Their Threshold by My Threshold

Their Threshold by My Threshold

“They set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me . . . .” Ezek. 43:8.

This is how it was in Israel, and this is how it is today. Satan has always placed his doorpost as close to God’s doorpost as possible; and when they are so close to each other, the multitudes have always found it easier to go through the wrong door. However, there has always been a wall of division between the true saints and the religious multitudes.

Satan is clever at making use of the words in the Scriptures. He always mixes lies with the truth, because he would not get so many people to follow him if he only lied to them.

One scripture which he diligently uses is half a verse of 1 John 1:7. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” The thousands who have never come to a living faith in the first part of this scripture pour through this door. Satan covers up this part of the verse very nicely, because if anyone were to come to a living faith in the entire verse in its context, Satan’s power would be crushed as far as they are concerned. Satan likes all kinds of religiosity with prayer, testimonies, singing, and music, as long as he can take part in it all with hypocrisy, envy, guile, lies, partiality, pride, honor-seeking, luxury, slander, backbiting, division, arguing, etc. In the midst of all this, people sing “Under the blood,” and Satan has a splendid time. The only thing he does not tolerate is light. Those who enter through the right door receive a living faith to walk in the light just as Christ is in the light. They enter into blessed fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses them from all sin to an ever-increasing degree as they go forward in the light. The distinguishing mark of Jesus’ true disciples is that they love one another.

See to it that you enter through the right door so that you receive faith to walk in the light just as Christ is in the light.

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful” (2 Tim. 2:13) is also a sentence from the Scriptures that Satan uses diligently. He entices thousands to go through this door. Among such people you can often hear testimonies to the effect that now they have been saved for many years, and that during this time they have by and large lived a life in defeat. “But,” they say, “God be praised! Even if we have been unfaithful, He remains faithful.” According to this interpretation of this scripture, it is not so important how you live because God is faithful and loving—and thus they have grace and the blood. This is the kind of understanding in which Satan flourishes wonderfully.

It is true that God is faithful and that He cannot deny Himself. So if we are faithless, He will deny us, and we will fall under His judgment.

On the right door that leads to life it is written: “For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him.” Entering through this narrow door requires that we lay down our life, which only a few are willing to do and go through it. On the other door it is written: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful.”

This inscription is attractive to our entire, corrupt human nature, and down through the ages and generations, large multitudes have always poured in through this door. More than at any time before, it is now approved of as being the only proper state of blessing in which to live, by the great majority of preachers. Thus these multitudes never experience a death of their self-life.

Satan has a vast array of smiling preachers at his door who stand there as an advertisement for how happy one can be if one only goes through that door. They all warn spitefully and mockingly against going through that dangerous and dreadful door next to them. But God be praised that there always has been, and will continue to be, a wall between the faithful and the faithless.

On the wrong side of the wall they love to boast of their weakness and of the grace that is sufficient for them. By this they mean they are living a life in defeat so that they can always make use of forgiving grace. However, Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Cor. 12:9-10. In this strength he always lived an overcoming life. In Romans 6:15 he writes, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”

Satan also places the doorpost of boldness next to God’s boldness. However, instead of being bold because of a pure, humble, and upright heart, one becomes shameless and proud and suffers from “preacher’s itch.”

Beside the doorpost of humility, Satan puts his false humility. Instead of being humble of heart to do all God’s will, one has only an outward form of humility. Many such people have a reputation for being particularly pious and God-fearing. They deceive people with their whispered, pious prayers and testimonies, with the way they walk with their heads bowed, and perhaps with their eye-catching, modest clothing. But when the trials come at home and at work, they are troublesome and difficult to get along with.

Next to the divine love that loves God above all else, Satan also has a love, but it is only an effeminate, human love—an insincere love. In this love a person can give away thousands of dollars and participate in works of charity all life long. Yet in all this he seeks his own and does his own will. Consequently, it is all in vain. In this effeminacy such a person also feels that the truth is too harsh and judging, and he changes the sharp Word of the cross so that everyone thinks it is nice and pleasant to listen to it.

True love is as strong as death, and its zeal against all sin and impurity is as cruel as the grave.

And so it is that there are two doors beside every virtue and beside the various scriptures. For example, one can be zealous for the truth in the Spirit, but also in the flesh. There is a liberty in the Spirit, and there is a liberty in the flesh. There is a faith to take up your cross daily, deny yourself, and follow in Jesus’ steps; and there is a faith to carry out all your own plans and wishes. Many people have gone out on God’s promises according to their own lusts. They can speak about many external experiences, but they never receive wisdom into their hearts. All their worship of God is in vain because the flesh with its affections and desires has not been crucified.

God’s doorways to virtue are extremely narrow; only a few find them and can go through them. Satan has a correspondingly false virtue for every divine virtue, and because Satan’s doorways to virtue are right next to God’s doorways and are very enticing and broad, the multitudes go astray.

“Then one said to Him, ‘Lord, are there few who are saved?’ And He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Luke 13:23-24.