To Fall on, or to be Broken by.
Matthew 21:44 “And whomsoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”
Jesus is this stone:
Matthew 21:42 “ Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?”
Here Jesus sets forth the action of our will:
Come to Him and “fall on”. Subject yourself to Me.
Or, in the day of judgement; that same stone will destroy.
How do we fall on that stone? Here we begin to consider brokenness.
I like to think of horses: to break a horse, you do not brake it’s spirit, but it’s will. You want the horse to be the beautiful spirited animal it always was; but not the wild, willful animal which will not be our companion in work.
It is the same with us. God wants us to be us. Not the rebellious, willful us. But the beautiful spirit which He created….our personality.
We may think we are nothing, or little; but Jesus never sees us as this. He sees a beautiful spirit. Our personalities may be cluttered with anger or hurt; but He sees us…the real us…and loves us. And wants us to be free to work with Him.
Romans 7:18, 22 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:”
It is odd to me that Paul ever had this experience. But it shows that each Christian has an inward man, which wants the Lord’s Will. And an outward man which still has the desire to do it’s own will….at least part of the time.
2 Corinthians 4:16 “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
The “outward man” or “my flesh” must be broken: and for the Christian, it is a willed action. We must will with God, which is to fall on the stone.
John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
This is the work, we and the Lord are to do, together. Lift Him up.
But how?
Well, we must manifest Him in us, so that others see the Lord when they see us.
And this only happens as our wills are “broken” and the inward man of Christ and us, is seen.
Again, how are they broken? It is broken in willed experience as the Holy Spirit touches every strong point in our personality, until we become “poor in spirit”, as Paul testified of himself.
We all want to hang on to some asset; some ability; some good point in our life; but what Jesus wants is you to will wholly and completely with Him.
Paul wrote of his further experience, for he had found the secret of Spiritual life:
(If you read Romans 7:7-24 there are thirty “I’s”. But in Romans 8:1–16, the Spirit replaces the I’s. It is written fifteen times!)
Romans 8:11-14 “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but ye if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
It is yielding to the touches of the Holy Spirit in us that we gain all that Jesus has for us.
1 Peter 2:7-8 “Unto you therefore which believe He is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
And a stone of stumbling, and rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: where unto also they were appointed.”
What do we think of Christ and the Spirit? Can we trust ourselves to His Way?
He always has the end goal in view: He always sees us working together.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 