Loved with Everlasting Love Part 5 By Paris Reidhead*
That aspect of His character set forth in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. I’m not going to endeavor to review the ground we’ve covered other than to remind you that God as Father planned and purposed our salvation before the foundation of the world. God as Son provided everything that the Father purposed and planned in the fullness of time. And now the Holy Spirit is ready, waiting, willing to prefect in us everything that the Father purposed and the Son provided.
But whereas God in His sovereignty can command sinners to repent and does. He beeches “His brethren to present their bodies a living sacrifice.” (Rom. 12:1) A total different attitude and approach to the redeemed. “I beech you, I beg of you, I implore you,” said Paul in Romans 12:1 and 2. “By these mercies,” it is as though behind Paul is the Lord Jesus holding out His nail pierced hands “present your bodies a living sacrifice” No command here. The sovereign is now dealing with us as His loving children.
And when it comes to the church at Ephesus, these that have been brought recently out of groveling before the shrine of Diana of the Ephesians and all the immorality, brutality, cruelty of that worship, he says, “I’ve heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love unto all the saints and I cease not to give thanks for you. (Eph. 1:15,16) ‘I am terrible grateful for what’s happened.’” said Paul. “Oh, I’m so grateful. It’s wonderful. I give thanks for you.” “Making mention of you in my prayers.” (Eph. 1:16) That’s a little weak, it’s much stronger than that. To another church, he said, “I am praying for you night and day travailing” and there’s something of that in this as well. (II The. 3:8) In other words, once we have come out of death into life, once we’ve repented and received Christ our Savior and Lord, then the approach to us as His children is entirely different. No longer is it of a sovereign commanding His subjects. It’s a Father entreating His children and interceding for His children.
What’s he praying for? What is Paul praying for the church at Ephesus? What is the Lord Jesus, as our great High Priest, praying for us today? Because Paul’s prayers are but an echo of Christ’s prayers. And what is Christ praying for today for you? “Because He ever lives to make intercession” for you today, for me the Lord Jesus is praying. (Heb. 7:25) “That the eyes of our understanding may be opened that we may know the things that are ours to know in Christ” as he did for the church in Corinthians. (Eph. 1:18) In that first letter in Chapter 2, verses 9 and 10, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the mind of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit,” which He hath given us. And so Paul is adding to that another aspect and he is saying, “I am praying for you that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” that “the eyes of your understanding be open that you may know” that things that “God has prepared for them that love him.” (Eph. 1:17) Because unless you know what is yours you have very little grounds for expecting it to become yours.
When you are told by the court that you’ve been named a residual legatee for an estate, you’re interested in finding out what it is that has been bequeath to you. If your neighbor gets such a letter and says you are one of the heirs of a certain estate, you’re interested in a way what they might have received. Well, I don’t know why we should be so interesting. We usually are when we find some friend of ours that has been named in an estate, but it doesn’t really affect you. It’s not going to change your way of life. It’s not going to meet your problems or your needs, because it is theirs bequeathment not yours. So He praying that you as an heir of all things through Christ may listen to the divinely appointed court representative, who it is who is going to read the will to you and explain to you what it is you’ve inherited.
You see, “Eye hath not seen.” You can read the Scripture. That’s splendid. Memorize the Scripture. That’s splendid. But it is much simpler for a tape recorder to do that than it is for you or for me. All you need to do is read it into the tape recorder and it’ll repeat it back over and over again without error. So it isn’t just enough to for the eye to read. It isn’t enough for ear to hear. It isn’t just enough for the mind to repeat. That’s what it’s saying, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the mind of man.” This is not mechanical. That’s what he’s saying.
This matter of understanding the “things of God hath prepared for them that love Him,” is revelation. The words are all there. The truth is there. It is all set forth. But it is one thing to read it and it’s another thing to understand it. Because we are not just dealing with dollars and cents, houses and lands. We are quite adept at comprehending that. But when we are talking about having been blessed “with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ,” that’s a dimension which we have very little pervious familiarity. (Eph. 1:3) We don’t talk that language too well. We don’t understand the terms of reference, and so if all we had was just the will and here it is. This is the will and the testament, called the New Will, the New Testament, but how excited are you about that? You have it. This is what He bequeathed. But has that gotten all filled with anticipation? Not for the most part. You don’t look that excited about it right now. But I’ll tell, if you’ll ask the Holy Spirit to become to you “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” “that the eyes of your understanding may be open.” Then “the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” that “eye can’t see, nor ear hear or mind perceived” are made clear and are made real. By Whom? (I Cor. 2:9) By the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So He is entreating us and begging us and imploring us to become sensitive to the fact that God the Holy Spirit wants to be the One to unveil or explains this will.
That’s your response. What’s your response? Lord, open the eyes of my understanding. Be unto me blessed Holy Spirit a “Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ.” That’s your response. That’s your petition. That’s your prayer. On a daily basis not just once, but every day. Lord show me today something more. We can’t take it all in. It’s so marvelous. It’s so wonderful, “the things that God has prepared for them that love him.” But everything He’s prepared is essential for our happiness in time and for our going through time in a way that’s going to glorify Him.
Many of us, I’m afraid, are going to get through in out of time into eternity, redeemed yes. But when we stand before Him at the Bema there may be a few tears. Maybe more than a few, maybe a lot of tears. I have the feeling there’s going to be tears in heaven. Otherwise, what has He got to wipe away? Remember it says, “He is going wipe away all our tears.” (Rev. 21:4) Well, if we don’t have them, what’s He got to wipe away?
You know what I think the tears are going to be about how indifferent we’ve been for the “things that God hath prepared for them that love him.” How content we’ve been to go along with only a fraction of our inheritance. To limp alone through time without even having concern enough to go to Him and say, Blessed Spirit of God be unto me the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ.”
Now, the sovereign God could have done it some other way. He could have taken you as His child by the nape of the neck and held you up there and cuffed you back and forth a few times, now this is yours and this is yours and this is yours, now take it because you need it. But in His sovereignty, He decided not to do it that way. That’s not how He does it. You see a Sovereign God has the right to decide what He will and won’t do. He has the right to choose the method and so He has chosen as a method with His children of giving in the Scripture a statement such as Paul is making to the church in Ephesus. Hey you guys up there at Ephesus. You know it great that you’re all converted. It’s wonderful that you are forgiven. We’re all so happy to hear that you’re pardoned and you’re justified. Hey, you’re brethren and we love you and we hear you love us. And that’s a bigger miracle. It’s easy for us to love you, but it’s a miracle you could love us. We’re thrilled about that, but lest you should sit down right there and say, “Hey, I’ve got everything there is too get, I’m forgiven, I am pardon, and I’m justified.” I got news for you, everything you’ve got is good, but you haven’t gotten all the good yet. There’s a lot more you don’t have that you knew about. So I wanted you to know you’re on my prayer list since I heard you were converted. Did you hear that?
The Lord Jesus said, “I am not praying for the unconverted. I am not praying for the world,” to His Father in John 17. He said, “I am praying for them that You’ve given me out of the world.” (John 17:9) Why? Because it’s going to be so very easy for them to come into pardon and come into forgiveness and come into the assures of eternal life and sit there diddly-squat and say, “It’s this wonderful.” So I’m praying for them. I’m praying for them. What? That “the eyes of their understanding may be open” and that they realize God, the Holy Spirit, wants to be unto them “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ.” Show them the things that the Father purposed before the foundation of the world and the things the Son provided at Calvary. To quicken them with expectation, to show them their need, to stimulate them to meet the conditions and that’s what the High Priest is praying for. Well, if you understand that then you realize that it’s extremely important for us to have that attitude of expectancy.
Frederick Faber1 said in words I am not able to quote the actually phrase. He was a great poet and I am not. But Fredrick Faber said, “Some people out live their thirst and their hunger for God. They’ve met Him. They’ve taken, as it were, the cup of pardon and the cup of forgiveness and they’ve never been thirsty again.” It would be so wonderful if as long as we breathe as long as we’re alive, we could have this, “Oh isn’t that wonderful, about the things of the Lord.” Instead of that, “Old hat.” No, no let’s never out live our excitement at “that which God has prepared for them that love him.” That’s what he is praying for church at Ephesus, “that the eyes of their understanding maybe be opened; that they may know...what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:... gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Eph. 1:19-23) Every word in the Greek language has to do with power in those few verses. God absolutely exhausted the language He chose to give us the New Testament in telling us about this.
Now here we see the sovereignty of God revealed, in what? In verse 20. God’s sovereignty is revealed in raising Christ from the died. Now we know at Calvary there was conflict. We know that when the Lord Jesus reached out and drew me and drew you to Himself and became in the eyes of His Father you and me. Saddled, as it were, with our guilt and our uncleanness, identified with us in our sin, made to be what we were that from that moment that He identify Himself with us the Father could no longer look upon Him as His Son, but He had to look upon Him as us. And that met that because He was laden with your guilt and mine, your corruption and mine though He Himself was laden with it in that sense it was laid upon Him, but yet without sin. In as much as He identified Himself with you He was exposed now to conflict in from two directions from Hell, from the pit because He had my guilt and yours on Him. Everything that Satan wanted to do to us and could do to us because of our sin he now could do to Christ. Prior to that, the Lord Jesus in conflict He said, “I saw Satan fall as lighting from heaven” he was cast out. (Luke 10:18) But now because Jesus is identified with your sin and with mine He is subject to what Satan can do. Those three hours on the cross and those hours prior when He was scourged was in affect what Satan was wanting to do to God when he said, “I will put my throne above the throne of the Most High.” (Isa. 14:13)
Now God the Son, by whom the world was made, is standing there hanging there, if you please, suspended between heaven and earth the Father’s eye averted because He is laden with my sin and He is subject to everything that Satan can do. So for those three hours are three hours in which Hell attacks Heaven. In which, Satan sees Christ as God does to Him everything he wanted to do when he raised his voice and said, “I will put my throne above the throne of the Most High.” And so the Lord Jesus is there subject, can’t fight back because He is now there as me and as you. And we have no grounds for any defense He is identified with our sin. And then there is another aspect of that conflict and that is God from heaven looking down upon His Son and seeing His Son as me and having to bring the cup of His wrath and the cup of His judgement against sin, as it were, to the Lord Jesus and hold it there.
Now, when there’s not another arrow in the quiver of Hell to be shot into the Lord Jesus and other spears to be thrown, another fist to be raised to buffet the Son of God, when there’s not another drop in the cup of God’s wrath against sin, when the Lord Jesus’ drained it to its last bitter dregs, He can cry out, “It’s finished.” (John 19:30) That two fold battle is now over. Hell has done everything it can to God and God has done everything His justice demand that he do to me, to man. “It is finished.” He releases His Spirit and He dies. So resurrection is victory. The third day that God life which cannot die returns again to that broken and bruised and marked body and the Lord Jesus burst again the bonds that had been placed around Him and returns again in resurrection life, in resurrection victory. In this is seen and demonstrated the sovereignty of God.
God sovereignly permitted His Son to be subjected to everything that Satan could do to man and to God. God sovereignly chose to deal with His Son as His justice demand that He deal with you and with me. This was a sovereign act of a sovereign God. He chose to do it. He accepted His Son as our substitute and our representative. The Lord Jesus said on that day when He burst bonds that had held Him in death and came forth in resurrection triumph said two things said To Hell the power of Hell is
1 Frederick William Faber (1814-1863) An English hymn writer and theologian.
broken, the power of death is broken. And He said to the Father, the law has been vindicated, the law has been satisfied, and the law has been justified. Now God can be merciful to sinners and Hell no longer had any hold upon the redeemed. A twofold victory showing again, I say, the raising Christ from the dead the sovereign power of God.
But in verse 21 not only has He been raised from the dead, brought again into life, but He has sat at His own right hand in the heavenlies, His ascension. Causing Christ to ascend to His own right hand is the sovereign act of God, because in His incarnation He was mortal He was subject to death, because He had a body and a personality like ours. But now He’s been raised in immortality never subject yet raised in a body, a resurrection body that carries with it the marks of His suffering, the sword wound in His side, the nail wound in His hands, as He said to Thomas, “Put forth your hand into my side. Put forth your fingers into the nail wounds in my hands.” (John 20:27) And that resurrection body has been raised in ascension glory to the right hand of the Father. At the right hand means that He has authority, that He has power.
The third thing we see about the sovereignty of God is that He has put all things under Christ’s feet. He is in charge of everything. He governs and controls and rules the universe now, because having concurred sin, concurred death, concurred Hell, the Father has been pleased to put all things in His hands. Thus we see the sovereignty of God manifest of what is done to Christ raising Him from the dead and bring Him to His own right hand putting all power in His hands and giving Him to be the headship over the church.
Well, that’s marvelous. That’s wonderful. Our hearts rejoice at what’s happen to Christ. But how does it affect you? How does it affect me? That’s the thing we concerned about. God in His sovereignty, in His sovereign power did this. Are you now going to deny Him the right to continue to exercise His sovereignty? Are you going to stagger in unbelief when you see what He has done?
I want you to go back to verse 19. We are to have “the eyes of our understanding enlightened” that we may know, in verse 19, “What is the exceeding greatness of his power.” Is that what it says? Surely. Is that were it stops? No. “The exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe.” Now we are dealing with another dimension. God in His sovereignty is saying to us, That you who now believe, you who are those that have repented of your sin and saving embraced Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, you who believe have had the same power that raised up Christ from the dead, brought Him to the right hand of the throne, that gave Him all authority in heaven and earth and made Him the head over all the church, that very same power is the power that brought you out death unto life. It is the “power to us-ward who believe,” “power toward us that believe.”
Now what does He want us to do? Just to know that’s the power. Is that all? But that’s important. He wants you to understand that the same power that awakened you to your crimes against God, that convinced you, convicted you of the enormity of those crimes, that quickens your heart to repentance, stirred your heart with faith, enabled you to savingly reach through 2000 years and embrace the Son of God, that same power that justified you in heaven, generated you in your heart, and witnessed to you that you were born of God. That power was not some weak little effulgence that had sorted of wafted away, but it is the very same power that raised up Christ from the dead. I can say it another way, it took just as much of God’s power to bring you out of death into life as it did to raise Christ from the dead.
That’s why that Scotsman, who released from his futile lord and given the opportunity of taking his own name upon his conversion, decided he would take a name that was his testimony. And so he took the name Livingstone2, we know David Livingstone. In another words, said the Father of David Livingstone, You think this is a light matter being born into the family of God and coming out of death into life. Do you think you have the power to do it? Great. Prove it! You go out into the field, find that boulder protruding above the black dirt and standing there and in your eloquence give to it all that you know. And when through the power of your personality and your eloquence you’re able to turn that granite into quivering, throbbing, feeling flesh (26:22) then you know you’re ready to bring people out of death into life. And until that happens, you better realize it’s a miracle. It’s the supernatural work of All Mighty God that takes the dead and makes them alive. The very power that raised up
2 David Livingstone (1813-1873) A Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary.
Christ from the dead is the power that brought Ephesians groveling before Diana to the place that they were faithful brethren. That’s a miracle.
When God saved my soul, “cleansed and made me whole3.” It took a miracle, a miracle of grace. That’s what He is saying. That’s what He is telling us. Now, He is saying something more than that, that the same power that raised up Christ from the dead required to bring you out of death into life is the power that is now available to you in your life and your ministry and your services for Christ. That’s what you’ve got to understanding. What did the Lord Jesus say? “After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, ye shall” what? “You shall receive power.” (Acts 1:8) What’s the power He’s talking about? “You shall receive power.” It’s interesting. What we have to see in the light of this is that when God sends as forth to serve He wasn’t sending us forth in just our zeal and our enthusiasm and our talent and our ability. All of things are alright, but He said that the very same power that raised up Christ from the dead was to be ours in our ministries.
Remember the Lord Jesus made it very, very clear “without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) “Lo, I am with you always even unto the end.” (Matt. 28:20) See the problem is we sometimes we get the idea that salvation is a scheme, is a decision, is a ritual, is words we say, or it’s a system of Scripture or system of doctrine. And all these have their place and their value. But you know what salvation is? Salvation is a person. Salvation is a person. “He that hath the Son hath life,” because life is in the Son. (I John 5:12) That’s why Paul to the church of Corinth in that second letter 13 and 5 said, “Examine yourselves, prove your own selves know you not your own selves how that Christ be in you.” (II Cor. 13:5) Salvation is a person. That’s the important thing to understand.
Now the very power that raised up Christ from the dead is the power that is to be enabling us to live those good works that Elijah called our attention to, to enable us to witness, to enable us to work, whatever responsibility Christ gives us now because of this identification with Christ we have access to that same power. So it is extremely important for us not to have any question about it.
Let’s go down to the first verse of the second chapter. Any of you have King James version? How many of you have a King James version? It’s good enough for Paul, it’s good enough for us. [laughter] Not that I have any objection, I just like it for this reason.
You notice the first two words there in the second chapter, “And you.” (Eph. 2:1) Now ‘and’ is a conjunction and I was taught that the function of a conjunction is to conjunct. But starting a new paragraph with ‘and’ doesn’t really strike me as being the best use of a conjunction. But if you realize the chapter headings were not inspired that was put through by the King James committee that had translated into English had it in just running texted. And the man who did Ephesians, we’re told, was called to go to France on the road from London to Dover to take the boat to France, he was putting in the chapter divisions and you can tell when the coach hit a chuck hole, because that’s where the chapters were. He just didn’t bother erasing it, let it stand. That must be the reason in here. [Audience comment] I wouldn’t be surprised. I don’t want to claim that. Maybe it is just Reidhead metaphysics. At any rate, “And you” that belongs there. It’s right. It’s okay, no problem, except it refers to what is preceded.
Now in my Bible and maybe in some of yours because I’ve been talking to you for many years, maybe in some of yours you have it. But I have a circle around “And you” and a line down along the edge of the page and up to the 20th verse and then I tuck the point in right after “Him” and “set Him” and the point is of that line is right there. Any of you have it in your Bibles that way? Oh, for petty sakes get it in there. You need it. You know how you read it that way? Listen to it, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him ‘and you’ from the dead, and set him ‘and you’ at his own right hand in the heavenlies, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named.” You see.
You say, “Hey, what right do you have to run lines down and tuck in points of arrows? Who do you think you are?” Well, I have been trying to figure that out for a long time. I don’t have any problem with that right here at this point, because in the second
3 “He Touched Me” By Bill Gaither, 1963.
chapter and the 5th verse and the 6th verse He repeated it. Oh I am so delighted when the Lord repeats it so that I can get vindication for my pet theory. Now I’m saying the “And you” refers to everything that preceded it and I’m also going to try and prove that to you from verses 5 and 6. Read it again now, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him ‘and you’ from the dead, and set him ‘and you’ at his own right hand in the heavenlies.” Our union with Christ means that’s where the Father sees us, because we were in union with Him in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection. We’re also in union with Him in ascension and in His enthronement. Now are you ready for verses 5 and 6 the second chapter? “Even when we were dead in sins, hath” What? “Quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:5,6)
How do you like that? Pretty good. Now do you see why Paul prayed that the Ephesians believers would “have the eyes of their understanding be opened.” What did he say in verse 3 of the first chapter, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenlies.” [Audience comment] Well, alright there you go I guess that’s right. I don’t know, but I think that’s right.
Now, here we have another element, here we have another element. We have the fact since we were united with Christ in His death. When the Father looked at the Lord Jesus on the cross, you remember we’ve said this before, He saw two people. Christ on the front of it and to help me because I have to keep it simple. You know KISS is my whole approach. You know what KISS means don’t you, “keep it simple stupid.” That’s the way I have to have it. So I have here Christ on the outside of the cross, but I am united with Him. [Tape break]
[Tape starts]You were crucified with Him. Well, Romans 6:6 tells us this, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Christ.” And Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ.” So I’m not making anything up out of whole cloth. “Crucified with Him” and in Romans 6:4 “Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death.” Baptism a picture of our union with Christ in death, “buried with him by baptism into death.” And here in Ephesians 2:5 we are “quickened together with Him,” two people in the tomb, Christ in you. Two people quicken, Christ in you. Two people raised, Christ and you. Two people ascended into the heavenlies to sit there, Christ and you.
Now do you see why they need to have somebody that’s going to open their eyes because “He has blessed them with all the spiritual blessing in the heavenlies,” but you don’t begin to enjoy those spiritual blessing till you understand that you’re in the heavenlies now. We’re all delight about the fact, “You know, I’m going to heaven someday.” But how about today? How about now? “In the sweet by and by4” can be right now for as the practical effect of it is concerned. That’s what He wants you to have.
The realization that when your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, went to the cross you went with Him. You were crucified with Him, you were buried with Him, you were quicken with Him, you were raised with Him, and you are seated with Him in the heavenlies. Now that’s the place from which we are to minister. Our sovereign God planned this. Our sovereign God decided this. He it is before the foundation of the world worked it all out and Christ in the fullness of time accomplished it, provided it and now the Holy Spirit wants to make it affectively real, perfect it in you.
“Well, I don’t understand it.” Well, of course you don’t. I told you at the beginning, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.” Who wants to argue with God? He said. He said, you don’t understand it, but don’t be worried about it, don’t be excited about it. You don’t have to understand it. Friends, you don’t even understand electricity, but that doesn’t keep you from using it. We never defined electricity. We don’t know what it is, but we use it. So you don’t understand how the mechanics. I am frightened to say I don’t know how, but I don’t have to know how. All I have to do is just say blessed God of all grace I don’t understand. But I do have sense enough as a little child, if You say I was crucified with Christ that the body of sin, this thing I brought into the Christian life of traits, tendencies, attitudes, habits of thought learned responses can be nullified? That the body of sin might be nullified and destroyed. Okay, I don’t understand how, but Lord, I am so glad that You make real and we’ll talk about how later. Right now I need the ‘that’ not the ‘how’. You understand. I am pragmatic about this. I don’t need to understand
4 “In the Sweet By-and-By” Words by S. Fillmore Bennett and Music by Joseph P. Webster, 1868.
how a magnetic works all I need to understand is that there are times when they’re terrible useful. And I hope that the physicists understand that it works, but it won’t surprise if they don’t. Until they come with a good definition for electricity, I’m not expecting...until they come with the definition of electricity I’m not expecting too much from them. They’re still doing a lot for us. Whatever it is they found out how to use it and that’s really good.
Have you found out how to use your union with Christ, crucified with Him to have victory over yourself, your attitudes, and your habits and your traits and your disposition? Have you found out how your union with Christ gives you victory over the world? “All that’s in the world is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.” (I John 2:16) It’s not of the Father. It’s of the world. You are crucified with Him to have victory over yourself and buried with Him to have victory over the world. You’ve got another enemy. You’ve got the world, you got yourself, the flesh, the world, and the devil. So what did He do? We were raised up together and “made to sit together in the heavenlies.” Ah, that’s where He took us. He’s there, we’re there in Him. We’re here, He is here in us.
So don’t you see what the Father’s plan was, one Lord Jesus at the right hand of the Father and all of the redeemed in Him. All of the redeemed on earth and the Lord Jesus in each of them. Why? Why? So that you can enforce He’s victory at the little crossroad of place of your responsibility in life. That’s why. That’s why. He put you there. You’re at the crossroads. You’re the policeman, put on the whole armor of God, helmet of salvation, breast plate of righteousness, loins girded about by truth, sandals preparation of the Gospel of peace, shield of faith, sword of the Spirit and He says this is your crossroads your home, your business, your family, your friends. What are you there for? You’re there to see the traffic runs right. And when you discover that you’ve got some the dogs of Hell around and powers of darkness are there. What do you have the right to do? Stand there, raise your hand, blow the whistle, “Fweet! Stop in the Name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God.”
What did it say in Revelation? How did they overcome this one? The apostle said, “If you resist the devil he will flee from you.” (Jam. 4:7) “Whom resists steadfast in the faith.” (I Pet. 5:9) How did they overcome it? “By the word of their testimony and the blood of the lamb.” (Rev. 12:11) Our union with Christ in His death and burial and resurrection and our ascension with Him, He is in us and we’re in Him there and so He is enforcing His victory here through us.
* Reference such as: Delivered at the 4th Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, MD on Sunday Morning, September 12, 1982 by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1982
Be the first to react on this!
Paris Reidhead (1919 - 1992)
Was a Christian missionary, teacher, writer, and advocate of economic development in impoverished nations. A spiritual crisis during this period—as he described two decades later in what is probably his best-known recorded teaching, "Ten Shekels and a Shirt"--left Reidhead with the conviction that much of evangelicalism had adopted utilitarian and humanistic philosophies contradictory to Biblical teaching. The end of all being, he came to believe, was not the happiness of man, but the glorification of God. This theme would recur throughout his later teaching.Since Mr. Reidhead's death in 1992, Bible Teaching Ministries, Inc. continues under the leadership of his wife, Marjorie, and daughter, Virginia Teitt, a dedicated Board, and the many people who have donated time and talent after being changed by God’s Word through this message. The message of the Gospel is reaching an ever-widening audience all over the world.