THE CONVICTION, THE CONVERSION, THE CONQUEST AND THE COMMISSION

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Chapter 5

The Conviction, the Conversion, the Conquest and the Commission

A Spiritual Work from the Face of God

STARTING WITH LUKE: PARABLES WITH PUNCH

Luke 18 and John 16

INGREDIENTS OF DESTINY

In Luke 18, you have some of the ingredients of destiny.

Thus in the first two parables, we find that of widow and the unjust judge, focussing the point of insistence on the part of the weak (the sinner) towards the strong (the Lord), the point being that EVEN the unjust judge was moved by such importunity! Then there is the parable of the tax-collector and the Pharisee. In this parable, each party is demonstrative, but in the one, it is self-demonstration, as if to call God to witness his glory, while in the other seen at prayer, it is the abysmal acknowledgement that ONLY mercy could help him! This applicant to the Lord went away justified rather than the other, Christ declared. GOD IS A SPIRIT, and the spirit of a thing is crucial.

In the second parable, that of the tax-collector (from the Jews FOR the Romans, the occupying power) and the Pharisee, we find what the Lord detests. Since here, the Pharisee made rather a demonstration of his own self-judged righteousness (and Christ made an assessment of many such, as seen in Matthew 23, and it is VERY different! The parable is as surgical as the later denunciation Even in his prayers, he boasted; but the tax-collector had no hope except in divine mercy.

Thus in the first parable, you see the testimony for perseverance and importunity in spiritual things. GO FOR IT! Do not relent, be impervious to difficulty, and let nothing intervene (Luke 18:1-8). Then you see in the second parable, the diversion which may occur into the imperious, spelt a little like impervious, and even reminiscent of importunate; but it is as far from these as sea from desert. Thus, whilst the importunate like the imperious, knows no stopping, yet the one seeks, and the other directs! Again, while the impervious resists all re-direction, like the imperious, yet it is resistant to what would change it, whereas the imperious simply seeks its own will. One expresses itself as criterion; the other seeks the Lord as confessor, cleanser and He who forgives.

PROCEEDING TO JOHN

Before however we move to Luke 18:15ff., it is necessary for the purpose of this Chapter, to move to John 16, because here is the beginning of blessing, in the sealed compartment of sorrow.

Take John 16:8-11, for there is what is always good when one is astray: someone calling you to mind your step, and to change its direction. Here it is not a traffic officer, telling you at 3 a.m. on a long drive, that you are wobbling enough to make it necessary for you to take a short nap and recover, nor is it a friend, pointing out that truthfulness is better than the hidings of shame, with loving concern. No, it is the SPIRIT OF GOD pointing out that you are a sinner.

What is a sinner ? It is one who sins. What is sin ? It is what does not please God.

What does please God ? It is doing what He says. Is that all ? In one way, yes, for although the way of the godly is not ONLY obedience, it does focus on this. Why is that ? Is this not rather superficial when the whole tracts of love, genuine affection, appreciation, admiration and worship are there ? No, for the call to worship, to love, to admire and wonder, to be friends is part of what God wants and asks man to give.

Should it not however be phrased differently ? it may be urged.

It might be; but just as you can call the earth a vast expanse of earth supervened by sky and covered, even that, with the starry universe, so you could call it, not from the worm's upward view, but from the bird's, a mighty air-dome that stretches beyond sight and one which has a very solid base with pits and holes that stretch downwards as the sky above. TO DO is one way of introduction, and TO BE is another.

You could say that what pleases God is being what He asks; and this involves doing what He says, for one of the things He says, is to be born again. This of course is not an action which the babe can perform without the work of another! You do not walk along and born yourself! You have to
GET THERE by being born. Well, you are already there, but THIS birth is getting where and with whom you should be, and gaining the equipment necessary for that. It is very like a grub or caterpillar, which doubtless is invented not least as an illustration of this very thing, which is indeed there and extant in one sense, but yet lacks the equipment for flying as a butterfly.

For this part of the total design for it, therefore, it has to go through a deep and totally transformative process, and thus is there secured this result, flying in beauty. It is not a step, this transformation, which either the grub or the butterfly plans and controls; but it is moved to it, or else it simply dies.

In the end, we do not know the precise specifications of the will of God, or the exact indexes of our sin until He tells us. But He HAS said from the first (contrary to the diabolical machinations expressed in Genesis 3:1,5). The word is not absent, but rather more often than not, the listenign ear. This reminds one of an interview today on the ABC, in which someone with a cochlea implant to enable hearing in one ear, the other deaf, reported a screaming and shouting clash with a 'teen-age daughter. Finally she said, This is enough (to herself)! and went to another room and simply ... turned off the cochela implant in its functioning. Now she COULD not hear. Case solved ...

It is possible to do this in spirit, by devious dissertations in the mind, rancorous hostilities in the spirit, as for any other reason. Ears have they, said Jesus Christ, but they do not hear!

The word of God however is given from the first, right to the very ear of Adam, and applied to the last, to our own generation (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5, SMR Ch. 8-9). It is recorded also for the last, in testable verbal premises and promises, and seen in operation in the face of the Messiah who came and did precisely what was commanded! (cf. John 12:48-50). It is indeed applied with every fresh transformation of a soul, into a kingdom of heaven adoption case, in which new facilities are found, not for flight from God, but for walking with Him! (Ephesians 1, II Corinthians 5).

Much is obvious, but the desires of the heart of God and His plans are His to tell. He tells all, and in the process, reveals our nature, the needful nurture, the requirements and provisions for man, BY WORDS. Words indicate what is and what He wants. They give the perspective, the truth, and the application. With it they convey emotion and personal attitude and approach. Such is found in the Bible, which alone of all religious phenomena, is a direct, age-long, much tested, most testable book^*1A which is always verified, even to the last degree, and never falsified, and which foretold Christ who foretold the coming of the Spirit of God who, as John 16:8ff. tells us, to do certain things to man.

His special work is seen not only in national and international revivals of great and remarkable impact, but in each case where the sin of man is identified through the work of the Saviour and the impact of the Holy Spirit, this leading on to the operation invisible in action, but visible in result, of regeneration. He has in this work, with whatever else, several specifically itemised FUNCTIONS.

THE FIRST GROUND OF CONVICTION

One of these is to CONVICT. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth (John 16:23) convicts of sin. Now the ground of this conviction, this impact or exposure, it is what is and what ought to be, what God wants and what He finds, and it has its own specific emphasis.

It is a matter of what one is doing and what one is, in comparison with what one is designed to be, ought to be and may yet become; and that, as is as stated here, that ground of conviction, it is formulated as JUST ONE. WHY then is man convicted of sin by the Spirit of God ?

It is because "they do not believe in Me." Why such simplicity ?

It is because it is the truth.

Here is One

sent by God, as God,

the very Word of God in man's format, the eternal word of God in temporal form, One

who can cast out evil by the Spirit of God, as if it were a finger (Luke 11:20, Matthew 12:28), the very finger of God,

who gives life to the dead (John 11), truth to the recalcitrant (Matthew 23) with exquisite courage and penetration, help to the humble (Luke 10:46ff.), and is so spiritual

that a widow's mite, given to the extent of her tiny 'kingdom' is more to Him
that the masses of the coins of the rich (Luke 21:1-7),

that the prayer of the contrite sinner means more to Him
than the self-given accounts of the massive spiritual exercises of the mighty,

that the ostentatious and amazing magnificent buildings of the temple
mean less to Him than the testimony of truth, so that He would dispense
with so glorious an expression of His mighty and mercy, rather
than let it be prostituted for the glory of man and his opinions,
masquerading as His own (Mark 13:1ff.):

here is this One whose power performs precisely as He directs, and whose directions are such as no one ever saw before, and yet, with NO competition, they yet DO NOT BELIEVE HIM!

If, said Christ, He had not done the works no one else had ever done, and spoken the words no one else had ever managed to utter, then "they would have no sin", but "now they have no excuse for their sin." (John 15:22ff.).

Note the exquisitely beautiful fact that He would not even charge them with sin (in the relevant sense of what eternally separates you from God in just judgment), if He had not come. If He, the quintessence of truth, the absolute of power, the Messiah sent humbling Himself to man's format level in order to lift many of mankind to the everlasting blessedness of the kingdom of heaven, had not come and done and said what He did, then there would be NO CHARGE! This is precisely what John 3:19 is telling us from the lips of Christ: the ground of condemnation is that light has come into the world, HIMSELF as focussed over three chapters being the One who IS that light, and yet they have preferred in an incontestable manner, darkness to this light. There it is presented in two ways, in principle, and in practice, to all, and to some.

What then would have happened if He had NOT come and done the works, or spoken the words which He did ? Then they would have had excuse (in terms of the mercy which longs to bring pardon), and so would be apt for relief. Now however, with the ultimate expression of God, in all His perfection, acting and speaking and walking and even talking before them, with works undeniable, power unspeakable, mercy that is friendly and grace which never ventures into denying truth, but knows how to be merciful and truthful simultaneously: He has come. Yet they STILL REJECT HIM.

Whar then ? Then there is no excuse. Then it is no more the case in any sense, that they do not have sin. There is no clearance, no provision, nothing to help. Thus as we see in John 16, the Spirit of God being sent by Christ to His work-place, this earth, convicts people of their sinfulness BECAUSE they do not BELIEVE in HIM!

If mercy could contrive anything more direct, more beautiful, more holy, more loving, more compassionate and more self-verifying, then there might be a shadow of cover which it could consider in seeking to avoid the simple, sample impact of justice, and hence of judgment on sin. Yet since there is than ultimate reality, presented in the very form and format which is that of mankind, God incarnate, foretold and fully functional in every predicted aspect, indeed not coming to judge but to save (John 3:17), on such a mission as this, with such a demonstration on the one hand, of ransoming cleanness in dying for sinners who receive Him, and on the other, such a holy love that stoops to any level to obtain its prize: then there is a result. This being rejected, there is nothing more to reject.

Preference for darkness in the face of light is the explicit ground of condemnation: for when He came NOT to judge, but to save, and THEN they reject Him, the light, then darkness is their defined destiny, and they are the drivers (John 3:15-19,36, The Glow of Predestinative Power Ch. 4, Great Expectations, Great Execrations, Greater Grace Ch. 7).

Reject a kindly word ? perhaps, a reasoned discourse ? maybe, an impassioned appeal, conceivably even then there is no final judgment; but reject the ONLY antibiotic that can save you, and you are finished, there is no more place for you in the truth. God does not force the injection; and though man may in sinful instinct, reject it, yet God who has known before all time the nature of things, knows who are His, has foreknown them, and acts accordingly. He would have all saved, did enough for all; but takes only those whom His love in its integrity, purity and non-possessive wonder finds. He knows His own.

Hence, once more, the Spirit of God convicts, when He comes to this workplace of Christ, epitomised at Calvary, does so for one transcendentally important reason. He convicts them because they do not believe in the Son of God, the Saviour, who as Saviour is God (Isaiah 43:10-11), and as payor in Himself, is the very essence of deity, undistilled, unchanged, total and absolute, God of very God and Lord of lordship, brilliant and explicit, definitive expression of the Father.

Short-change this, and you short-change yourself (Luke 19:43ff.), and who is He who weeps before all ? It is this same Christ, express image of deity, who speaks as commanded and always does what pleases His Father (John 8:29, 12:49ff.). .

THE SECOND GROUND OF CONVICTION

The Spirit of God also, however, convicts, of more than just sin.

This we read in John 16:10, for He convicts of righteousness. He brings a sharply defined impact on the screen of the soul, in which righteousness is made something which brings conviction to man. Why is this ? It is not merely the obverse of being convicted of sin, because we find the reason for this conviction is defined. It is this, that "I go to My Father and you see Me no more" (John 16:10).

Why is this the ground of this conviction of righteousness ?

Where is the next President of the United States ? Is it to be found in a happy withdrawal from this world's foreign problems, though rockets travel fast ? or is it to be found in the sympathy of one who stood in the face of devastation, and acted with courage ? or in one deft in dealing with difficult situations ? No one is absolutely satisfied. It would be good if someone eloquent with intensity, pure with no self-appointed grandeur, courageous with panache, clear-headed without academic blah, noble without being aware of it, loving without being indulgent, peaceable without being weak ... and so on, were to offer. Such this world does not provide.

Where power blasts, discretion lacks; where discretion abounds, wisdom is short; where economics are in order, vision is not. It is a tumble-dryer and things get tossed about.

So where is the next president of the World Community ? What qualities would he need ? And where is the answer to terrorism without a common answer from all the world, to what comes from its very scope and extension on all sides ? Is this not what has been sought ? Whether he be god or devil, said Henri Spaak, so eloquently, so abysmally, that ex-President of the Council of Europe, if only he will have the allegiance of the people, then we will receive him.

Has not truth become subordinate to survival, satisfaction and non-conflict ?

One reason for this is that the world is growing old. It has had its Descartes, and his ludicrously empty Bang with semi-automated developments, the surreptitiously pre-robotic case. It has already experienced its French Revolution, Equality that was not so equal before Madame Guillotine after all, as Robespierre found out, Liberty which was not so free when one is in prison, as many experienced it, and Fraternity, which is not so brotherly when brothers engage in fratricide, and revolutions gain a force of their demented own; it has its American Revolution with the increasingly literal goddess of freedom, where what one is free to do, being man, is increasingly submerged in self-assessing, and nebulous humanism, in self-exalting universal human racism and the contentment of satiation.

All this is passé. It does not work. Now those who virtually imprison women in robes and often deprive them of talent-use in some male-estate begin to condemn those who made liberty so great an option, in a godly beginning, only to make it a self-serving defeatism, with a godless end!

They squirm and condemn; but only God remains. He does not change.

People, then, are convicted of RIGHTEOUSNESS BECAUSE CHRIST HAS GONE BACK TO HEAVEN. In its just and perfect form, it is not found on this earth. It does not rule any nation, nor is its counsel to be found among the nations^*1.

This world has tried the rule of a communal ALL, and found it a maxi-aristocratic, bureaucratically nightmarishly, absolutist group who deny all but relativity, while acting as ultimate; and the whole idea of the use of power to subdue on the part of the mighty, as in the USSR, Japan and Germany, has become rankly odorous with large sheddings of blood by little minds, with maxi-cruelty and mini-mercy.

Many things have been tried to find the perfect frame. They have even tried uniting the Church to the State as in England, with wonderful results in this, that that Empire became the most amazing of all time in its trend to mercy, justice and truth, however hideously pockmarked it became with various selfishnesses and special pleadings from time to time (not least in the Opium Wars with China, and in returning USSR soldiers to their fate across the border ... and resisting Jewish return to their land, after Auschwitz, by using British shops to prevent it, in the aftermath of the war).

It is not only, there, that it was not so nice for such a people as the Jews, so treated by the common enemy of the war; it was rather more, since the British Balfour Declaration of 1917 had given Palestine to the Jews, and even when Bevin made it clear, that Jew or not, oil mattered, they had much less than that! Not improved to the stated State warrant, their position was aggravated by this demeaning use of the British navy.

However, what in some ways was this marvellous-seeming experiment in England, although it helped the nation resist the Romanist directed works of Spain, especially in the Armadas (there were two, not too far apart, though in the divine providence, they were rather blown away!), held in it the seeds of sedition. To be sure, that Anglican Church in its heyday, and the nation did much to disseminate truth, yet in the end, since the Church is under CHRIST ONLY and the State there under those elected, it lost its power. The Church for long experimented with dissolution, like an ecclesiastical euthanasia, adopting various liberal follies, political intrusions and moral abominations, from biblical perspective, so that it became unclear whose it was!

Now in thoughts of unity with Romanism, as a Commission on the topic proceeds with zeal, it shows that the Church CANNOT be in merger with the State, since the State is not as such run by converted, Christian persons.

That, it was one of the best attempts to find something cordial and satisfactory in a nation, but now the Church has ill-savour indeed, and the nation appears to lack inspiration, to the point one terrorist found things so blah, so lacking in character, vision and aspiration, that the cal to terrorism had the more appeal, however infantile the method, however immoral the means, however foul the vision of force to shepherd 'faith' may be, and indeed is. .

Where then is the leadership that works, that is adequate, that does not dissolve ? It is in Christ. Where is the leadership for the States of this world ? None follow Christ, except to some extent in the case of one or two. Force rules its abominations, and kindness, mercy and concern are often misdirected in the political mêlée, even where they are intended, so that the evil is wearing down the good, with its abusive powers and relentless survival search softens the morals of many to a pulp. It is precisely as was foretold in the Bible (Daniel 7:21).

Just as Israel suffered for its unbelief as a nation, epitomised in the crucifixion of Christ, but starting long before, so the Gentile world suffers now in its turn, in the Age of the Gentiles, or the Times of the Gentiles; and just as Israel has a vast revival coming, in repenting into Christ, a phenomenon of many people, so will the Gentiles find, with Israel in its time, a co-ordinating challenge to this world. From it will go ALL the saints (Matthew 24:31) and with Christ come the same! (I Thessalonians 3:13, Zechariah 14:5).

The category of 'the elect' go and that of 'all the saints' come. What results ? The situation intensifies, the lack is aggravated, the folly is exalted, war on God is specific (Revelation 19:19); but the failure to have Christ rule becomes an insistence on an antichrist. If truth is deemed inadequate, then lie becomes lord. If Zimbabwe, USSR, Chinese Communism, Mao and all could be rolled into one lordly State, where force is used and truth lies slain in the streets (as in Isaiah 59), then this is it. Now it commences its international spread; then it is complete.

The world is bereft without Christ. It cannot function. It tries. It fails. That is the end of it, with the judgments attached; but now already its prototype flexes its biceps, uses cranial compulsion and masses of preachers of unrighteousness in magazines, TV, Radio and Schools, as if missionary work had gone beserk, and truth was liable to expulsion. Humanism howls, secularism surges, war envelops and fatuities become famous (cf. The Pitter-Patter of Prophetic Feet Ch. 2, Wake Up World! Chs. 4-6).

Hence the Spirit of God convicts of RIGHTEOUSNESS BECAUSE Christ has returned to His haven, His heaven, His place as God in eternity, and only on His return will this world find peace (Isaiah 11, Matthew 25, Micah 4, Isaiah 2, Revelation 20), until it is at last thrown away, a structure which is finished; and its evil works will be burnt up with it, its injustices, its improprieties, its properties gained by guile and deceit, its evaders who become apparent crusaders, with hearts of iniquity, its great who are so small: for all who exalt themselves will be abased.

Who will mourn it ? Is not the Creator above all, and is it not good that He who made the universe can without difficulty create whatever worlds He pleases (cf. Isaiah 65:17, Revelation 21:1). Divorced in spirit, profane in heart, with shrivelled muscles of conscience through misuse and the disuse which comes of ignoring the challenge, the world provides a milieu which blares out its inadequacy, and the Spirit of God convicts the heart that listens, because the Prince of Peace, the Face of Truth, the God of all comfort was expelled, and until He returns, only His chosen citizens of the kingdom of heaven, remain to attest Him.

The Spirit convicts of righteousness, that one find it in Him by faith, that one is blind without it, that the world lives as an alien from it, that He has come and been too good to be received, and it sulks like an unruly student who cannot pass, and will not admit it. Frustration is its name; folly is its mode; pretence is its posture. It is as in Isaiah 59, which leads on to the coming of the Redeemer (Isaiah 59:20) in irresistible judgment (vv. 17-18), just as does Matthew 24; and the end is as in Revelation 19-20, where a mercy despised in the sacrifice of the Lamb so long sustained in the hearts of millions who reject Him, becomes the sentence at the mouth of truth, because He has gone and they will not come, so He comes and they will not stay.

Whereas before, they did not see Him because their spiritual eyes were closed (Matthew 13), so on His return they do see Him (Revelation 1:5-7), because their mercy is lost and they still have not turned, except against Him, their hope: the only righteousness is gone, and is not found except by faith (Romans 5:15-18), until He comes! All acclaims it, and the Spirit of God convicts of it. Mourning on the other hand attests it, when the lost find His coming a corrective too long disdained.

THE THIRD GROUND OF CONVICTION

There is now as found in John 16:8ff., a third ground of conviction, which is given by the Holy Spirit sent from the Father by Christ (John 15:26). It is conviction of JUDGMENT. It follows from the first two.

As in World War II, and later, there were commissions to examine atrocities against the human race, and after years, the judgment sat on this or that person, so after history, there is judgment. However, that was a work of man; this of God!

At that time, it is not as in our post-war period, a case such that after years of preparation, research and waiting, action is taken. Rather from the all-knowing wisdom of the God and Father of all races, and the adopting Father of those who BELIEVE in JESUS CHRIST, and not any of man's many alien options, there comes condign and accurate judgment. Long have they laughed at the divine patience (cf. II Peter 3:9); but it is love, a thing given short shrift in the days of impatience and desire. It is not so with God; but when the time comes, He acts, and in that action, there is no delay (as in Isaiah 59, Revelation 19).

Thus the Holy Spirit convicts also of JUDGMENT.

WHY is there this conviction of judgment ? Christ did not hesitate to advise of the cause of it (John 16:11.

It is "because the ruler of this world is judged."

The whole apparatus of State, or Church plus State, or Vision in State, or Vigour of State, or Fate with State, or whatever man invents: all this is part of the rule of a world so horrendously wicked, so appallingly apt for evil, so gruesomely unalert to the slaughter of millions - as in the Sudan, where perhaps it is not deemed quite so important as Iraq, since there is no oil and there are many Christians to be tormented - that its judgment reeks like an industrial city out of control, where the very air sweats, and iron dust seeps into all that is white, to render it pinkish, where grit abraises lungs and winds bring new odours.

Those on high face likely ruin, for little on high is ethical or just or true or honourable in this present world, or concerned with passion for truth and equity, for kindness and compassion, for the poor and those without means, not with mere indulgence, but with wit, wisdom and solution.

In fact, the whole apparatus of human authority is not run for Christ, and increasingly bold are those who, now that the British Empire is no longer able to temper assault on Christians, are becoming a virtual antichrist, with domineering dynamic seeking this world as their own, to own it and control it, as they conceive it. Their lust to control what does not submit to their ministrations, first those of Communists, then Nazis, then Islamic militants, and of course, always humanists, has been and is applied in different ways, but with one end. Indispensable to it is the thrust to eliminate the PRACTICAL RELEVANCE of Jesus Christ.

By all means, the cant is, have Him in religions, but KEEP HIM OUT of fact! That is precise import of the Circular to Principals^*2which afflicts South Australia, while parallel abominable distortions of truth and righteousness, abound elsewhere, this being one of the most carelessly feisty.

Authority will be judged; the mighty will fall and many will be abased in that day when the LORD ALONE will be exalted (Isaiah 2:10-11, cf. Hebrews 12:18-29). The entire system of interaction and harrying, subtleties and worrying, dynamic, lust, thrust and harrying, delusion, demented ideologies and burrowing beneath the walls of better things: this is under judgment. Christ has gone from this earth, in His person, and the prince of this world has come. In Him, Christ indicated, that prince has NOTHING! (John 14:30).

"He has nothing in Me."

It is high time this world - but it is deaf - awakened, and that many in it realised that the scrounging and devouring that brings wealth to many is not for ever (James 4). This world is awaiting judgment as surely as Israel ever was; and it is possible that one of the reasons why it HATES to hear of it, is this: that it is used to being its own judge, like a company with ... an internal audit.

That however deceives nobody!

REVERTING TO LUKE

We earlier moved from Luke 18, and left it at the second parable, that of the collector of taxes (from the Jews FOR the Romans, the occupying power) and the Pharisee. We saw that the Pharisee made rather a demonstration of his own self-judged righteousness (and Christ made an assessment of many such persons, as seen in Matthew 23, and it is VERY different from the self-assessment! seen in his prayers). On the other hand, the tax-collector had no hope at all except in divine mercy. "Have mercy on me a sinner!"

Elements of contrast appeared in both these parables, between appearance and divinely discerned reality.

From this we proceeded to the task of CONVICTION from the Holy Spirit as promised by Christ, and seen in John 16:8ff..

Now we return with an increased sense of realism and show, to the issue of disproportionate allies, spiritual aliens and spiritual friends of the Lord.

INGREDIENTS OF DESTINY

In Luke 18, you have some of the ingredients of destiny.

In the second parable, that of the tax-collector (from the Jews FOR the Romans, the occupying power) and the Pharisee, we find what the Lord detests. Thus here, the Pharisee made rather a demonstration of his own self-judged righteousness, yet Christ made an assessment of many such, as seen in Matthew 23: and these are VERY different! The parable from Christ is as surgical as the later denunciation Even in his prayers, the Pharisee boasted; but the tax-collector had no hope except in divine mercy.

LITTLE CHILDREN AND GREAT FAITH

We come to the third parable in Luke 18.

It is that of the little children, where, as famously as anything else in the Bible, it may be, Christ rebukes the stern disciples, who bid the children go away, and had them instead brought to Him for blessing. Whoever the person may be, "UNLESS," He declared, he
"receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child," that one "will by no means enter it."

Firstly, you come by faith, not presumption, arrogance or assumption. A child often has just such a faith, and acts on it. "I pray," said a little lad one day, when one would never have imagined it. It tends to come more naturally when the need is obvious, the dangers are vast, the family is spoiled, the heart is tender and the security is missing. This may indeed not have been saving faith, but it had a first ingredient: reliance and hope and seeking God with genuine need by prayer : as in Psalm 145:17-18 - He is near to “all who call upon Him in truth.” He will “hear the cry” and “fulfil the desire of those who fear Him.” Faith in and fear of God refines desire.

Secondly, as to entering the kingdom as a little child OR not at all, you come by trust in the one to whom you come. It is not only faith in the authority or reliability of the structure to which you come, it is a personal trust in a visible person, in the case of Christ, who illustrates and defines the invisible reality of the Deity (John 1:18, 3:13, 5:19-21, 8:58). You actually TRUST Him, who lives.

Thirdly, you come with expectation. Not merely do you accept the structure of salvation, convicted as a child might be, because of sin, nor is this an empty trust the person, for in addition you EXPECT what He says to happen. He has the power as well as the heart, and the simplicity of faith accepts that.

Fourthly, you do not chuck your psyche here or there, as in an existential moment, but you ENTER the kingdom. You are translated, conveyed, transformingly travelling to enter its offices, and find in Christ your eternal visa (Ephesians 1:1-11, Hebrews 6:19, 9:12, 10:10,14)). You do not dally at the gate; you enter through it (John 10:9,27-28). You do not doubt you will be kept, for you have been TOLD this is so. Your entry is irrevocable, if by faith in this, the Lord's Christ, unmixed.

In passing, one might enquire how this relates to Christian Biblical Apologetics. IF you come as a child, WHY think as an adult, before coming ? Paul gives an immediate perspective relevant to this:

"Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be babes,
but in your thinking be mature" ( I Corinthians 14:20, NASV).

BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS AND FAITH

It is all a question of how you place the emphasis. IF as a CONDITION of coming you have to be satisfied in the embrace of your mind, of everything, then since you lack insight, when would you come! (cf. I Corinthians 2:14). This however is merely the beginning of the matter. SINCE you have a mind and are exhorted to USE your talents vigorously and fully (Luke 19:11ff.), then using the mind in the matter is certainly not only right, but scriptural enjoined. It is indeed so enjoined IN THIS VERY SPHERE (by Peter, in I Peter 3:15).

What however is the use of it then ? You do not enter by reason, but by faith.

Yet before you enter, you do not cease to have a mind, and in seeking understanding and knowledge, you are yourself in such a case, perhaps nearer than you think to finding the truth. For one's own part, reading the book of Matthew, and in particular, the Sermon on the Mount, was such a contrast to the willowy, sometimes proud, arrogant and as often as not, zealously superficial or confused works of philosophy, that it sounded like a bell in a rural landscape, after one has been in an industrial city. It was like gulls flung into aerial currents under the blue empyrean, when one has heard rock music dinning its non-dainties in some area for visitation.

It is NOT BY understanding of many things that one comes, but it may well be AFTER it. You start by removing what is irrational fiasco (and there is much) and continue to show what is necessary result of reason. Removing wriggling room is part of the entirety which is to the glory of the Lord.

The fallow-ground should be broken up in any way one can (cf. Hosea 10:12, Jeremiah 4:3), and many who are in emotional rigors, irrational tremors or volitional vigours, in due course, think again, and in the morass of fallen follies and broken idols, there is a preliminary work which God may see fit to use, as He moves in His own personal way.

Moreover, WHEN one has come to the Lord, then the spirit of illumination and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Colossians 1) may indeed show you more and more of the unique validity and verity of the word of God, to the point that if one called did not write it down, or speak it, it might be the unscriptural burial of a talent! (cf. *1 of preceding Chapter), or perhaps worse, leaving unplacarded, the truth which many have sought, and not found.

The body of Christ has many members with amazingly diverse gifts (cf. I Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4), and their use is not a matter of competition, but complementarity; while the needs both for and from the body, in its testimony to the world, are many and diverse. Each specialist has a place, and each recipient in and out of the Church is thus met whether in answer to request, challenge or appeal!

Apart from this serviceable function, there is the ultimate ground of ANY action: that it is in accord with the will of God, glorifies Him and attests Him before all, men, angels, powers, celestial, terrestrial. The works of God speak, and men may act as amplifiers; and though the deaf may not hear, having closed their ears, some may filter in, some light may disturb the shade, some element may remove the cover. How God works is His business; that we work as He directs is our own.

That the faith is exclusively rational, amidst an exotic company of unsustainable religions, is just another way of saying that God is definitively indicated first by His creation, then by His other works, then by His written Word and finally by His Sent Son, revealed by His Sent Spirit. He did not leave it to options with a sort of Russian roulette hope it might turn out nice again, as George Formby, the British comedian used to say during World War II: in an era when there were actually some things on the nasty side, moving about.

This is not of course to say that it is rational alone amongst its features, but amongst its competitors! It is rational to the exclusion of all competition, not to the exclusion of other wonders of His light!

To sing praises, tell of God's greatness and power while "I have my being" is the work of the Psalmist, and to tell of His reality to the coming generation involves, as the Psalms also show, some reflection on the realities and their impelling testimony, both of the divine word, actions and correlation of word and deed.

Indeed, "men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness ... All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, and Your saints shall bless You.

"They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men, His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom" - Psalm 145.

Again in Psalm 71, we have this deep desire of the writer to be spared long enough to reveal the reality of God's power:

"Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me,
until I declare Your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come. Also Your righteousness, O God is very high, You who have done great things:
O God who is like You ?"

Such then is the force of the attestation, that to fail to bring it to the uttermost part to what may well be the last generation before judgment is like warning someone of a Category 5 tornado, 48 hours before it hits. The Gospel brings; the reason for the faith confirms, collides with apathy, destroys complacency (cf. II Corinthians 10:5). It ploughs the ground for the seed.

Love impels, concern likewise, knowledge constrains, the Gospel which delivers surges into view, and woe to him who called, does not present it. It is the cutting edge, but ALL of the divine commandments are to be given, and if this had been observed, many churches now mere empty names, might still have been flourishing.

Obeying the command of Matthew 28:18-20 then, has two prongs, and this is part of one of them. Teaching EVERY commandment is required; and this concerning reason for the faith to those who ask, it is ONE of these. Let it therefore be done; and who in sympathy at all, would not to a child give simple answer to searching questions; and is the adult to be despised because culture may have hardened his heart, bleached his mind or brought aneurism to his spirit ?

THE EXCLUSION ZONE

There is, on the other hand, an exclusion zone.

Thus if like some sheep being mustered, you REFUSE the door and the direction, so be it. OUTSIDE IS the exclusion zone, where wander those preferring their autonomy, or that of their idols, which alas is merely an imaginary thing, but nonetheless oppressive, as is a road in a sun-stricken land, out of the irrigated pasture, its escapees persistently tramping the hardness of a track not made for them. To follow that resisting road is hard; and the discipline on the trotters might be far greater than that in the pasture; but if you so elect, then you so must direct your feet, though it be but so much needless pain.

In particular, in Luke 18, we see the reflection of Christ on the point that it is exceedingly difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord had just seen a wonder of potential, a rich young ruler, keen on morals, careful in life, seeking eternal life with all his being, and coming running to kneel in supplication, at the Master's feet. What a dénouement, perhaps, of a decade of seeking on the part of the young man, now in full possession of his property. Here the path back was open.

What eagerness, disdain of convention, fearlessness of being laughed at, disregard of dignity he had, and what gusto! What a lively young man, but alas, in one moment his life grew old. When he heard the requirement FOR HIS CASE, then perhaps it was rather like that WHEN one has a cancer, and right THEN one may have to have it cut out, and perhaps a major operation with it. What did he do ? He baulked.

You don't need such an operation, if you don't have the cancer: and fear may banish the opportunity. It is easier to ignore the fact, the cancer, and to cancel the operation!

Conviction of sin can be such that as Stephen put it, "You do always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51).

Maybe something else might require another treatment, but this one seems dangerous. The young man was unwilling, in his prudent, cautious, alert and watchful way, to lose the strut of a lifetime, the riches. Need was impelling, cost dispelling. The call that led him to kneel, was recalled, and the pseudo-sanctity of the mere power to purchase overcame the power to live! He did not enter the kingdom then, and perhaps ... never.

This is simply one illustration of the fact that, with diverse individual impact, there is a 'cost' of entering the kingdom. It has nothing to do with paying your way or for your place, for all this is a grant (Romans 6:23). It has everything to do with preparing your heart, for if you cling to possessions of culture, prestige, power as a joint ground of hope, how then do you trust God ? Now if you do not cling to them in this way, there is no need for their removal: they are not a challenge to faith, or an example of an impure heart. Yet where the disease indeed was, there the resistance continued, and the disease with it.

Spiritual pathology is like that: the very best examples of many qualities may at once disappear when on test, the basis, ground and height of the hope is found to be lacking. It is like a house, all architectural style, then, but without foundation. Thus the faith of the little child is willing to trust the heavenly Father; but the mind of the self-willed man is not. What then is the way when trust flows and inhibition departs ?

THE CALL THAT IS HEARD

There is then for the call that is heard, a certain requirement. It is expressed positively in Psalm 145:20: "The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth..."

No devious, insincere, squalidly self-seeking desires may be expected to move the Lord. If you WANT eternal life, you must ask for it without blinking or winking or carrying kinks. One may say, But how COULD you so ask if you were not already converted ? Indeed, the dynamics of curing are the Lord's, but it is quite possible for the heart that so calls, to be already so imbued with the presence, power and pardon of the Lord, that it is in germ converted already, and the call simply articulates the fact!

The point is well illustrated in Luke 18:35, in the case of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus. Sometimes it is easy to forget that those like Bartimaeus, like the Lazarus of the parable of that beggar and the rich man, are not mere failures, or objects of pity. They are in fact people with past, present and future prospects, however degraded or humiliated or weak they may, at any one moment, appear. Christ LISTENED, and RESPONDED to the call of Bartimaeus.

Blind though he was, he had to ask for what he wanted. There was no vague sentimentality about it. "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU ?" (18:41), came the direct call. He was required to put everything into perspective, and find whether this was the riches denied him, the home, the children, or simply what was most obvious - sight! He asked for this, and was granted it. Jesus replied, "Receive your sight. Your faith has made you well."

This is a type which contrasts with diffidence and ambivalence. Thus, you do not need to flutter about in the entrance halls of salvation, like some demented moth or scatter your wits in every corner like an endlessly enquiring cat: the cost is clear, you or your choice for yourself, or Christ Jesus the Lord of your life to whom you fall in surrender. The credentials are if possible clearer: an incompetent, called man, versus the God of all power and truth. In which are you going to put your trust ?

Thus, you do not need to flutter about in the entrance halls of salvation, like some demented moth or scatter your wits in every corner like an endlessly enquiring cat: the cost is clear, you or your choice, or Christ Jesus the Lord of your life. The credentials are if possible clearer: an incompetent, called man, versus the God of all power and truth. In which are you going to put your trust ?

Man's created facilities of imagination and intellection do NOTHING to help here, for the case is by its very nature beyond all this. We are speaking of the domain of man's spirit, creation and destiny. And endeavour to control these without the word of God, is a dream, popular indeed, but one well-tuned to become nightmare, as the human race in its self-exalting folly is finding in increasing and practical ... details.

You ASK for the gift of eternal life, or AFFIRM your desire for it, and REPENT of your sins, without in the least trying to cover them up, mitigate them, explain them away or excuse them, FACE your life and its intemperance or puniness, pride or arrogance, false humility or self-serving canniness or whatever other distemper has marred or maimed it, and casting yourself on the mercy of God, receive its point and crux in Christ crucified; and resting your confidence in the power of the God of mercy, look for a resurrection as real as the bodily resurrection of Christ (Romans 10:9, I Cor. 15:1-3, Luke 24),

It is on Him it all depends. If you prefer to trust systems you did not create, a mind you did not make, a will you do not entirely control, a scenario you cannot fulfil, to 'nature', your co-partner in creation, so be it.

If not, if delusion is not your director, then ASK! Specify what you want, TELL the Lord of His promises. In the case of Bartimaeus, the request was to someone who at least ASKED HIM what he wanted. The blind man TOLD him! Acts 2:37ff. is very explicit about what is promised, as is Romans 10:9, 4:25-5:11. For my own part, I should have no interest in living if life were not eternal, if God were not my Father, if grace were not the method (as in Ephesians 2:1-12), and the beauty of holiness were a distant dream and mockery (or for that matter, if perfection were an entrance or retention qualification! - I John 1:7-2:2). Illusion is no gain, and realism is always essential, whether concerning man or God (cf. On Stand-By).

Bartimaeus WANTED SIGHT more than anything. He got it. You need to want eternal life in God more than anything: the cost is defined in this way quite simply in Luke 14. You forsake all that you have does not mean that you gambol about exchanging cheques with those who are trading in theirs for yours; but that you CLING to nothing, DEMAND nothing but what God promises; and that is magnificent (cf. Isaiah 55, John 10, Hosea 14, Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 6,9-10).

It is as in many fields, quite out of the question to cling to your preferences while in a vast endeavour. Whether it be fatty foods for an athlete, or laziness for a researcher or late nights for an Everest climber's preparation scheme, there is always a cost in type, relative to the aim in view. If you really want the result, you willingly pay the cost; or maybe do a Hamlet on the sadness of a divided mind, if you do not. That, in turn, it does not help. The case remains.

It is important, then, not to hanker and hunger for the things of this world, even the beautiful ones, so long as the MAKER of it all is one's friend. If you know Him, you know the Author of all, the Creator of all, the Saviour of any, and in His family, you have a future which is a consummation and not a desolation. The commission remains, as in Matthew 28:19-20; and to the contrary, an unfaithful servant is scarcely given up to God, one who cannot even take seriously what his Lord has said, by faith, with the overwhelming support of reason, but instead must make new christs, or new commands, or delete old ones, as if God were a market place, and His words were to be carved in some sand-stone instead of rock (Jeremiah 23, II Corinthians 11, Ezekiel 14, Jude, I and II Timothy 4, II Timothy 3, II Peter 3).

As to the Rock, there is only ONE, who is the One (II Samuel 22:32-33, Psalm 18, Deuteronomy 32:4, Palm 62:1-2, Isaiah 26:4 -'Rock of Ages'), who is never rocked, but source of stability, in everlasting light, has no shadow from turning, no compromise with lie, all knowledge in perpetuity, so that time - itself an invention - is as a book written, and yes, before it is ever read (cf. Isaiah 46:10, Ephesians 1:4, Romans 8:29ff.).

In obedience there is bliss, for His commands are not grievous (I John 3:23-24, 5:3,10-13), and they centre on both love and truth, on pardon and power, on adoption and enablement, on fidelity and on His faithfulness. It is a world this world knows not of; and it is one where the novelties of mere cultural necessities become as needless dross. Who wants what man says, when what the Creator of man is available! Some do, but the choice descends to the finite, whereas the work of grace is for the infinite; and when the One is good, then infinity is not more than enough.

REVIEW

This then is the The Conviction, the Conversion and the Conquest. The conviction is as shown in John 15, the conversion as in Luke 18:15ff., the conquest as in Luke 18:18-30, where the rich young ruler having given the negative example of not being willing to trade in his pathology for eternal life, outlines by contrast the positive, that you are so moved, and DO.

The fact that WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE comes back resoundingly (Luke 18:27). Though, Christ indicated, it is exceedingly hard for a rich man to become a Christian, yet with God, nothing can command Him, and all things are possible. If you receive Him, that in itself brings the loss of whatever you had to conquer, in order to be free, whatever rickety staff was your leaning instrument, instead of God. It all hurts, it is all the loss of autonomous life, sinful preference and sky-is-the-limit psychology. To be sure, you come to know as friend, He who made the sky; and this is far better. But toys can amuse, and sin can bemuse, and man loves the passion for glory as a race, and seeks to the end what is his end: turning a debut into a demise as if his very life depended on it!

Also noted in the heading is the Commission. God is ABLE to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), so that in giving up this or that, it is only the GRASP that is lost. God is able to do far better in freedom from fussing for secondary things, than mere possession would permit. This author gave up magnificent sea-side land, to fulfil the COMMISSION of being a preacher-teacher-minister and acting by faith according to the word of God. What marvels of sea-side visits have occurred since, is a wonder in itself, and the whole poetry of one's love of the oceanic splendour, cliffs and majesties is not lost, for in a remarkable turn of events, one is to all of this, a repeated visitor.

It is important, then, not to hanker and hunger for the things of this world, even the beautiful ones, so long as the MAKER of it all is one's friend. If you know Him, you know the Author of all, the Creator of all, the Saviour of any; and in His family, you have a future which is a consummation and not a desolation. It is in His calling that one can set about making one's contribution to the commission in general of Matthew 28:19-20, preaching and teaching the Gospel and the commandments, all of them. They are not there first for their beauty, but their truth; yet when they are not lightly esteemed but regarded as counsellors, their beauty appears.

One has found that there is a tremendous resistance to faithfulness in modern churches, which again and again want to remove this or that part of the word of God, such as the resurrection in New Zealand (1966), the biblical creation in the USA (1998 and on), or fidelity to the ordination vows concerning the bible, the infallible word of God in Canada (1963).

The commission remains, and an unfaithful servant is scarcely given up to God, if he is to be one who cannot even take seriously what his Lord has said, by faith. To be sure, it is with the overwhelming support of reason; but despite all of this, it is modish to make new christs, with some seemingly an obsessive-compulsive dynamic, to write new commands, or delete old ones, as if God were a market place, and His words were to be carved in some sand-stone instead of rock.

NOTES

*1A

Celestial Harmony for the Terrestrial Host. and

Reason, Revelation and the Redeemer.

See ...

Mystery of Iniquity, News 152 (more generally), Divine Agenda ... Ch.    3 (including the axle of the axis of evil, Darwin, Nietzsche, Hegel, and the violence violators of peace, religious and other),

Divine Agenda ... Ch.    5
(from Isaiah 7-10 to the present, in perspective to the point in view),
It Bubbles ... Ch. 11; Red Alert ... Ch. 10,

Red Heart, Dead Heart and Pure Heart Ch.    10
(the evacuation of justice and the consignment of nations,
Israel and the calling of names),
Of the Earth, Earthy ... Ch. 13
(the UN and Israel ... and others! broad coverage; and unity moves).

In Divine Agenda Ch. 5, dealing with the prediction of the coming of the Messiah as in Isaiah 8-9, there is a relevant reflection for us here. For our purpose, it is slightly adapted and somewhat extended.

Thus when, in Isaiah 10:21 we find that a remnant, those who have the grace to believe, are eventually to return from all the immediate troubles in store, it is to THE MIGHTY GOD that they come.

It is to the very ONE who as a child is exposed in Isaiah 7 and 9, and as a man in Isaiah 11. "The destruction decreed will overflow with righteousness, ". There is to be a realised result so splendid, a provision so noble, that the very enormity of the destruction to rage on a disgraced nation (as in Isaiah 30:8-11) will be surpassed by the sheer WONDER of what is yet in store, all focussed, featured and provided through the child.

It will however be a quietened and meek people who will receive Him (as in Zephaniah 3:12). Thus the land is that of the God of Israel and it is that of Immanuel; for the One is the other and the other is the One, implanted in virgin, manifest as man, the ONLY Saviour, just as God is the ONLY Saviour (Isaiah 43:10-11).

It is thus a double understanding.

Firstly, NO Saviour of the spirit of man is available but deity. Christ is the Saviour. Thus there is coincidence, not rebellion in the revelation. The loss of the Saviour by wilfulness is to become the finally received reality of that same Saviour, so that the destruction decreed, becomes in the end, an overflowing with righteousness. It is so because HE is righteous and is received. It is so again, because He has in the interim SHOWN there is no other way, and it is thirdly an overflowing with righteousness because He on returning, is so filled with grace that there is no restriction, His pardon so ample, His kindness so complete!

Thus as to the Saviour and as to God, the one is the other, and when Christ is received righteousness overflows. That is the first point.

But there is NO other Saviour but Christ. It is HE who is to be believed, not someone else (as in Isaiah 53:1, with 4-6). It is there that the iniquity is to land from its long flight in the darkness of sin. It is not in another place. It is not in the Nation, or even the United Nations, in the EU or in the psyche of man in any way whatsoever, and foolish is he, is she deceived by ruminations in the ruined spirit of man, cocky with confusion, dynamic in delusion, ever greedy for greatness, never finding any, a mere residue from reinforcement, cut off in iniquity, awful in autonomy, miscreant in muddle, wondering at the sense of the impending, but nevertheless not bending.

There is no such way: it is whey before the steel, obliterative in destiny, inane in aspiration.

There is no escape and there is no need; for it is here, and those who do not accept it where it is to be found, in Him (as in Deuteronomy 18:17ff.), the LORD will require it of them. in HIM is rest (as is the Lord, Isaiah 30:15-17). In HIM is the shelter and the refreshing, the shade and the support (as in Isaiah 4:6 with 32:1ff.). HE replaces the very temple with His realities, which that had merely symbolised. In view of HIS action (Isaiah 52-53), sacrifice of animals now becomes needless, a grotesque cruelty (Isaiah 66:3).

This is not contest, but a provision; it is no double and blurred vision, but accurate sight. It is FROM God that the provision is made; it is OF God that the miracle has come; it is GOD that the gift comprises, and it is come in flesh, as one among many brethren.

He is the LORD and the LORD is He. It is not one or the other, but the other as the one, and the one as the other. Height has come to depth, to cover the need of man; depth has arisen to height, to behold the gift. God is manifest in the flesh, as man; and this, it is the work wrought in the virgin, found in the child, whose names are so portentous, so totally eclipsing anything before or to come (Isaiah 9:6-7), shining with the very intensity of deity, declaring to mankind in its own form, the love and wonder, counsel and might of God.

It is not a deputation; it is a declaration; it is not suggestion; it is sovereignty. It is not help; it is presence. It is GOD WITH US, and how else, since He who is with us, is God. As such He is exposed, revealed and manifest.

HE is the light (Isaiah 49:6), EVEN to the Gentiles, as exposed here in Isaiah 11:10. From Him is met all the yearning and intimate need, spiritual call for resource and recourse, of mankind.

See The Desire of the Nations Ch. 3, The Face of God ... Ch. 6, TMR Ch. 8.

For a British case, see Beauty for Ashes, Ch. 3.

For the arising of such follies in Melbourne, much earlier, see Lead us Not into Educational Temptation, a thesis presented to Melbourne University, in the field of education.

	that a widow's mite, given to the extent of her tiny 'kingdom' is more to Him that the masses of the coins of the rich (Luke 21:1-7),
	that the prayer of the contrite sinner means more to Him than the self-given accounts of the massive spiritual exercises of the mighty,
	that the ostentatious and amazing magnificent buildings of the temple mean less to Him than the testimony of truth, so that He would dispense with so glorious an expression of His mighty and mercy, rather than let it be prostituted for the glory of man and his opinions, masquerading as His own (Mark 13:1ff.):