On Eagles' Wings Pt 119 — Don Courville

Have you ever considered this thought that Jesus Christ, in all that he went through, in all of the suffering and the shame and the rejection, never did. He never did develop a bitter spirit. You know, the Scripture says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising this shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Well, I'm glad to be back with you again today on Eagle's Wings. The last couple of weeks I was sharing with you a little bit on bitterness, and I thought maybe we should continue on a little bit.

Bitterness as a Root That Defiles Others

You see, bitterness is a root. As a matter of fact, Hebrews 12 and verse 13 says, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.

I want to encourage you to go with Jesus. Jesus didn't go bitter. He came out sweet. He came in sweet, and he went out sweet. And we live among many ungrateful people. We're around some folks that just seem like that they don't have it put together themselves, but they feel like it's their obligation to try to get your life put together.

And it's pretty easy to get bent out of shape. Actually, I listed two things to share with you today on bitterness. One is when you dish it out, and two is when you receive it. What's going on when you dish it out, when you're bitter, when you've developed this root of bitterness in your spirit?

And then how do you react when you are treated in the wrong way by someone else that's bitter? Let me share another Scripture passage with you, 1 Peter 2, 23, on this subject of bitterness. Now you hang with me.

I might be going a little slow right now, but I want to share with you some thoughts, some things that I consider are very important. You see, my friend, we go through life only once. And if you go through living in the realm of the Father's love, which the Lord Jesus Christ did, you'll make it.

And you will accomplish your goal. Paul, you know, Paul had this fear of the castaway, and I don't care who you are, myself included, we can fail. We can fail to reach our goal. God has a goal for you.

God has a purpose. God has a plan. And we can have confidence in Him. The Scripture says, being confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.

Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus

I think many times we lose our eternal perspective by taking our eyes off Jesus. And that's what Hebrews says, looking into Jesus. I was with a man last Sunday night by the name of Gilum, a prayer man, shares seminars on prayer.

And he had this beautiful illustration, very simple, probably not original. But you just keep your gaze on Jesus, and you take and put your glance on the circumstances that are around you. But unless you keep your gaze on Jesus, you're going to get into trouble.

And bitterness is one of the products of taking our eyes off Jesus and beginning to look at another person that has mistreated us, that has done something that we have felt is unfair. And by taking our eyes off Jesus, we forget that he's directed us to yield up our rights to be dead.

Committing Our Lives to God

First Peter, chapter 2, and verse 23, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously.

This thing of continually committing ourself to Jesus. You know what commitment is, don't you? Commitment is when you take your hands off. A lot of times I think we've got into some very serious problems in some of our definitions.

We don't understand. If you commit something, you take your hands off. You're through with it. And if you've committed your life to God, then why are you still trying to manipulate things? Why are you still trying to defend yourself?

Why are you so touchy? Why are you upset? Why are you angry? Why are you bitter? It's because you really haven't committed your life to God. I know what I'm talking about because I've gone through this.

And I have to watch myself, or I'll go back. Now, Heavenly Father, we just give this time to you today. We ask that you, Holy Spirit, would lead and direct us. Father, there's many of us that struggle with this area of being bitter.

But we know that we have no right to be bitter. And Father, I know that unless you purge your church and cleanse us of this area of bitterness, we will not be any use to you in the persecution. We pray, Father, for revival.

I pray that you would bless those that are listening today, that you would encourage them. In Jesus' name, amen. It's late, early in the morning as I'm recording this, down in the basement, bedroom house.

Everybody's asleep. The Lord had me up early to spend some time with you, talking with you about some things that I consider very serious. This area of bitterness. Well, eat your lunch, my friend. You may not be bitter when you go into a trial, but you may be bitter when you come out.

Giving No Ground to Satan

You know, I started off, and I was sharing with you, how we're not to give any ground to Satan, Ephesians chapter 4. When I started off, we were sharing with you how God doesn't want us to give ground to Satan.

In Ephesians 4 .30, he said, let all bitterness be put away from you. And remember, I shared that bitterness is resentment in the heart. It's the attitude that refuses to make reconciliation with others.

We're not to give ground to Satan, Ephesians 4 .27. In traveling around, when I used to travel a lot before I settled in just to do most of my traveling by radio, traveled around the country, working with revivalists, many different places, many different states, many different churches and situations.

This one area, bitterness, seemed to be the one big area. If we can get rid of bitterness and pride and moral impurity in our lives, these seem to be three major areas that we struggle with. If we can deal with these areas and get victory in these areas and bring ourselves under the blood of Christ, and claim his victory and let him live his life through us, and we die daily like Paul instructed us, we can have tremendous victory.

But if we don't, we have tremendous defeat. Listen, 1 Peter 4 .14. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

You know, James said, don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial that you're going to go through. Don't think it's strange if you go through trials. This is a part of life. We're to rejoice and give thanks that God's working.

God is working, and he's leading, and directing in our lives. I was thinking of some things that Oswald Chambers said about us not being our own, you know. Know you not that you're not your own. First Corinthians 6 .19.

Living as a Witness Among Difficult People

I just wanted to share some thoughts with you that he was sharing. He said there's no such thing, there's no such things as a private life. A world within the world. For a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ's sufferings, God breaks up the private life of his saints and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for himself on the other.

You know, I've wanted many times just to pull away, go into the mountains, have me a cabin, and live there and get away from people. But it seems like God wants me around people, and God has taught me to love people, and to be around and work with sometimes some very ungrateful people.

But you know, when you're around them, and you do not become like them, but you stay like Jesus, you're a light, and you draw them to the Savior. But if they can draw you down to their level, you've lost your witness.

If they're angry, and you get into an argument, and you get angry, you've lost it. Maybe you've lost a soul. Do you argue with your boss? You know, we need to practice the principle that Hudson Taylor taught us, to learn to move men by prayer through God.

And remember that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. So if you're defeated, if you're struggling, and you've got a situation that's tough, and you're worrying about it, and you're all anxious, then you're not going about it the right way.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. And so if you're not pulling them down, you're not fighting the war the right way. You don't go into a battle with a BB gun.

You get out your cannons. You get your planes with your bombs. Get your heavy artillery. One of the things Satan's done today is he's deceived us into thinking that we don't have power. He's deceived us into thinking that we have to live in defeat, that our church has to just go on the way it is.

He's deceived us, and we've believed his lies. And as a result, we've let these things affect us, and we've become bitter. Chambers said, no human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ.

In other words, you can't stand the circumstances of life, all the trials, and even God himself working in your own life, unless you understand your identity with Jesus Christ. I was reading Ephesians tonight before I tried to go to bed, go to sleep, gave up, knew the Lord wanted me to come on down and spend some time with you.

Tremendous book. Tremendous book. Let me challenge you to read it again. I don't think I'll get off in it. I wanted to stay with bitterness. But Ephesians is a tremendous book in our identity with Jesus Christ.

Chambers said, we're not sanctified for ourselves. We are called into the fellowship of the gospel. And things happen which have nothing to do with us. God is getting us into fellowship with himself. And then he said this statement, let him have his way.

If you do not, instead of being of the slightest use to God in his redemptive work in the world, you will be a hindrance and a clog. Can you trust him to engineer your circumstances? You know, the Bible says if you're filled with the fruit of the Spirit, I mean, if you're filled with the Spirit, in Ephesians chapter 5, you're going to be singing and making melody in your heart, but also you're going to be giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the evidences of a bitter heart is an unthankful attitude. In a few minutes, I want to share with you some of the consequences of bitterness. Now, excuse me, I shared that with you before, but I want to share with you some of the traits of bitterness before we run out of time today just to go through some of the things.

Spiritual Examination and Salvation by Grace

And maybe you need to have a spiritual examination. Many times I've told folks, you know, we can get the Bible down and just like you go to the doctor for a physical examination, we can give you a spiritual examination.

I do that in sharing Christ with folks. A lot of people do not understand or not sure if they died today if they'd go to heaven. And so I say, well, we can just get the Bible and we can give you a spiritual examination.

Would you be willing to have that? You know, one of the deceptive things of Satan is in the area of our salvation. And maybe if I take a little time here, maybe the Spirit of God's wanting me to do this to tell, to reach somebody for Jesus today.

But listen, God wants you to come to the point to where you are destitute spiritually so that he can justify you freely by his grace. Chambers said the gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment because the revelation which it brings is not palatable.

And what he's saying is there's a certain pride in us that we'll give and give, but to come and accept something as a free gift is very hard for us. We want to pay for it, but the Bible says that salvation is a free gift.

And you insult the Creator by trying to help pay for it by your good works. Your good works just reveal that you haven't given up yet. And God's not going to accept your good works, just like he wouldn't accept the works of Cain.

So we need to watch this thing of our pride. And we say, I'll give my life to martyrdom. I'll give myself in consecration. I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

My friend, it's very humbling to admit that you cannot save yourself, but you will go to hell unless you come to the point of realizing that there is nothing you can do to get yourself to heaven except trust the blood of Jesus Christ to cover your sins.

And we have to realize we cannot earn or win anything from God. We're all geared in this world for competition. But let me tell you, if you want to compete with God's Son who died on the cross for your sins and was buried and rose again, you're going to lose.

There's been millions that have lost that race. You're saved by grace. So you either receive it as a gift or you do without it. And if you do without it, you do without it for all eternity. And one of the things that's going to make hell so miserable is you're going to know that you deserve to be there.

And you're going to want to die and get it over with, but that's going to be hell. You're going to want the pain and the burning because the Bible tells us that hell is a place of fire and torment and gnashing of teeth.

And you're going to want it to be over with, but for all eternity, you're going to go through that because you refuse to accept God's gift. Very serious thing, a very serious thing to do without, to go without, because of your pride.

The Necessity of Receiving the Holy Spirit

The greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute, that I am destitute. Until you get there, God is powerless to do anything in your life. By the way, did you know that once you understand the gospel that Jesus Christ was crucified for you, he shed his blood there on the cross, was buried and rose again, God has nothing else to say to you until you do business with him on that account.

He has nothing else to say to you until you receive Christ as your Savior. Then when you receive Christ as your Savior, you become his child. You're a son of God, a child of God, and he has lots to say to you from then on.

And it's a wonderful experience, but life is no fun. Life may seemingly be fun, but it's not going to be fun because of the end product of death without God. So be careful. God can do nothing for us if we think we're sufficient of ourselves.

We have to enter into his kingdom through the door of destitution. And as long as we're rich, possessed of anything in the way of pride or independence, God can't do anything for us. It's only when we get hungry spiritually that we receive that which God has for us, that we receive the Holy Spirit.

The gift of the essential nature of God is made effectual in us by the Holy Spirit. He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, which puts the beyond within, and immediately the beyond has come within.

It rises to the above, and we're lifted into the domain where Jesus lives, 3 John 5, quoting from Chambers. But without the Holy Spirit, you don't have life. If any man have not the Spirit of God, he's none of his.

So just a word of warning and encouragement to go to Jesus, stick with Jesus. And then when you come to the cross for salvation, remember that God wants you to stay there. The cross is the emblem of death and shame.

But if you'll go through that, like we started off with Hebrews chapter 12, if you'll endure it, you'll live in the realm of the Father's love. So let him have his way with you. Let him have his way. Let him do what he wants.

Enjoy your God. The first thing God does with us is to get us based on rugged reality, Chambers said, until we do not care what becomes of us individually. What he's saying is, as soon as God gets us to the cross and we get saved, then he wants us to face reality that we're not our own, we've been bought with a price.

Let him do what he wants to do with you, and enjoy your God. Let him do the driving. So if he wants to take you through a heartbreak, which maybe somebody today is going through a heartbreak, through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with him that you may have never known without it.

Chambers said most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down on the threshold of God's purpose and die away of self-pity. All so-called Christian sympathy will aid us to our deathbed, but God will not.

He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of his Son and says, enter into fellowship with me, arise and shine. So if through a broken heart God can bring his purposes to pass in the world, then thank him for breaking your heart.

And don't be bitter. Don't go through that. You know, some of the traits of bitterness, slander, divisiveness, anger, undermining personalities, character assassination, hypocrisy, covering true motives.

Slander, Envy, and the Traits of Bitterness

You know what maliciousness is? First Peter 2 .16 talks about maliciousness, as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. This is one of the traits of bitterness.

It's a desire to injure another. In Romans 1 .29 he talks about several of these things, and envy is listed. You know what envy is? It's a bitterness arising in one's heart toward another who is above him, who is what he is not, or who possesses that which he does not have.

And God warns us about this stuff of having envy. Listen, in Romans 1 .29, being filled, here's a characteristic of the ungodly, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate.

You know what debate is? It's the beating and battering down of another in an argument or a contention. And malignity. You know what that is? It's taking everything in an evil way and spreading it. You can become a cancer in your church or in your family because of that type of stuff.

And then there's whispering, that secret slander, or one who secretly passes on evil reports to others. Psalms 41 .7, David said,. All that hate me whisper together against me. Against me do they devise my hurt.

Don't be a part of the devil's program of accusing the brethren. And then there's gossip, one who magnifies and sensationalizes rumors and partial information. There's a slanderer, one who seeks to destroy another's credibility or reputation with damaging facts, distortions of facts, or evil suspicions.

Remember the story about how when the spies came back, it says,. And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land.

You have a bitter heart. You've got a problem with your God. You've got a problem with sin, if this is in your life. Peter talked about busybodies, 1 Peter 4 .15,. That's one who digs up evil reports and makes it his business to spread them by means of gossip, slander, and whispering.

Such an action is as great a sin as murder or stealing. It is classified with these by God when he warns,. Let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters.

Quit trying to play God in other people's lives. Let him take care of them. You just keep loving people, reaching out, sharing Jesus, the love of God. And there's backbiting. That's open slander by attacking another person through speech or the printed page.

Then there's despite. Hebrews 10 .29 talks about that, taking pleasure in insulting another. And Hebrews 10 .29, by the way, was insulting God by saying that the blood of Christ, which was shed by the Lord Jesus Christ, was not able to keep them saved.

Listen. Of how much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who had trodden under foot the Son of God, and had counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and had done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Don't insult God by doubting your salvation. If he saved you, then believe it. Don't let the devil get in there and cause you to be bitter, and you become a slander against God, and you'll have despite.

Don't insult him. Then there's covenant breakers, those who do not plan to carry out pledged promises, unless doing so satisfies their selfish purposes, Romans 1 .31. And then those that are implacable, refusing to cease from hostilities or consent to truce or peace or love.

These are all traits of bitterness. Do you have one? Maybe you need revival. How about unmerciful? That's an unwillingness to show mercy. Boy, I was reading in James on this a little bit earlier. Now listen.

Wisdom From Above Versus Bitterness

James says, If you have bitter envy and in strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envy and in strife is, there is confusion in every evil work.

But the wisdom that is from above, listen, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

Are you a peacemaker in your church or a troublemaker? We talk about revival. I'll tell you the truth, friend. I don't think many of us know what revival is. But it's basically Jesus again. Do you need Jesus again?

I mean, He's your Savior, but do you need Him to be the Lord? Are you tired of trying to be the Lord in your life? I hope so. I'm tired of it. It doesn't work. It's very frustrating. And bitterness is one of the roots, one of the evidences that you're trying to be God in your life.

And you're bitter because it doesn't work. We don't have the power. We don't have the authority to be God in our life. Oh, but what joy there is when He's God and Lord in our life. Curios of evil reports is another thing.

One of Satan's titles is what? A slander. Bitter people can become like Satan and not like Christ. Prolonged bitterness in the heart turns a person into a devil-like person. Well, our time's about gone.

Walking With Jesus in Victory

But until next time, let me encourage you to walk with Jesus, deal with sin, live in victory, claim the blood, live under the power of the blood, and remember that Jesus Christ is all you need. But is He all you want?

May God bless you, my friend.