25.3 To Bring to Nothing
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:28-29).
The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel’ (Psalms 2:7-9).
And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—as I also have received from My Father (Revelation 2:26-27).
We Are Willing
The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power (Psalms 110:1-3). This is the Christ who has entered into full union with us. We are willing, Lord Jesus.
The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 11:15b)!
Do you see how God weaves these two things all together, the open display of the victory of Christ with the willingness of His chosen ones, the weakest people on earth?
The Power of Weakness
That no flesh should glory in His sight. It is we who are enabled by God to consider ourselves a hopeless and a lost cause, and thus who flee into Christ without any thought of “trying to make the flesh obey,” who do not glory in the flesh. It is through the weakest humans on earth that God will show Himself mighty. This morning I feel like a great candidate for that particular group. Yet my expectation of God is greater than I have ever known.
The greatest military strategy used to success every time, is to feign weakness. Then, just as the enemy boasts in his overwhelming strength, he discovers that he is dying, and he doesn’t know how it happened.
Making War with the Lamb
God intends to demonstrate for all creation that human government, humans claiming the right to rule over other humans, is nothing more than an empty show. To prove Christ to His Church, He must do just that to set her free.
And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. – These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful (Revelation 19:19 & 17:14). Again, the outward appearance of these things is not what is important, but rather our expectation of God in the midst of all.
The World Hates Us
The world-beast is the first of the three enemies to fall, to be removed from the human experience upon this earth. What I want to discover in this lesson is not what all that might look like, but how it happens, how weakness turns the blade as the mightiest weapon of God.
The book of Revelation is NOT a science fiction movie, but symbols representing to us the deepest truths of the gospel. The world system swirling around us is very real and very filled with lies and hatred, and we are, at present, very subject to its whims. The world hates us, as Jesus spoke in His speaking forth of the Kingdom of God.
How does weakness defeat all this hatred?
The Showdown over the Inheritance
We do so by laying down our lives, just as Jesus did.
When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified (Revelation 11:7-8).
Again, we are not seeking to understand newspaper headlines of some future date, but rather, the revelation of Jesus Christ by the gospel and through us. This is the showdown over the inheritance, the false claims of the natural Jews against the claims of Christ. “Come let us kill Him that the inheritance may be ours.”
Breaking the Chains
This is one of the two great chains binding our brethren and preventing them from knowing all the victory of Christ through them upon this earth. One of those chains is the ascendancy of death as salvation by the Nicene Council and the other is the ascendancy of natural Israel out of the abyss in 1948. Death and natural Israel are very visible; they rule over the Church by sight.
Only ONE THING will break those chains, both at the same time. Christ, walking this earth again in His elect, the second witness of Christ laying down their lives for her in the face of the same Pharisees who cast the Messiah off the first time – and then rising from death in the sight of all.
And We Also
Again, how this appears outwardly is not what matters, what matters is the gospel of Jesus Christ fulfilled through a fully successful Christian Church walking upon this earth.
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16).
And we also. That phrase is just about the most profound in the Bible; it is the second witness of Christ, Jesus proven faithful and true. And it will happen through weakness without human leadership. The wise and the capable need not apply. “But by My Spirit,” says the Lord.
Three Simple Things
We are looking, however, at the fulfillment of the Final Day of Tabernacles in the life of the Church. This Final Day is an everlasting Today. In that Day, human boasting will be brought to nothing, the evil one will be bound out of the human experience by a great chain, and death will be swallowed up by life. And I have no interest in “spiritualizing” those three things. God is a God of action; He sets His display in the earth and in the practical reality of human life.
Three simple things that we practice, casting the accuser out of our hearing by the Blood, laying down our lives for one another as the Mercy Seat of God, and walking in all the CONFIDENCE of speaking Christ.
The Kingdom Arises
And as we do those three simple things daily, though we stumble in every step, with sorrow turned to joy and suffering to expectation, utterly with our Father as one Pperson together, the Kingdom of God arises upon this planet.
Now salvation, and power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ have come… And they overcame… by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death (Revelation 12:10-11).
I seem to be rambling, and indeed, I have no “chart of events” to display before you. Rather I want to place in your heart the picture of God’s salvation revealed through you in this most opportune time.
Salvation Revealed
You who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:5). Let’s paraphrase that from the Greek. You who, inside all the sphere of the power of God are being guarded as by great military force, a power coming to you all the way through your FAITH, for the purpose of the Salvation of God standing fully prepared and ready in the most opportune or suitable moment for the cover to be removed – that all may see the substance of Christ in appearance.
That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ ( 1 Peter 1:7).
A Successful Christian Church
Understand, that this is the faith of one, who, in herself, is very Much Afraid, yet she will not stop walking with her Shepherd.
Now, I want to bring in one final thought or way of seeing that speaks directly to the casting off of the curse of a false husband ruling over a world of scarcity. (And that is the claim of all human leadership in the church – the scarcity of Jesus among us.) Here is the picture given to us of that successful Christian Church walking through a time when there is NO provision for her coming through the normal channels of life in this world.
And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God (Revelation 15:2).
Refusing the World
Again, God is not giving us a ridiculous science fiction spectacle. Consider millions of people across this earth, not being “raptured,” but refusing to receive their provision from the governments of this world. Every ridiculous speculation of this time positions a handful of new converts running in horror while Christians look on up in heaven somewhere.
The Church of Jesus Christ REFUSING the world – what a day of rejoicing that will be. The power of refusal is the gift of God. Humans use that gift to refuse Christ; we will see it used to REFUSE the world.
This Church Is Singing
You see, God has not put His victory on display for anyone reading the Bible to see exactly how it will work, as any good general would not do. He has hidden that victory in the Bible, just as He has hidden Christ in us, waiting for the best time to remove the cover – the apocalypse of Jesus Christ. Yet for those who have eyes to see, the victory is there in plain sight upon every page of the Bible!
Revelation 15:2 is not some event taking place in a faraway location called “heaven” sometime far in the future. This is a picture of the Victorious Christian Church walking on this earth as if it belongs to her in complete and open defiance of a false and wicked husband, and this Church is SINGING.
The Song of the Lamb
They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb (Revelation 15:3). She is singing the Song of the Lamb!!! The Lord Jesus Christ IS the only life I am.
And so you see, the goal of the Kingdom of God, and any calling to swing open the Doors of Tabernacles for God’s people, is to see this same word of Christ our life being sung all through the self-story of every saint of God. But that work takes place as the central part of our victory over death, here we want to remain with all provision in the natural.
I am raising ideas that are incredibly exciting.
A Word of Provision
Please understand. I don’t have a clue what I am talking about. But you know as well as I do that there is a WORD all through the Bible speaking of the provision of God flowing out of our bellies.
Stand still and see the salvation of God. Jesus feeding the five thousand. Striking the rock and water flowing out. Turning water into wine. Manna appearing on the ground every morning. Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk (Acts 3:6).
The River of Life
Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. – And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:13-14). – He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). – And everything will live wherever the river goes (Ezekiel 47:9).
She is singing, a Church singing in the face of her enemies, and she sings the Song of the Lamb. It is against this Church that the kingdoms of this world are brought to NOTHING.
Scarcity by the curse is the weapon of this world; the river of life is ours.