He Humbled Himself And Was Obedient Unto Death!

Php 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

One of the Hardest things for a Lofty and Superior nature is to be under Authority...

To Renounce his own will, and to take a place of subjection. 

But Christ took upon Him the form of a servant...

Gave up His independence...

His right to please Himself...

His liberty of choice, and after having from eternal ages known only to command, gave Himself up Only To Obey.

I have seen occasionally the man who was once a wealthy employer a clerk in the same store. 

It was not an easy or graceful position, I assure you.

But Jesus was such a Perfect servant that His Father said: "Behold, My Servant in whom My soul delighteth."

All His life His watchword was, The Son of Man Came To Minister.

I am among you as He that doth serve.

I can do nothing of Myself.

Not My will, but Thine, be done.

Have You, Beloved, Learned The Servant's Place?

And once more, "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." 

His life was all a Dying, and at last He gave All up to death, and also shame, the death of crucifixion. 

This last was the Consummation of His love.

~A. B. Simpson

Take Heed Don't Be Deceived!

Mat 24:4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 

Mat 24:5  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

In a somewhat extended life and ministry, again and again I have seen dear people of God who were out in the open going on with the Lord in the liberty of the Spirit with great promise and then they’ve been caught in some “ism.” 

They simply are helpless to escape themselves from the tenets of that “ism.” 

Again and again I’ve seen it! 

Tragedy...

There’s a great “ism” sweeping right over America and over Europe in these last years. 

I can dare to mention this one, well I’m going to at any rate: Universalism. 

It’s an “ism” which has captured multitudes! 

And you just can’t get anywhere with these people once they’ve got it. 

But I have known them, oh so promising...

So promising and then this thing has come subtly along their way, attractive and fascinating...

So appealing: everybody, ultimately, including the devil himself, will be saved. 

What are you going to do with that? 

Willy-nilly they’ll be saved...Undercutting so many of the Very Vitals of the Gospel.

You may call these things gross errors and they are...

But there are things that are not such errors. 

Not such errors, indeed in themselves they’re quite true, but they have become the beginning of all and the end of all to the people who have taken them on. 

You can get no further, no further. 

They have lost the great ground, the vast ground of God’s full purpose for this dispensation and become stuck on some thing that is only partial at best. 

Arrested...like Judaism; come to a standstill, or going round and round in a circle, the circle of this particular thing. 

It should be a Warning to us because, you see, this is the thing that has been the enemy of the fullness of Christ all through the centuries - this sort of thing....

There are many antichrists in the world and an antichrist is not a spurious, fearful creature, you know, with a tail and a pitchfork. 

No, an antichrist is something that assumes the place of Christ.... 

And with the Natural Judgment, Natural Powers, you are Not able to Distinguish between the True and the False. 

The Christ and the antichrist Seem to be so much alike. 

You can’t Discern the difference, but the Anointing will tell you! 

The Anointing which you have received, when you come into touch with something false, will tell you if the Anointing is really governing...

Saying, “Be careful,” not in words, but inside. 

You have a feeling there’s something not quite clear here, not transparent here, not safe here... 

I don’t feel happy about this, I can’t tell you why but I just don’t feel quite happy about this... 

There’s something in me that says: Beware.

I am convinced that in a day like this of Deceptions and Misleadings and all that... 

The Great Need is our Spiritual Discernment...

Of knowing the Holy Spirit in this way, that He’s able to Warn you.

~T. Austin Sparks

GODS Authority Overrules The Authority Of Darkness

Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

The authority of darkness is a very real thing to us. 

We have experiences, and if we were to capitulate to them, that would be the end of us. 

He tries to bring upon us that impingement of the authority of darkness...

And if we surrender to it, capitulate to it, accept it, we are beaten. 

If we are the Lord's, Christ is within, and Christ is supreme...

And we must go on even if we have no feeling, or if we have a very bad feeling...

When it seems to be the last thing we ought to be saying, we say it because it is God's fact...

And when we begin to affirm God's fact we win through.

Believers know what it is for the enemy to try to make them accept the authority of darkness. 

Stand upon the truth of God. 

God does not change with our feelings. 

God does not alter with our consciousness. 

This whole life of ours is subject to variation more swift than the variation of weather...

But He rules, unalterable, unchangeable.

He is "the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." 

And if He is there within, He has come to stay, and victory is in faith...

Believing that, standing on that, holding to that...

And we must carry that through to its final and full issue, that He is Lord of all, "Head of all principality and power."

Satan will sometimes try to make us believe that he is in the place of ascendancy, the place of supremacy,...

But since Calvary he is not, we stand there.

~T. Austin Sparks