Mankind excels in whatever he puts his heart into. Often man
envisions a goal, and, as a result, time itself becomes nothing more
than the arena in which he sets out to capture the very thing that has
captured his heart. We read of the heroic faith and the absolute trust
that Joshua and Caleb placed in the promise of God. These two men were
gripped by something far greater than a goal or some adventure
originated by man. They were captured by a promise that originated from
God. They had no reason to doubt God. Therefore they would be the ones
to bring back the good report while the other ten spies kept the banner
of unbelief flying high in the nation of Israel! And there we saw
the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight
(Num.
13:33). While the ten spies saw giants and entertained fear, Joshua and
Caleb saw the great and goodly land that God had promised their
fathers. They saw houses full of all good things. They saw wells that
they did not dig. They saw vineyards and olive trees that they did not
plant (Deut. 6:10 and 11). They saw that the giants were nothing more
than a foe that would have to go. Their hearts were already in the land
and their minds did not doubt God nor did they entertain fear. In a
sense, they had already entered into the promise. These two men typify
those who have entered into God's rest, while the vast majority of
God's people cannot embrace such a thing. We make a mistake when we
strictly look at these two men as being ahead of their time. They
certainly stood out in a positive way from the rest of Israel.
Nevertheless, while they may have seemed ahead of their time, I am
persuaded that they were merely right in step with God through simple
obedience, while the rest of Israel was running behind schedule.
...when thou shalt have eaten and be full; then beware lest
thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of
Egypt, from the house of bondage
(Deut. 6:11 and 12). I am also
persuaded that long before one single Israelite was carted off into
captivity, their hearts were already captive. And it came to pass
through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and
committed adultery with stones and with stocks
(Jer. 3:9).
Spiritually speaking Israel was already in that realm we call Mystery
Babylon before they were taken captive to a geographical place that
history calls Babylon.
Ah, but there was a remnant that sighed and cried over this awful condition among God's people (Eze. 9:4). We mentioned in a previous article that these people in Jerusalem who were vexed by the abominations typify those who carry God-birthed convictions in our day. We have also mentioned the crossless gospel, which is another gospel that has no practical application to us. The heart of man would like to have his cake and eat it too! It is needful to such a seared heart to embrace just enough of the cross of Christ to know that He saves us, while we walk on half hearted, never coming to know that aspect of the cross that slays us.
In light of the above comments, we find something highly
interesting in Ezekiel 9:4. The man
clothed in linen is told to set a mark upon the foreheads of the
men that sigh and that cry for all
the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
The marginal
notes read "mark a mark." The
Hebrew word translated as mark is tau. Tau is
also the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In Jones'
Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names, we find on a comparative
table of ancient alphabets that
in ancient Hebrew the letter tau looks like a cross. Without
getting sidetracked with the issue of
which the Lord nailed to - a cross, a pole, or a tree - we find that
the mark being placed on the
forehead is of utmost significance. The forehead speaks of the mind.
The mark speaks of what
governs the mind. In this horrible situation there was a people that
were set apart by something
altogether different from the rest of Jerusalem. Their hearts were in a
place that was separated from
idolatry and compromise. Their hearts did not want to use the name of
the Lord and yet refuse to let
the Lord govern their lives! Although this remnant was right there in
the midst of the abominable
acts which took place in Jerusalem, they were still separated unto God.
The first place we find the word forehead in the
scriptures is in Exodus 28:38. We would like
to consider what Exodus 28:36-38 means to us today. And thou
shalt make a plate of pure gold,
and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE
LORD. And thou shalt put
it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of
the mitre it shall be. And it
shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the
iniquity of the holy things, which the
children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall
be always upon his forehead, that
they may be accepted before the Lord.
"HOLINESS TO THE LORD." Those words describe the
mentality of the people we read
of in the Revelation 14:1. And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on
the mount Sion, and with him an
hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in
their foreheads.
People often
define holiness as some thing. However, the things
we read about in the scriptures often speak of
what we are to become! Israel was holiness unto the Lord,
and the firstfruits of his increase
(Jer.
2:3). Furthermore, the Hebrew word for holiness is also
translated in several other places as
sanctuary, which is a part of the temple of God. Today, the
temple of God is not a thing such as a
building and so on. We would do well to note that cities, tabernacles,
and temples in the Old
Testament find their fulfillment in a people in the New Testament. Know
ye not that ye are the
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
(1
Cor. 3:16). As far as the subject of
future fulfillment goes, we are firmly persuaded that God is moving
forward with His purpose in the
earth. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no need for anyone to
rebuild a temple in the middle east
in order for God to fulfill prophecy. For if I build again the
things which I destroyed, I make myself
a transgressor
(Gal. 2:18). These things have been fulfilled in
Christ, therefore the next step is the
fulfillment of these things within the body of Christ. It is a
distraction of the adversary to be caught
up in redoing the outward temple services. Why should we spend our time
chasing shadows while
we miss out on the reality we have in their fulfillment which is Christ
Jesus?
We pray that God's people will realize that holiness is a description of God's habitation and it is His holiness, not ours! We are set apart because of Him, not because of us! We are holiness because of Him, not because of us! We cannot stop others from defining holiness as an out of place thing for this generation. Many will call it legalism, because so many previous generations have mistaken it for legalism! But praise God because He is sealing a people in this hour! He is putting a mark on the foreheads of those who wish to be governed by the Spirit! The cross of Christ has made a deeper statement to the minds and hearts of such a people. They may not be turning the world upside down with fire blazing evangelism (although we thank God for apprehending the lost), but these marked ones are not going to be absorbed into the spirit of this age and lose the distinction God has made! Being absorbed into the very thing from which God has set us apart is the direct opposite of holiness! We beseech you dear reader to not let the cultural climate and the mood of this age define holiness. May those who are seriously hungry for all that God has for them refuse to let the crafty spirit of this age explain away the subject of holiness as something that lies dead in the ruins of ancient history.
This Hebrew word for holiness is also translated
as saints in Deuteronomy 33:2. The
Concordant Version renders the word as holy ones. ...Yahweh
came from Sinai, And He arose
from Seir for them. He shone from Mount Paran, And He arrived with some
from myriads of the holy
ones.
We are not concerned at the moment that those holy
ones may be speaking of angels, because
they are not the topic at hand. But we will say this, the word angel
in the New Testament literally
means messenger. We do believe in celestial messengers, but
we also must come to terms with the
fact that God has given His people a message. Like holiness, the
message cannot be some thing. Just
like holiness we must become the message. If it is just our
message and just our holiness, then it is
just a bunch of religious philosophy. There is already enough of that.
The difference maker in this
age will have to be something altogether different from people simply
sharing their thoughts and
ideas. We must remember that Jesus did not just speak a word. He became
that word! He made no
allowances for not becoming the word!
One may ask, "How do you become the message?" The first thing that must take place is an emptying out from us of all that is contrary to the message God wants to speak through us. We must realize our ways and our ideas are not going to cut it. It is easy to be like many who incorporate ideas that God never included. After all, many believers have incorporated entertainment and pagan holidays with the message of the Gospel. But few will step away from that, especially when it seems to attract the multitudes. While it is true that many may come to be born again in spite of such techniques, there is more to this walk than simply being born again. The world has seen so much mixture and so much in and out, off and on, half-hearted Christianity. Yet, when I look at the One who became the Word, even in His humanity, I see Him as the solid, steadfast, and stable reality that the world cannot find within the circle of religion! He incorporated nothing outside of the will of the Father. He knew it would pollute the temple of God which He had become.
It is no different when we look back at the things in the Old
Testament which foreshadowed
Him. Moses did not incorporate his own ideas along with the pattern of
the tabernacle. Let us
consider the following words in light of the fact that we live in such
a time of compromise. "The
whole of that structure of the tabernacle came from heaven. Not one
idea was allowed to come
from man's mind. It was not left with man to produce one thought as to
the manner of that
tabernacle, or how it should be built; from start to finish, it came
from heaven. That is the
other-ness of Christ. The ideas are God's, not ours. Though we may be
the Lord's people, it
is still not a case of our ideas, but God's. Not a single thought from
us is allowed. The
fellowship, the access, the communion-- oh, you cannot come in there
save on the ground of
Christ. It is by sacrifice. That sacrifice is Christ. It is by
priesthood. That priesthood is Christ.
The very garments all speak of Christ. It is Christ, only Christ, and
you cannot come in except
as Christ, so to speak. You are only accepted in the Beloved. You are
never accepted in
yourself, not even as the Lord's child" (T. Austin-Sparks).
There is something that is hard for us to grasp when it comes to the subject of holiness. We know that those who hated the Lord the most were the people who considered themselves holy. These hateful people had the scriptures to back them up. They were set apart by God from all the other nations. However, they could not understand that we do not have to separate ourselves from others in order to be separated unto God. That is where the Lord Jesus comes in. He had a drawing affect on the people to whom the Pharisees would not minister. In the life of Christ we see something that is seemingly contradictory to what many people may define as holiness. Christ was contrary to so many expectations. That is what we mean here by the word paradox. His whole life was a paradox. We do not have the time and space to touch on that in its entirety. We will do well to share on this particular paradox of holiness.
The Lord did not become a whoremonger in order to minister to harlots. He did not become a drunkard to minister to sinners and so on. In Christ, we see a capacity that no religious form can compare to. Although He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, He was unspotted by the sinful world that He came to redeem (Rom. 8:3). He was in the world, but He certainly was not absorbed into the self-defeating fallen atmosphere of this vexed world!
The thing that set Him apart from sinners is the same thing that
drew sinners to Him. Oh, we
are sure many came for the loaves and the fishes. Many came to see what
all the fuss was about, but
we are not talking about that. We are talking about instances like the
woman in Luke 7:36-50. And,
behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that
Jesus sat at meat in the
Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at
his feet behind him weeping,
and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs
of her head, and kissed his
feet, and anointed them with the ointment
(v. 37 and 38). This
woman was well aware of her need.
She was broken and wretched. In such a state as this, she was also
unshackled by the damnable
bonds of pride. Her heart was exposed with a crying need. She had to
have known of the significant
difference between Jesus and the Pharisees. In the life of Jesus there
is something altogether different
that words do little justice to describe. This is the very thing that
sets Him apart from His own
people. Even though they were set apart unto God to start with, they
had set themselves apart from
the very purpose unto which God called them.
Today, it seems that many have caught onto the mistakes that the Pharisees made. It seems that their answer is something like, "In order to win the world to Christ we must be like the world, otherwise they cannot relate to us." Is this the way we avoid being like the Pharisees? I'm afraid that is not part of our calling. Are we called to institute social clubs in the name of Christ? Are we called to make the bondage of sin a bit more comfortable? Are we called to keep people numb to their spiritual need?
The Spirit drew this woman to Christ. He came for those in need. He
did not have to tell her
what she was. And he said to unto her, Thy sins are forgiven
(v.
48). He did not tell her about
some so-called inherent goodness that all people supposedly have. If
that was the case, she had no
real need in the first place. However, she was much wiser than a lot of
those among us today who
are conveying the idea that Christ is already in everyone.
I can recall a specific time when I did not know the Lord. When I was miserable and desperately in need of Christ I knew that I needed something real. I already felt that I had exhausted what the world had to offer, so I had no need to seek after something that may have used the name of Christ but was no different from the world. I remember the brother that prayed with me when the Lord apprehended me. I knew what he was like when he was a sinner. I saw a totally different person when God got a hold on him. Even when I did not know the Lord I could spot his glowing face in a crowd. He could be surrounded in a room full of unbelieving hearts and yet he was still separated unto God. It is no different from a woman who may be in a room with other women, but she is separated unto her husband through the covenant of marriage.
Holiness is not about being a hermit. It is not about getting a group together and retreating to some distant area that you may call a wilderness. Holiness sits right in the heart of darkness as a glaring light exposing the lies that the spirit of the age uses to blind the world! Holiness says there is a reality in Christ. There is something different from all the religious let downs that may have used His name!
It would be so much easier and comfortable for us if it were just a matter of physical separation. Separating ourselves and being separated unto God are two totally different things. We are mistaken if we think holiness is a separation we make from the world due to our moral excellence. The Lord's people should be morally sound because of what the Lord has first done within them! Holiness is not something that is initiated with an outward show. It is about the mark! It is about the seal! It is all about the thing that governs our minds! It is about divine government! It is about the Lordship of Jesus! It is not that we in ourselves cease from being like others in the world. That should be a result of what God has done within us. That is a work of the Spirit. That is an inward work.
I do not hesitate to tell you that if there has truly been
an inward work, then there will
be an outward manifestation, otherwise we are deceived! We are set
apart by God to begin
with for the purpose of becoming the living expression of that set
apartness! Without that
living expression we will only see the expression of the world,
spiritual Egypt, the bondage of
sin or the expression of confusion, which holds many captive in Mystery
Babylon.
Nevertheless, holiness, being set apart, is a characteristic of New
Jerusalem. None of the things
tolerable in Egypt and Babylon are found in her. Holiness is the beauty
that becomes her.
"The beauty of holiness" is a phrase that is
found four times in the Old Testament (1 Chron.
16:29, 2 Chr. 20:21, Ps. 29:2, and Ps. 96:9). However, it is in the
New Testament book, the Revelation
of Jesus Christ, where we find this beauty being explained in detail
and find its ultimate fulfillment
in the New Jerusalem. When we read the title "New Jerusalem"
we would do well to think of the
new creation, the new man, the new heavens and the new earth. It is
simply contrasting the old. The
substance and the reality of the new are found in Christ and His body.
We need not look to the old
Jerusalem any more than we would need to look to the old man, Adam. The
symbolic language of
the New Jerusalem is describing a people that make up a city, rather
than a physical edifice being
lowered from the sky to sit in the old Jerusalem and centralize God's
kingdom in a geographical
location. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the
city of our God, in the mountain of his
holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount
Zion, on the sides of the north,
the city of the great King
(Ps. 48:1 and 2). Mountains are
often symbolic of kingdoms. It has been
the full intent of God to centralize His kingdom in Christ all along.
All the geographical locations
of the past were mere shadows pointing to a greater thing to come. This
greater thing started in Acts
chapter 2 when Christ took up His abode in a new habitation made up of
living stones! This greater
thing shall climax with the visible unveiling of God's theocracy in the
earth!
Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And
he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the
holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God
(Rev. 21:9 and 10). Paul speaks of his
ministry which is instrumental in the
preparation of becoming this holy city, or the Lamb's wife. For I
am jealous over you with godly
jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present
you as a chaste virgin to
Christ
(2 Cor. 11:2).
When we read of the jewels and the precious stones mentioned in the
Revelation of Jesus
Christ we should remember that we are called lively stones. After all
we are the body of Christ and
the head of the body was described as the stone which the
builders refused
(Ps. 118:22). Ye also,
as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ
(1 Pet. 2:5).
One of the first stones mentioned in Revelation which describes the
New Jerusalem is jasper.
According to Marvin Vincent's Word Studies of the New Testament, "some
interpreters, assuming
the jasper to be sparkling white, find in it a representation of the
holiness of God" (Vol. 2, p.476).
The Greek word for jasper refers back to the Hebrew word used for
jasper. According to Strong's
Exhaustive Concordance this word comes from an unused root meaning "to
polish." This is highly
significant in light of Isaiah 49:2 and 3. And he hath made my
mouth like a sharp sword; in the
shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his
quiver hath he hid me; And
said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be
glorified.
There is a Hebrew word,
behn, that is translated as both sons and arrows
(Lam. 3:13). Arrows are kept in a quiver. These two
verses in Isaiah speak volumes of our development in Christ and our
sonship.
There are many other scriptures that use precious stones and jewels
to describe God's people.
One passage in particular in Lamentations describes the precious
stones, polishing, and those who
are separated unto the Lord. For the punishment of the iniquity
of the daughter of my people is
greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as
in a moment, and no hands
stayed on her. Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter
than milk, they were more
ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire
(Lam.
4:6 and 7). Any time we see the
word Nazarite we are seeing another word which means
separation and being set apart unto God.
A Nazarite was not someone who would be appealing by their outward
appearance. A Nazarite
conveys that which is so typical of the Lord. We see the same thing
conveyed in the tabernacle in
the wilderness, which was covered by rams' skins dyed red and badgers'
skins. Nevertheless, within
the tabernacle were beautiful golden vessels and a Holy place, and yet
a Most Holy place (Ex.
14:25). That which is beautiful and separated unto God is purposely put
on the inside, but it is only
hidden to those who look at life through the eyes of the carnal mind.
Holiness repeats itself again and again throughout the course of the Old Testament. We can easily miss so much of this in the first five books, which are draped with outward ceremonies, yet when the Spirit pulls these drapes back we have an open window looking into the heavens. We get a view of what God really meant to show His people. We begin to understand a higher purpose. If we receive such higher and deeper things in humility, we will find ourselves captivated by the high calling. We will be in desperate pursuit of the very thing that would well up like a fountain of joy in the beaten down, prison-bound Apostle Paul. He saw these things when he read the Law! He saw Christ! For it is only in Christ that these things have life! It is only in Him that they come alive with a timely word for each generation that He lays hold of! If we find something that is simply a novel idea we have- totally missed the whole point! It must be something that grips our heart today or we are not walking in that day into which we have been called. We are no different from the Pharisees of old who read Moses in darkness with a veil over their heart (2 Cor. 3:15).
The first time that the Hebrew word for Nazarite is used, it is not
found in the sixth chapter
of Numbers where the vow of the Nazarite is mentioned and explained.
Rather, it is first translated
as the phrase "him that was separate from" in the context of
Jacob blessing his sons (Gen.49:26).
This phrase is speaking of Joseph who, like the Nazarite, is a
beautiful type of Christ. The blessings
of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto
the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the
crown of the head of him that was
separate from his brethren.
As we have said, holiness, with its beauty and the paradox it brings, is not something obtainable within ourselves. We are holiness to the Lord because of the Lord! This was said of Israel in the Old Covenant and it is said of whomever Christ apprehends in the New Covenant (Jer. 2:3). That which is said about the separation of a Nazarite and such beauty, which is like fine gold and jewels, has a present day application to us. However, when we look at the beauty of the Nazerites which is mentioned in Lamentations 4:7, we are faced with another statement that is also applicable to this generation.
How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold
changed! the stones of the sanctuary
are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion,
comparable to fine gold, how
are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the
potter!
These statements found
in Lamentations 4:1 and 2 are worthy of some serious consideration.
As long as Mystery Babylon can
hold a soul captive, as long as the bondage of sin is perpetuated and
encouraged by those who are
called to declare deliverance from spiritual Egypt, Jeremiah's lament
is relevant!
What brings such a statement about? We find the answer in yet
another scripture that speaks
to this generation. They transformed the beauty of His ornaments
into pride, and they made the
images of their abominations and their detestable things with it;
therefore I will make it an
abhorrent thing to them. I will give it into the hands of the
foreigners as plunder and to the wicked
of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it
(Eze. 7:20 and
21, NASB).
"They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it." Something of the divine that was graciously given has been polluted with some strange concept that contradicts the very nature of He who is truly divine! How is it that a precious son of Zion is esteemed as no more than an earthen pitcher? The same way that man himself is esteemed as a beast (Eccl. 3:18). You see, Israel was not the first to "transform the beauty of His ornaments into pride." The culprit of this practice predated Israel. Before Israel was graciously arrayed with such ornaments, there was such a beauty given to a man. This man is a study all of its own, but we would like to mention a few things about him to show the connection of pride to our subject at hand.
We do not have to go very far into the book of Genesis to find that
man was created to rule.
In Genesis 1:26 we read let them,
speaking of man, have dominion.
The Hebrew word used
for dominion means to rule and reign. In other
places in of the Old Testament it is translated as rule
in the context of kings ruling, as well as ruling the
nations (1 K. 4:24, 2 Ch. 8:10, and Isa. 14:6).
Concerning dominion, we read in Psalms 49:14 that the upright
shall have dominion.
Interestingly
enough, we read in Ecclesiastes 7:29 that God hath made man
upright; but they have sought out
many inventions.
The word for upright is also translated as right,
straight and righteous. Mankind
does not testify of being righteous or upright. As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one
(Rom. 3:10). The scriptures
are not contradicting themselves. We
will see the harmony of the
passages we have mentioned thus far if we take note that the Hebrew
word for man in Ecclesiastes
is also translated several times as Adam! He
is the man that was made upright!
In light of what we have said thus far, we would like to quote A. W. Pink. "The Scriptures inform us that, 'Man being in honour abideth not' (Ps. 49:12). The Hebrew word for man, there, is Adam, and that verse informs us that the father of our race continued not in the state of purity in which God created him. He disobeyed his Maker, lost his innocence by his own fault, and having corrupted himself, has communicated his depravity unto all his descendants. 'By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned' (Rom. 5:12). The root was vitiated, and therefore every part of the tree springing from it is tainted" (The Doctrine of Revelation, p. 110).
We do not have to go very far into Genesis to read about the
honorable position Adam was
given. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden
of Eden to dress it and to keep
it
(Gen. 2:15). A more literal translation would read to
serve and to guard it. The Hebrew word for
keep means to protect and to guard. The
next time we find this word is in Genesis 3:24 in reference
to the position the Cherubim were given. ...he placed at the
east of the garden of Eden
Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way
of the tree of life.
Like
Adam, the Cherubim were placed into an office of guarding and
protecting. Unfortunately, we do
not have to read far into Genesis to find Adam falling from this lofty
position (Gen. 3:1-9).
We know God is omnipotent. He is all knowing. He never lost track
of Adam (Isa. 46:10).
God was not ignorant of Adam's location when he asked him, Where
art thou
(Gen. 3:9). I'm
persuaded that God's concern had nothing to do with Adam's geographical
location. Gary Gatlin
summed up our convictions of what God meant when He asked Adam, Where
art thou?
The
question was just another way of God saying, "Adam, when I
look at you I can't see my reflection
anymore." It is not by coincidence that Moses was instructed
to have the cherubims to be made of
gold (Ex. 37:7). The Hebrew word that we find most of the time used for
gold is from an unused root
meaning to shimmer. The dimming of the gold begins in Genesis
3:6. Truly the shimmer, the shining
and the out-raying of Adam began to fade.
What is it that caused the glory of Adam, the daystar, the shinning cherubim who was to guard Eden, to flicker away? What is it that so often causes us to act independently from God? It is nothing less than pride. Adam's transgression marked man's first independence day. You see the allurement the serpent used in his subtle temptation was the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life! Please compare Gen. 3:6 and 1 John 2:16. The tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), and it was pleasant to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and it was a tree desired to make one wise (the pride of life). Seeking wisdom and knowledge to better ourselves apart from the Lord has been the downfall of humanity in every age, as well as the greatest hindrance of Christianity. Unregenerate man will practice this search in hopes of curing the disease of his own mortality, while Christendom incorporates such a practice in hopes of converting the world. In either case it shall never have the impact that man is looking for. Creation continues to groan.
Men will spend their lifetime trying to find other ways to
change their dying world and all
the while God has seen fit that the way was to
become a man! And being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name
(Phil. 2:8 and 9).
This man, who is the Way, identified Himself with the fallen
condition of humanity. He identified
Himself with us! He humbled Himself! This takes us back to the plan of
restoration which is
foreshadowed in the history of Jerusalem. This takes us back to two men
who were instrumental in
the recovery of holiness in Israel. Ezra and Nehemiah humbled
themselves when they heard of the
fallen condition of Israel.
...The people of Israel, and the priests, and the
Levites, have not separated themselves
from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations,
even of the Cannanites, the
Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites,
the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their
sons: so that the holy seed have
mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the
princes and rulers hath been
chief in this trespass. And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment
and my mantle, and plucked
off the hair of my head, and of my beard, and sat down astonied. Then
were assembled unto me every
one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the
transgression of those that had
been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice. And
at the evening sacrifice I arose
up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell
upon my knees, and spread
out my hands unto the Lord my God, And said, O my God, I am ashamed and
blush to lift up my face
to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and
our trespass is grown up unto
the heavens
(Ezra 9:1-6).
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the
captivity there in the province are
in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken
down, and the gates thereof
are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words,
that I sat down and wept, and
mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
And said, I beseech thee,
O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant
and mercy for them that
love him and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive,
and thine eyes open, that
thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee
now, day and night, for the
children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children
of Israel, which we have sinned
against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt
very corruptly against thee,
and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the
judgments, which thou commandest
thy servant Moses
(Neh. 1:3-7).
We would do well to take note of the fact that both of
these men were utterly heartbroken
over the condition of their nation. They did not stand off to the side
and say, "Those idolaters, those
sinful people, they deserve to remain in their rotten condition." Ezra
cries out to the Lord, our
iniquities... our trespass.
He included
himself when he prayed to God. Nehemiah shows the
same heart in the above verses. He is not saying they have
sinned, they have done this terrible thing,
and so on. He is saying we have sinned (Neh. 1:6 and 7).
This is so significant and yet so easily
overlooked. Today, in circles that move in the gift of revelation
knowledge, in the sense of seeing
the deeper things that remain hidden to the majority of Christianity,
such gifted people often boast
of how they know so much more than those 'first day' people, or those
'second day' people, or those
carnal people who cannot see what they see. They boast of themselves to
be great and exalted in the
things of God because of the knowledge they hold or the information
they have gathered. It seems
like it is far from them to look on and really see other Christians
with heartfelt compassion as their
brothers and sisters. It seems to be so much easier to simply bad mouth
them rather than beseech the
living God that He would graciously give them a vision of something
that would cause them to press
onward to maturity!
We hear so much about love, grace, mercy, and reconciliation, but we see so little of it manifested toward other Christians. Instead, we just consign them to be doomed in their systems since they don't believe the so called deeper things. Many times these so called deeper things are not even points that are essential to our salvation! Yet, we are seeing so many who deem themselves as 'kingdom teachers' feed others with ideas that have their roots in eastern religion and other sources that deny moral absolutes, the blood atonement of Jesus Christ, and His divinity! Will it ever dawn on us that it is possible to come out of a system we may call Babylon and carry the very spirit of Mystery Babylon deep inside our own heart!?
In as much as pride speaks of being lifted up in
ourselves and exalted, humility speaks of
being emptied out and broken. Being emptied of self-exaltation is the
preparation for making room
within our hearts for the new man to grow. Humility is a typical
attribute of the dwelling place of
God! For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell
in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and
humble spirit, to revive the spirit
of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones
(Isa.
57:15). Let us consider these
inspired words by Andrew Murray: "In man, humility is the one
thing needed to allow God's
holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. In Jesus, the Holy One
of God who makes us
holy, a divine humility was the secret of His life, His death, and His
exaltation. The one
infallible test of our holiness will be the humility before God and men
which marks us.
Humility is the bloom and the beauty of holiness.
The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility. Every seeker after holiness needs to be on his guard, so that, unconsciously, what was begun in the Spirit is not perfected in the flesh, and pride does not creep in where its presence is least expected. Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. There is no place or position so sacred that the 'Pharisee' can not enter. Pride can lift its head in the very temple of God, and make His worship the scene of its self-exaltation" (Humility, p.51 and 52).
Indeed, when we are lifted up within ourselves because of revelation knowledge, even if it is something that came straight from the throne of God, the very second we begin to swell with arrogance and stink with pride, the beauty of His holiness in us begins to fade! We set ourselves apart when we begin to think like the Pharisee who thanks God that he is not like others (Luke 18:11). This is a "holier than thou" attitude. This is not the setting apart of God. This is the attitude that the Lord will not stand for (Isa. 65:5 and 6).
Ezra and Nehemiah were in a sense clothed in the beauty of holiness through the humility and the humiliation that they both experienced. That may not sound too inviting. Nevertheless, they were the vessels God used in the restoration of Jerusalem, and their hearts typified the One who would be used to restore all things! Beloved, since the coming of the Spirit in Acts 2, the One has become many. Yet there is a need of restoration first in the 'many' before all things will be restored!
If we think that we are going to be used by God to restore all
things, while the beauty of
holiness that radiates with humility is missing within our midst, then
we are captives of strong
delusion! Without this beauty, the wall of what is to be the New
Jerusalem is broken down. In light
of this, let us see the connection between the wall and jasper. We have
already noted that jasper
comes from an unused root meaning to polish. We have made
reference to the passage in
Lamentations 4:7, which mentions the Nazarites, those separated unto
God, and their beauty being
compared to a polishing of sapphire, one of many precious
stones used to describe God's people.
This is significant since the building material in the wall of the New
Jerusalem is jasper (Rev.
21:18). It will be a polished work. Nothing shall be left undone. God
will not compromise and
violate the principles that accompany His divine plan. In this
generation we can see in a spiritual and
very real sense what was seen in Nehemiah 1:3. ...the wall of
Jerusalem also is broken down, and
the gates thereof are burned with fire.
The description of the
city is just another way of describing
the condition of those who are to be separated unto God. We find the
same thought in Lamentations
4:7 and 8. Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter
than milk, they were more ruddy
in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: Their visage is
blacker than a coal; they are
not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is
withered, it is become like a stick.
They are not known in the
streets is a phrase that speaks of being
absorbed into Mystery Babylon
and the spirit of the age. This is the result of a broken down wall.
It seems that the present day application of Nehemiah rebuilding
the walls of Jerusalem is
the recovery of holiness. Before we mistake this as some religious work
out of well meaning zeal,
we need to consider something. You see, Nehemiah's name means comforter.
The Lord Jesus Christ
is our Comforter. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to
you
(John 14:18). True
restoration comes through Christ working through a people that have
been set apart to bring His
purpose to pass in the earth, which includes the restoration of all
things!
Restoration is written all through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which were originally one book. These two books, like the rest of the Old Testament, unveil what God has purposed to do through a people. The broken and humble vessels that seek the face of God know that they are absolutely helpless without Him. Both Ezra and Nehemiah did not grow cynical as they looked at the situation. They did not look at the task God set before them with pessimism. They took note of the horrible condition, but they did not stop there. Unfortunately, that is where many of God's people stop.
Ezra and Nehemiah wasted no time in seeking the Lord. More important than that, the Lord Himself, by His Spirit, not the efforts of man, initiated this recovery and restoration for His people (Ezra 1:1). It is no different today. God is not interested in perpetuating destruction. Those who feel that we have reached a pinnacle in God's plan through the knowledge of who we are perpetuate destruction. They ignorantly do this through mere negligence! They have not responded to the reality of the need for transformation and change. They have stopped short by simply knowing and explaining away the need for any manifestation. Boast all you want about the plan of the ages, but that will never deliver a groaning creation. The heart of restoration does not make a career out of boasting about what might happen somewhere down the road in the sweet bye and bye. The heart of restoration does not name and claim Sonship while the curse of mortality continues to claim more victims. The heart of restoration is not interested in making a life long practice out of going around the country emphasizing who we are!
In divine discontentment, the heart of restoration will groan with the rest of creation. Yes, I can get caught up in the truth concerning the end of God's plan and the glorious victory of it all! It is a pearl of truth that thrills my very soul, but God has seen fit to bring me back into the confines of time. He is faithful to refresh us when needed, but we are still on a spiritual sojourn. Ezra and Nehemiah, like Joshua and Caleb, did not stop short of what God initiated for their generation! Will we camp around one truth in the wilderness until it becomes our captivity? Will we build our lives around such a place while we fail to realize it has become Mystery Babylon? Will we become at ease in our pride while the beauty of holiness becomes tarnished through the lack of a God birthed humility?
I thank God that He has put the heart beat of restoration in a people to work through them until they are not just restoring within the body of Christ, but they have become restoration to all creation! The unmistakable characteristic of such a people will not be some revelation that lays all the emphasis on who they are! The unmistakable characteristic will be a state of being that radiates with humility and practical holiness, which is simply the result of the governing work of the cross of Christ. For such a work produces a people whose life and testimony emphasize the Lord Jesus Christ their Head, their spiritual Nehemiah, and not only their Restorer, but the Restorer of all creation!