The Great Escape, or Glory?

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="129a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to the Heart4God Website!"><U><B><IMG SRC="4b55a500.png" border=0 width="90" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin"><U><B>Writings by Date</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id212.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin Organized "><U><B>Writings by Topic</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm"><U><B>Audio Files</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id690.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Videos"><U><B>Videos</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id323.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings of Others"><U><B>Other Authors</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id324.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id339.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions and Answers"><U><B>Q&A</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id328.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Heart4God Email List"><U><B>Heart4God E-mail List</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com"><U><B>Parables Blog</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id306.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="File Downloads"><U><B><IMG SRC="2b264140.png" border=0 width="100" height="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <B>The Great Escape, or Glory?</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="c2827160.png" border=0 width="807" height="22" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Joseph Herrin (2-18-2001)</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Isaiah 60:2</div> <div> "For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you."</div> <bR> <div> Many of the saints are expecting this outshining of the glory of Yahweh to be revealed in them in coming days. But there is talk of this glory being revealed in a remnant only. There is great indication that this glory is not something of which the whole body of Christianity will partake. Many are being called, but few will be chosen.</div> <bR> <div> Like the foolish virgins, when Yahshua comes to be revealed IN His saints (II Thessalonians 1:10), many will find the door closed to them and it will not be opened. They will hear Yahshua’s words, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you” (Matthew 25:12). It will be too late to go out and purchase oil for their lamps.</div> <bR> <div> All of creation is groaning in earnest expectation of the sons of God being revealed; a full-stature, glorious group of sons who truly bear the nature of their heavenly Father. The day is near at hand, but how can one know that he/she will be chosen? What are the qualifications of this group? Is it enough to simply know and understand that this  manifesting of sons will take place? Is it enough to know that only a remnant will be chosen? The answer is clearly “No!” Even the demons know that God exists, but their knowledge doesn’t qualify them to stand in His presence. Knowledge is insufficient. Obedience is required.</div> <bR> <div> There is a vital ingredient missing from the preaching of the gospel today. There is something that is so glaringly absent that many scratch their heads in confusion when it is mentioned. What is it? It is the preaching of the cross, and the preaching of the cross is inseparably linked to obedience. Yahshua’s words upon Gethsemane were, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Thy will be done.” Obedience to the will of the Father was paramount.</div> <bR> <div> Not only is the cross and the obedience it signifies absent from the preaching of the gospel today, but it has been replaced with something that is quite contrary. The preaching today is a preaching of self. “God will help you fulfill YOUR dreams. God wants to prosper you financially. God wants to remove heartache and suffering and difficulty from your path. God has a wonderful plan for YOU.” Now I don’t for a minute deny that God does many wonderful and supernatural works, but He does them according to His will, not man’s will. He does them to fulfill His plans, not to satiate the lusts of sinful man. He does all to bring glory to Himself, not to make men look good.</div> <bR> <div> Our Father has no interest in making our lives appear attractive to a carnal world. Those who will be drawn to Him will be drawn of the Spirit and not through means of  the flesh. In fact, it is the flesh of man that will truly keep both the world and the worldly believer from following God wholly. As the rich young ruler, many desire the things only God can offer, but their attachments to the world will keep them from following where He would lead them.</div> <bR> <div> Where will God lead those who aspire to be sons? He will lead them through much suffering and affliction. He will lead them through paths of rejection, misunderstanding, condemnation, ridicule, slander, poverty, weakness, distresses, etc.. Where is this understanding being preached today? Not in the glittery cathedrals of man. Not in the religious institutions of today. No, they are preaching something quite the opposite.</div> <bR> <div> Can you understand why it is only a remnant that will attain to sonship? Can you perceive why a church that has been fed a diet of selfish desire will not want to go down the path God would lead them? Paul proclaimed the following to be the condition of the apostles.</div> <bR> <div> I Corinthians 4:11-13</div> <div> 11     To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless;</div> <div> 12     and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;</div> <div> 13     when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> Was this type of suffering and difficulty merely the lot of the apostles? No, we are told that “indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Yahshua will suffer persecution” (II Timothy 3:12).</div> <bR> <div> What has been missed by much of the body of Christ is that God purchased us from the earth for a purpose. He desired to have many sons to come to glory (Hebrews 2:10). An examination of scriptures reveals that this glorification of sons will not occur apart from much suffering. Most people who have been brought into the church in this day have been misled. They have been told that salvation affords them all the glory of heaven when they die, and they can live pretty much according to their own desires while on this earth. In fact, many have been told that God will help them to fulfill their soulish and carnal longings.</div> <bR> <div> I am reminded of an episode on T.V. the other day that a young man was telling me about. A woman who was reputed to be a prostitute was attempting to buy drugs from another woman so she could sell them. The woman gave her a bag full of plaster, instead of drugs, so the woman called the police. She insisted that the police make the other woman honor her deal to sell her drugs instead of plaster.</div> <bR> <div> This is rather remarkable. Drug trafficking is against the law, yet this woman wanted the police to insure that her drug deal was handled properly. In the same way many saints haven’t realized that the love of the world and the pursuit of all it offers is forbidden in the Kingdom of God. They insist that God help them to gain the things they crave and lust after. Their requests to God are just as senseless as were the requests of this woman. </div> <bR> <div> Jacob 4:3-4 (often erroneously translated as the book of James)</div> <div> 3     You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.</div> <div> 4     Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.</div> <bR> <div> The church today has made itself to be a friend of the world, and they are assured that all of the riches, glory, and honor of the Kingdom will be theirs. Nothing could be further from the truth.</div> <bR> <div> II Timothy 2:11-13</div> <div> 11     It is a trustworthy statement: for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him;</div> <div> 12     <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Georgia" >If we endure, we shall also reign with Him</FONT>; if we deny Him, He also will deny us...</div> <bR> <div> Note carefully that there is a condition placed upon reigning with Yahshua. This is far from an isolated scripture bringing forth this truth. There are many more that declare the same truth.</div> <bR> <div> Romans 8:16-19</div> <div> 16     The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,</div> <div> 17     and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Georgia" > if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Again, in this passage from Romans, we find a condition to becoming heirs and to becoming partakers of His glory.</div> <div>      </div> <div> I Peter 4:12, 13</div> <div> 12     Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;</div> <div> 13     but <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Georgia" >to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.</FONT></div> <div>      </div> <div> Acts 14:21-22</div> <div> 21     And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,</div> <div> 22     strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying,<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Georgia" > "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."</FONT></div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> Matthew 10:21-22</div> <div> 21     "And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.</div> <div> 22     "And you will be hated by all on account of My name, <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Georgia" >but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved</FONT> [the saving of the soul].</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> Matthew 10:38-42</div> <div> 38     "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.</div> <div> 39     "He who has found his life shall lose it, and <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Georgia" >he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.</FONT></div> <div>      </div> <div> All of these scriptures about sharing with Yahshua in His glory, in His reigning, in His salvation, are conditional. We must also share in His suffering. We must endure to the end. Those who are anticipating being among those who are revealed in this last hour as the glorious sons of God, should realize that there is a cost involved, although the cost is small in comparison to the reward.</div> <bR> <div> Romans 8:18-19</div> <div> 18     For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.</div> <div> 19     For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> Do you see how inextricably woven together are sufferings and glory and the manifesting of the sons of God? The invitation of the cross is “come and die”, but on the other side of the cross is resurrection life. The church has been lied to. They have been told that because Yahshua went to the cross, they don’t have to, but His very words reveal that He would drag all men to the same cross that He embraced.</div> <bR> <div> John 12:32</div> <div> "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> Where is Yahshua when He is drawing men to Himself? He is on the cross. He is drawing men to Himself and to His cross that we might also share in His resurrection life and that we might be qualified to rule and reign with Him. This process is difficult and painful, but we have a glorious hope set before us. Suffering is undeniably a part of our calling. In a very real way it is the cost of partaking in the glory set before us. It is the tool used of God to separate the wheat from the tares, the true sons from the illegitimate.</div> <bR> <div> II Corinthians 1:3-10</div> <div> 3     Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord [Yahshua] the Messiah, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;</div> <div> 4     who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.</div> <div> 5     For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.</div> <div> 6     But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer;</div> <div> 7     and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are of our comfort.</div> <div> 8     For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;</div> <div> 9     indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;</div> <div> 10     who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us...</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> II Timothy 1:8</div> <div> Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God...</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> I Peter 4:1-2</div> <div> 1     Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,</div> <div> 2     so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> Romans 8:35-36</div> <div> 35     Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?</div> <div> 36     Just as it is written, "For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered."</div> <bR> <div> II Corinthians 4:7-12</div> <div> 7     But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;</div> <div> 8     we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;</div> <div> 9     persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;</div> <div> 10     always carrying about in the body the dying of [Yahshua], that the life of [Yahshua] also may be manifested in our body.</div> <div> 11     For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Yahshua’s sake, that the life of [Yahshua] also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.</div> <div> 12     So death works in us, but life in you.</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> I Thessalonians 3:4</div> <div> For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know.</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> I Peter 4:19</div> <div> Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> Matthew 16:24-27</div> <div> 24     Then Yahshua said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.</div> <div> 25     "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.</div> <div> 26     "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?</div> <div> 27     "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds.</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> John 16:1-3</div> <div> 1     "These things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling.</div> <div> 2     "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.</div> <div> 3     "And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me.”</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> There is no escape from suffering for those who would progress on to glory. Even Yahshua learned obedience through the things He suffered. If we would be sons we must also learn obedience. The church has created doctrines that cater to its desire to avoid suffering. These doctrines are varied and they are numerous. Men are heaping to themselves teachers to tell them what they want to hear. The doctrine of the rapture is the ultimate great escape from suffering. There will be many who are found sleeping when the Son of God returns to be glorified in His saints. There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and truly then many will see that these momentary LIGHT afflictions are not worthy to be compared with the WEIGHT of glory to be revealed in us.</div> <bR> <div> Now is the hour of preparation. The following scriptures are even now being fulfilled.</div> <bR> <div> Daniel 12:9-10</div> <div> 9     And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.</div> <div> 10     "Many will be purged, purified and refined; but the wicked will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.</div> <bR> <div> Hosea 6:1-3</div> <div> 1     "Come, let us return to [Yahweh]. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.</div> <div> 2     "He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him.</div> <div> 3     "So let us know, let us press on to know [Yahweh]. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the former and latter rain watering the earth."</div> <div> (NAS)</div> <bR> <div> It has now been two days (2,000 years) since Yahshua came. In these two days the children of God have been torn. The Spirit and the flesh have waged war in our members, but our healing is coming. When we lay aside this mortality and put on immortality, this war will be over. We will be whole. We will be found in appearance even as He is. This is our great hope, our hope of glory.</div> <div> Amen</div> <bR> <div> Come quickly Yahshua!</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>