The Father has no pleasure in weak and feeble children. He loves them, will care for them, shield and protect them, but He has no joy in it. (See Ephesians 6:10.)
He never made anyone sick. He never has made one of His children sick or hurt him. He never oppresses them.
Every believer owes it to himself to be established in the Word, to be settled and fixed so that he will not be wafted about by every wind and storm.
Ephesians 4:14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
WHAT THE BELIEVER NEEDS TO KNOW
He should know what he is in Christ, know it so thoroughly that no matter what happens he stands unruffled, unaffected. (See Ephesians 1:3–7.)
He should know what Christ is to him, and what He has done for him, and what He is doing for him now. (See 1 Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 7:25.)
This threefold knowledge should be a part of his daily equipment. He should know what belongs to him, what is really his. (See Philippians 1:9–11.)
No matter what may happen, he stands quiet and restful in the consciousness that if God is for him, no one can successfully be his enemy. (See Romans 8:31–33.)
He should know about the indwelling Spirit. He should become God-indwelt conscious. (See Philippians 2:13.)
I know that He that is in me is going to breathe through my lips today the message that you need. You want to be God-inside conscious. (See 1 John 4:4.)
The believer should know what the Word is to him, what it means to him, what the Father intended it should mean to him. (See Psalm 119:105.)
The Word is the food of the recreated spirit. (See Matthew 4:4.) It is the mightiest thing in all the world. It slays and makes alive.
The Word slew Ananias and Sapphira, and the same day made well hundreds of men and women. (See Acts 5:1–11.)
Every believer should know what the name of Jesus can mean to him in his daily life, so that no matter what happens, he is a victor, a conqueror. (See John 16:24.)
“In my name ye shall cast out demons” (Mark 16:17). You can cast out all demons if you cast out a demon, and you can cast out the work of a demon.
Every believer should be established in this truth. So many are established in weakness; they live under the shadow of it. Others are established in sickness and infirmities. (See James 5:14–17.)
Others are established in fear, in the sense of sin, the sense of lack and inability. (See Isaiah 41:10.)
We want to learn to be established in the Word.
2 Peter 1:12: “Wherefore I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and are established in the truth which is with you.”
Romans 8:31–38 is God’s photograph of the established believer. We haven’t room to quote it, but I want you to read it with great care. Here is the first sentence: “If God is for us, who is against us?” (verse 31). We should be established in that.
You know that Scripture is yours. You know that God is for you. You know that He is your Father and that He gave up His Son to die for us; and you know that He has given us His own nature, His own life.
1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
You know the next verse: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” (verse 32). You are established in that. You are settled, fixed.
Revel in the next sentence, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” (verses 33–34).
No one can hinder you now. God has given you His own Son, His own righteousness.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
You swing down on through the remainder of these wonderful verses. Dig into that wonderful thirty-fifth verse, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
Rest under the shadow of that great Rock in this weary land; and you hear someone saying, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (verse 37).
You know who you are, what you are. (See 1 John 3:2.) You know who is backing you up, who is protecting you. For it is God who is at work within you working and willing His own precious will. (See Philippians 2:13.)
Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
John 15:5: “I am the vine and ye are the branches.” No one can touch a branch without hurting the vine. The vine and the branch are one. You are a part of him, and He is a part of you. He is taking care of you. You are established in this truth. All hell knows it, too. (See James 2:19.)
Write out Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 20 Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen
You are so established in that truth that you never worry about your finances any more. Your Father is now meeting your obligations. You and He are laboring together. (See Matthew 6:27–34.)
2 Corinthians 6:1 has become a reality to you. You are laboring together with Him. You are partners. You are fellowshipping each other. You are sharing with Him, He is sharing with you. What a wonderful life it is!
Jeremiah 33:3 sings its song of confidence in your heart: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great things, and difficult [fenced in things, mighty things], which thou knowest not.”
“You have sought Me and I will lead you in the realm of omnipotence; and I will lead you in the place where only those whose feet are shod with the gospel of peace have trod, where none can breathe the rarified atmosphere but those who are partakers of My grace and have received the abundance of My life.”
John 1:16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
Colossians 2:9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Why? He said, in essence, “You call unto Me and I will hear you. I listen to you all the time. You are my child. I am your Father, and this Jesus who is seated at My right hand is your intercessor and your advocate. I want you to walk in now and take your place.”
Can’t you hear Him whisper, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10). What more do you want?
“I am thy God. I am your Father. I am your strength. I am your wisdom and your ability.” (See 2 Corinthians 3:4–6.)
2 Corinthians 3:4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
When you are established in that, fixed and settled in it, you become a world-ruler in the spiritual realm. Men can feel the effect of your prayer life in Europe, Asia, and Africa. (See John 14:13–14.) The demons that rule the warring elements of Europe and Africa are afraid of you, and they are afraid that you will turn the mighty influence of your lips and prayers against them. (See John 15:7.) You are established at last in the very heart of God—established in love.
Have you ever realized what that means? For years I was afraid of my Father although I was a preacher. I was afraid to trust Him. I didn’t dare abandon myself to His Son. Then one day, 1 John 4:16 became unveiled to me. Let me give it to you: “And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.”
“We know and have believed the love which God hath in us.” That little preposition “in” belongs there. Now see what it means: “I know and I have come to believe that my Father has love in my case. Why, He is love; and I abide in love, so I am abiding in Him and with Him. He and I are laboring together. I have come to believe in His love for me.” (See 1 John 4:7–8.)
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
I was afraid once, but now I rest in it. I am established in His love. I know that I cannot fail. I know that He loved me enough to give His Son to die for me, and that He will freely give me all things. (See John 3:16.)
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Ephesians 3:17–19 must ever stand out among the great sentences of revelation:
Ephesians 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth [sense] knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God [this love-God].
I have sat by the side of this Scripture as I sat in my boyhood days by the side of a little stream that used to flow down through the pasture, and dreamed the dreams of a little boy. I have say by the side of this Scripture and dreamed of what it could mean to me to be rooted and grounded in God until the taproot of my being was saturated with this abundant life of God, until the very fullness of His great love nature came pouring into my whole being, filling me with Himself. What it could mean to be rooted, grounded, established in love! (See Ephesians 3:20.)
Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
ESTABLISHED IN RIGHTEOUESNESS
Isaiah 54:14: “In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee.” And while your heart meditates in that, we will turn to Isaiah 32:17: “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.”
You are going to be established in the consciousness of the absolute reality of your being the righteousness of God in Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 5:21.)
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
There is Romans 3:26: “Or the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.”
You have faith in Jesus as your Savior and Lord. Now the Father has become your righteousness and by this new birth, this new creation, He has imparted unto you His very life and nature.
2 Corinthians 5:17–18: “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation.”
You have the nature and life of God. You are a new creation. John 6:47: “He that believeth hath eternal life.”
Eternal life is the nature and life of the Father. You have that now. You have become, by the new creation, by the impartation of God’s very nature, the righteousness of God in Christ. Few people are established in that. Few appreciate or understand it, or have ever entered into its fullness.
It means that you can stand in the Father’s presence, just as Jesus, without the sense of inferiority, that you can stand in the presence of Satan and all his works with the same fearless grace that Jesus had.
2 Corinthians 2:14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
He didn’t have any fear when He stood by the tomb of Lazarus and spoke. There wasn’t any fear in His heart when He said, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43). He was Master.
There wasn’t any fear in Peter’s heart when he said to Sapphira, “Behold, the feet of them that have buried thy husband are at the door, and they shall carry thee out,” (Acts 5:9), and she gave up the ghost there.
You see, it makes men masters of life and of death.
When Peter said to the dead Dorcas in Acts 9:40–43, in essence, “Dorcas, come back; they need you,” she arose.
ESTABLISHED IN GRACE
Hebrews 13:9: “Be not carried away by divers and strange teachings: for it is good that the heart be established by grace; not by meats, wherein they that occupied themselves were not profited.”
Think of it! We are being established in grace. What is grace? It is love pouring itself out upon the graceless and the unworthy.
The Spirit gave to us a marvelous interpretation of grace in Romans 4:4–5: “Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” Then, in Romans 5:6, we read, “For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.”
You see, grace is love in operation, love in action.
I could never get it clear in my heart how Jesus could love the man who was putting the lash upon His back, or how He could love the man, and die for him, who put the nails through the palms of His hands and feet; but I imagine that if you had been back there near the sepulcher when Jesus arose from the dead, you would have heard Him say, “Where is the man who plaited the crown of thorns and placed them upon my brow? I want to tell him that I died for him, that I suffered the torments of the damned for him.”
Don’t you remember that He said, “Go, tell [My] disciples and Peter” (Mark 16:7)? That little conjunction there ties the heart of Peter with the Master in a way that moves my heart. “Go, tell Peter, who denied me; tell him that I love him.” That is grace, indeed.
You notice that God put His love beyond a doubt: “In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Then you notice the tenth verse: “For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.”
You remember John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” Jesus belongs to the world. He doesn’t belong to you any more than He belongs to the despairing, wicked men who have murdered so many women and children in Europe. That is grace; and you are so established in grace that you don’t criticize anyone.
Don’t you know that the man you are “knocking” is the man Jesus died for?
Did you ever realize that you and I, before we can ever become soul-winners, before we can reach a lost world, have to be established in grace? We have to know the Master, and know the motives behind His love gift, His sacrifice. We have to be established in it so that we will be like John G. Paton was in the New Hebrides. He stood and watched a chieftain shoot his companion; and then—would you believe it—the day came when he baptized that chieftain and administered the Lord’s Supper to him. He so loved that he gave his life to those desperate heathen men and women.
You who read this lesson, take God, by His grace, to establish you in love, to establish you in grace.
Do you know what that will mean? That will be establishing you in the perfect Word of grace. You will become a soul-winner when grace gains the ascendancy.
God so loved that He gave. I so love that I give. I so love that I give my time; I give my money; I give my ability. I lay it all upon the altar of grace.
He loves you now and He wants you to love Him as He loved you. He wants you to give as He gave. You can’t give as much, but you can give with the same spirit of love that He gave, can’t you?
One of my students from Central America could not speak much English, yet was attending our evangelistic meetings. He watched Miss Ridge, a returned missionary, pleading with a high school girl to yield to Christ. He politely said, “Teacher, tell her that if I could, I give her my heart. It would believe on Jesus.” That is grace!
HOW MUCH DO YOU REMEMBER?
1–3. Give three descriptions of the daily life of one who is established in: love; righteousness; grace.
- What is the importance of being established in the Word?
- What threefold knowledge of Christ should we know?
- Give the contrast of the established lives of a believer and an unbeliever.
7–10. Quote and explain four Scriptures in this lesson that have been the greatest revelation to you.