SNT 0422 Righteousness, Peace, Joy
Righteousness, Peace, Joy
October 19, 1969
Deals with the how and why of getting the ‘weeds’ out of our lives.
SNT – 422
Format: audio
Publication Date: 10-19-1969
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
Jer 4:3; Gen 6:5
Rom 1:18-27; 14:17; 4:25; 3:20-24; 5:9, 11, 19; 6:13; 1Co 1:29, 30; Rom 5:1
Rom 5:1; 1Co 1:3; Eph 2:14,15; (Gal 5:22); Eph 4:2, 3; Phi 4:7
Heb 12:1, 2; 1Th 1:6; 1Jo 1:4
snt-0422_righteousness-peace-joy(vpw)
There's been a problem that has bothered me through the years. It keeps coming up in my ministry and my life, and tonight I thought we'd dig the Word to get the answer.
And I'll tell you plainly what the problem is and then we'll go to it. You take somebody and you teach them the greatness of God’s Word, like in the [film 00:00:18] class, like in the Power For Abundant Living classes where our people teach or I teach. And it looks like, you take them out of their environment, out of the cesspools of sin and iniquity in which they've been engrossed in their unbelief, and in two weeks time you completely changed their lives. Some of them you lead into the new birth, but about all of them you lead into the manifestation of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And they get real turned on, as the young people call it. And they really move out with this thing for about two or three months, and then they sort of turn cold. Or some stay a year and then they turn cold.
And it has bothered me through the years. Why is it when you teach people the greatness of God’s Word, that they could ever be satisfied to go back to the shallowness of that which they had before? But apparently this is not too difficult because we've seen it happen hundreds and hundreds of times.
And one of the reasons I believe this is true is what I'd like to dig in the Word tonight. We perhaps will not cover all of it, but I'm thinking of doing a booklet along this line if I ever get around to it. And trying to show people that if you're going to really live this life, you've got to stay put on it moment by moment.
I was looking at that song. We sing it, I Don't Know Who Holds Tomorrow, and I got to thinking that's too far advanced. We ought to sing, We Know Who Holds Tomorrow. What is the stupid thing? I was looking at a while ago. What page is it? Pardon? {19.} 19? Just read those words once. I was reading them a little while ago.
I don't know about tomorrow.
I thought that was too far ahead
For me I hardly know about today
Let alone tomorrow.
And perhaps we ought to sing, “I just live from moment to moment,” because most of us don't even live positively and victoriously 24 hours at a time.
I don't borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to gray
I don't worry o'er the future
For I know what Jesus said
And this very moment I'll walk beside Him
For He knows what is ahead
Many things about today
I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds today
And I know who holds my hand
I think maybe this would be more an epitomization of our walk. Not just be concerned about tomorrow, but even today we're not sure from one hour to the next.
I know we have some farmers in here. How many farmers do I have in here tonight? Hold up your hand. Good. At least three of you. That's wonderful, because we're going to be in a verse of scripture that very few people outside of the farmers know anything about. And all the young people of our nation, for the most part, don't know anything about it either.
And the record is found in the fourth chapter of Jeremiah and in verse 3.
Jeremiah 4:3:
For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
What’s fallow ground? Ruben? [Radigum 00:04:09]? Well, we've got one left back over there. What's fallow ground?
Okay. Now you see, we got all these farmers in here and even they farm and they don't know what it is. I'm absolutely convinced I'm teaching on the right subject tonight. What's Natural Foods say fallow ground is? {Fallow ground is ground that hasn’t been used for a while.}
{I don’t know what Natural Foods says but through the years fallow ground, as I always understood it, was something that if you didn’t plant this year that laid idle for the year, [inaudible 00:04:48] in the early [inaudible 00:04:54].}
I suppose basically when you read this kind of scripture and so forth, and just at the top of your mind you'd say fallow ground was ground that wasn't being used. But that is not what fallow ground really is. Fallow ground is ground which has been plowed but not seeded. Well, I looked it up in the dictionary, I checked an agricultural book, because I just wanted to be sure so that I understood this thing.
But I believe most people think, as I said, that fallow ground is just, you know, like here you have a piece of wood that you take all the trees out of and that's fallow ground. But it really isn't fallow. Fallow ground is ground that has been plowed, you know, prepared, but has not been seeded.
Now, that's exactly what the Lord was talking to Judah about and Jerusalem in verse 3. If you read the Book of Jeremiah, it’ll really sock it to you. But he says,
Jeremiah 4:3:
… thus saith the LORD [it’s the Lord talking] to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, [break it up] and sow not among thorns.
I think this is a message to our time and our people, that we've got to break up our fallow ground. When people get in these classes on Power For Abundant Living and we start setting the great accuracy of this Word together, we just plow up everything in their life. You know, with the greatness of God’s Word. We've just cultivate their whole life.
Then they look real beautiful, like ground does when it's just been cultivated, when it's been plowed and [inaudible 00:07:01] and it's just about ready to sow, but you don't sow it – really sow it. And if you don't sow it, what happens to that ground within a month, two months, three months? I'll tell you what happens. The rains come. And when the rain comes, it begins to irrigate that ground and you have disturbed the most beautiful bunch of seeds that maybe haven't been touched for a long time, you've lifted them up, you aerated them. And with the water coming to those seeds, you got the finest crop of weeds you’ve ever seen in your life.
Isn't that right? If you take a field and you plow it and you cultivate it, till it down, get it ready to go, and then you get rain and you don't do anything to that field, pretty soon those weeds come up and they just cover the whole thing.
When you take a man or a woman and you teach them the greatness of God’s Word, you plow up that old field and you disturb all of those weed seeds, and you teach them the renewed mind, but they just don't quite believe that that's the real key. They don't really renew their mind. So you plant a little bit of the Word of God in them, then the rains come. And when the rains come there grow up a few of those little seeds that you have planted, but out around those seeds that you have planted of God’s Word, the rain also irrigates the weeds. And for the first time, those weeds really have an opportunity to grow. And with the watering of those weed seeds, you just get an abundance of weeds to grow along with it.
That's what the Lord would say to Judah and Jerusalem. Break up that fallow ground. Get in there and dig it out. Dig out those weeds, cultivate it again. Because if you don't, you’ll just be sowing among thorns. You'll be sowing the seed among all of the weeds, and the weeds will choke out the seed you planted.
A number of weeks ago, I taught you one night from the different kinds of areas to plant. You were so blessed, Fred, because you spoke to me about it afterwards, how that it really dug the situation for you. Well, I feel that our times are such that we've got to speak to our Way people. Those who have heard the Word of God, that they keep that field cultivated. Get rid of the weeds. And the only way you can get rid of the weeds is by putting that seed in there, but then cultivating that territory, keeping the weeds down. Because all of us will have plenty weeds coming up in our life unless we keep working away at this. Day after day and week after week, you have to [inaudible 00:10:10] on your life. To dig out this negative thought, this fear, this worry, this running off at the mouth, this talk about somebody. You put weed in a field and the rains come, then the weeds will come just as fast as the grain comes.
Now, we who are concerned about God’s Word have to discipline our life. We talk about the renewed mind, but talk is cheap. We've got to operate it. We've got to do it in our lives.
In Genesis, chapter 6. The reason this is so important in the life of those of us in The Way ministry is because the times in which we live demand it of us, if we're to carry God’s Word.
In chapter 6 of Genesis, we have the record of why the flood came and so forth and all those people were destroyed, in verse 5.
Genesis 6:5:
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [that it] was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
That's why they were destroyed. They had come to the place that the imagination – the imagination of the thoughts of their minds, heart, minds – all they could think about, all they could imagine, was something evil. Always thinking how that could dog somebody else, how they could beat somebody else, how they could have more power in somebody else. Just constantly, day after day.
The world is like this. When you reach an affluent society age, like we have manifested here in the United States in many respects, we become what the apostle Paul found in Athens in the Book of Acts. Where all the people were together daily only for one basic purpose, that they might hear the philosophy somebody else had or whether they could learn some new thing. Not concerned about carrying what they already knew to people to help their lives to be better, but only seeing if they could learn something new or hear a new philosophy or a new religion. It says so in Acts.
In Romans chapter 1, in verse 18 it says,
Romans 1:18:
… the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Isn’t that something?
Romans 1:19-21:
Because that which may be known of God is manifest [inaudible 00:14:08]in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him [of God] from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, [vain in their what?] and their foolish heart was [what] darkened.
Like Genesis. And if you'll remember what it said in Genesis, how they were continually thinking evil and everything else, it was right after or sometime after that that they were destroyed. Not too long a period of time.
All of those people thought they were doing good. They thought they were wonderful and they thought Noah was the guy who was way out in left field, because Noah was spending and wasting his time building a little old boat up on a hill. They hadn’t even had any rain. And they really thought the fellow was headed for the nuthouse. He was way out. They thought they were right.
Well, these people here in Rome and that he's talking to did the same thing. The Bible says something like, every man is right in his own eyes but the Lord judges the motives.
Romans 1:22-27:
Professing themselves [verse 22] to be wise, they became [what?] fools,
And [they] changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. …
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was [what was due them. Their] meet.
You see, people, when we are born again of God's spirit and we know God’s Word, it behooves us to break up the fallow ground and keep good seed in there and get rid of all the rest of the baloney. That takes discipline. And, of course, belonging to a society which is almost totally undisciplined, it becomes very easy for the Christian, as soon as he hears the greatness of God’s Word he gets back in that environment, he stays as undisciplined after he has been fed the Word as he was before. And then you get the whole crop of weeds growing.
And before you know it, the greatness of that revelation is gone, and we walked the other way.
Now, you and I receive an abundance in Christ Jesus. And if we magnify that, introducing that truth and that life and keep renewing our minds on it, we can keep these weeds plucked up. But we've got to break up the fallow ground in our life and put the seed in – and that takes work. It takes discipline. You've got to do this by redoing your mind and setting yourself to the task.
In Romans chapter 5… No, I think we'll go to Romans 14, verse 17.
Romans 14:17:
For the kingdom of God is not meat and [what?] drink; but [the kingdom of God is what?] righteousness, and peace, and joy [through or] in [pneuma hagion] the Holy [Spirit] Ghost.
The church to which you and I belong is under the kingdom of God, and therefore it can speak of this kingdom of God. That it is not meat or drink, but it's righteousness and it’s peace and it’s joy in the Holy Ghost.
Now, to break up that fallow ground you must know what you have in Christ and what the Word declares, because we have what the Word says we have, we are what the Word says we are. And this progresses as it's set forth here in the 17th verse. Until men really have righteousness and know what righteousness is, they never have peace.
All of these things are an inside job. Righteousness you must have before you have peace. When you have righteousness and peace, the next thing you have is joy. You can't first have joy then righteousness. You can't first have peace and then get righteousness. You must first have righteousness then you will have peace, then you will have what? Joy. That's the order all the way through, just like that.
Well, let me show you something. Romans 4, please, verse 25. Talking about Jesus Christ,
Romans 4:25:
Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our [what?] justification.
Justification is the legal side of redemption, which gives us the righteousness. It was Christ Jesus who justified us, that's why we have these righteousness. Understand? That's why justification and righteousness always go hand in hand, because it's through the justification we have the righteousness.
Look at chapter 3, verse 20.
Romans 3:20-22:
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his [what?] sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that [what?] believe:…
Amen. When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, whose righteousness did we get? The righteousness of God. Did we get it in the physical realm or in the spiritual? Spiritual. But the weeds in our life grew up in the physical realm. Now, since you have received this spiritually, now you've got to keep tearing up that ground and getting the good seed in, the righteousness we have in here we must now put on in our minds and just walk that way. And with that righteousness in here, there comes peace and there comes what? Joy.
But unless I renew my mind and break up that fallow ground in my life, I’m a have the righteousness of Christ and be the most unpeaceful person you have ever seen. I may lack an abundance of joy in my life and still be born again of God's spirit. If I am, then you know for sure that I haven't continued to break up the fallow ground and put the good seed in. I’ve got too many weeds growing on the premises.
Verse 23.
Romans 3:23-24:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
[Verse 24] Being justified freely by his [what?] grace…
Justified freely. That’s why we could have that righteousness. Because we were justified freely by his grace. His divine favor. His mercy. His Love.
Romans 3:24:
… through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Chapter 5, verse 9.
Romans 5:9:
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Look at verse 11.
Romans 5:11:
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
The word atonement is reconciliation. It was he who reconciled us. Isn’t that good?
Look at verse 19.
Romans 5:19:
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, [talking about Adam] so by the obedience of one [Christ Jesus] shall many be made [what?] righteous.
Amen. Because he justified us, and when we confess him with our mouth, believe God raised him from the dead, we receive the righteousness of God.
In chapter 6, verse 13.
Romans 6:13:
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto [whom?] God.
That keeps the ground broken up and seeds are planted and the weeds [inaudible 00:25:04].
There’s that great record in 1 Corinthians we used the foundational class, chapter 1. And in verse 30, look at this again.
1 Corinthians 1:30:
But of him…
First of all, in 29 it says,
1 Corinthians 1:29:
… no flesh should glory in his [what?] presence.
Right? Verse 30.
1 Corinthians 1:30:
But of him [of God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and [what?] righteousness [righteousness], and sanctification, and redemption:
He is made unto us righteousness. When we have His righteousness, we have His peace. And no person has peace until he has His righteousness. And Jesus Christ came and justified us that we might have that righteousness of God.
In Romans chapter 5 and in verse 1, it says,
Romans 5:1:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have [what?] peace [5:1]…
You see, the justification gives us that righteousness of God, which is also peace. Isn't that wonderful? We've got peace. It comes wrapped up in that spiritual thing that God gives us in Christ Jesus when we're born again. Being justified by faith, we have peace. We've got peace. We've got it.
Then you'll have to explain, well, why are so many people unpeaceful today? It can only be because they're not breaking up the fallow ground and keeping the good seed planted there and watered without watering all those other weeds that are around the place.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, this is what God wanted said to the church in Corinth.
1 Corinthians 1:3:
Grace [divine favor] be unto you, and peace, [verse 3. And peace] from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, peace is a wonderful thing, but you can't have it without the righteousness of God. It's addressed to the church [inaudible 00:27:44].
In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14 is very familiar to our people.
Ephesians 2:14-15:
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, [both Jew and Gentile when they’re born again] and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between [Jew and Gentile] us;
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of [what?] commandments…
Did he abolish the law of commandments? Definitely. It's abolished. It's no longer a law of commandments. But if you live less than even that law was, you kill yourself. There may not be a stop sign over here at 29. But you just pull out there tonight when the big semis are coming down. Don't stop. Just pull out right in front of them. Go ahead. Try it out. No law – you know, if I take the stop sign out.
See, I think many times we got the wrong picture of a lot of this stuff. You teach people the greatness of God’s Word and then they think, well, we can just flip it any which way we want. I teach every class that I've ever taught that you don't get guidance by prophesy. Guidance comes by revelation manifestations, word of knowledge, word of wisdom and discerning of what? Amen. And that the manifestation of prophecy never gives you guidance. Any time you get guidance by the manifestation of prophecy, it's from the devil. The wrong source.
I've taught that to every class, and yet we got Way people who prophesy over each other. What's the matter with us? The Word. That's what's the matter with them. You teach them the greatness of God’s Word and they think they know so blessed that much, but instead of following God’s Word, they don't break up the fallow ground and keep rooting out the weeds. Then they just grow a whole bunch of weeds, along with a few little good seeds of God's Word. And, before you know it, Satan’s got them all messed up.
The word of prophecy, like tonight, gives edification via exhortation and [comfort 00:30:32]. That's what it did tonight. That's what it has to do every time it's genuine. And people, there only two Gods; one is genuine, the other's counterfeit. And when we're on, we're with the right God. When we're off, we're with the devil.
You don't get guidance by prophesying over people. Nor do you ever get guidance with tongues and interpretation.
Did I read you Ephesians 2? Yes. Well, I got on that law of commandments business.
The latter part of that verse is fabulous.
Ephesians 2:15:
… for to make in himself of twain [of two] one new man, [and that new man is Chris in you the hope of glory which is peace] so making [what?] peace;
Remember Galatians 5 which we used in a class all the time?
Galatians 5:22:
But the fruit of the Spirit is [what?] love, joy, peace,…
They’re mentioned. Not only are these a gift to you – like peace and joy, the righteousness of God, the sanctification, the wisdom, the reconciliation, all of these things are wrapped up in it – but as you break up that ground in your life and you keep working it and getting that seed planted and you keep watering it, you'll produce the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit are produced by the operation of the manifestations of the spirit. When we operate the manifestations, we produce the fruit.
In chapter 4 of Ephesians in verse 3 it says, 2.
Ephesians 4:2:
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in [what?] love;
Endeavouring [working at it] to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
We have the peace here. Now we're to keep the unity, the oneness, of that spirit of God by walking this way. In peace.
In Philippians chapter 4, verse 7.
Philippians 4:7:
And the peace of God, which passeth all [what?] understanding,…
That’s right. Why God gave us this righteousness and peace and all that, I don't know. But I thank Him for it. And that peace is so fabulous that it passes all understanding. You cannot comprehend it. There’s a lot of things I can't comprehend, but I know it. Well, why not peace?
You see, we want to talk in our nation about peace without having the Prince of Peace within our hearts and in our minds in the operation. What was the day we just had this week? Yeah. A moratorium on something. Oh, yeah, Vietnam.
Suppose you get a moratorium on Vietnam, then where are you going to get a moratorium? Because if you stop all war tonight or brought everybody home from all over the world, does that fill the void in the heart? No. Then you've got a problem someplace else, and you've got a war to break out someplace else.
The Word of God says that of wars and rumors of wars there's no end. And the only way we're ever going to stop them is to have the return of the Prince of Peace. He has to come back.
Why, holy smokes, you can’t even get along with your sisters and brothers and dad and mom half the time. Christians, right, can't live in their own families. And yet the whole family says they're Christians, but they can't get along. How in the world do you ever expect to get along with a country a thousand miles away, or with a state next door, when we in our individual…
You see, we haven't got it inside. We're not telling it like it is. And the kids all know we're just blow. That's right. That's why there’s just a tremendous turmoil. We’ve got to get to the place that we're not blow. That we're just not talk. That we have this righteousness of God and we have this peace, and we stand in the unity of the spirit as one with that peace.
That peace of God can never be comprehended, but it can be operated. I can't comprehend how the wheat grows either. Except that the ground is broken up, the wheat is planted, the water, the fertilizer is given to it, and that's all I know about it. I don't comprehend that. Neither do I comprehend the peace that God has put within [myself 00:36:24] and how that thing really works, but I know it works if I work it. And if I don't, I can be the most unpeaceful person in the world.
But then all we're growing is a crop of weeds. And we walked along, we say, well, boy, I'm a Christian. The gang on the outside says, “Blow. Talk. That’s all.”
Boy, like Ken said tonight, we've got to make up our minds whether this ministry and the accuracy of God’s Word stands or doesn't. Somebody told me this week that the Word of God kills. And they quoted that scripture to me from Corinthians, and quoted it inaccurately by the way. And they said, it's…
2 Corinthians 3:6:
… the letter [that] killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
And therefore, the letter of the Word of God as a literalist like you are, Wierwille, does nothing but kill people.
Well, bless God. That's not the truth. That's a lie from hell. How in the world are you going to go by anything unless you've got a Word to go by? It isn’t the Word that kills, it’s man’s unbelief of the Word that kills.
The Word of God has set men and women free through the centuries, just like it set you free. And it's the only thing I've ever seen that sets men and women free. Everything else puts you under enslavement, encased you, closes you in where you're just not what you really ought to be or want to be. But that Word sets men and women free.
And it isn’t the Word where you say, “Well, I think.” It’s, what does it say? Remember how in the foundational class I tell you about going to the bank with a hundred dollar check? “Can I go with you? You take 50, I take the other 50.” You wouldn't like it. The check means what it says. Sure, they take a crack and say we're literalists, but they’re literalists when it comes to dinner table, the checkbook and everything else. Why not the greatest of all things, God’s Word?
You see, people, as long as we hold that Word up where God put it and God said, He said, His Word above His name, we can stake our life on it.
We may not be able to explain the greatness of all this, to the end where we cannot comprehend all of the riches of the glory in Christ Jesus. But it's [inaudible 00:39:09] and it works for those people who work it. It's the unbeliever, the born again unbelievers – the one who’s born again of God's spirit who does not renew his mind, who says those devilish things, and thereby he breaks the unity of the spirit which we have in Christ Jesus.
That's right. The Word of God hasn’t hurt any of us. It's been our unbelief of God’s Word that has hurt us. Or the lack of knowledge of God’s Word we didn't have so we couldn't believe it anyways. Right? Well, when we learned God’s Word and we started to believe it, we saw the things come to pass. That's what has changed your lives. That is what's made it possible for us to live more than abundantly. That's what's taken us out of the worries, the fears, the frustrations, the anxieties of [inaudible 00:40:05].
Look at Hebrews. If I’d only turned out to be a preacher. That’d had been something, wouldn't it? Verse 2, Hebrews 12. Well, maybe we ought to read verse 1.
Hebrews 12:1:
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside…
Who does the laying aside? We do. We have to uproot the weed in this ground. We've got to do it. We lay aside.
Hebrews 12:1:
… [every what?] weight, and the sin which doth so easily [you don’t even have to work at it. It just does it so easily sneaks up on us.] beset us, and let us run with [what?] patience the race that is set before us,
But how in the world can you run the race with patience if you’re beset on every hand? You've got to [unload 00:41:24]. And the way to do this verse 2, looking unto who?
It's when I get my eyes on the world and things that people do in the world that I run into tremendous problems within my [inaudible 00:41:42]. I get downcast. I get discouraged. I get burdened, because I look at the world situation. I look at the increase of evil in the imaginations of evil in people's hearts all the time. And I look at that, then I get discouraged.
As long as old Peter looked at the Lord, he walked right on top of that water. But the moment old Peter started looking at the water, he started drowning. That’s right. As long as he looked at the Lord, he didn't have a bit of trouble with the water underneath. But the moment he looked at that water, he thought, oh, my goodness, what am I doing walking on this thing? Oh, I’m drowning.
That’s it. As long as we look unto Jesus who is the author and finisher of faith, I tell you we can walk. The moment you look at the women in your shop or factory, or the men in the shop or factory, or out in the environment, or the world situation, or this due in politics or that due in politics, immediately you get negative.
That's why people come here on Sunday night many times, because they're just tickled to death to get here at least for one positive thing. Because they know by experience that's the world situation is pretty negative that they're going to be into tomorrow morning again. And the only way they can really continue to gel is to be with people who are moving and who are believing positively that they have what the Word of God says they have first of all. Right?
Secondly, we've got peace. And thirdly we have, John, look at it,
Hebrews 12:2:
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him…
What did he endure? How about the work in the shop and factory tomorrow? Huh? Who for the joy that was set before him endured the factory, the shop, all the baloney of our society.
Hebrews 12:2:
… despising the shame, and [he] is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
People, the joy, it’s inside joy that I've taught you. This peace and inside joy. Happiness is dependent upon the material things in your surroundings. A man can be happy because he has a multiple amount of things, and be just joyless inside. Miserable. This is why many times people are just burdened down. The more material things to have round about them, the less joy and serenity on the inside.
Joy is an inside job. Happiness is dependent upon the environment. Do you think that Jesus was happy; having somebody spit in his face, putting the crown of thorns on his head, nailing him to the cross? Couldn't have been happy, but he had something deep within and that was what? Joy. Joy is an inside job.
Hebrews 12:2:
… who for the joy that was set before him endured the [what? The] cross,…
Because he looked beyond the cross. He looked to the day that had even not perhaps yet come where all of God's children will be together. He saw what would happen in the world if he did it for us. Because without the shedding of blood, he knew there was no remission of sins. And he knew that he would have to lay down his life because he so loved.
A wonderful truth, isn’t it? Why? So that you and I could become the great emphasis, the great movement of the power of God. With the righteousness of God, with the peace of God within, and with the joy of the presence of his Holy Spirit.
In 1 Thessalonians… 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.
1 Thessalonians 1:6:
And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the [pneuma hagion] Holy Ghost:
Here in Thessalonica when the Word was first given, it cost them something. They received it with much affliction. They had to lay aside some things and all this other stuff. But they received the Word. They [inaudible 00:47:02] the Word with joy, with joy of pneuma hagion.
You see, in this matter of speaking in tongues in your private life, every time you speak in a tongue you know you have the righteousness of God within, you know you have the peace of God, and you know you have the joy within. So this knowledge renews your mind and you start walking that way. And that takes care of some of these weeds that ordinarily grow up in life.
It’s a wonderful truth. And there's a great one in 1 John. I guess we just finished the reworking of 1 John to be republished in another edition, the [inaudible 00:47:54]. I don't know if that's what they're going to call it.
But I marvel at this 1 John for a lot of reasons, of course, but I marvel at it that it's addressed to the Christian. Because it's dealing with fellowship, and you can't have fellowship until you first have Sonship. And he declares in this epistle, that great fourth verse,
1 John 1:4:
And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be [what?] full.
Not half full. Not ninety-four and forty-four one hundredths, but that your joy may be what? Right. Not that they didn't have full joy within. They had it here spiritually, but he was writing to them that they'd get this fullness of joy here, up here in their minds, and live it. That's why it's addressed in the chapter on fellowship.
Here we receive it spiritually by birth. New [inaudible 00:49:05]. But we have to put it on in our minds, in our walk. And you and I have to break up the ground. We've got to tear it up. We have to just uproot everything in our life that keeps us from running the race without any impediments of any kind. Because if we're going to travel for the Lord, and we're going to travel fast and far, we've got to travel light. And you can’t do that going through a field with all kinds of mud hanging on your shoes and everybody dragging you back.
You’ve got to do what the Word says; receive that righteousness of God, His joy and His peace in the Holy Ghost, and then renew our minds on this and just carry forth the greatness of God’s Word.
I know that when you walk this way, to most people today you must look like Noah looked to the day he lived when he was building that old ark. They just can't understand why you don't want to cheat somebody. They just can't understand why you don't take advantage of the opportunity of getting that better job, which would mean that you have to cut somebody else [inaudible 00:50:27]. They just don't understand.
Well, you and I don't have to be concerned whether they understand at all. We have to be concerned, are we doing what the Word of God says? Are we walking like the Word of God says we ought to walk? Are we breaking up that fallow ground and putting the good seeds of the Word there, and then watering it with the power of Holy Spirit? That’s it.
Well, do you want to ask any questions along this line? Basically remember, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. They come in that order. No person ever has joy as an inside job. He may have happiness, but if he’s not born again of God’s spirit he cannot have joy. Joy is an inside job. You first get the righteousness of God, then you understand that it’s peace, and then you get the joy in the practicing of that righteousness. All of that is a gift to you. You put your renewed mind and that’s the way it operates.
It’s always interesting that word rejoice. Remember? It’s the joy and the joying of the joy you already have. That’s rejoice. That’s why they call you Joyce, I guess. It’s a good name.
All right? That’s it.
Father, I thank you for the Word and the greatness of your Word again tonight. I thank you Father that, in our day, in our time, when round about us people are thinking evil and going by just the imaginations of their hearts – and as they’re doing so many devilish things, Father. It’s almost unbelievable. I’m talking to you, Father, about Christian people. Born again of your Spirit, who do not know the Word or renew their minds to that Word. Father, what a great joy it is tonight to realize what we have in Christ Jesus and who we are. And that we can break up this fallow ground and put in that good seed of the Word, and water it and bring forth that fruit abundantly, without bringing all kinds of weeds into manifestation in our lives. Father, for this I praise you and thank you this night, through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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