Brother Bill Sunday Evening 4/3/16
I have been reading in Food for Lambs by C.E. Orr. There is a chapter called crucifixion of
self. It was really good to me:
It requires no little courage, coupled
with the grace of God, to go to Calvary. There are many Christians who will
follow Jesus so long as it is “Hosanna to the Son of David,”*
who fail to follow Him to Calvary. Most persons love the sweets of grace, and
thus many follow the Lord for the loaves and fishes; but when it comes to
following Him for His own sake, even unto judgment, where our earthliness is
revealed, then too often we follow “afar off.”*
Many will serve for reward, who refuse to serve for righteousness’ sake. Satan
understood this in the case of Job; so he said to the Lord, “Doth Job fear God
for nought?”*
Job endured even unto the end, and proved by actual test his devotion to God
and not to His gifts.
Saints are like soldiers—many there be
who enlist, but few who fearlessly face death. All like life, though it be a
life out of harmony with God. Satan said of Job, “All that a man hath will he
give for his life.”* So Christians’ last surrender is their own
earthly life. They love the earthly, the dust; and to die to all that is not
divine is a price that few will pay.
Many talk of crucifixion, yea, claim to
be crucified, who know hardly the first step away from self. To let self, the
flesh, and all evil within perish; to draw the last drop of earthliness from
our veins—is a price but few will pay for all the life of God. God through
Moses gave to the children of Israel a heritage; but never in their greatest
conquest did they attain all of that heritage. So with Christians: how few ever
attain all of that God-life offered them through our Lord Jesus Christ. The
Israelites made a league with certain of the inhabitants of the land whom they
should have destroyed. How many Christians spare those enemies within which
should die. They may force the death of many, perhaps most of their
earthliness; but somewhere there is that with which they will not part. Of
course, the earthliness may not be manifest as before; “hewers of wood and
drawers of water”* they become, yet they are there
and live there. “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me
with all your heart.”* Wholehearted devotion to God
is a rare quality, and only the fewest of the few ever attain it. An idol
somewhere, a desire, a wish, a preference, a hope not born of God, but of man
or of the flesh, is the separation line. Yea, to cease from our labors as God
did from His, and thus reach true rest, is a haven but few ever reach.
To literally cease, that Jehovah may be
the beginning and the end, means blood, and thorns, and nails in the hands.
Yes, it means Calvary and the tomb. This is too much for many who go part way
with Jesus. How few realize that perhaps the most of our religious aspirations
are born not of God, but of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of man; and
this is why our efforts are so barren, futile, and earthly. Yes, to hide away
so that every act, every purpose, every hope, centers in God and points to Him
and away from man—what a rare spiritual attainment! Many who are said to be
very spiritual and leaders in the work of God, if robbed of this glory, would
cease. To work for the eyes of God alone is not a sufficient reward for very
many who have climbed well up the gospel ladder. To know when we are dead in
the highest light. Self-abnegation cannot be discerned so long as we want to
live. If we never reach the point where we literally “hate [our] own life,”*
we shall never know how much there is in us not divine. The flesh is ever the
veil that separates between the holy place and the holy of holies. Until we
have reached that place where we have lost sight of all that is human, and
hunger and thirst for all the life of God, Christian perfection is an
impossible attainment.
This little book has been written for
your success in the divine life. We have hoped and prayed for your wellbeing in
the grace of God; but unless you are dead to self our prayers are but in vain.
Oh, the beauties and the blessings and the rich glories, and happiness and
usefulness for you in life, if you are fully possessed with life of God! Be
dead indeed to self, and let God live in you to His praise.
I want and I need that.
I want you saints to help me so that I get it.
Gal 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I am crucified with Christ.
Paul really had an understanding of what Brother Orr was trying to say
about being crucified with Christ. “I am
crucified with Christ nevertheless I live.
Yet not I, it is not me or the working of my desire any more.”
Christ loved me. When
He asks for a life off sacrifice remember that He loves you. He wants you to be happy. He wants good things for you. He wants what is best for you. His way is right. Having a crucified life is the way to have
the best that He has for you.
God is satisfied with us with a life of crucified to
self. He wants our own way dead.
Act 21:10 And as we tarried there
many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.
Act 21:11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's
girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost,
So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall
deliver him into the hands of the
Gentiles.
Act 21:12 And when we heard these things, both we, and
they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.
Act 21:13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and
to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at
Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
He was crucified wasn’t He?
He was ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.
When you read in the book of Psalms, these writings came to
pass because people went through something and because of what they went
through in their heart that chapter was squeezed out of their heart.
We have these songs because the writer went through
something and they squeezed those songs from their heart. There have been times that I have gone
through something and brought a lesson and squeezed the lesson out of my heart.
It is easy to submit to the will of God when everything goes
my way, but when it goes roughly. With
wood you don’t sand against the grain, you go with the grain. Sometimes the will of God goes against your
grain. You have to be crucified to
Christ, you submit to the one that is for you and to the one that is doing the
best for you and for everyone else.
Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Seek the things that are above. Set your affection on things above. We have to be careful that we don’t get too
earthly attached. If you do then you are
not going to be crucified with Christ and you will not fulfill the desire of God.
It is hard to run a race with a fifty pound pack. It will really hinder your race. If we get too earthly weighted down, too
attached to the things of this world it will hinder us from being crucified
with Christ.
2Ti 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with
the affairs of this life; that he may
please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
Let the Word of God talk to your heart and let Him apply it
to your heart. God will apply it to your
heart. The very best that I know to do
in walking and doing for God is that when there is something that needs to be
done for God to put that first and lay my stuff aside. There are some exceptions and we may have
exceptions our self.
We could say, “I got saved 30 years ago…” I still find myself re-consecrating to
God. Dying daily. “God I submit to your will.” I did this yesterday. I prayed and asked God to wash me. We have to have a crucified life or we will not
be affective.
Psa 118:27 God is
the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
We can bind the sacrifice with cords and as time goes on you
have to go back because the cords become loosened. You have to go back and tighten them.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service.
Present yourself a living sacrifice. An act of offering to deity something
precious. Our flesh is precious to us
but it has to die.
Destruction or surrender of something for the sake of
something else. In the garden of
Gethsemane Jesus knew what it was like to have to submit to the will of God. He went three times to pray, “If there is a
way out of this … but nevertheless not my will but thine be done.”
Jesus knows. When you
are trying to die out to self He knows and understands what you are going
through. He has been there.
Luk 14:25 And there went great multitudes with him: and
he turned, and said unto them,
Luk 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate
not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:27 And whosoever doth
not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
If you don’t bear your cross and go after Him, it says, “You
cannot be my disciple.”
Come Over Into Canaan.
I came to Jordan’s sullen stream,
With trusting heart I there had been
Directed by my saviors hand
Toward Canaan’s bright and blessed land.
With trusting heart I there had been
Directed by my saviors hand
Toward Canaan’s bright and blessed land.
My many sins were all forgiven
My heart was clear, with light from heaven
And yet I longed for deeper grace
In the Canaan’s blessed resting place
My heart was clear, with light from heaven
And yet I longed for deeper grace
In the Canaan’s blessed resting place
I saw the death I had to die,
A death in which my soul did cry;
The frightening waves my heart did chill
But I must yield t’was heaven’s will
A death in which my soul did cry;
The frightening waves my heart did chill
But I must yield t’was heaven’s will
O second grace! I find it sweet!
God’s holy will is now complete.
The father, son, and spirit reign;
All inward foes are surely slain.
God’s holy will is now complete.
The father, son, and spirit reign;
All inward foes are surely slain.
Come over into the Canaan land,
Come over into the Canaan land
Where figs and grapes so plenteous grow,
Where milk and honey freely flow
Come over into the Canaan land.
Come over into the Canaan land
Where figs and grapes so plenteous grow,
Where milk and honey freely flow
Come over into the Canaan land.
No comments:
Post a Comment