October

Christ:
The Landscape of Life

Part Twenty-two
“LO and BEHOLD”
(F)

“LO, I come to do Your Will, O God!”
(Heb 10:9)

               These words of the pattern Son, Jesus Christ, stand as a bright beacon on the highest part of every man’s spiritual consciousness! Emblazoned on His Standard of Righteousness they precede God’s Army into battle against unrighteousness! This anointed assembly is made up exclusively of God’s family! And who are these bountifully blessed ones? “Jesus said, pointing to His disciples,

‘BEHOLD MY MOTHER AND BRETHREN; BECAUSE
ANYONE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER
WHICH IS IN HEAVEN; THESE ARE MY MOTHER,
AND MY BROTHER AND MY SISTER!” (Mt 12:49-50)

               How simple this sounds; but how impossible for the natural man to accomplish! Self-will is the sworn, eternal enemy of the Sovereign Will of God; and fights to the death in any conflict between the two! The man of spirit readily embraces and lays down his life to uphold the Holy Will of His Heavenly Father! Indeed, the Will of God is “The Way, The Truth and The Life” of every man of spirit! (Jn 14:6) To spiritual men, the Will of God is his very food- as Jesus says in Jn 4:34,

“MY F-O-O-D IS TO DO THE WILL OF HIM THAT SENT ME!”

               Jesus Christ, Himself, is the heavenly food and drink God has provided for His children! This is no usual diet, beloveds; as indicated when Messiah first presented this nutritional provision to some of His followers who then turned and walked away murmuring, “This is a hard (offensive, unheard of, unbearable) teaching, who can stand to hear- or be expected to heed- such a thing?!” What did He say? “Unless you EAT THE FLESH and DRINK THE BLOOD of the Son of Man, you have no Life in you!” (Jn 6:53) No wonder those poor flesh-minded fellows ran when they heard what sounded like cannibalism, occultic ritualism, or both! Imagine Billy Graham preaching at one of his crusades, “You have no life in you unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood!” The stampede to empty the bleachers would have sounded like a thundering herd of buffaloes! However if any of them stood face to face with Brother Graham and heard him say such an outrageous thing, they’d at least challenge his words before walking away; but those disciples who abandoned Christ never even asked Him what His words meant! Let us not make the same error, beloveds; let us now ask the Lord what He meant by, “He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood has Eternal Life; and I will raise him up at the last day”; also “He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me and I in Him”? Messiah begins saying,

“I am the LIVING BREAD which comes down from heaven;
and whosoever EATS THIS BREAD, he will live forever for
THIS BREAD IS MY FLESH which I will yield up for the
EVERLASTING LIFE OF THE WORLD!” (Jn 6:51)

“HE that comes down from heaven is the TRUE BREAD OF GOD
WHO GIVES EVERLASTING LIFE TO THE WORLD!...Whoever
‘comes to Me’ shall never hunger; whoever ‘believes in Me’ shall never thirst!”

               Lo, the revelation! Any who “never hungers” is being eternally fed; so “coming to Christ” constitutes “eating His flesh”! He who “never thirsts”has eternal drink; so “believing in Christ” constitutes “drinking His blood”! How wonderful! How simply the Lord makes this sounds: just “come to Christ” then “believe in Christ”! Yet these are the very two things NO MAN CAN DO!!
                That is, he cannot do them unless empowered by God!

Hear these words of Christ, Himself, first concerning “coming to Christ”:

“No man can come to Me unless permitted by My Father!” (Jn 6:65)

“No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts,

and draws, and first gives him the desire to come to Me!” (Jn 6:44)

The the Lord says concerning “believing Christ”:

“God has concluded (finished, ended, decided, shut up, imprisoned)
ALL in UNBELIEF; so He could have MERCY ON ALL!” (Ro 11:32)

            Man’s spirit is comprised of intuition, conscience and a DESIRE TO WORSHIP; therefore, he is compelled to express these traits even during his “night season” of darkened understanding! For this reason, manmade religions can flourish even in the most unilluminated hearts! Just recently a sister in Christ told of a one-time friend who asked how he could “have what she had”; to which she answered, “Just believe in Christ”. The man threw up his hands in disgust and walked away. Had she given him some “works” to do, like “go to church, read the Bible, feed the hungry, etc”, his natural man could have performed such acts; but to just say, “believe”; that was the one thing HE COULD NOT DO! His heart was still imprisoned in God-imposed UNBELIEF! Jn 6:28-29 tells of when Christ’s first disciples had the same problem. They asked, “What can we do to work the works of God? And Jesus said, ‘This is the Godly Work you can do: BELIEVE IN HIM WHOM GOD HAS SENT!” Manmade gospels continually rob God by preaching to natural men that they must come to the Spiritual God and “receive” His Son, Jesus Christ! But there lies two serious doctrinal errors: 1) “Natural man cannot receive the things of God” (1 Co 2:14); and then 2) “Man can receive nothing unless it is given to him from heaven!” (Jn 3:27) How sad to behold carnal ministries continually vex unsaved souls with condemnation for not “coming to Christ”, or “receiving Christ”, or “believing in Christ”, when they are prevented from doing any of these by God, Himself! That is why so many settle for becoming “religious”! It is easy for natural man to come to church buildings; receive positions on church boards, and believe in laws, by-laws or the traditions of men”! And men wonder how the apostasy (the great falling away) could take place in the churches! There are, indeed, true believers in the organized churches, but their growth is stunted by comprising shepherds who unknowingly- and often, unconcernedly- fill their ranks with wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing- all for self-glory and filthy lucre! Self-righteous unbelievers, like chaff mixed into the wheat, weaken the mixture. Whatever true Gospel may be preached is compromised by carnal-minded hypocrisy at work in their midst! No wonder Jesus Christ cries out in Rev 18:2-5, “Mighty Babylon (confusion) is fallen! She has become a resort and dwelling place for demons; a dungeon haunted by every loathsome spirit; an abode for every filthy and detestable bird! Because all nations have drunk the wine of her passionate unchastity, the rulers and leaders of the earth have joined with her in committing fornication (idolatry), and the businessmen of the earth have become rich with the wealth of her excessive luxury and wantonness...therefore, come out of her, My people, so you may not share in her sins, neither participate in her plagues; for her iniquities- her crimes and transgressions- are piled up as high as heaven; and God has remembered all her wickedness and her crimes- and calls them up for settlement!” LO AND BEHOLD AND HEAR!

“COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE!!”

[TO BE CONTINUED]