Somewhere Outwardly Or Inwardly A Link To The World?

I was asking the question, why it is that the Church is so ineffective? which is only saying, why is it that so many Christians are so spiritually weak and unfruitful and ineffective?

Somewhere there is a link with the world; outwardly or inwardly, there is a link with the world - that is, the kingdom of darkness, the authority of darkness.

I am not talking about our being here on the earth and having to work here in this world. 

You know the difference between being in it and of it, between being here and having heart relationships, voluntary relationships, choices, interests, desires, ambitions and so on; to be a part of this world in its acceptance, its recognition, and many other things.

The way out and the way in is the way of death and that death, while it is all-inclusive in His own - for He has comprehended all that it means - He says for us it is a crisis and then a daily thing. 

"Take up his cross daily" (Luke 9:23), which means, I die daily to the call of this world, to the call of that kingdom where Satan has rights and authority, a call to my heart to be something here in this world as in itself.

Oh, how subtly Satan uses that with many, seeking to argue that the realization of an ambition would give even greater opportunity for the Lord. That is very nice to the flesh.

The Cross has to be brought to all those subtle arguments of the angel of light;

And while I would not say to anybody, Be careless, be slipshod, be second-rate in what you are and what you are doing on this earth, never let your Christianity make you less than the best amongst men and women and the most efficient in your job: 

At the same time, examine your motive, your object, your ambition. 

Examine your hearts in the light of the Cross, and see whether it is self-gratification, self-glory, or any form of self as the goal that is influencing the argument. 

It is a deep heart matter, this matter of the Cross daily, dying to much, perhaps, that the flesh would like, dying to the cravings of this natural life, and oh, they are so strong!

It is so difficult to let this self go altogether and be nothing as amongst men.

When we come to think of the deliverer of souls, we shall find that Moses and Christ started in this world with no place of acceptance. 

Moses came into the world and found that the door was shut to him in this world and he had to be hidden three months.

His life was a prey from his birth.

And Christ came into this world on exactly the same conditions. 

Herod's edict was at work and there was no place for Him, and it is very difficult to take up a life which is like that from the very inception. 

What you are as the Lord's, what you represent, you as a child of God, as a Christian man or woman, you are not wanted.

If you will only just compromise a bit, you will be accepted. 

If only you will hide it a bit, nothing will be said, the way will be open for you.

But if you are going to stand on that ground of Christ, then the door is shut to you, you are not wanted. 

This is what it means that the Cross stands there right at the beginning of this life. 

You remember Exodus 12 - "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months... they shall take to them every man a lamb". The beginning was with death, death to self, as to this kingdom.

Well now, we know that this is very practical in its application, and it does work out like this, that, inasmuch as there is anything that belongs to that realm in ourselves, inasmuch as it is here and we are actuated by it, influenced by it, governed in any way by it, spiritual weakness, spiritual defeat, spiritual paralysis, unfruitfulness is the result.

Somewhere there is a bridge, a link, a connection with the realm the Lord cannot have, His rights are not ceded.

Out of the authority, not only the realm, but the right of Satan, into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.

You notice the Mount of Transfiguration. "There are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:27). 

Then eight days afterward a, significant number, resurrection, new ground, the old world gone, the Son of Man glorified 

Eight days afterward He taketh Peter, John and James up into the mountain, a heavenly position, and prayed. 

There came a voice out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; hear ye him". 

Peter, recounting it in his letter, says, "He received from the Father honor and glory, when there was borne such a voice to him by the Majestic Glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: and this voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount" (2 Pet. 1:17-18). 

Into the kingdom of the son of his love. In whom I am well pleased. 

That very Kingdom of the Lord's pleasure, the Lord's delight, lies on the other side of the exodus. 

~T. Austin Sparks~