Luke 18:18-27New King James Version (NKJV)
Jesus Counsels the Rich Young Ruler
18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.
21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”
22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
With God All Things Are Possible
24 And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”
27 But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
In our text we have spiritual gold nuggets of sound redemption doctrine. From the lips of Christ himself, Jesus sets the record straight with his answers on some very important redemption doctrinal issues and questions that many have.
First of all we have a young man in our text that wants to be saved. Somewhere along the line of Jesus' many teachings this young man's ears heard of eternal life and that he wanted (WHO WOULDN'T). So he set out on a journey to find this Jesus who preached on the glorious eternal life he was seeking to inherit.
Well the time came when the young man found the Lord. In his excitement he hurries to the Master and says the words, GOOD MASTER, what must I DO to be saved, to inherit eternal life? Jesus hears the young man's zeal and he starts his response. The first thing Jesus ON PURPOSE responded to was to the first two words the young man said, he said "GOOD MASTER". Jesus took this opportunity to share with us all what he wanted that young man to know and all of us to know about who is really good, (Jesus knew this passage of his life and words was going to make THE BOOK-the BIBLE. He even knew that one day I would be writing on these words and that you would be reading them. What an ALL KNOWING MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE.
In His ALL KNOWING GLORY JESUS looks at the young man and says, Why do you call Me Good? THERE IS NO ONE GOOD BUT GOD. Jesus in saying that was teaching us all what WE ALL NEED TO KNOW. He was stripping from all people the idea that they are good WE ARE NOT.
The bible says that it is absolutely impossible for God to lie and that God has spoken unto us in these last days thru HIS SON. Knowing those scriptures THAT GOD CANNOT LIE and that GOD HAS SPOKEN UNTO US ALL IN THESE LAST DAYS THRU HIS SON, we must all agree with Jesus THAT CANNOT LIE that there is no one good, BUT GOD.
Let us think about THAT TRUTH for a moment. The best person we could know who is kind, generous, gentle and yet of strong spirit who is honest, loving, and giving; though he has some traits of good character that shows these things, IS HE WITHOUT SIN? No. Notta. No Way.
Good in God's honest eyes lines up with this, with these words. God is light and in God there is no darkness at all, not even a speck. Can any of us honestly say we are that pure in heart? Lets not kid ourselves. Some of the nicest outward appearing people even in the church, have some of the most awful secret sinful imaginations and other secret sinful things going on, on the inside. Jesus knows the heart of all of us for to Jesus the heart is the person and the person is the heart, not our bodies looks and physical organs. And when Jesus said, THERE IS NO ONE GOOD BUT GOD, HE WAS NOT LYING. So by the Lords own words, all of us together are stripped of any right to self boasting about ourselves or about others as to say that we or they are really good and that by being good enough we can save ourselves. As my dad often said and preached when he was still with us, such a thought is a devils deceiving lie.
Let us remember that God's thoughts are much higher than our thoughts and God's ways are far higher than our ways. Even as high as heaven is from earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways. None of us in the flesh can honestly say we are good like God for until you are light in whom there is no darkness at all not even the smallest speck, then YOU ARE NOT GOOD according to Jesus' high standard.
Friends when God judges the world in the future, He will be comparing and judging us according to HIS MOST HIGH WAYS, not according to man's deprived level of thinking. Whereever there is a speck, a spot, a wrinkle, or a blemish of sin or of darkness, we are tainted meat unfit to be called GOOD BY GOD. Since God cannot call us good, and yet we think we are really good, we are deceived. THERE IS NO ONE GOOD BUT GOD.
Now also in saying that there is NO ONE GOOD BUT GOD, Jesus was prepping us all for our great need of the blood of His Cross, and of HIS ATONING SACRIFICE. He did not die in vain (Galations 2:21)
Some time later in our text above, Jesus said some other needful light. He told us about a camel and the eye of a needle. After Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to fit thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, Jesus took that opportunity (Being the wisest teacher ever) to lay down an unbreakable foundational scripture to make clear to us all an absolute doctrine of Christ truth. This truth was to be exalted and upheld unto all generations by all the elders of God's Church until the end of the age would come. Thru this doctrinal truths constant upholding and by the understanding of that doctrine of Christ, WE ALL WOULD FLEE INTO CHRIST.
The disciples hearing that it is easier for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, these words astonished Peter, James, John and all the disciples. In their concern they cried, "Lord who then can be saved"?
Now what Jesus said IN RESPONSE TO THEIR QUESTION lays all the arguments to rest about how we are saved. The mouth of God himself spoke these words and as we learned earlier IT IS ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO LIE. Jesus answered the disciples saying this; He said, WITH MAN IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. Mans is stripped again by the Master Himself of any self dependence to save his own soul. What Jesus said reveals that man is in a lot more trouble than he can naturally reason or understand or get himself by himself out of. Jesus was revealing that man is in such a legal snare against his soul by Satan and sin that for man to save himself, SUCH IS IMPOSSIBLE. Jesus was saying and revealing that no matter what men do or say or try to do on their own to save themselves IT WILL NOT HAPPEN. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. Man on his own IS HELPLESS AND WITHOUT STRENGTH TO SAVE HIMSELF.
When we become settled in our hearts about what Jesus was revealing to us all in these words, that it was impossible for us to save ourselves, we finally, realizing that none of us are good according to God's measuring sticks and that there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves, it is then we can finally ENTER INTO THE REST that He came to give us thru faith in His Ransoming Blood. For after Christ revealed to us clearly that no man can save himself and that such is impossible for any of us to do, we find Christ bringing in the NEW HOPE that could. And that NEW HOPE comes from these following words. For though it was IMPOSSIBLE for man to save himself, he did not leave us hopeless. Jesus said, YET ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD. And when you accept Christ you accept God whom salvation is possible only by.
Man was helpless. No one was good but God. Even those we called the nice people they did not fit the requirements for God to called them GOOD. The rich young ruler wanted to know what he could do to be saved. Jesus revealed in our text that there was nothing any man could do to save himself. SUCH WAS IMPOSSIBLE. BUT ALL THINGS JESUS SAID, WAS POSSIBLE WITH GOD. We Needed God to do it. We needed God to make His move from heaven for man on the earth and He did that when the Word became flesh (John 1:1-14).
Church, let us not kid or deceive ourselves. Even the sweetest of us are still NOT GODS GOOD when compared to HIS PERFECT LIGHT. Jesus that cannot lie said so. So we all bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and thank God for doing what we could not do for ourselves. He saved us BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF. Jesus died for our sins and rose again for our justification by faith.......deno.......share freely.
Don't make yourself your foundation. You will quickly crack because the weight of your sins against you is too great for you to overcome. Jesus Christ and Him Crucified and Risen from the dead is the only God given UNBREAKABLE FOUNDATION for our sure hope and blessed assurance.
None of us are allowed to approach God in our own righteousness, nor with any confidence in our own names. Totally unacceptable. For this cause God blessed us, empowering us with His Son Jesus Christ very own Far Above All Name and made Jesus to be for us OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. This is a gift to us from God by faith in Jesus Christ.
We cannot call upon our own names and be saved.
We cannot call upon our own name to bind and cast out devils.
We cannot even pray in our own name and move God.
In the kingdom of God and Christ concerning the Redeemed of the Lord, ALL THINGS have to be done in the Name of Jesus Christ, all words we speak and all deeds...With God there is no other acceptable way.....This is the true doctrine of Christ.
Can you see with these truths how you are not to be the one who is your hope, your salvation, or your glory, strength, power, and way unto God on high? Just like Paul preached...Christ is all.....Amen.....deno......share freely
Jesus said to those that opposed His words and light, I know that the love of God (GOD'S kind of LOVE) is not in you" (John 5:42). Explaining what Jesus was revealing. This is such important light. It must be, it has to be seen and understood...There is too much at stake to not have GOD'S KIND of LOVE in your heart......Lord open our eyes.
Real love, God's love, heavens kind of love which is the real guiding mark of true love is self sacrificing love. This is not the only way God's perfect love is expressed but it is the greatest expression of heavens greater love.
The world's love (Matthew 5:43-48 & Luke 6:27-36) is basically based on the interest of one's own self. How does this or that advantage me, or what is it in for me if i do this or give that.
One day Jesus was talking to some religious men that seemed to always have something negative to say about Jesus and what Jesus was saying and doing. Jesus who reads all of our hearts knew that those who opposed him, they were outwardly very religious appearing but on the inside a great emptiness he could see (They were missing something).
He said to those opposing people the words that reveals and separates what is of heaven from what is of hell, and what is of God from what is of this world. Jesus said to them, Though you honor each other and pat each other on the back and are searchers of the scriptures,THIS I AM SURE OF, Gods love is not in your hearts (John 5:39-47). Now they had a love in their heart BUT IT WAS NOT GOD'S LOVE., It was self love not sacrificing love. They only showed love to those that advantaged them or could exalt them, or when it could bring back to them favor or pleasures of some kind from the same. Self denying, discomforting sacrificing love was far from them NOT EVEN IN THEM according to Jesus the heart analizer. They loaded people down with religious bundles but would not help them carry the load. It was to discomforting. To bothering. Not to self advantage. To costly. To time consuming. It would interfere with their plans and day's agenda and personal life goals and comforts to help others with their burdens. And to bless and to do good to their enemies that caused them grief and pain, NO WAY, not in a thousand lifetimes of living.
The bible reveals to us in Romans 5:5-10 & Gal 2:20, that Christ loved us and gave himself sacrificially every day for others. Every day Jesus was really denying himself, giving himself, and taking up his cross daily living for God and for the good of others, even for the good of his enemies that opposed him. Seldom did he live unto himself (He practiced what he preached. Jesus was the real Love of God. His love for sinners, even for His enemies shocked Israel's elders and even shocks the world).
Then after all those day unto day living sacrifices of himself, Jesus revealed to all the world the real measure of God's greater love. He went to the DISCOMFORTING CROSS to lay down his life for the sin of the world. To bear our burden, to save us, and to take the burden of the weight of our sins and of the Law off our backs, even off the backs of those that drove the nails.
Jesus did not sacrifice himself so painfully to destroy others as evil beast do today. Jesus sacrificed himself so painfully for the good of people to save them. Paul wrote that this is the revelation that reveals the difference between God's love and the world's natural love which is the love from evil. Yes there is love that is of God as Jesus said (John 5:42), and there is the love that is of this world and of evil (Matthew 7:11). He said God's great love is revealed in that Christ died, Christ sacrificed himself for the ungodly, THE UNDESERVING, even for the blessing and salvation of his enemies that only pained him and discomforted his life. RIGHT THERE IS THE LIGHT OF THE BIG DIFFERENCE between Christ love (GOD'S LOVE) verses this world's evil love.
God's love, the love of Christ heart is not limited to self advantages, but will do the same for it's enemies even as it does for its friends. Christ died to save and interceded for his friends and Christ died for his enemies, to save and to intercede for those that crucified him..
Jesus said one day as he was speaking on God's love, he said, If you do good to only those who love you, (Like to your family, to your friends and to those who can advantage you) he said there is no reward from God in that, everyone in the world does that. But he that does good and makes discomforting sacrifices for his enemies and strangers to bless and to do good to them (NOT TO DESTROY THEM), will have reward from God.
God sees and Gods more greater rewards come from the discomforting sacrifices we make that saves and blesses others, especially those we do for our personal enemies that use us, crucify us, that abuse and persecute us.
All the world loves and praises and does good to its own and to those who can advantage us and give us pleasure. God's love goes way beyond that and even loves, and does good and blesses its own enemies and makes discomforting sacrifices for even the most undeserving people day unto day. The evil spirit of the heart of this world's love mocks, gossips, condemns, speaks evil of, gripes, complains, throws stones at, accuses, and wishes ill will towards those people.
Jesus knew that in those (RELIGIOUS PEOPLE) who fought against His Words and Light daily, he knew that they had only the natural self advantaging love of this world and of evil beings in them and not the Love of God (John 5:42.
Let's read intently (Matt 7:l1 & Luke 6:27-36). Here is the light of those revealing verses of scripture combined and simply put...Jesus revealed....Evil beings KNOW HOW to DO GOOD to their own and to those that can return to them favor and EVIL BEINGS know how to GIVE GOOD THINGS TO THEIR CHILDREN).
......All the world Jesus said does that...In saying those words Jesus revealed a startling revelation that this world of Evil Beings and of Evil creatures have their own type of love AND THEIR OWN TYPE OF GOODNESS and THAT EVIL BEINGS, THEIR LOVE EVEN KNOWS HOW TO DO GOOD (Matt 7:11). But none of it is of God and that it is not the love of God (John 5:42), it is EVIL'S LOVE (Satanic Love)
.......Evil itself has a certain type of love and evil loves its own and knows how to do good and to give good to its own. THATS WAS and IS THE HUGE REVELATION POINT that Jesus was revealing to the world AS A WARNING and as a WAKE UP CALL to His people. In that revelation Jesus warns us and was revealing that Evil has a love, Evil has a goodness, and Evil even knows how to give good things to its own. Evil even falls in love with its own, marries and raises children BUT IT IS STILL NOT GOD'S KIND OF SACRIFICING LOVE, who does for its enemies the same as it does for its family and friends..Right there is the DIVIDING DISTINGUISHING MARK and THE BIG MAJOR DIFFERENCE.
CHRIST made personal self discomforting LIVING SACRIFICES every day for the good and blessing of others, even to those who were his opposers, persecutors, and to his enemies. The scriptures say....Christ sacrificed himself to save and to bless his people, his friends and even for his enemies, the ungodly and the undeserving (Rom 5:5-10 & Gal 2:20 & John 15:12-14).
THIS IS THE IMPORTANT POINT OF THIS WHOLE LIGHT....Here it is.....It's the kind of love in us (IN OUR HEART) that reveals if GODS IS REALLY IN US or not. The normal natural love of this world's heart and of the world, Jesus said is evil. The world's natural kind of love is not GOD'S LOVE. The Kind of love in our heart is the mark of what and who is living within us, not the knowledge and the quoting of the scriptures as Jesus' religious appearing enemies could do greatly. (Matt 7:11 & st John 3:14-18)).....Lord open our eyes......deno......share freely.
Wisdom whispers. Are we listening?
The Bread is in the writings.
So man people in the faith of Jesus Christ think that their emotional feelings are their spirits condition and voice, yet no where in the bible does it say our emotions are the voice of our spirit or its condition.
Let me try to make an important point here that is needed. Ok.Help me Lord.
When a loved one dies and we look at the condition of that body in the coffin, is the condition of that body and all that that dead body is telling us, is any of that any indication of the true condition of the spirit that no longer lives therein? No. Everything about that body in that coffin is dead, but the spirit is living on elsewhere. The body is one thing, but the spirit is another thing.
Also, We can by no means by looking at that dead body, none of that which we can see there can tell us any truth about whether that soul went up into heaven or descended down into hell. Even if that dead persons body has a smile on its face does not give Us a 100 percent guarantee that THAT soul went to heaven. People laugh and smile all the time all over the planet who are not saved and some of them have died with a smile on their face and some lost people have even died while laughing. So we do not want to fall into the trap of basing spirit conditions solie on physical feelings, physical sights, conditions, and circumstances.
Also, speaking of the Spirit of God, Jesus said of the Holy Spirit in John 14:17.. He dwells with you and shall be IN YOU.
Now lets think about that truth for a second. Jesus said the Holy Spirit shall be in you, IN YOU. IN YOU, IN YOU....Think about that, the Spirit of the Almighty is in us who have received Him. Paul said, Christ in you INSIDE YOU the hope of glory. Do you suppose you and I as we check our emotions, feelings, moods, and the desires of our being, do you suppose we are feeling and experiencing and tasting all the fulness of the Spirit. Are we feeling all of Almighty Gods Joy, Presence, Love, Peace, Perfect Assurance and Power? Not even close. So again, our feelings and our moods etc of the flesh cannot be depended upon to tell us the truth of how God feels. Some wisdom given is soon to be revealed
Now let me lay this out there where many of you can relate. When we have those compulsions to sin, (and we all do if we are honest), are those feelings, compulsions, emotions, and desires to do wrong Gods Spirits feelings, emotions, and desires? BY NO MEANS. God cannot sin. God does not even have a micro speck of sin desire in His Holy Pure Being. But how often it is that people think their moods and emotions whether up or down are God's Spirit or their spirit when on the most part it is only their own fleshes sensational sensual moods and emotions and that mostly of their body, not of their spirit..
I have noticed that when my fleshes sinful side and strength is strong, the passions for sin and to do evil or wrong are high and numerous. Sometimes those evil passions of anger and other desires and sinful moods are almost to overwhelming for me when they are pressing against me (my spirit) with their dictating strengths.
I think most of you can identify with that. When the flesh is wound up whether in anger to punch or to slander or to gossip or to sin other ways, its voice is so loud that it is like the sound of a dog barking because he is starving and its voice is so loud it's echoing. Sometimes it can be so overwhelming we feel almost helpless against those passions and rages and feelings and those sin cravings. Well friend, that's the sinful flesh Peter and Paul preached to us about that wars against the soul. It will be warring with us until the day that death is swallowed up in victory.
I sought the Lord over this because I'm hungry for understanding, for understanding me, you, us and for the spiritual wisdom of things. I crave it.
Well in that hunger I said to Jesus, Lord where are you on the inside of me when I'm all wound up like that and my sinful side is barking so loud because it is hungry? The Lord got back with me on that. Be still and know God said. So I got away and got quiet. Then all this light and wisdom that i had never even heard before began to start crossing over from His Spirit into my mind.
He said, I am set apart within you. I am sanctified down on the inside of you with your spirit man that's born of God in my holy image and righteous likeness. Like Noah was set apart in the Ark in the place where My wrath could not get to him, even-so likewise I am sanctified within you with a shield of my power and glory where your flesh and sin cannot get to Me. I have made sin reaching into Me impossible no matter where I am in My creation. That way I can fulfill My promise to live and to abide with My Children forever.
All that sin cannot touch Me though I live with you, with your spirit in that body. In those times of your infirmities of weakness when the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, I'm the gentle conscience, that gentle voice of holy conviction saying do not do this. I'm the thou shalt not voice. It is not so much a feeling although I can turn the belly bitter and fill the heart and soul with joy. My voice is in your conscience and in the depths of the deep within you where sin cannot reach as to defile Me.
Your spirit and My Spirit fellowship in the Ark of Christ sanctification within you. Sin can never reach into My Holy Spirit . It can only reach into My hearing in the confession of sins and to My awareness thru knowing yet without ever being able to touch My Person as to defile My Spirit or to be in any way a part of My being. It falls dead before it reaches me. As Christ was surrounded by sin and by sinners yet was never defiled and was without sin himself, even so My Holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ on earth is surrounded by sinful flesh, but my Spirit does not mingle with those passions, nor can sin touch Me. I ride around on the inside of you (with your spirit) in the Ark of Christ within you. Sin is just around Me as My wrath was all around Noah yet Noah was protected and fully shielded from all that wrath that pressed upon the outside of that Ark from side side as He stayed in the Ark of His sanctification.
Son you and I are riding around on the inside of you in the Ark of your sanctification which is Christ in you your hope of glory...This is the Power of the Cross of Christ which is the Ark of eternal refuge dwelling inside you....This light shall help open My Peoples Eyes....Amen.....deno....share freely.
Luke 24:13--32...Go and read the WHOLE TEXT for the lesson. This is an after the resurrection event.
15) So it was while these two disciples conversed and reasoned together about the things concerning Jesus and the events of the last few days, Jesus Himself (THE WORD OF GOD) drew near to them and walked with them.
16) but their eyes were closed and restrained and by that they did not recognize him. (Failure to IDENTIFY the GLORY)
30) Now it came to pass later that evening, as Jesus sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
31) Then their eyes were opened and they knew it was Jesus; and He suddenly vanished from their sight.
32) And they said to each other, Did not our heart BURN WITHIN us while HE TALKED, while HE talked with us on the road, and while He opened up the scriptures to us?
I love this text, what a divine resurrection encounter. You know the scriptures tells us that with many INFALLIBLE PROOFS Jesus showed himself alive from the dead. In other words the resurrection of Christ is infallible. It can be lied against, and the blind can refuse to believe it, but all those lies and all the unbelief in all the world can never change the fact that God raised HIS SON our blessed Savior from the dead, and SAT HIM DOWN at His own right hand IN THE THRONE OF GOD. It Is A Done Deal. It is infallible to God and by HIS SPIRIT so it is to men.
But here in our text (Hope you went and read all the text), is something the Lord wants us TO SEE. These 2 disciples (here in our text) had been walking with Jesus down a road for a few hours. They were in a level of fellowship with the resurrected Master. They were listening to Jesus, looking at him right in the face speaking the Word, and these two even spent the whole afternoon with the Lord, THE WORD OF GOD. But we need to see something that is happening here during this whole visitation so that we can pray about it.
These two BELIEVERS have no idea who it is that is walking right there with them. They were in the Presence of the Living Risen Lord and Christ but were blind to the glory. They did feel something burning in their hearts as this man was speaking to them but their eyes were blind to the glory of what was staring them in the face and to what was being said.
Part of the reason for this NUMBED HARDENED HEART AND UNIDENTIFYING STATE was they were in a state of doubt and unbelief and Jesus rebuked them for that(Luke 24:25 & Mark 16:14)).
According to Romans 14:23, that verse of scripture tells us that doubt and unbelief are spiritual sins. Sin has consequences. It can make the heart hard to see and understand Jesus and the Word of God. We can even believe in Jesus, even belong to Jesus, and BE SAVED, but at the same time doubt His Word and miss out on a whole lot of what he is saying. We can even fail to RECOGNIZE or IDENTIFY things of Jesus and His Word, and you can have blind areas in you spiritual redemption understanding. Yes your saved and yes you belong to Jesus and He knows you by name, but at the same time your doubt and unbelief of His Word and your lack of IDENTIFYING THE HIDDEN TREASURE in the field of the scriptures is robbing you with their effects upon your eyes, upon your heart and life, and by that we fail to enjoy the fullness of blessings of the gospel (Romans 15:29). We are grieving and quenching the Spirit. And we all know that as long as the Spirit is being grieved and is in a state of being quenched, then we are not enjoying the fulness of the blessing of the gospel in our churches and in our lives, but just fragments of the glory.
All afternoon these two disciples were seeing and hearing the WORD OF GOD and yet they did not see the glory nor the value of THE WORD, though THE WORD was masterfully being proclaimed to them By the Lord himself who was right there next to them alive from the dead YET BY THEM UNRECOGNIZED. Their eyes were closed in their heart and mind.
So it is with us sometimes who believe and belong to Christ. We have read the Word of God, heard the Word of God. We are listening to preachers preach the Word of God yet we just don't get it, we just don't see the value. We like, read the word of God but to our understanding it seems to be nothing more than a blank page before us. We just don't get it.
Well let's stop kicking ourselves in the head about it and here is a good reason why. These two men in our text were followers of Christ for years. They loved the Lord and they were believers. They had been with Jesus for years and knew him well as the Son of God with Power, the Christ. But we find in our text that there is a place that can be in even in a believers life where though he does believe and belong to Christ, his eyes can still be in a restrained or closed type position in the spirit and in the mind. In that state, you can be in the Word and hanging around the spoken Word all evening and not see the glory nor the value of what is being said or presented. You hardly get a thing from it. That can be certainly true as we see its reality in our text.
These two believers were hanging around THE WORD all afternoon with the eyes of their hearts and minds in a restrained closed spiritual position and THEY WERE SAVED CHRISTIANS. This is the same state many believers are in today and many others have been in, in the past generations.
But friends as in all things, THERE IS ALWAYS REAL HOPE IN CHRIST. Jesus Opened Their Eyes. God has an answer. We find in our test that the Lord can heal us of this closed eyes condition and our eyes can be opened to His Recognizable Presence and to the Riches of God's Glory that He has placed in His Word. Like Elijah prayed so should we. Elijah praying for his servant said, Lord open his eyes. Then suddenly God opened his eyes and that servant SAW THE GLORY that had been theirs all the time with them of which he was numb and blind to before.. It was there all the time BUT HIS EYES WERE RESTRAINED AND CLOSED TO IT. Once he saw it though, HE GREATLY REJOICED and was TREMENDOUSLY COMFORTED.
There is GLORY, MUCH GLORY, even the glory of God in HIS WORD,even riches OF LIFE and VALUE, blessings and benefits beyond all this world's natural understanding. All we need is our EYES OPENED to THE HIDDEN TREASURES THAT ARE IN THE FIELD OF THE SCRIPTURES......deno......share freely.
