Subject: Deception XI: Humanism...in the church, Pt. I Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 13:07:56 -0500 From: Jesus Christ is the ONLY Way to God To: tracy@jesus-is-lord.com Jesus Christ is the ONLY Way to God - Powered by InJesus Subscribe Unsubscribe Change E-mail View Archive Deception XI: Humanism...in the church, Pt. I sis. tracy Mar 29, 2003 Deception XI: Humanism...in the church Dear Christian Friends: Greetings in the name of the ONLY wise God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. At the end of Deception X we postulated/concluded that the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Ghost has been stolen from us... YET WE STILL HAVE A CHURCH. This then begs the question, "If the Holy Ghost is not empowering and leading the church, THEN WHO IS? The answer is man. That's why the church is so messed up. WE'RE DEPENDING ON **MAN** TO INTERPRET THE SCRIPTURES (preachers, scholars, Greek lexicons, fiction books, etc.), WE DEPEND ON **MAN'S WEAK POWER** TO TEACH US, TO MOTIVATE US, TO ENCOURAGE US, TO SUSTAIN US, TO TELL US HOW WE SHOULD SERVE, ETC.--AND MAN IS NOT BIG ENOUGH TO FULFIL ALL THOSE NEEDS. HE DOESN'T FIT THE BILL. THAT is why we are so lacking. By and large we operate **WITHOUT** THE SPIRIT and **WITH** MAN Humanism n. ANY SYSTEM OF THOUGHT or action BASED ON THE nature, dignity, INTERESTS, **OPINIONS, IDEALS AND KNOWLEDGE** OF **MAN**. Specifically a modern, nontheistic, rationalist movement that holds that man is capable of self-fulfillment, ethical conduct, etc. without recourse to supernaturalism. Thus saith the LORD; CURSED BE THE MAN THAT TRUSTETH IN MAN, AND MAKETH FLESH HIS ARM, and whose heart departeth from the LORD (Jer 17:5). ****MAN'S WISDOM VS. THE SPIRIT**** THE BIBLE makes the distinction between PREACHING **WITH MAN'S WISDOM** and PREACHING **WITH THE HOLY GHOST** sent down from heaven (I Cor 2:4-6, I Peter 1:12). In Chapter 4 of "Experiencing the Holy Spirit", Andrew Murray leads in with the following scripture -- 1 Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching WAS **NOT** WITH ENTICING WORDS OF **MAN'S** WISDOM, **BUT IN DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER**: 2:5 That your faith should NOT stand IN THE **WISDOM OF MEN**, BUT IN THE **POWER OF GOD**. "Paul speaks here of two kinds of preaching and two kinds of faith. The spirit of the preacher will determine the faith of the congregation. When the preaching of the cross is given only in the words of human wisdom, then the faith of the hearers will be in the wisdom of men. When the preaching is in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, the faith of the Christian people will also be firm and strong in the power of God. Preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit will bring the double blessing of power in the Word and in the faith of those who receive that Word. If we desire to know the measure of the working of the Spirit, we must consider the preaching and the faith that springs from it. In this way alone can we see whether the full blessing of Pentecost is truly manifested in the church. "Very few are prepared to say this is really the case. Everywhere among the children of God we hear complaints of weakness and sin. Among those who do not complain is reason to fear that their silence is ascribed to ignorance or self-satisfaction. It is important that we concentrate on this fact until we come under the full conviction that the condition of the Church is marked by IMPOTENCE and nothing can restore her except the return to a life in the full enjoyment of the blessing of Pentecost. THE MORE DEEPLY WE FEEL OUR DEFICIENCY, THE MORE SPEEDILY WE WILL DESIRE AND OBTAIN RESTORATION. It will help to AWAKEN LONGING for this blessing if we earnestly consider how little it is enjoyed in the Church AND HOW FAR THE CHURCH IS FROM BEING WHAT HER LORD HAS THE POWER TO MAKE HER." (Experiencing, p. 41-42) ****HUMANISM IN THE CHURCH**** Now let's consider the words of the late Paris Reidhead taken from from his sermon, "Ten Shekels and a Shirt". By cogent arguments, he shows us that even the way that we present the gospel is humanistic. I read this some time ago, and I need to read it again. In the sermon transcript, this section is titled, "Humanism" ...[G]o back 150, 100 years at least, to a conflict that attacked Christianity. Just after the great revivals in America with Finney, the Spirit of God having been marvelously outpoured onto certain portions of our country, there came an open attack on our faith in Europe under the higher critics. Darwin had postulated his theory of evolution, certain philosophers had adapted it to their philosophies, and theologians had applied it to the Scripture. And so about 1850 you could mark the opening of a frontal attack upon the Word of God. Satan had always been insidiously attacking it. But now it was open season on the Book, open season on the Church, and Voltaire could declare that he would live to see the Bible become a relic and just have it placed only in museums; that it would be utterly destroyed by the arguments that he was so forcefully presenting against it. Well, what was the effect of this? The philosophy of the day became humanism. And you could define humanism this way, humanism is a philosophical statement that declares the end of all being is the happiness of man. The reason for existence is man's happiness. Now according to humanism, salvation is simply a matter of getting all the happiness you can out of life. If you're influenced by someone like Nietzche who says that the only true satisfaction in life is power and that the power is its own justification, and that after all the world is a jungle. And it is therefore up to the man to be happy, to become powerful, and become powerful by any means he can use. For it is only in this position of ascendancy or as we saw in the worship of Molech that one can be happy. This would produce in due course a Hitler who would take the philosophy of Nietzche as his working operating principles and guide and would say of his people that we are destined to rule the world. Therefore any means that we can use to achieve this is our salvation. Somebody else turns around and says, "Well no, the end of being is happiness, but happiness doesn't come from authority over people, happiness comes from sensual experience." So you would have the type of existentialism that characterizes France today, that's given rise to beatnicism in America and to the gross sensuality of our country. Since man is essentially a glandular animal who's highest moments of ecstacy come from the exercise of his glands, salvation is simply to find the most desirable way to gratify this part of a person. And so this became the effect of humanism, that the end of all being is the happiness of man. John Dewey, then an American philosopher influencing education, was able to persuade the educators that there were no absolute standards. Children shouldn't be brought to any particular standard, that the end of education was simply to allow the child to express himself and expand on what he is and find his happiness in being what he wants to be. So we had cultural lawlessness, when every man could do as seemed right in his own eyes and we had no God to rule over us. The Bible had been discounted and disallowed and disproved according to what they said. God had been dethroned, He didn't exist, He had no personal relationship to individuals. Jesus Christ was either a myth or just a man, so they taught, and therefore the whole end of being was happiness. The individual would establish the standards of his happiness and interpret it. LIBERAL, FUNDAMENTAL or...NEITHER? Now religion then had to exist because there were so many people that made their living at it, so they had to find some way to justify their existence. So back about the time, in 1850, the church divided into two groups. The one group was the liberals, who accepted the philosophy of the humanism and tried to find some relevance by saying something like this to their generation, "Ha, ha, we don't know there's a heaven. We don't know there's a hell. But we do know this, that you've got to live for 70 years! We know there's a great deal of benefit from poetry, from high thoughts and noble aspirations. Therefore it's important for you to come to church on Sunday, so that we can read some poetry, that we can give you some little adages and axioms and rules to live by. We can't say anything about what's going to happen when you die, but we'll tell you this, if you'll come every week and pay and help and stay with us, we'll put springs on your wagon and your trip will be more comfortable. We can't guarantee anything about what's going to happen when you die, but we say that if you come along with us, we'll make you happier while you're alive". And so this became the essence of liberalism. It has simply nothing more than to try and put a little sugar in the bitter coffee of their journey and sweeten it up for a time. This is all that it could say. Well now the philosophy of the atmosphere is humanism; the chief end of being is the happiness of man. There's another group of people that have taken humbridge with the liberals, this group are my people, the fundamentalists. They say, "We believe in the inspiration of the Bible! We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ! We believe in hell! We believe in heaven! We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ!" But remember the atmosphere is that of humanism. And humanism says the chief end of being is the happiness of man. Humanism is like a miasma out of a pit, it just permeates everyplace. Humanism is like an infection, an epidemic, it just goes everywhere. So it wasn't long until we had this, that the fundamentalists knew each other because they said "We believe these things!" They were men for the most part that had met God. But you see it wasn't long until having said "These are the things that establish us as fundamentalists!", the second generation said "This is how we become a fundamentalist! Believe in the inspiration of the Bible! Believe in the deity of Christ! Believe in His death, burial, and resurrection! And thereby become a fundamentalist". And so it wasn't long until it got to our generation, where the whole plan of salvation was to give intellectual assent to a few statements of doctrine. And a person was considered a Christian because he could say "Ah hah" at four or five places that he was asked. If he knew where to say "Ah hah", someone would pat him on the back, shake his hand, smile broadly, and say "Brother, you're saved!" So it had gotten down to the place where salvation was nothing more than an assent to a scheme or a formula, and the end of this was that salvation was the happiness of man because humanism has penetrated. If you were to analyze fundamentalism in contrast to liberalism of a hundred years ago as it developed, for I am not pinpointing it in time, it would be like this: The liberal says the end of religion is to make man happy while he's alive, and the fundamentalist says the end of religion is to make man happy when he dies. But again! The end of all of the religion it was proclaimed was the happiness of man. And where as the liberal says, "By social change and political order we're going to do away with funds, we're going to do away with alcoholism and dope addiction and poverty. And we're going to make HEAVEN ON EARTH! AND MAKE YOU HAPPY WHILE YOU'RE ALIVE! We don't know anything about after that, but we want you to be happy while you're alive!" They went ahead to try and do it only to be brought to a terrifying shock at the first World War and utterly staggered by the second World War, because they seemed to be getting no where fast. And then the fundamentalists, along the same line, are now tuning in along this same wavelength of humanism. Until we find it something like this: "Accept Jesus so you can go to heaven! you don't want to go to that old, filthy, nasty, burning hell when there is a beautiful heaven up there! now come to Jesus so you can go to heaven!" And the appeal could be as much to selfishness as a couple of men sitting in a coffee shop deciding they are going to rob a bank to get something for nothing! There's a way that you can give an invitation to sinners, that just sounds for all the world like a plot to take up a filling station proprietor's Saturday night earnings without working for them. Humanism is, I believe, the most deadly and disastrous of all the philosophical stenches that's crepted up through the grating over the pit of Hell. It has penetrated so much of our religion. AND IT IS IN UTTER AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH CHRISTIANITY! Unfortunately it's seldom seen. And here we find Micah, wants to have a little chapel, and he wants to have a priest, and he wants to have prayer, and he wants to have devotion, because "I KNOW THE LORD WILL DO ME GOOD!" AND THIS IS SELFISHNESS !!! AND THIS IS SIN !!! And the Levite comes along and falls right in with it! Because he wants a place! He wants ten shekels and a shirt and his food! And so in order that he can have what he wants, and Micah can have what they want, THEY SELL OUT GOD! For ten shekels and a shirt. AND THIS IS THE BETRAYAL OF THE AGES !!! And it is the betrayal in which we live. And I don't see HOW GOD CAN REVIVE IT! Until we come back to Christianity. As in DIRECT AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH THE STENCHFUL HUMANISM that's perpetrated in our generation in the name of Christ. I'm afraid that it's become so subtle that it goes everywhere. What is it? In essence it's this! That this philosophical postulate that the end of all being is the happiness of man, has been sort of covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the angels exist in the..., Everything is for the happiness of man! AND I SUBMIT TO YOU THAT THIS IS UNCHRISTIAN !!! Isn't man happy? Didn't God intend to make man happy? Yes. But as a by-product and not a prime-product! REVERANCE FOR LIFE It was that good man that's so admired by the fuzzy thinkers of our day, out there in Africa, dear Dr. Schweitzer. Bless his heart, he's a brilliant man. A philosopher, doctor, musician, composer, undoubtedly a brilliant man. But Dr. Schweitzer is no more Christian than this rose and he would call it a personal insult if he were to say he was a Christian. He doesn't see Christ as having any relevance to his philosophy or life. Dr. Schweitzer is a humanist. Dr. Schweitzer was sitting on the bow of the boat going up the broad Congo river toward his station, watching the Belgian government officials with their high power rifles, shooting at the crocodiles sunning on the mud flats along the river. They were expert marksman. They would use these dumb-dumb bullets that would explode inside the crocodile and just SEND THEM SPINNING UP INTO THE AIR, from the contraction of muscles. You say, "How do you know so much about it." Well to my shame, I was guilty of the same thing in the Nile. And they were there, this was what their sport was, they bagged them, and they kept count, and they'd put strings around the place where their gun was, and have a little place for the gun and then they'd tie knots so that they could see how many crocodiles they killed. A COLOSSAL WASTE OF LIFE! And it was there that Schweitzer saw the essence of his philosophy. And do you know what it is? Three words - reverence for life. REVERENCE FOR LIFE! Crocodile life....., human life....., and other kinds of life. My friend, George Kline who was with us last week and is going back to the Gaboon, was just about 50 or 60 miles away from this Dr. Schweitzer's station. You know Dr. Schweitzer is so convinced of reverence of life that he doesn't like to sterilize his surgery. He has the dirtiest surgery in Africa. Because bacteria are life and he doesn't want to hurt any of the good bacteria with the bad, so he just sort of let's them all grow together. His organ broke, someone had sent him out an organ and the means of playing it. Mr. Kline is an expert organist and an organ repairer as well so he went over to see Dr. Schweitzer, and Dr. Schweitzer said, "George do you think you can fix my organ?", he said "I wouldn't be surprised, let me try it". So he took the back off and to his amazement he discovered a huge nest of cockroaches. With characteristic, American enthusiasm and zeal George started trampling all over the cockroaches not to let a one of them get away. And the good doctor came out, his hair standing straighter than it had for a long time, and because of his anger he said "YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" George said, "Why? their ruining your organ." He said, "That's alright, they were just being true to their nature," he said, "you can't kill those." So one of the boys came in and said, "It's alright Mr. Kline." And he reached down very tenderly, picked them up, and put them in a little bag, and crimped the top, and he put each cockroach in, and they took them out into the jungle and let them loose. Now here was a man that believed his philosophy, reverence for life. UTTERLY COMMITTED TO IT! UTTERLY CONSISTENT! Even when it came to the matter of cockroach or a microbe. Do you see? This is humanism, this is consistency. NOW I ASK YOU WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS? WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVANGELISM? WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF A CHRISTIAN? If you'll ask me why I went to Africa, I'll tell you I went primarily to improve on the justice of God. I didn't think it was right for anybody to go to Hell without a chance to be saved. So I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to heaven. Now I haven't put it in so many words, but if you'll analyze what I just told you do you know what it is? Humanism. That I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions of suffering and misery. And when I went to Africa, I discovered that they weren't poor, ignorant, little heathen running around in the woods looking for someone to tell them how to go to heaven. That they were MONSTERS OF INIQUITY !!! THEY WERE LIVING IN UTTER AND TOTAL DEFIANCE OF FAR MORE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THEN I EVER DREAMED THEY HAD! They deserved Hell! Because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscious, and the light of the law written upon their heart, and the testimony of nature, and the truth they knew! And when I found that out I assure you I was so angry with God that on one occasion in prayer I told Him it was a mighty ...... little thing He'd done, sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go to heaven. When I got there I found out they knew about heaven, and didn't want to go there, and that they loved their sin and wanted to stay in it. I went out there motivated by humanism. I'd seen pictures of lepers, I'd seen pictures of ulcers, I'd seen pictures of native funerals, and I didn't want my fellow human beings to suffer in Hell eternally after such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear THROUGH THE OVERLAY OF THIS HUMANISM! And it was that day in my bedroom with the door locked that I wrestled with God. For here was I, coming to grips with the fact that the people I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to heaven and were saying "Someone come and teach us", actually didn't want to take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no interest in the Bible and no interest in Christ, and they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to that place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery, and I had been sold a bill of goods! And I wanted to come home. There alone in my bedroom AS I FACED GOD HONESTLY WITH WHAT MY HEART FELT, it seemed to me I heard Him say, "Yes, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost. And they're going to go to Hell, not because they haven't heard the gospel. They're going to go to Hell because they are sinners, WHO LOVE THEIR SIN! And because they deserve Hell. BUT, I didn't send you out there for them. I didn't send you out there for their sakes." And I heard as clearly as I've ever heard, though it wasn't with physical voice but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its' way into an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this, "I didn't send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen, I sent you to Africa for My sake. They deserved Hell! But I LOVE THEM !!! AND I ENDURED THE AGONIES OF HELL FOR THEM !!! I DIDN'T SEND YOU OUT THERE FOR THEM !!! I SENT YOU OUT THERE FOR ME ! DO I NOT DESERVE THE REWARD OF MY SUFFERING? DON'T I DESERVE THOSE FOR WHOM I DIED?" And it REVERSED IT ALL! AND CHANGED IT ALL! AND RIGHTED IT ALL! And I wasn't any longer working for Micah and tens shekels and a shirt. BUT I WAS SERVING A LIVING GOD! I was there not for the sake of the heathen. I was there for the Savior that endured the agonies of Hell for me, who didn't deserve it. But He deserved them. Because He died for them. Do you see? Let me epitomize, let me summarize. Christianity says,"The end of all being is the glory of God." Humanism says, "The end of all being is the happiness of man." And one was born in Hell, the deification of man. AND THE OTHER WAS BORN IN HEAVEN, THE GLORIFICATION OF GOD! And one is Levite serving Micah, and the other is a heart that's unworthy serving the living God, because it's the highest honor in the universe. WHAT ABOUT YOU? What about you? Why did you repent? I'd like to see some people repent on Biblical terms again. George Whitefield knew it. He stood on Boston Commons speaking to twenty thousand people and he said, "Listen sinners, you're monsters, MONSTERS OF INIQUITY! You deserve Hell! And the worst of your crimes is that criminals though you've been, you haven't had the good grace to see it!" He said, "If you will not weep for your SINS and your crimes against a Holy God, George Whitefield will weep for you!" That man would put his head back and he would sob like a baby. Why? Because they were in danger of Hell? No! But because they were MONSTERS OF INIQUITY, that didn't even see their sin or care about their crimes. You see the difference? You see the difference? The difference is, here's somebody trembling because he is going to be hurt in Hell. AND HE HAS NO SENSE OF THE ENORMITY OF HIS GUILT !!! AND NO SENSE OF THE ENORMITY OF HIS CRIME !!! AND NO SENSE OF HIS INSULT AGAINST DEITY !!! He's only trembling because his skin is about to be singed. He's afraid and I submit to you that where as fear is good office work in preparing us for grace, it's no place to stop. And the Holy Ghost doesn't stop there. That's the reason why no one can savingly receive Christ until they've repented. And no one can repent until they've been convicted. And conviction is the work of the Holy Ghost that helps a sinner to see... THAT HE IS A CRIMINAL BEFORE GOD AND DESERVES ALL OF GOD'S WRATH. AND IF GOD WERE TO SEND HIM TO THE LOWEST CORNER OF A DEVIL'S HELL FOREVER AND TEN ETERNITIES, THAT HE DESERVED IT ALL! And a hundred fold more. Because he's seen his crimes. He's not been convinced he's caught, but HE'S SEEN HIS CRIMES! THE PREACHERS This is the difference between twentieth century preaching and the preaching of John Wesley. Wesley was a preacher of righteousness that exalted the holiness of God. When he would stand there with the two to three hour sermons that he was accustomed to deliver in the open air and he would exalt the holiness of God, and the law of God, and the righteousness of God, and the justice of God, and the wisdom of His requirements! AND THE JUSTICE OF HIS WRATH AND HIS ANGER! Then he would turn to sinners and tell them of the enormity of their crimes and their open rebellion and their treason, and their anarchy, and THE POWER OF GOD WOULD SO DESCEND UPON THE COMPANY, that on one occasion it is reliably reported that when the people dispersed there were 1800 people LYING ON THE GROUND, UTTERLY UNCONSCIOUS! Because they had a revelation of the holiness of God and in the light of that they'd seen the enormity of their sins and God had so penetrated their minds and hearts that they had FALLEN TO THE GROUND! It wasn't only in Wesley's day. It was also in America, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale. A man by the name of John Wesley Redfield had continuous ministry for three years in and around New Haven. Culminating in the great meetings in the Yale Ball, the first of the Yale Balls' back in the 18th century. The policemen were accustomed during those days, if they saw someone lying on the ground, to go up and smell his breath. Because if he had alcohol on his breath they'd lock him up, but if he didn't, he had Redfield's disease. And all you needed to do if anyone had Redfield's disease was just take him into a quiet place and leave him until he came too. Because if they were drunkards, they'd stop drinking, and if they were cruel, they'd stop being cruel, and if they were immoral, they gave up their immorality. If they were thieves, they returned what they had. For as they had seen the holiness of God, and seen the enormity of their sin, the Spirit of God had DRIVEN THEM DOWN INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS because of the weight of their guilt! And somehow in the overspreading of the power of God, sinners repented of their sin and came savingly to Christ. THE DIFFERENCE! But there was a difference! It wasn't trying to convince a GOOD MAN that he was in trouble with a BAD GOD! But that it was to convince BAD MEN that they had deserved the wrath and anger of a GOOD GOD! And the consequences were repentance, that lead to faith, and lead to the life. Dear friends, there's only one reason, one reason for a sinner to repent and that's because Jesus Christ deserves the worship and adoration and the love and the obedience of his heart. Not because he'll go to heaven. If the only reason you repented, dear friend, was to keep out of Hell all you are is JUST A LEVITE SERVING FOR TEN SHEKELS AND A SHIRT! THAT'S ALL! You're trying to serve God because He'll do you good! But a repentant heart is a heart that has seen something of the enormity of the crime of playing God and denying the just and righteous God the worship and obedience that He deserves! Why should a sinner repent? BECAUSE GOD DESERVES THE OBEDIENCE AND LOVE THAT HE'S REFUSED TO GIVE HIM! Not so that he'll go to heaven. If the only reason he repents is so that he'll go to heaven, it's nothing but trying to make a deal or a bargain with God. WHY SHOULD A SINNER GIVE UP ALL HIS SINS? WHY SHOULD HE BE CHALLENGED TO DO IT? WHY SHOULD HE MAKE RESTITUTION WHEN HE'S COMING TO CHRIST? BECAUSE GOD DESERVES THE OBEDIENCE THAT HE DEMANDS !!! I have talked with people that have no assurance that sins are forgiven. They want to feel safe, before they're willing to commit themselves to Christ. But I believe that the only ones whom God actually witnesses by His Spirit and are born of Him, are the people, whether they say it or not, that come to Jesus Christ and say something like this, "Lord Jesus, I'm going to obey you, and love you, and serve you, and do what you want me to do, as long as I live even if I go to Hell at the end of the road, simply because YOU ARE WORTHY TO BE LOVED, AND OBEYED, AND SERVED, and I'm not trying to make a deal with you!" Do you see the difference? Do you see the difference? Between a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt or a Micah building a chapel because God will do you good AND someone that repents for the glory of God. Why should a person come to the cross? Why should a person embrace death with Christ? Why should a person be willing to go, in identification, down to the cross and into the tomb and up again? I'll tell you why! BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY WAY THAT GOD CAN GET GLORY OUT OF A HUMAN BEING !!! If you say it's because he'll get joy or peace or blessing or success or fame then it's nothing but a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt. THERE IS ONLY ONE REASON FOR YOU TO GO TO THE CROSS DEAR YOUNG PERSON. And that's because until you come to the place of union with Christ in death you are defrauding the Son of God of the glory that He could get out of your life. For no flesh shall glory in His sight. And until you've understood the sanctifying work of God by the Holy Ghost taking you into union with Christ in death and burial and resurrection, you have to serve in what you have and all you have which is under the sentence of death: human personality, and human nature, and human strength, and human energy. And God will get no glory out of that! So the reason for you to go to the cross isn't that you're going to get victory, you will get victory. It isn't that you're going to have joy, you will have joy. But the reason for you to embrace the cross and press through until you know that you can testify with Paul "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal 2:20), it isn't what you're going to get out of it, but what He'll get out of it, for the glory of God. By the same token: Why aren't you pressed through to know the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Why aren't you pressed through to know the fullness of Christ? I'll tell you why? BECAUSE THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY THAT JESUS CHRIST WILL GET GLORY OUT OF A LIFE THAT HE'S REDEEMED WITH HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD IS WHEN HE CAN FILL THAT LIFE WITH HIS PRESENCE AND LIVE THROUGH IT HIS OWN LIFE. The genius of our faith wasn't that we were going to go through the motions like a Levite that was hired to serve God. No, No! The genius of our faith was that we'd come to a place where we knew we could do nothing, and all we could do would be to present the vessel and say Lord Jesus "You'll have to fill it. And everything that's done will have to be done by You and for You." But, oh, I know so many people that are trying to know the fullness of God, so that they can use God. Please see Deception XI: Humanism...in the church, Pt. II InJesus Community Recommendation To recommend this message to others at InJesus, use these links. This is good. This is excellent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit My InJesus to manage your InJesus Recommends: subscriptions, change your profile, or check out thousands of other great ministry Home Bible School groups. [Image] (Biblical Library on CD-ROM) by Dr. If you do not have access to the web, you Stanley L. Morris can use these addresses to unsubscribe or subscribe: Unsubscribe: jesus-is-lord-unsubscribe@MyInJesus.com Subscribe: jesus-is-lord-subscribe@MyInJesus.com