MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
May 10, 2023
God’s Saving Enmity Part
Part 18
THE OFFENSE OF THE CROSS (OF THE CRUCIFIXION OF SELF) HAS NOT CEASED
“As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” Deut. 33: 25, KJV. In the Sermon on Mount, recorded in Matthew chapters 5, 6, 7, the promised “Seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15), the promised Messiah, introduced the nature of the spiritual kingdom He came to install on earth. It was and is so unlike any and all the earthly kingdoms, monarchies, and forms of government of fallen man, past, present, and future.
“Jesus [did not] present to His followers the hope of attaining EARTHLY glory and riches, and of having a life FREE FROM TRIAL, but He presents to them the PRIVILEGE of walking with their Master in the paths of SELF-DENIAL AND REPROACH, because the world knows them not [cf. 1 John :1].
“He who came to redeem the lost world was OPPOSED by the united forces of the ADVERSARIES of God and man. In an UNPITYING CONFEDERACY, evil men and evil angels arrayed themselves against the Prince of peace. Though His every word and act breathed of divine compassion, His UNLIKENESS to the world provoked the bitterest HOSTILITY. “Because He would give no license [excuse, exemption, justification, occasion] for the exercise of the evil PASSIONS of our [fallen, sinful, human| nature, He aroused the fiercest opposition and ENMITY [beginning with His very own chosen people!].
“So it is with ALL who live godly in Christ [2 Tim. 3:12]. Between righteousness and sin [‘all unrighteousness is sin,’ 1 John 5:17, first part] love and hatred, truth and falsehood, there is an IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. When one presents the love of Christ [revealed in His condescension, incarnation, life of self-denial, self-sacrifice culminating in His substitutionary death on Calvary], he is drawing away the subjects of Satan’s kingdom [all fallen mankind], and the prince of evil [Satan] is aroused to RESIST it. Persecution and reproach await all who are imbued with the Spirit of Christ. The character of the persecution CHANGES with the times: but the PRINCIPLE—the spirit that underlies it—is the SAME that has SLAIN THE CHOSEN of the Lord ever since the days of ABEL. [see Gen. 4:1-16].
“As men seek to come into HARMONY with God, they will FIND that the offense of the cross has not ceased [at Calvary two thousand years ago; meaning? ‘Principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places’ [Eph. 6:12] are arrayed against all who yield OBEDIENCE to the law of heaven. Therefore, so far from causing GRIEF, persecution should bring JOY to the [true] disciples of Christ; for it is an EVIDENCE that they are following in the steps of their Master. “While the Lord has not promised EXEMPTION from trials, He has promised that which is FAR BETTER. He has said, ‘As thy days, so shall thy strength be.’ ‘MY GRACE is sufficient for thee; for MY STRENGTH is made perfect in [your; our] weakness’ (2 Cor. 12:9).
If you are called to go through the FIREY FURNACE for His sake, Jesus will be BY YOUR SIDE, even as He was WITH the faithful three [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego] in Babylon. Those who LOVE their Redeemer will REJOICE at every opportunity of SHARING with Him [the glory of] His humiliation and reproach! The LOVE they bear for their Lord, makes suffering for His sake SWEET.” E. G. White, Mount of Blessing, pp 49, 50, Pacific Press Publishing Asso., 1943. (All emphasis and words in brackets mine).
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.