ORLANDO CHINESE CHURCH

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

July 2006

Much More

by Brother Fromke

God wants us to enter into the "much more" life. Paul said ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’. We are always coming short of the fullness of God as well. There are five "much mores" in Roman 5: v. 9, 10, 15, 17 and v. 20. Let us just consider a little bit this morning these "much mores". It is quite possible for God’s children to go along for many years and come short of the full things that God wants in our lives. For example, many know that sins are forgiven by the blood, but they have never recognized that the power of sin is dealt with by the cross. We are all from Adam, but God wants us to change family. When we confess our sins, God forgives us because of the blood of Jesus Christ. But we have a self or "I" that always wants its own way. When Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, He made us crucified in Him: when He died , we died in Him; we were buried with Him and raised with Him. Now we are privileged to be in Christ, seated with Him in the heavenly places. This lifts us above the sin of this world, and delivers us from the power of the sin, from this ‘I’ life. There is this story about a swimming coach in a Christian College. He has been a Christian for many years. One night he could not sleep, so he went down the swimming pool for a dip. There was the glass ceiling, through which the moon was shinning in. As usual, he stepped up onto the diving board, and held his arms out. As he looked, he saw himself on a cross. Never before had he realized that he was on the cross with the Jesus. He was so gripped by it that he stepped off the diving board, walking down to where he would enter the water. As he went down the steps, he made the discovery that the care taker had emptied the pool water. If he had dived from that high position, he would have dived to his death. He said, ‘I stood there, and thank God!' Something had happened when he stood there looking at the cross. Then he knew the penalty of the sin had been taken care of. In addition, he recognized then the fullness of what the cross meant.

I thank God for the story of Jacob in the Old Testament. You know that night Jacob wrestled with God. Finally, God touched his thigh, and Jacob limped from that moment on. All the rest of Jacob’s life, his natural strength was limped. Is it possible that each individual can know the Lord and be saved and yet still have their natural strength operating? I believe that God wants us all to recognize Galatians 2:20. May the Lord help each of us to entering into this reality. Please notice that the center of "sin" is I, so the same with "pride". When we were crucified with Him, God does much more than just bringing us to resurrection. He brings us to be seated with Christ in heavenly places. Now the proof that Jesus is the Son of God is the resurrection, but the proof that Jesus is seated in heavenly places is that God has poured out the Holy Spirit upon His Son, the head and the body: Psalms 133:2, ‘that anointing came down upon the head and the whole body’. We know all these have taken place, but we need a personal reality, to know the resurrection, and our being seated with Christ in the ascension.

In those verses in Romans, Paul said that we are to enjoy the abundance of His grace, and we are to reign in life through Jesus Christ. Many may know about resurrection, but they have never experienced the reigning life of the Lord Jesus. John 1: 12 says, as many as received Him, to them He give them the power to become children of God, receiving by Him unto life: this we call "regeneration". When I believe, my faith goes out to what He has done for me, and He comes within me: this is what we call "justification". A number of years ago in Cleveland, I saw a young teacher remain one night in the meeting. I could tell by the shadow on her face that she was obviously troubled. She said to me, ‘When I was a young teenager, I resisted the Lord like many other young people. Then one by one, my friends were saved. I was the last one to say "yes, Lord". It was wonderful that we shared our testimonies, and went many places singing. I left the group and went on to Bible School, then became a Christian teacher.' She continued, ‘But every time I got to a meeting like this, I began to wonder if I had really confessed all my sins, really opened the door of my life, or really made Him Lord. May be I had just gone along with the crowd, and not really saved?' Looking into her trouble face, I took a sheet of paper, and I wrote two words down, ‘regeneration’ and ‘justification’. I told her, ‘you need to look out on the cross and ask, did Jesus do it right when He died? Did He shed perfect blood? Was the Father satisfied with His scarifies?' You see, the Father accepted what He did for us on the cross. You do not need to remember all the sins that you did, but just say, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' When I take that place, the blood covers all. I never do anything right, but He did it right. Is your faith in what you did, or in what He did? Did He perfectly submit to the Father? Was His perfect blood shed, and the Father satisfied with what He did? God said if I am satisfied, you will be satisfied. Justification deals with what He has done for me, and regeneration is what He does in me. That night, I saw the shadow began to leave her face. She said, 'I did really invite Him into my life. I believe regeneration was right and complete.' She took the piece of paper and said, ‘Tonight, I trust what He did for me’.

Now we are talking about "much more". Thank God, we trust in the fact that we have ascended and seated with Him. Thank God, we are claiming that the power of sin is broken in our lives. Thank God that our believing is in what He did for us, not what we did. Furthermore, there is the spirit of wisdom and revelation given to us in our acknowledging Him. The moment we learn to walk with the Lord, the spirit of wisdom is working. At times, God would give us a special word for the situation. I will illustrate this with a story about a chaplain during WWII in Europe. One night, the nurse phoned, saying a young man called for help. As before, the chaplain picked up his Bible, and walked down the long corridor. He kept saying, Oh God, what can I say to this young man? Would you please give me a word? The Holy Spirit did drop one verse to his heart, 'My son! Give me thy heart.' As he walked and thought about that verse, he said, 'that’s so simple: A change of government in his life, a matter of being willing to say, yes Lord, I give you my heart! So he walked into the room, and found the bed. The young man was suddenly awaken, and the chaplain said, I do not know how much you know about the gospel, you can give Him your heart; it is the change of government. Then he opened his Bible and read to the young man that verse, "my son, give me thy heart". The young man was stunned and said, "I can not believe that’s in the Bible. I have never been the Church, but the doctor says I am going to die. I want to be ready to meet God, and you said I need to give Him my heart." The chaplain read it again, ‘my son, give me thy heart’. The young man said, "God, if that is all you want, I give you my heart." In a moment, he smiled and took his last breath and was gone. The chaplain said, thank you, God, for helping me. I need to write to his mother, to let her know the good news. He took his little pad and began to write. Amazingly he discovered the boy's name was John Myson. He thought, no wonder he wanted to know for sure that it was in the Bible!

Do you believe that God can give a special word to you for each situation? My burden for each individual is that all of us have the spirit of wisdom as we walk with the Lord. But, as we come to the moment of crisis, we do not have wisdom, yet God can give a word, as wonderful as ‘my son, give thy heart’. I have been amazed through the years, sometimes on the phone, sometimes in consulting with somebody, I cried, Oh God, I do not know; then He says a word, and I am more surprised than anybody else where it came from! God wants us to be people who expect more, not just enjoy the spirit of wisdom , but in those crisis moment, asking and receiving a word.

Let me tell you a story of a young sailor. The submarine was stalled on the bottom of the ocean, and the commander called all together and said, it is hopeless, something is wrong with the engines; is there anybody in the crew who can pray? We need prayer. This young sailor said, I will pray, then very simply he said, ‘Oh God, unless you help us, we are all going to die’. When he got through, he said, 'I believe God wants me to do something. Would you please let me go to the engine room? The Lord is showing me something.' He walked to the engine room and began to pull off a few switches, pretty soon , the engine started. The whole crew was shouting amazed, and they were all rescued. A couple months later, the mother wrote to him and said, ‘I have a strange burden for you one night. I could not sleep, so I got out of bed and began to pray. Was there any thing taking place on such and such a night?’ He wrote back and said, ‘mother, God gave a word of wisdom. It was just what I needed, and we were all rescued.' I am pleading this morning that you know God wants us to expect much more, way beyond our own natural wisdom.

Last year we were watching television one night, suddenly Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, appeared to make an announcement. It was the crusade in Dallas, and Franklin said, 'my father’s brother, Melvin is going to give his testimony.' As he walked to the microphone, I said that is the Melvin, forty-nine years ago. I was in Charlotte, NC holding meetings. We had morning services in one of the larger homes where all the sisters came. One morning, Billy Graham’s mother came and said, Devern, would you allow me to bring my son Melvin to the service tomorrow? I said, I would be happy to have another man in the service. The next morning, Melvin came, and I had been asking the Lord what I can say to help Melvin, since his mother said he was very discouraged and disappointed. As we sat there for a few minutes, Melvin said to me, 'Billy, my brother was saved when he was sixteen; I was saved when I was eleven. We both responded to the invitation and gave our hearts to the Lord. Billy travels all over the world, and everybody knows about Billy. But I just stay home milking my dad’s cows. The world knows about Billy, but they do not know about me.' At that moment, the Holy Spirit gave me a word. I was sure it was right, so I read out of the Bible, ‘it is required of stewards that one be found faithful’. I went on and told Melvin, 'Billy is a steward and he is faithful to his calling, so the world may know about him. But, Melvin, God wants you to be faithful in your calling. The only important thing is to be faithful to what God wants you to do. Someday we all will stand in front of Bema, and Billy will be accountable for his gift and ministry, and so will you. Let me leave one word with you, Melvin, ‘faithful’'. Next morning in the Bible study, Mrs. Graham came and said ‘Vern, what did you tell Melvin yesterday? He has been so cheerful! Since yesterday, he has been a different boy,’ I told her what I just said, Melvin, forgets everything else but be faithful. Forty-nine years have gone by, then I saw Melvin stand before the microphone. He has thinned out quite a bit, and he was wearing a cap. Melvin started out by saying, 'Billy was saved when he was sixteen, and I was saved at eleven. Billy is known all over the world; Billy has been faithful. Nobody knows me, but I think I have been faithful all the way.' I sat there and wept. Forty-nine years! He did not forget; God was saying, you have been faithful. I did not know then that Melvin was receiving treatment for his cancer at that time. Three months later, God took Melvin home.

I think I have a limp in the ‘I’ that was crucified. I encourage you this morning that God wants us to know the "much more" life. We can reign in grace now because of the ascension. We can limp because we have been in the cross like Jacob. Our confidence can be at what He did for us on the cross. At the very end of your life, the enemy would come and bring doubts, but you can say He did it right, and I am trusting what He did! Much more, that is the uniqueness of Christianity. God offers much more! Watchman Nee said the most important miracle in the old testament is the story of Jonah. Jonah went through his death three days in the fish, and God brought him out. Oh, Lord! bring every one of us to the place, not only resurrected, but the reigning by grace. I give you my heart; the government of my life is turned over to you; and by your grace I will be faithful.