FULL-FLEDGED SONS
Read: Isaiah 8:11-15
We notice that scripture says almost nothing about our Lord's childhood. We are told of His birth, His bar mitzvah, then nothing more until He is thirty years of age. Those first thirty years of His life are hidden in the hand of God. All we need to know about them is that, ''He grew and became strong.''
Jesus was the Son of God when He was in Mary's arms, when He was sweeping Joseph's carpenter shop. But Jesus did not begin His ministry until He arrived at full manhood.
- He was not a boy wonder.
- He did not work miracles when He was fifteen.
Until Jesus emerged from childhood and adolescence, He was no different from any other human being, though He was God the Son.
Nor does this make thirty the magic year. Jesus had among His disciples, you can be sure, men who were well under thirty. Tremendous saints of God have finished their work and died before they were thirty some even before they're twenty.
But the work God gave His Son and the work God gives those who become sons through Jesus' blood and death, does not begin until we have become men and women, whatever our age - it can't be done by babes.
I mean that the heir, so long as he is a child, is no better than a slave though he is owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir. Galatians 4:1-7
But don't make the mistake of thinking that because the Spirit of God is crying "Abba! Father!" in our hearts we're automatically full-grown sons.
The believers at Corinth had the Holy Spirit in their hearts. The gifts of the Spirit were operating among them. But Paul calls these Spirit-filled believers babes instead of men because all the weaknesses of infancy were evident in their living in spite of the fact that they prophesied and spoke in tongues.
Their lives were still marked by jealousy, strife, vanity, cowardice, self-indulgence, lovelessness. Their ministry can't get going until they come out of that, even though they are Spirit-filled.
So today, there are multitudes of believers who have experienced rebirth, who know the life of God in the Spirit, who are able to praise God and rejoice in the Lord. But when they step outside the warmth of the family of saints, one thing characterizes their lives: weakness, bondage to fear, and all the things that enslave other men.
The courage is gone,
the joy is gone,
wisdom is gone,
liberty is gone.
Away from the security of the faith community for a few days, their flame dies and all that's left is another frightened soul making its way through the uncertainties of this world.
God doesn't raise His children to be delicate flowers that can only survive in the hot-house climate of the ''ideal Christian community.''
God raises His children to be full-fledged sons.
- The child grew and became strong.
The Spirit of God is moving among us to take us far beyond thrills and ecstasies, my friend, to the place where we can walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ,
- where we can carry our cross,
- where we can share His reproach outside the camp,
- where we can keep going when there is nobody left to encourage us but Jesus Himself.
The Spirit is calling for full-fledged sons,
- male and female,
- people who won't be thrown by every new doctrine, that comes along, won't be intimidated, won't be discouraged when the crowds thin,
- people of holy and godly strength.
The beginning of this strength is to be realistic about our own weakness. Sometimes God has to disillusion us about our strength in some drastic way. We have to get…
- a thorn in the flesh like Paul,
- or a wounded thigh like Jacob,
- or a crushing revelation of ourselves like Peter got when he denied his Lord.
For some of us it takes many blows to our vanity, with a few permanent handicaps thrown in, until we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we are weak in ourselves. Then God can put His strong hand upon us and raise us up to be His strong sons and daughters. All the ingredients of that strength are found in Isaiah 8:11-15.
For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people saying:
"Do not call hard all that this people call hard, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of Hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary, and a stone of offense, and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken."
1. To have the strength of full-fledged sons, we have to have a new walk.
"For the Lord spoke thus to me with His strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people."
He's not talking about the people of the world. He's talking about the religious people, the people who profess to love God, and profess to have concern, but whose walk is a sham.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy.
Make sure, above all things, that your walk is real.
You can have all kinds of "spiritual" disciples and pious rituals, you can be going to Bible Studies and telling people about Jesus, and not be walking with Jesus at all.
Are you walking with Jesus Christ today?
Are you under the yoke with Him?
Are you listening, learning from Him?
Are you going where He goes?
2. To have the strength of full-fledged sons, we need a mind that is no longer overwhelmed by circumstances.
"Do not call hard all that this people call hard, and do not fear what they fear."
The religious mind is forever overwhelmed by things that look hard.
"0, that's too hard! I can't do it. I'll have to compromise. I'll have to take a short cut."
"Yes, I know God wants us to reach this city, but there are some sections that are just too hard."
The mind of the full-fledged son is never overwhelmed. Nothing is too hard if God tells us to do it. If God tells us to do the impossible, it can be done.
''Do not fear what the people fear."
Again the religious mind is always afraid.
The priest and the Levite passed by on the other side of that wounded man because they were afraid.
Aaron the priest made the golden calf for the people because he was afraid of the people.
Man-made religion is based on fear of man. The priest is afraid of the people, and the people are afraid of the priest. But the full-fledged sons of God have no fear of man. Let them threaten us,
let them slander us,
let them kill us. If God is with us, what can they do?
Do not call hard all that this people call hard, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.
3. A vision of God's holiness.
If you want to be lifted up into God's strength, get a vision of God as He is. And when you see God as He is, you see Him as holy.
"But the Lord of Hosts, Him you shall regard as holy."
- He's not your buddy.
- He's not your secret weapon.
- He's not your uncle in the furniture business.
- He's not the source of power for the great things you're going to do,
He's the Holy One who dwells in light unapproachable.
- You take off your shoes in His presence.
- You fall on your face.
- You repent in dust and ashes.
God sends His Only-Begotten to shed every last drop of His blood to atone for the sins which you have committed against His holiness. And when you receive the forgiveness of your sins through that blood, and you come into your Father's house and He welcomes you with open arms, He is still holy.
4. A new fear.
- Not that old fear of man,
- not that old dread of the future,
- but fear of God.
"But the Lord of Hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread."
It's the weak childish saints who think that God is their buddy until they learn the hard way that He isn't.
The strong, deep-rooted saints of God all hold their heavenly Father in holy awe. They know how dreadful, how fearful is His glory.
Do not fear those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into Hell; yes I tell you, fear Him!
You never have to be afraid of being forgotten by God. God doesn't even forget the sparrows. God numbers the hairs on your head. Just fear God!
The closer you come to God, yea, the more you love God, the more you will hold God in awe. The more you will tremble before Him.
- You won't use His name idly.
- You won't get flippant in your ''Praise the Lords!''
- Or wordy in your prayers.
5. We have to come to the place where God is our only sanctuary. Where we know that the only safe place on this earth we have is God Himself.
''And He will become a sanctuary'' (for you).
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear, Though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.
When you have come to the place where you know (and live accordingly) that nothing else is solid,
- neither money,
- nor friends,
- nor loved ones,
- nor your brains,
- nor your connections,
- nor your name,
- nor the house you live in,
(none of these was ever meant to be your sanctuary), then God becomes your sanctuary. God is your defense through nights of terror and days of destruction. God is your peace when there is no peace anywhere on earth.
And he will become a sanctuary (for you) and a stone of offense, and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel.
Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.
When He becomes a man, tie will be so strong that He will be a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling.
Now God the Son once more becomes, in your flesh, that stone of offense and that rock of stumbling. Christ, in you, is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. This rock-hard strength of God in you becomes the sign of God's presence in their midst.
You can be sure that in the coming days the revival of God will expand and enflame parts of your city and of the world that haven't been touched. But it will also leave many wrecks behind - birds that couldn't fly when they got pushed from the nest.
The call of the Spirit is for full-fledged sons, full-grown men and women, people who are strong in God. If you postpone your growing up, you may never make it. Now is the time to enter into that new walk.
Do not call hard all that this people call hard, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of Hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary, and a stone of offense, and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Now is the time to put away childish things, and become strong in the Lord,
and in the power of His might.