the ruins. The revelation of the Kingdom of prophecy takes place in the beginning as God is the Alfa and Omega who sent His Son into a dying world leaving the comforter to direct us in all truth. The kingdom lives in you and I therefore we are the Masters builders directed by the Master to build up the kingdom. Aiding the Kingdom presents the purpose of God to bring his people in full knowledge of the kingdom, process and final realization of a divine government in on earth in the obedience of Christ. While the heart of the kingdom is prayer which is intimate relationship with the Father. Thy kingdom come as one enters into the doors of Gods heart then we will finalize in knowing the wisdom and knowledge of God in His kingdom. Once this is establish Gods will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. The revelation runs through heaven earth Old Testament and for filled the New Testament. Leading to the conclusions touching God head and fulfilment of prophecy that tells of present age of grace and the future of both the Jews and Gentiles. The conclusions is this. To know Christ is to have faith, and Christ to be revealed to that faith. All knowledge comes and is received as a persuasion in the mind, on sufficient evidence. Now if we have a sight of Christ by precious faith, there will be in our hearts knowledge, a persuasion that He is, and that will lead us to want to know Him more. "O could we but with clearer eyes His excellences trace; could we His Person learn to prize, we more should value His grace!" To know Christ is to know Him in His various offices, to know Him in His great work of redemption, to know Him as the Lord, our Righteousness, to know Him as an Elder Brother, as one who stands at the right hand of the needy to deliver and save him from those that are too strong for him. The apostle did know Christ at this time, but what he knew of Christ led him to want to find out more. It is a peculiarity of divine teaching and the knowledge of Christ that the more He is known the keener is the appetite for Him. The longing to know Him more always accompanies knowledge of Him. I am sure some of you understand me, that the least measure of knowledge that you possess of Christ has this effect on others, namely a desire to know Him more. "O could I know and love Him more, and all his wondrous grace explore! Ne'er would I covet man's esteem, but the part with all and follow Him." God has sent Him to be known, and it is life eternal to know Him: "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3) Do you not feel a longing for Him come to you? Does not your appetite find expression in the Psalm where you read: "O when wilt Thou come unto me?" Does it not express your hunger? As if you could say, "The one I want, and whose coming will satisfy me, is the Son of God;" and then turning the eye of your heart to Him you say, "O when wilt Thou come to me? When will that blest time arrive when Thou wilt kindly deign, with me to sit, to a lodge, to live and never part again?"
To know Christ is to know that you are blessed with divine life, surrounded by divine favor, founded on divine love and that there is prepared for you an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that faded not away. All this is implicit in that knowledge of Christ which the Apostle Paul here desires. Some here may know Him and not feel that they know all that. But it is there in the seed of it, and the more Christ comes, the more will those things which accompany salvation come to the front in your experience, and you will say, "I understand now a little of what was meant when such and such things were said concerning the knowledge of Christ." To know Christ is real to be delivered, to be delivered from bondage and fear which hath torment. The child of God may know Him so as to say, "I wish I were united to Him; I wish I had communion with Him; I wish He would pour out of His fullness into my soul; I wish He would condescend to heal me and to comfort me and walk with me." Well, this desire of yours, ardent wish, will one day find perfect satisfaction. "That I may know Him. I want above all else," as if the apostle should say, "I want above all else to embrace the Son of God as my own, to be led to say, constrained to say of Him, "Who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20)
Now if we know Him, there are two or three things quite satisfied in our experience. The first is love to Him. "We love Him because He first loved us," (1 John 4:19) none can say but the people who have felt it. What a warmth, glow, moving, urging feeling there is to His Person and His name, and we call that love. Love that wants to live in Him, and to Him, and with Him forever. Love that makes His name as ointment poured forth, love that makes you feel you would rather die than displease Him, love that makes you want to depend on Him entirely, and only, that makes all others as nothing to you, love that makes you say, "O let my soul live at Thy footstool, let me daily repent and daily wash Thy feet with my tears, and daily enjoy the sweet sense of being loved!" That is one thing that will always accompany knowledge of Christ, and the more you know of Him, the more you will feel love to Him; and the reason men despise Christ is their ignorance of Him and their death in trespasses and sins. Ah, it is a solemn position to be in, denying and despising of Christ! O what do we owe to the grace that has brought us into another state of mind, and given us affections towards that blessed One!
Another thing that will always accompany knowledge of Christ is humility. People are big when they are away from Him and ignorant of Him, but whoever knows He knows, while the knowledge of Him is kept alive in the heart, that humility is there. "Why me, O blessed God, why me? Why dost Thou look on me? Why pass myriads by and lay Thy hand of grace on me? Why was I made to hear Thy voice? Why didst Thou call my soul by the invincible call of the Holy Spirit?" And while this knowledge is lively in you, humility will thrive so that your position in Providence, very tried it may be, does not provoke rebellion. Rebellion is a natural thing in us when we are not pleased, but humility grows out of a knowledge of Him, who is pleased to speak to the Soul.
Another thing is this; you delight in Him: "Delight thyself also in the Lord;" and surely a sinner can do no other when he knows the Lord. If you have a real knowledge of Jesus Christ, there will be moments when your whole spirit will be so delighted with His Person and His grace and His mercy that nothing will attract you that is not in Him. O it is easy then to let things go, and so to walk in the way of truth and life; easy to choose what He wants for you, to sit at His feet, to sit under His shadow with great delight and find His fruit sweet to your taste! Then, then the heart is in loving conformity to the word of exhortation I have just mentioned: "Delight thyself also in the Lord." There is nothing in Christ but what is beautiful and lovely and of good report. And when He is known that is also apprehended. Everything in Him is beautiful the King in His beauty, in His love, in His glory, in His power, in His resurrection power, in His intercession, in His word, the King entirely is beautiful to those who know Him.
 And I would say another word here, if we know Him we shall want to be like Him "As He is in this world, so are we." You may say, "I cannot make myself like Him;" and if anyone tells you can, you may turn from him as a false teacher. Well, but how is a sinner to be like Him? The Holy Ghost has told us in the Scripture, and this is the word: "We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3:18) That will do it. May I refer for a moment as an illustration to photography? What is photography? It is writing by light. The light comes on to the sensitive plate. My friends, if you do view the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that will put the very image of that blessed One upon your spirit, and you will want it as you know Him.



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