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A life Liberated from Sin Rom 6-8 (Pt 2 Rom 6)

Posted: May 12, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Christian life, kingdom growth, Kingdom living, Kingdom teaching

ROMANS CHAPTER SIX:

SERVANT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
by George E. (Jed) Smock

A Pharisee, who was a lawyer, tempted Jesus by asking, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:36-40).

The Pharisees were angry with Jesus because He taught the spirit (purpose) of God’s law, as well as the letter. Their anger turned to rage when Jesus made it clear that the spirit of the law is more important than the letter of the law.

The Pharisees had been very clever at appealing to the letter of the law as a means of evading the spiritual requirement of the law. They neither loved God nor their neighbor but used their knowledge of the law to exalt themselves and repress their neighbor. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy, but instead of repenting, they chose to murder the Truthbearer.

The Stupid Question

Paul anticipated that, even as men used the law to promote their selfish interests, sophists would abuse his teaching with the captious objection: “If our sin afforded God the opportunity to demonstrate His grace, why not sin even more so God may demonstrate even greater grace?”

History has certainly proven Paul to be correct in his concerns that men would pervert the doctrine of the grace of God and debase it into a license to sin. Therefore, Paul opens chapter 6 of his epistle by raising the question himself in order to put to silence their caviling:

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

It is disgraceful that anyone would even entertain such thoughts. But throughout church history men have, in the name of extolling grace, actually degenerated grace into an excuse to sin. The popular C. S. Lovett makes the appalling claim: “Sin plays an important role in the believer’s life. It is the battle AGAINST sin…and our failures…that builds spiritual muscle. When we’re shaken by failure to the point of saying, ‘I’m not going to let that happen again,’ we build determination. We may not reach the place where it doesn’t happen again, but in the process…WE CHANGE. We end up hating sin more than ever, something that could never happen without failure. For that reason, GOD’S PLAN GUARANTEES WE’LL FALL AT TIMES” (Maranatha Family Mini-Magazine, November, 1999).

This is a fatal concept of spiritual growth. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). There is nowhere that the Scriptures indicate that sin builds our character or brings spiritual maturity. Instead, the Bible commands us over and over to live godly lives and avoid sin at all cost. Whereas it is true that God is able to turn our failures into victories, how much more can He turn our victories into even greater conquests? Far be it from the God of Righteousness to guarantee that we fall into sin. On the contrary, He has promised that we can live without it: There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Sin was not given that we might be overcomers, but the Scriptures were given to be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

And what say the Scriptures? They teach that obedience was not even automatic for the Son of God, but He learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). Jesus did not build strength against sin by sinning, but by suffering for righteousness. The Bible does guarantee that we will have to learn some hard lessons: All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).

The Apostle Peter reminds us, Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin (1 Peter 4:1). In a state of suffering, the mind loses its relish for sin. However, the minds of most so-called Christians are so preoccupied with the world that they loathe persecution and delight in sin.

Paul tells us we are God’s children, If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together (Romans 8:17). What sort of suffering was he talking about? The suffering that was commonplace in the first century church at Rome: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword. Because of their testimony for Christ, the early Christians daily faced the possibility of martyrdom. But in all these things they were more than conquerors (Romans 8:35-37). These people were not suffering for sin’s sake, but for the sake of righteousness.

What damning evidence that the church is at ease in Zion, when a popular leader can teach that, “God has set things up so that it is guaranteed that you and I will sin.” Leaders need to be aware that their sin-excusing doctrines are turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness (Jude 4).

The Obvious Answer

Paul answers all defenders of sin with a resounding denial that sin is in any way part of God’s plan under grace.

2 God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Paul appeals to simple logic. He expects his readers to answer the question like this: “Obviously not — never! ”

One does not need a Doctor of Theology degree to answer Paul’s question. It is inconceivable for those who are dead to sin to keep living in it. Yet, instead of accepting the obvious and sensible answer, sophisticated theologians and ministers spend a lifetime figuring a way that man can be dead to sin and continue in it. One is either dead in sin or dead to sin. These are voluntary states.

Death to sin involves the demise of selfishness and the rise of perfect love to both God and man in heart and life. The one who is dead to sin has no other will but God’s will as his chief pursuit in life. Death to sin results in a life of self-denial with eternal aims. In contrast, to be dead in sin implies a life committed to self-indulgence with temporal aims.

Death to sin means a life committed to giving to others at the expense of oneself. Death in sin represents a life of taking for oneself at the expense of others. Others is the first concern of those dead to sin; self is the primary consideration of those dead in sin.

Some apologists for sin have had the audacity to appeal to Paul’s testimony to the Corinthians, I die daily, to excuse continuing in sin. But Paul was not saying that he died to sin daily. The context makes clear that his life was constantly in danger, even to the point of having to fight with beasts at Ephesus. Then after warning the brethren to avoid bad company, he cries, Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame (1 Corinthians 15:30 34).

What could be more simple? Stop sinning! What a reproach it is to Christianity that many who claim to be Christians do not even understand the basics of righteousness and abuse the doctrine of grace to excuse their lukewarmness and low living.

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?

It is questionable whether Paul is referring to water baptism in these verses, or the spiritual baptism which occurs when one is born again. Few things in the Church have caused more controversy and division than the issue of water baptism. Should it be by immersion, or is sprinkling adequate? Must it be in Jesus’ name, or in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost? Or for that matter, is water baptism even necessary today? In all the debate, most miss the really important point: baptism is supposed to represent the fact that we have made a commitment to forsake all sin. Just as no spark of life remained in Jesus’ body after His death on the cross, no sin is to remain in our lives as a result of our faith in Christ. Sin is to have no more influence on us than a dead body has on its departed spirit. “Don’t you know this?” Paul is asking. “This is something you are supposed to know! These are the basics.”

Death and Resurrection

4 Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

The evidence that our baptism is valid is not the formula, but that we are living a new life as a result of being dead to the old. Christianity is a new life. At conversion, we step out of Satan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom, out of darkness into light. Baptism is supposed to represent this great change; if we have not changed, then we are just wet sinners. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:

By faith we are united with Christ in His death, evidenced by His physical death and our death to sin. We have not yet obtained our resurrected bodies, so we are still subject to weaknesses and infirmities; and we have limited understanding and knowledge. However, we are not still prone to sin. Since we walk in the light that we understand, with a pure heart, we are disposed to obey God.

Paul prayed, That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:10 12). The perfection Paul had not yet acquired was his glorified body which, if he endured unto the end, he would receive after his physical death. Just after claiming he has not yet reached perfection, Paul asserts, Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded (Philippians 3:15). In the latter verse, he is claiming a moral perfection which he and others had already received. The perfection he is pursuing in the former verse is physical. This kind of perfection he hoped to obtain in the next life, when, The Lord Jesus Christ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body (Philippians 3:21). Our present body is “vile,” not in the sense of being intrinsically evil, but it is the body of our humiliation which has been mentally and physically weakened and subject to death because of sin. After we have endured unto the end, we shall receive our glorified bodies and be like Jesus Christ physically.

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [Christ], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

If we are going to be free from sin, we need to have knowledge. Faith is based upon knowledge. Jesus said, “Know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” We need to know that they that ire Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. We are to consider the death of the flesh as an accomplished fact.

When we accept Christ as Savior, we immediately receive a new nature, the Divine nature. However, many teach that we still keep the old nature (the old man or Adamic nature) as long as we live on earth. C.S. Lovett is representative of this view: “The Christian has one nature which can ONLY SIN and another which CANNOT, he lives in the valley of decision between his two natures, he suffers those stresses which make for Christian growth. Without those two natures, there is no way for any believer to mature in the likeness of the Lord….To my mind this truth is second only to the truth of our salvation through faith in Christ” (Maranatha Family Mini Magazine, October, 1989).

Utter deception! The old man is not an actual entity lodged within the believer, struggling to take dominion once again, but merely the old way of life committed to self-indulgence. The old man refers to the body ruled by sin. We are the creators of the old man; he was conceived by our wills. We are responsible for him. The old man dies at conversion and should be buried and forgotten. Paul affirms this in 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. The old man cannot be living and dead at the same time. The new man, the Christian committed to a life of self-denial, is alive. The new man is the body ruled by righteousness. The old man can only be resurrected should we choose selfishness; in which case the new man would be dead in sin and dead unto Christ. Sin can still slay the new man and bring the old to life again.

The phrase, body of sin, is used synonymously with the old man. The body of sin denotes the body, willfully enslaved to the power and dominion of sin; but, as a result of our faith in Jesus Christ, this body has been destroyed to be replaced by a body of righteousness, devoted to the service of God and man. This is figuratively speaking. The new birth does not produce any physical change, but a moral and spiritual change. Our bodies are now employed to love our neighbor (the moral obligation) and our Creator (the spiritual obligation), as He originally intended.

Paul makes clear in another epistle that he did not consider that the old man still lived as a warring sibling with the new: Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him (Colossians 3:9 10).

Our nature is what we do naturally as a result of our choice to live either selfishly or lovingly. No one has two natures existing in him at the same time. For those living selfishly, it is natural to sin; for those living lovingly, it is natural to do what is right. They do not have to struggle to keep from sinning. Generally, it would take a great effort in order to get them to sin because they hate sin. God’s commandments are not difficult for those who love Him (I John 5:3). Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden is light.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Now this is not talking about physical death. Many believe that we will not be free from the power and dominion of sin as believers, until our spirits — our souls — leave this body, until we die physically and the old nature drops off. We learn from the context of verse 2 — How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? — that the reference is about death to sin, not a physical death. If it is physical death that ultimately is going to bring us victory over sin, then that makes death our savior. What? Are we to believe the penalty of sin becomes the destroyer of sin? No! Physical death is not our savior; Jesus is our Savior. It is His death, His blood, that cleanses us from all sin.

It is ironic that fundamentalists who are so quick to condemn Roman Catholics for their unscriptural doctrine of Purgatory, must themselves believe in Death Purgatory, unless they believe that there will be sin in Heaven, or unless they conclude that the body itself is sinful, which is a pagan doctrine. One wonders what these people think happens to the Christian’s sin nature at death. Does it go to Hell? Rot in the grave? Or is it finally cleansed and taken to Heaven? Actually, all sin must be purged in this life by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or it will never be removed.

There is nothing in our physical bodies that has ever caused us to sin. The source of sin is in our wills. Sin is not objective but subjective. It has no existence independent of our wills. Lucifer brought sin into existence when he rebelled against God. Adam chose to follow Satan into sin. And men have all chosen to follow Adam into sin. The body is morally neutral. In the unbeliever the body is the instrument of sin. In the believer it becomes an instrument of righteousness — yes, even a weapon of warfare battling to destroy sin in the world. Physical death will change nothing in our spiritual nature. We will enter eternity with the same character and personality that we had at the moment of our departure from this world: He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still (Revelation 22:11).

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him:

“If” is the biggest little word in the English language. If we be dead with Christ, — that is dead to sin, dead to the world, dead to the lusts of the flesh — then we shall live with Him. If we are still alive to sin, the world and the flesh, then we will not live with Christ, but will die in our trespasses and sins.

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.

Since Christ has been once raised from the dead, He will never die again. He conquered death.

10 For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.

Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews clarifies his meaning: But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever, sat down on the right hand of God….For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified (Hebrews 10:12-14). Under the old covenant the priests daily offered sacrifices for sin. But Jesus once, for all and forever, made an atonement for sin. He is now living in unbroken fellowship with His Father.

I Reckon So

11 Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

As Christ has dealt with sin once and for all, so through repentance and faith in the work of Christ: should we make sure that our sins are in the past. Forevermore, we need to consider ourselves dead, in practice, unto sin, not merely in theory. Anyone who is professing Christ, but is still sinning, is deceived and dead, indeed, to God.

I was preaching on campus, and a student who claimed to be a Christian asked me, “Well, aren’t you a sinner?”

I said, “No, I’m not a sinner. We Christians are saints.”

He said, “You mean to tell me that you don’t sin daily in thought, word, and deed?”

I replied, “No. Do you?”

He answered, “Yes, everybody sins daily in thought, word, and deed.”

“You mean to tell me that you can’t go a day without sinning?”

“No!”

I asked, “Well, could you go an hour without sinning.

“I don’t see how.”

I inquired, “Could you go five minutes without sinning?”

He reluctantly answered, “Oh, I suppose.”

“Well, friend, if you can go five minutes without sinning, you ought to be able to go an hour; if you can go an hour without sinning, you should be able to go a day; if a day–a week, if a week–a month, if a month–a year. And if you can go for a year without sinning, by the grace of God, you ought to be able to live above sin for the rest of your life!”

His answer was, “Well, if you don’t sin a little bit every day, I don’t see how you can call yourself a Christian!” And he stomped off.

He had a problem. He did not reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin. First, you must believe it to be so, because we cannot rise above our faith. If we are going to think of ourselves as sinners, and think of ourselves as sinning daily in thought, word and deed, then we probably will. It is very important that we have our theology straight and our doctrine correct. We must reckon ourselves dead to sin. If we are not thinking correctly, then we will probably not be acting rightly.

12 Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Paul personifies sin as a tyrant, a dictator whom we should thrust from the throne of our lives so that righteousness might rule. Clearly, Paul teaches that sin is a choice, not a causation dwelling somewhere in the depths of our person. It is our responsibility to turn sin away, whenever it should try to regain the throne of our lives. Sin can be obeyed or disobeyed.

True Christians disobey sin and obey righteousness. If we allow any form of sin to live in us, it will take dominion over us. It must be totally cast out or it will be our king. This verse refutes the erroneous view that the body of the regenerate man is the source of sin, and that the spirit is holy and cannot sin. The truth is that the inner man decides what the body will do.

Yield to the Right

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

The word “yield” shows that sin is an act of the will, not a mysterious substance behind our will causing us to sin. The exhortation to “yield” our members as instruments of righteousness reveals that righteousness is also a choice, not something that God infuses into a believer at conversion.

Believing implies yielding our wills unto God, submitting completely unto Him. This is saving faith. Paul challenges, in Romans chapter 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Notice, Paul does not say, “God knows that you are only human and can’t help but sin.” Instead he makes it clear that it is but our reasonable service — after all that Christ has done for us — to present our bodies as a holy sacrifice. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. What is the will of God? It is the will of God for you to be holy. This is the will of God, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, even your sanctification. He wills that we be separated from sin, the world and the lusts of the flesh, so that we may be vessels of honor fit for the Master’s use. People are seeking the will of God about going here or there, taking this job or that job, or marrying this one or that one, or even about what ministry to enter while they are continuing to live in sin. This is nothing but hypocrisy and gross deception. God wants obedience, not sacrifice. God desires people who delight in pleasing Him with a pure life, not with sacrifices that cover their selfishness. Anyone with sin in his life cannot possibly be in the will of God.

Law or Grace

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

When Paul says that we are not under the law, in what sense are we not under the law? We are not under the curse of the law which is condemnation and death. But that doesn’t mean that we, as Christians, are free from the obligation to obey the moral law of God.

Not under the law also means that we are not under the law as our means to justification. We are justified by the grace of God, through faith in the atonement of Christ Jesus. Having transgressed the law, we cannot simply say, “Okay, God, I see that I have lived wrong. Please forgive me, from now on I’m going to obey you.” We cannot expect God to reply, “All right, I forgive you.” God must, in the interests of the common good, uphold the authority of His moral government. A just God has to condemn sinners eternally, unless an atonement be made that will as impressively uphold the authority of the law. The sufferings and death of the Son of God provided the condition, rendering it righteous for the Father to justify sinners upon the requirements of their repentance and faith in Jesus’ atonement.

We are not under the rites and rituals of the ceremonial law with all the embellishments of the rabbis. We do not have to offer animal sacrifices, nor are we obligated to keep kosher or be circumcised, etc.

Christians are not under law in the sense that they are not primarily motivated to obey out of fear of punishment for transgression, or hope of reward for obedience. Christians are under grace; that is, they are motivated to keep the law’s moral precepts by the love that extended grace to them in the first place. Those under grace are free to obey; those under the law are slaves to sin.

Usually, we hear grace defined as the undeserved, unmerited favor of God. Certainly, we have done nothing to merit salvation. All moral agents deserve Hell, since all have sinned. But the description of grace that we find in Titus chapter 2, in verses 11-14, implies much more: For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. This is the grace of God that brings salvation. Salvation from what? Salvation from sin! Grace redeems us! Redeems us from what? From all iniquity, all sin!

The Angel said, And His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Not in their sin, but He shall save His people from their sins. Grace changes and purifies men. Anyone who has not been delivered from all sin has not the grace of God. The same grace that forgives our sin, keeps us from sin. Grace is the favor of God. We cannot be under God’s favor if we are indulging in sin.

“But is there not a growth in grace?” Yes, but this does not mean that we are gradually to put off sin. Repentance and faith are conditions for being under grace. Repentance requires a complete break with all known sin. Justifying faith is a complete trust in the blood of Christ to cleanse us from all sin at the moment we acknowledge His death on our behalf.

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). Growing in grace implies maturing in the Lord as we better understand His character and ways and expectations for us. Holiness is walking in the light we understand with a right intention of heart. As we gain more light, through our study of His Word and communion with Him, we gain a deeper walk in the Spirit. As our knowledge of God increases, we will always be growing in grace, even in eternity.

“What if I am a Christian, and I still sin every day?” Either you were never truly converted or else you have fallen from grace. This is the only reasonable conclusion in the light of Romans 6:14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Contrapositive logic would infer that if sin does have dominion, you are under law and not grace. Grace excludes sin. If sin still has control, then you are still under the curse and the penalty of the law. And, if you are sinning daily, then sin obviously has dominion. If you cannot get through a day without sinning then sin certainly has control over your life.

Preachers of holiness are often labeled legalists. The legalist label can do more harm to a minister’s acceptance by the church world than if he was exposed as an adulterer. For this reason pusillanimous preachers are afraid even to allude to God’s law for fear of being rejected or misunderstood.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid.

If the law forbids sin, how much more does grace? For if we sin wilfully [since all sin is wilful this would imply continuing in sin without repentance] after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace? (Hebrews 10:26-29).

Many are under the impression that grace covers sin even though they continue to sin. They are insulting the Spirit of Grace. How much more does sin condemn the individual who knows that Christ died for the sins of mankind than the person who remains ignorant of this fact? Because guilt is always measured according to knowledge, the individual who has received the grace of God will be judged more severely, should he return to sin, than the person who has never come to a knowledge of Christ (Luke 12:47). There never was, nor will there ever be, a sacrifice that provides forgiveness for unrepentant sin, whether committed before or after the new birth, under either the old or new covenant.

Slaves to Habit

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Jesus said, No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now, either sin is your master, or righteousness is your master — one or the other. You cannot be serving two masters. Nevertheless, many teach that the Christian is serving two masters: sometimes he is serving righteousness, and sometimes he is serving sin. Some even declare that he is serving both at the same time. But all this is impossible. It defies simple logic. God demands entire obedience, and anything less than this is not service to Him. So you are either the servant of sin, or you are the servant of righteousness. Jesus made this clear: Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them (Matthew 7:17-20).

James also illustrates this point: Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh (James 3:11 12).

17 But God be thanked, that ye were (past tense — you were!) the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

God expects obedience from the heart. We need, not only to live righteously, we need also to love righteousness. We need to obey from the heart, that is, with the right motive. Our motive for obedience to God is our love for God and our love for our fellows. The love of God enables us to perform all that He requires. This love empowered Jesus to become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Christ’s path in the Garden was an almost overwhelming burden to His soul. But His delight in doing His Father’s will encouraged Him to say, Not My will, but Thine be done.

Fear is not our motive — or our primary motive — as Christians. We are motivated by benevolence. Our churches are filled with people who have made professions of faith, out of the primary incentive of escaping Hell and hoping for Heaven. If that is your main reason for obedience to God, or for making a profession of faith, you have not arrived at true Christianity. You are a mere legalist.

You are like the wife who marries a man for his money. The husband discovers this and he is struck with grief. She is still his wife, but the legal relationship brings no joy. Since God knows our heart, He refuses to enter into a covenant relationship based on mere law; it must be rooted and grounded in love from both parties. God did not simply give His Son so that we could eat of the loaves and fishes and be filled. Jesus died to restore man to a loving relationship with His Maker.

We must obey out of a right heart, a right intention. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. God is looking at our hearts for a pure motive. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). Those who have selfish hearts, in fact, know not God.

18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Some wrongly assume that as a Christian you can sin and not be condemned for it. They call this freedom. But true Christian liberty is to be set free from the power and dominion of sin itself. We no longer have to sin; we owe no debt to sin — our debt is to our Savior, Who declared, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:34-36). Sin enslaves; and slaves to sin will not have eternal life. But the Son sets us free from sin, so that we may serve righteousness and live with Him forever.

19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh:

You are so blinded by the infirmity of your flesh that you cannot see the obvious: you do not have to sin anymore. You have been set free. Wise up! Paul has been appealing to common sense. We do not find the meat of the Word in Romans 6. This is milk, just basic Christianity. Anyone in his right mind should understand that when we become Christians, our sinning days are over. Right-minded people are saints who refuse to sin; wrong-minded people are sinners who are bound to sin until they change their mind, that is, REPENT. To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin (James 4:17).

19b For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Sin demanded our all. Why should holiness require anything less? Should not our present zeal for righteousness and holiness surpass our former zeal for every possible sensuous indulgence?

In my ministry, when I preach the new birth, I am often asked, “How can you know you’re born again?”

I used to answer, “Well, if you’re born again, you’ll know it.”

I no longer think that is a very good answer; it implies that the new birth is some sort of feeling. But here is the test: If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). What are the things that are passed away? Our sins! And all things are become new. For all things to become new, all the old has to go. Now we are committed unto righteousness (obedience unto the Divine will) and unto holiness (conformity to the Divine nature or character). Holiness is the principle under which we operate; righteousness is the fruit, or practice.

20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

But now we are servants of righteousness, so we are free from sin.

Think about It!

21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

The shame of sin should be enough to keep any Christian far from it. Suppose a promiscuous woman is converted, marries and then returns to her former paramours. She is confronted by her husband. She explains to him, “I have this sexual nature that I can’t completely control. Surely, you don’t expect me to be totally faithful to you. I love you more than all others, but I simply can’t help going back occasionally to my former boyfriends. Only when I die and go to Heaven will I be free from lust.” Obviously, such a woman would be a shame to her husband. Likewise “Christians” who daily indulge ever-so-little in sin are a disgrace to the Spirit of Grace.

22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. His end will be everlasting destruction in Hell-fire.

23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This verse has been used in evangelism as part of “the Roman road to salvation” so that most never think of applying it to the regenerate; however, Paul does. The oldest lie of the Devil is that sin is not deadly — our first parents fell for that one in the Garden. Today, multitudes of professing Christians, who are convinced that sin is deadly to the unregenerate, have believed Satan’s greater deception, that sin is not fatal to those who have once been born again. Remember, it took but one act of disobedience on the part of Adam and Eve to cast them out of the Garden. Yet so-called Christians still think that they can continue in sin and remain in the Kingdom of God. God does not have a double standard — The soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:4). The Christian who decides to sin, by default chooses to return the gift of eternal life to God. Sin is the evidence that one has lost saving faith (Ephesians 6:16; Acts 15:9; 1 John 3:3).

Eternal life implies so much more than going to Heaven when we die. This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent (John 17:3). Eternal life is an intimate and holy relationship with the Father through His Son, so that we are able to say with our beloved brother, Paul, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me (Galatians 2:20).

There is no chapter in Scripture any clearer than Romans 6. Paul makes it plain that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have provided total deliverance for all who believe. As we look into Romans 7, Paul shows us that this glorious freedom was never attained by those under law. Instead, all who struggle to please God in the flesh are doomed to a miserable existence. Paul makes this so vivid that no right-thinking Jew or Gentile would dare look to the Mosaic Covenant for salvation.

Intro to a life Liberated from Sin Rom 6-8 (Pt 1)

Posted: May 11, 2011 in disciples life, teaching
Tags: Bride of Christ, Christian life, discipleship, radical christianity

INTRODUCTION: GOD’S STANDARD

More than Conquerors

The Nature of Christianity

George E. (Jed) Smock

GOD’S STANDARD

This series is written for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Only men seeking first the Kingdom of God and His goodness will be interested in these writings. The purpose of this commentary is to remove every cloak under which the sinner, especially the religious sinner, is hiding.

No one has to sin! Anyone who is walking in the Spirit is living a life far removed from sin. Anyone with sin in his life has no Biblical basis to consider himself a Christian. From the moment of conversion to Christianity until the end of a man’s life, he can and should live a life of holiness and righteousness.

No one has the right to sin! The Bible is a call to holiness from Genesis to Revelation. Would a just God command man to obey, but at the same time teach that complete obedience is impossible? It is imperative that we understand this point, if we are going to correctly comprehend the Bible. Any Biblical interpretation which gives man space to sin is an erroneous conclusion.

God is a reasonable and logical being. We are made in His image, and He expects us to approach His Written Word intelligently. It is a basic fact of logic that truth cannot contradict itself. Therefore, if our conclusions are self-contradictory, we may assume that we are in error. It is amazing how fundamentalists will fervently defend the view that there are no contradictions in the Bible, but overlook contradictions in their own doctrines.

Bible commentators are more likely to stumble over Romans chapter 7 than any other passage of Scripture. After writing forceful expositions on holiness from Romans chapter 6, they reach the pitiful conclusion that Romans 7:14-25 is the normal experience of the devout Christian. Usually Romans 8 gets them somewhat back on track, but there is no plausible way that the wretched-slave existence described in chapter 7 can be simultaneously experienced with the victory and freedom described in Romans 6 and 8.

There are two options for the one whose life does not conform to the Biblical standard of holiness: an individual may lower the requirement so that it corresponds to his present conduct; or he may raise his behavior to match the Biblical standard. When it comes to studying Romans 6 through 8, few professing Christians are able to identify with Romans 6 or 8. However, they do relate to the struggles expressed in Romans 7. They also assume that everybody in their church is going through the same conflict with sin which they are personally experiencing. Therefore, they conclude that Romans 7 must describe a Christian, because it is the only Christianity they know.

There is always a great amount of subjectivity in reading and interpreting the Bible. This is unavoidable. The danger comes when we assume our experiences are universal. If we find ourselves in association with an assembly where everyone is still sinning, it is time to seek new fellowship and, even more importantly, to seek God. All Christians should be able to identify with the testimony of John and his associates: We keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight (I John 3:22).

Somehow the church has acquired the notion that it is prideful to confess to living a righteous life, but humble to confess to sinning daily in thought, word and deed. One problem is that people have self-righteousness confused with the righteousness of God. When believed from the heart, God’s righteousness always produces an actual righteousness in the life of the confessor. There is no righteousness in the life that is lived independent of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the professed follower of Christ to confess that he will habitually sin until death is not humility — it is the height of arrogance. The Biblical command is to forsake all sin as a condition of salvation, not to be a habitual sinner.

There is a general misunderstanding of spiritual warfare in our generation. The Christian’s warfare is not an inner struggle with sin, in which he hopes to have more victories than defeats; at the point of true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, sin receives its death blow. The Christian’s battle is with temptation. His war with sin is not from within, but from without. He is to be fighting against sin in the world, not within himself. Christian combat is an offensive battle against sin, not a defensive one.

What would we think of a Commander-in-Chief who taught his countrymen at war that the enemy was always bound to be within the nation’s boundaries? Any leader worth his salt is going to settle for nothing less than a complete routing of the enemy. The aggressive commander will not stop at the enemy’s border, but will pursue him into his territory and demand unconditional surrender.

What a disgrace that we have church leaders teaching that a Christian will always have sin in his life! Hypocrites professing Christianity, yet continuing to sin, are God’s most dangerous enemies. They are moles who should not be tolerated on the grounds of the church. The church would be better served with agnostics and atheists than these creepers.

Anyone who makes peace with an enemy within his borders is, at best, a coward and, at worst, a traitor. Professing Christians who allow any vestige of sin to remain in their lives are not fit for the Kingdom. Such descendants of Judas must either repent or be denounced and forbidden to continue to weaken the Army of God.

Walking in the Spirit is written for the purpose of exposing the false notion that sin and righteousness can co-exist in the life of a Christian, or of anyone, for that matter. Defenders of that diabolical doctrine appeal most often to Romans 7 to support their defeatist dogma. My strategy is to attack this doctrine by teaching from the very text its proponents use, but in context with its surrounding passages.

More than Conquerors

Taking scriptures out of context is one of the most frequent and dangerous errors of exegesis. When Romans chapter 7 is removed from its connection with Romans 6 and 8, it can mean just about the opposite of what Paul intended. As an accomplished artist paints shade in his pictures to heighten the effect of the light, so the apostle interjects in the latter part of Romans 7 a vivid description of the tyrannical power of sin (I am carnal sold under sin) and of the unbearable burden of guilt (O wretched man that I am!). Paul’s sketch of the man who groans under the vexing yoke of sin is penciled in merely for contrast to set off the amazing difference there is between the bondage of the law of sin and death and the spirit of life and righteousness in Christ Jesus. Let us never get the glorious portrait of the Christian of Romans 6 and 8 confused with the ugly sketch of the sinner of Romans 7 trying, but failing, to serve God under the law.

Not only must the Biblical interpreter consider the context of a passage in question, but he must judge the general purpose and scope of the writer. A basic theme of Paul in Romans and all of his epistles is to promote righteousness and condemn sin (Romans 1:16-17, 2:5. 3:21, 5:19, 6:18-19, 8:4, 14:7). Interpreting the person described in the latter part of Romans 7 as any kind of Christian excuses sin and discourages righteousness.

Paul had a penchant for using military terminology to describe the Christian warfare. He was likely familiar with one of the greatest spectacles of ancient Rome: the official triumph of a returning Roman general who had slain at least 5,000 of the enemy. The grand procession formed outside the city of Rome and entered through a triumphal arch. Trumpeters led the march; next in line were floats representing the defeated cities and pictures portraying the exploits of the victors; then wagons rolled by loaded with gold, silver, works of art and other spoils of war; followed by seventy white oxen walking blindly toward their sacrificial death; then the minor officers, harpers, pipers and incense-bearers. After them rode the conqueror himself in a triumphal chariot, wearing a purple toga and a crown of gold, and bearing an ivory scepter and a laurel branch. In contrast, the captive king who followed on foot, burdened with chains, made a striking part of the show. Last, came the legions carrying their awards and each one wearing a crown. After the parade, the general mounted the Capitol to the Temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, laid his loot at the feet of the gods, offered an animal in sacrifice and ordered the subjugated king to be slain as an additional thank-offering. Parties, receptions and audiences before the emperor and senate waited the returning hero.

It would seem impossible for anyone lining the parade route to have mistaken the vanquished king for the conquering general. It seems almost as impossible that any honest and intelligent reader could err so blantantly by attributing the enslaved man described in Romans 7 to the triumphant Christian of Romans 6 and 8.

No Roman would have had any excuses for the vanquished king. The senate would not have considered paying reparations to him for the rest of his life. He would not be put on the lecture circuit to be admired as a man with a message. He would not be acclaimed as a model for the military strategists to study and emulate. This disgraced and defeated king was considered worthy of nothing but an ignominious death.

So should the loser characterized in Romans 7 be put to death and not set up as any sort of example of a Christian at any stage of development. Let us acclaim and broadcast the victorious Christian of Romans 6 and 8 and not give any credibility to the miserable wretch of Romans 7. Paul claimed, we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). Let it never be said by the conquering Christian, That which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I (Romans 7:15). This is the language of the defeatist, the coward, the sinner.

The Bible is full of examples of how God commanded not only the utter destruction of the military enemy, but also a complete purging of sin among those called His people.

Seven nations inhabited the promised land which God commanded Israel to possess. And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them (Deuteronomy 7:2).

In obedience to the Lord, Joshua quickly achieved a miraculous victory at Jericho. Afterwards, Israel suffered a shocking defeat at Ai because Achan had partaken from the accursed spoils of war at Jericho. Consequently, God had withdrawn His blessing from Israel. Therefore, God ordered Moses to sanctify the people and stone to death Achan and burn his body. After Achan’s execution, the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger (Joshua 7:26). Joshua again attacked Ai, utterly destroyed the city and hanged the king.

In America’s early history, Christianity was a dominant influence in our culture and institutions. Today, Christianity has been usurped by humanism and secularism because there is sin in the visible church. The church must sanctify herself and put to death Achan, if she is going to stand against her enemies.

After the defeat of Ai, the Gibeonites, by the ruse of rags and stale bread, tricked Joshua into a protective treaty. Later, in the time of Solomon, Gibeon became a favorite “high place” of idolatrous worship for Israel.

Today many, with nothing more than a Romans 7 experience, profess Christianity and play upon the sympathies of pastors, even maneuvering themselves into positions of leadership and setting up “high places” of worship to a god of their own imagination who excuses sin.

God commanded King Saul, Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Saul defeated the Amalekites but spared their king, Agag, and the best of their livestock. Despite Saul’s rebellion, he still tried to convince Samuel that he had obeyed the commandment of the LORD; but neither Samuel, nor God, accepted his partial obedience. And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He hath also rejected thee from being king (I Samuel 15:22 23). Samuel then called for Agag, who thought he had escaped death, and cut him to pieces with his sword.

Are not our pulpits filled today with ministers who, like King Saul, are satisfied with partial obedience? Are not our pews filled with Agags who offer the sacrifices of praise and worship, but have not come to true repentance? Like Agag, they say, Surely the bitterness of death is past (I Samuel 15:32). “Surely, we will not be damned.” But surely they are deceived and will come to a bitter end, unless some Samuels rise up who wield the sword of Truth and put to death Agags’ fleshly, carnal appetites before the angel of death casts them to perdition.

When Israel abode in Shittim, the men committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and Israel sacrificed to their idols. God was so angry He ordered Moses to hang the whoremongers. Meanwhile, as Israel was weeping before the door of the tabernacle, an Israelite named Zimri and a Midianitish woman named Cozbi began to fornicate in the sight of Moses and the congregation of Israel. Thank God, a man of Israel called Phinehas rose up from the worshippers, took a javelin in his hand, ran to the lewd couple and thrust the javelin through the back of the man into the belly of the whore. So the plague was stopped among Israel, but not before 24,000 died. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for My sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel (Numbers 25:1013). Evidently, Phinehas was a type of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

As Christendom mourns over our porno-plagued culture, the fornication and adultery running rampant in our sanctuaries of praise and worship is overlooked. My prayer is that this book will become a javelin in the hands of some Phinehases who will thrust the Truth into the hearts of those who have ears dull from hearing a gospel that makes place for sin in the lives of those who claim to be Christians.

The Nature of Christianity

Among professed Christians, there are two distinct views of salvation. They are represented by two different schools of “believers,” both of whom claim to be members of Christ’s church.

One school sees salvation primarily as forgiveness for sin in order to reach Heaven. Meanwhile on earth, “miserable sinners” strive to obey, but have no hope of overcoming “indwelling sin,” until death. After accepting Jesus as one’s personal Savior from Hell, man struggles to make Christ the Lord of his life. There is a definite distinction between man’s standing before God and his actual state or condition. This means that even though God considers man justified and righteous, man continues to sin daily in thought, word and deed. Our works definitely play no part in our relationship with God or our ultimate destiny. This view is the majority opinion in American Christendom at the close of the Second Millennium. Because of the dominance of this school of thought, Christianity has become a weak influence on our culture and institutions.

The other school views Christianity as a right relationship with God. Salvation includes complete deliverance from the power of sin in this present life, and forgiveness of the penalty of sin, which is eternal damnation. The redeemed challenge man to repent and turn to God, through faith in Jesus as both Lord of one’s life and Savior from all sin. True saints believe that one cannot be considered justified or righteous in the sight of God without being pure in heart and life. If Christianity is going to be a powerful influence into the twenty first century, this understanding of Christianity must once again prevail.

Both schools of thought have appealed to selected verses from the book of Romans to affirm their understanding of the gospel. Controversy concerning the nature of the gospel is nothing new. The church at Rome was rife with doctrinal strife and disagreement. In the first five chapters of Romans, the Apostle Paul emphatically defends the gospel of salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He denies that there is any hope for sinners to be justified by the law, which they had broken. He exposes and condemns false teaching which threatened to put the Roman church under bondage to the rites and rituals of Judaism. Romans chapters 6, 7 and 8 represent the very heart of Paul’s epistle. In these chapters, he explains man’s failure under law, and, under grace, his mastery over sin.

In chapter 5, Paul shows that because natural law (the law of reason and conscience) was broken by Adam and his descendants, eventually the written law, the law of Moses, was given to the Jews. Because man had failed to live sensibly by responding to the influences of reason and conscience, God put everything down in writing, so there would be no more misunderstanding of what He expected from man and what man could expect from Him. The written law gave God the opportunity to plainly show man His true character. Its moral precepts reveal the Holiness of God; its penalties pronounce His Justice; its sacrifices herald His desire to pardon the awful penalty of sin. All the commandments, especially the first four, reveal God’s longing for a special, loving relationship and delightful fellowship with man.

Paul writes, The law entered, that the offence might abound. God had made the way plain: Do these things and live (Romans 10:5). God established a system of animal sacrifices as object lessons to show the awfulness of sin. These blood sacrifices also pointed man to the Savior Messiah who was to come. The people acknowledged the goodness of the law and promised to obey (Deuteronomy 6:24; Exodus 24:3). But, alas, they quickly rebelled. Therefore, sin abounded all the more. Since they had rejected greater light, their guilt and responsibility multiplied. Blame is always measured in the light of knowledge. Therefore, the law brought even more of God’s wrath on man; and the law became a curse instead of a blessing.

Paul concludes chapter 5 with the startling statement: But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Sin provided God with the astonishing opportunity to demonstrate His nature and character in an even more revealing way than the law ever could have done. The failure of man under the law gave God the occasion to commend His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Grace abounded to undeserving sinners! The greater the sin, the more bounteous the grace that was needed to forgive. But God’s grace offered much more than forgiveness. It extended deliverance (freedom) from the power of sin and death. It gave man a restored relationship, renewed fellowship and revitalized communion with his glorious Creator. It empowered man to live the abundant life that our Lord promised to all who follow Him. In Romans 6, Paul unfolds the might and victory experienced by all who believe the gospel and obey the Truth.

Warning! Before you read another word! Are you ready for true freedom from sin? If you are content to dabble in sin here and indulge there, do not turn another page! Do not read any further! Do you really want the abundant life, joy unspeakable and peace that passes understanding? Or are you content to struggle along naming the name of Christ and yet living a frustrating, embarrassing and defeated life? If you read on, you will be accountable for the truth God reveals; and a refusal to act will bring greater damnation. Will you take up your bed and walk? Will you be made whole? Will you walk in the Spirit? You have the freedom to choose….

Part 2 “SERVANT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS” coming tomorrow

Be liberated from the prison of double mindedness!

Posted: May 8, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Bride of Christ, discipleship, Doctrines, kingdom growth, Kingdom living, kingdom of darkness, radical christianity

“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways”. (James 1:8)

As I was pondering this scripture this morning I heard the Spirit saying – “A double minded man is like he who is married and has a mistress, he torn between the two and faithful to neither”!

It really speaks to me (this verse) about not being tied to the world and attempting to serve the Lord as well – for you will be torn between the two and faithful to neither. Over the years as I look back I can see areas in my own life where this was the situation. I wanted to serve the Lord with my whole life, yet the things of this world would catch my eye and I would wonder between the two, often times with such an empty feeling in my heart.

This scripture also speaks to me about how we live our lives as Christians amongst each other. A double minded person will speak nice in the comfort of your company, then in the dark place will rip you to shreds with accusations while wadding stepping in the spiritually dark streams of gossip. Most often it is because they feel justified in doing so for they believe they have been shorted in some form or another. I find this often when people are jealous of others blessings or they see others being promoted in the church or work place before them and they feel that they should have been chosen.

I believe one of the reasons that I am able to discern this with people is because I once was a prisoner to double mindedness having been imprisoned in the same prideful spiritual darkened prison that they are standing in. It a punishing prison because you start to build up a false spiritual perception of how great you are to the point that you begin to become bitter, resentful and totally opposite of what the Lord has desired and purposed you to become. It will cost you friends,family, peace and joy. One must be like David and cry out to the Lord “Examine me, O God, and know my mind. Test me, and know my thoughts. See whether I am on an evil path. Then lead me on the everlasting path”. (Ps 139:23-24)

I remember when the Lord was dealing with me about this, Holy Ghost would softly speak to me the word “self-righteous judge” and then would show me where I had allowed the enemy to enter in through the door of rejection, which was held open with a spiritually door jam of pride. I would see the person or person who I had felt justified in believing that I had in some way been wronged by them and now I was passing false judgment upon them. Let me tell you what, when Holy Ghost brought that into a full revelation in my heart it was a battle in which my fleshly heart was torn to bits for the Light of truth shall always prevail over the lies of Hell. To this day I still ask Holy Ghost to search my heart and remove any wrongful thinking that has set itself up against the Word of God!

We need to be very cautious in regard to double mindedness friends – We must submit ourselves Holy Ghost and take action against every thought that enters our mind, by weighing them up against the Word of God in truth. Because if we do not we will battle with ungodly sinful, prideful, selfish and judgmental thoughts in our mind as the struggle between knowing what the Word says and what the flesh is saying will be tormenting. If we are not careful, our hearts can become hardened to the point where we no longer listen to what the Word and Holy Ghost is saying and begin to live having only the guidance of our own hearts, which we Know are deceptive and filled with darkness.

In this text I believe James is speaking of one who has his foot in two kingdoms, that of God’s and that of Satan’s –stuck between the promises of the Lord and the false promises of the world – one moment he appears to be following the Lord and in the next he appears to be following the ways of world – he at one moment believes the promises of God and the next moment being enticed by the desires of his heart chases after the false promises of the world – unstable is he for at any moment he might well place both feet in the wrong kingdom – he is as one teetering on the fence of his life’s path and we must be walking with Holy Ghost discernment being aware and on guard for such a person for in his indecision he might well reach out and grab hold of one who is yet matured and drag them along with him in his fall.

Friend, if this message is speaking to you today and you find that you two have been living a double life, with one foot in the Kingdom and one in the world – The Lord is standing at the door of your heart, desiring to come into your life with His fullness , bringing spiritual healing that you shall not be found as one being double minded in all your ways. That you not be found as one who is unjust in your judgments against your brothers and sisters in the Body. Jesus is indeed the Great Physician who will come in to do spiritual surgery in your life, you might well feel a little pain here and there, yet once it is completed you will see no scars and you will be spiritually restored!

Let us pay this prayer:

Lord let us not think so highly or ourselves. Let our spirit be humble and let us be critical of our own lives and of our own relationship with you. I ask that you help us to remove the beams from our eyes, not that we would cast bitter judgment, so we help one another remain faithful to your calling. Lord, let us not be as those who are double minded, tossed to and fro between Your righteous and Holy ways and that of the ways of this world. Father we thank you for Your Son, Holy Ghost and the cross which liberates us, destroying the very power of sin in our lives – Sent Holy Ghost today in to our hearts with the holy fire of truth that we may set free form all spiritual prisons in our lives. Refine us, mold us, break us, reform us into the image of Christ. Let our lives be lived so that others may call you faithful. Open our eyes to the pain in this world so that we can be used by you as instruments of change. In the Mighty and Powerful Name of Jesus, Amen

Friends, today the Father desires for you to walk in the purpose of your life – that you may experience everything that He has planned for you since before the world was formed. He loves you and desires only the best for you. He has never promised that we would all spend our time here on the earth resting on the mountain tops of comfort, being pain free – Yet He has promised to be a Father to us, a true King and such a King that has not left us unprotected or with out a guide – For He has sent Holy Ghost to be with us every step of the way – He has promised that He will never leave the side of His children or leave them orphaned– that He has encamped warriors about us, having sent forth His Angel’s to minister unto us.

If you have been walking in the valley of defeat, today is the day to start walking in the valley of victory – Allowing Holy Ghost to lead you through the valley of decision, where you surrender every right, action, word and thought to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, committing you whole life, every area into His hands.

Today we must be totally severed from the ways of this world, though we live in this world, our allegiance must be to the Kingdom of God – We must no longer be a bride who has a lover on the side for we can not serve two masters – being divided between to allegiances- we must allow Holy Ghost to remove all double mindedness in our lives- We must start living as true citizens of His Lordship and begin living in the Kingdom culture as Jesus taught us to live – not tossed about by the doctrines of this world and the doctrines of men – rather being fully engaged in and motivated, being led of Holy Ghost according the doctrines of our Christ, Yeshua!

For indeed we serve an Awesome God,

IHS,

Russ Welch

Little Compromises

Posted: May 8, 2011 in disciples life, teaching
Tags: Kingdom living, radical disciples, Spirit led life

Little Compromises
by John O. Reid

“. . . that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.” —Deuteronomy 17:20
Contrary to popular belief, we live in one of the most difficult and dangerous ages in all of human history. Some would be willing to argue this, saying that civilization has come a long way and that mankind is not as cruel as the record of history shows that he once was.

Certainly living in the first century in the Roman Empire must have been difficult, they might say as an example, since we have the Bible’s account of the apostles living in constant danger—and most of them died horrible deaths!

That is true. From what the Bible shows, that constant danger promoted closeness to God; the apostles relied on God to keep them safe and provide deliverance for them at every turn. While we are not being hunted down for our religious beliefs, the danger we face today is far greater—spiritually—in that it does just the opposite: It promotes a slow separation from God. We know this kind of danger by the illustration of the frog in the water. The increase in temperature happens so slowly that the frog fails to realize that it is in trouble until it is too late to jump to safety.

What produces this danger for us, the called-out children of God? What is the signature attitude of the era that we live in? What failing among the majority of people will cause the loss of our freedoms and the downfall of our nation? It is compromising with the laws and principles of God.

We live in a nation that has largely compromised the character it once possessed. Just a minority uphold the Christian principles that underlay documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, which provided the foundation for America to become the envy of the world. Now, so many are willing to trade their hard-won freedoms for a little temporary security, essentially selling their birthright.

We face an analogous situation among the greater churches of God.

We live in a time when the majority of those with whom we once fellowshipped have compromised the beliefs they used to hold dear. Many of these people have joined worldly churches, or worse, losing faith altogether, have slipped back into the world. Some have contrived strange new doctrines to live by, and despite attending services among the scattered churches, too many have nearly lost their faith and zeal for this way of life.

In our church history, we can see how deadly even a little compromising with God’s ways is. It almost always leads to greater compromises until a person is so far from what has been revealed in Scripture that he has apostatized, cutting himself off from God. What a sad end after such a promising start!

Royal Compromise
God’s Word provides an example of compromise for us to learn from, if we are wise enough to heed it (Romans 15:4; I Corinthians 10:11). This example comes from the life of the wisest king ever to live, one whom God blessed with wisdom that no one could gainsay, who had wealth and ability no one had ever possessed before. God loved this man greatly—He even spoke directly to him more than once, and because of the man’s humble response, blessed him far beyond what he requested. This king, a man of peace and learning, was commissioned to build the most beautiful Temple to God in Jerusalem.

The man, of course, was Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba.
To understand why Solomon’s compromises seemed so small and insignificant to him when he succumbed to them, we have to understand the situation of Solomon’s reign.

We could compare it to America today. As Psalm 18:43-44 suggests, David and his armies had essentially subjugated all of the world that mattered at the time. King David of Israel was “the head of the nations,” and faraway kings he did not even know trembled at the mention of his name. As the sole superpower in the region, wealth poured into Israel. When Solomon was made king upon David’s death, not a nation on the face of the earth would have considered attacking Israel. It was just too strong.

So, Solomon ruled the known world, and as time progressed and in that strength, he did not see the need to obey God fully in all that He had commanded the kings of Israel to do. In his power and wealth, he saw no problem with compromising just a little with God’s instruction. As we will see, Solomon failed completely in his old age, but the seeds of that failure were sown early in his reign.

II Chronicles 9:22-28 gives us a summary of his reign:

So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year. Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. So he reigned over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. And they brought horses to Solomon from Egypt and from all lands.

This sounds like the perfect, storybook career until we notice God’s instruction to kings in Deuteronomy 17:14-20:

When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, “I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,” you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, “You shall not return that way again.” Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

Was Solomon unaware of these instructions? Of course not. David, a man who knew God’s law intimately, would have been sure to instruct his son in them and have him write a copy of the law as commanded. Surely, Solomon could not have been ignorant of them. He, then, must have known it was wrong to import horses and chariots from Egypt, but because of his wealth and might, he must have considered this infraction too minor to take seriously.

Why did God not want Israel’s kings to import warhorses? Armored warhorses and the chariots they pulled can be compared to today’s tanks, which are devastating when fighting foot soldiers. A nation with this level of war materiel put their reliance on it as it made the army such a powerful fighting machine. Why should a nation trust an invisible God to fight its battles when it could see rank upon rank of seemingly invincible horses and chariots?

God wanted His people to rely on Him. Solomon knew this, since he wrote in Proverbs 21:31: “The horse is prepared for the day of battle: but deliverance is of the Lord.” The issue of importing horses may have seemed a small thing to Solomon, but it was important to God. From all indications, his compromise in this matter began his slow separation from God.

Many Wives Too
Compounding his compromise concerning warhorses, by the end of his reign, Solomon had a substantial harem:

But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. (I Kings 11:1-3)

As he began his reign, would Solomon have considered “multiply[ing] wives for himself,” especially to this extent? Probably not. When he was tender of heart, needing God to help him rule this great people and kingdom (see II Chronicles 1:7-12), he doubtless walked carefully, making sure he did what was commanded in everything. But once secure in knowledge, wealth, and power, he began to forget the God who had spoken to him, placed him in power, and given him all that he had.

Perhaps Solomon’s reasoning went something like this: “When I imported horses from Egypt, there were no adverse consequences, so what would be wrong with taking additional wives for political reasons?”

We do not normally see the results of sin immediately, yet they inevitably come. At some point, he learned this principle, writing in Ecclesiastes 8:11: “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” In any case, knowing this did not help him, as I Kings 11:4-8 records:

For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Wise Solomon fell victim to the same temptations that the rest of us so often face. He compromised on what he thought were small concerns—matters he probably considered well into the gray areas—to do things his way rather than God’s. The danger of such reasoning is that small compromises weaken character, and over time, they lead to major sins. For Solomon, the results were devastating. His experience is a warning of what will befall us if we follow his example of compromise.

The psalmist writes in Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: His praise endures forever.” Solomon’s compromises gradually but inexorably distorted his understanding of God’s laws and ways. He slowly drifted away from God, so that when he was old, unbelievable as it seems, he allowed his wives to turn his heart from the God that had given him everything.

From the “minor” infraction of importing horses, Solomon eventually condoned and was at least an accessory to the sins of idolatry and outright murder, sins that he would never have considered committing at the beginning of his reign. For, at the end of his life, Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth, Milcom, Chemosh, and Molech, the last having rituals that called for children to be given to the fire of his altar. By giving his royal sanction to worshipping these pagan deities, he set a precedent that was followed by many of the kings of Israel and Judah after him.

A Righteous Example

We can see what a little bit of compromise cost this supposedly wise man, as well as how it affected future generations of Israelites. But what about those of us who live in a world that feels free to compromise at will? Has this society and the spiritual confusion among some of the churches of God caused us to ignore the laws, principles, and statutes that we see in God’s Word?

Josiah, who reigned not long before Judah’s Babylonian captivity, was one of the most righteous kings. II Kings 23:10-11 records how he dealt with the “insignificant” issue of horses and the more important matter of child sacrifice:

And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

All it took was to stand up for what God had revealed, and he used the power given to him to respond in obedience.

In these perilous times, it is of the utmost importance that we resist the urge to use our human reasoning to compromise with God’s law.

We must be particularly careful in what we perceive as the “smaller areas” of God’s Word. Why? Because Satan often makes his greatest inroads by getting us to relax in little things and gradually convincing us to do the same in more vital matters. If he can just get his foot in the door, he feels he has won a great victory and can make us slip away from God. Paul, however, exhorts us, “. . . nor give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27).

Once we compromise, the process of sin has commenced, and godly character, which is so precious to God, begins to erode, opening the way for sin on a larger scale. If a wise man like Solomon went from ignoring a seemingly obscure admonition to the flagrant breaking of many of God’s commandments, we, too, can certainly yield to the peril of compromise. We must learn to spot and avoid the little compromises that lead to big sins.

The True Gospel

Posted: May 7, 2011 in disciples life, teaching

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:6-12.

As we begin to look into these passages and update them by the help of God’s Holy Spirit to our day and time, I might say first of all that Paul marveled that the believers could be so soon drawn away from the grace of Christ unto another gospel which is not another. Somebody asked, “Why did he keep twisting back and forth?” Well, just let me make something plain right quick. When Paul said, called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another, he was nailing down the fact that there is only one Gospel of Christ. Oh, how the world needs to understand this and get this clear in their minds that there is only one Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Paul said that they had been so quickly drawn away from the grace of Christ unto another gospel which is not another. Somebody said, “What is it then?” It is the gospel perverted. I want you to see by the help of God that the words that Paul spoke there are just as true today as they were then. The devil believes and trembles. He knows that there is one Gospel, and he knows that the Gospel has power to deliver men and women from everything that they need to be delivered from for all the time that remains. Therefore, since the devil knows that there is only one Gospel of God; and it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, his only hope is to pervert that Gospel.

Man knows well enough that there is only one Gospel. Therefore, the devil could not come along and sell the world another gospel. No, no, my friends, his move has been ever since there has been a Gospel to pervert that Gospel, leave it under the same heading, read it out of the same Bible, change it enough that it will kill its power and effectiveness, and still leave a world believing that they believe in the Gospel. Consequently, we have the sad, sad condition all around us today.

Men and women are believing that there is only one Gospel only one way, only one God, and so forth; but yet they are living lives in a powerless condition with no victory over sin. They are living on the same level that they lived on in sin before they supposedly ever accepted Jesus Christ. When we begin to look at Paul marveling that believers should be so soon drawn away unto another gospel, the marvel today is just a little different. The marvel today is that religious folks will not so much as admit that there is such a thing as another gospel. It makes no difference what they believe or how far it is from the Word of God; people say that it is still the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The devil has somewhat reversed things today: I pray that God will help us to lay hold of some truths here that we need to consider.

Someone may ask, “Well, why are you so fearful? Why are you so stirred about this?” Friends, my heart is deeply stirred when I see a world going down a fast slide into a lost eternity and men and women in religion on every side but living with no victory. God is not glorified in their lives, but yet they will talk right back and say that they believe the Gospel. This message needs to be sounded out. The Gospel has been perverted on every side. It is not another gospel, but they have perverted the Gospel till it does not have the power and the effect anymore.

In Galatians 3:1, he said, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you…? He begins there by using the word “bewitched.” Let us see, how bewitching and how deceiving the power of the enemy really is. All the witch doctors are not in India or Africa. Some of them are Doctors of Divinity standing in the pulpits, and they are bewitching people just as much as the Scripture said. They are bewitching them to a place where they will not believe the Gospel, and all the time the people are made to believe that they are hearing Gospel truth and that they can stake their eternal soul’s welfare on it. May God help us!

Some people will say in regard to this message, I don’t think you need to get excited. I think the need is to preach the Gospel and get men and women saved.” Well, we are going to preach the Gospel; but I am going to clear off a place first. Brothers and sisters, we need to realize that everything is not Gospel truth. I say without fear of successful contradiction that a great percentage of what you are hearing in the religious world is not Gospel truth. I want to make it plain right now that I am not speaking against any individual anywhere, but I am speaking against spirits of the enemy that are out to do a work. The devil is sending more souls to hell through religion than he is through any other avenue. Countless millions have their names on church records and are as sure of making hell their home if they would die today as if they were there already. Yet they are going along being numbed and bewitched.

If you try to talk about the True Gospel to them, they tell you, “I have no need. Go to that drunkard. Go to that man who doesn’t have his name in the Lambs book of life. I don’t need help. Go to him.” The religious world needs help today as badly as the rest. If you do not think that it is a marvel today, just begin to really deal with some souls in the religious world and try to help them. The marvel today is that folks will not so much as admit the fact that there is such a thing as another gospel. It can be perverted.

The Word of God can be added to or taken away from, but this spirit of the age has done such a work that people are ready to gather it all together and say that it is all the Gospel and we are all the Church. You cannot find anyone who is preaching another gospel. They are all preaching the Gospel; but just as the Word declares, the Gospel has been perverted. It has been perverted when it will not deal out the results that God has put in His Word. Therefore, we need to note, my friend, that this deliberate blindness which has come over the hearts and minds of too many people towards the truth speaks of a grave condition. It says loudly that modern churchgoers have been so touched and molded by another gospel that they refuse to admit its existence.

Right there is the first deception, whenever the devil sells you such a bill of goods and causes you to believe that which is contrary to the Word of God. The devil has so deceived some people that they refuse to believe that their perverted gospel is anything different from the Book even though it reads differently and teaches differently from the Book. They defend it as the Gospel of God and refuse discussion about it.

Now here is your bewitching. You can deal with people today who are just as far off the track as they can be religiously. They are still living the old life style. Some of them are living wicked and sinful lives six days a week; but they have been taught a gospel, and it is Gospel truth as far as they are concerned. When you get ready to put the Word right on them, they say, “Look, I don’t even want to discuss it.” Well, the devil has done a good job there. This is what I am talking about. May God help us to see the sad condition that mankind is in!

Satan through religion has perverted the big things in righteousness, and our world has a twisted concept of the very essence of the Gospel. The results of it are easy to see. The inspired Scriptures are not the final word. No, people today will brazenly tell you, when you read the Scripture to them, that their church does not teach that; but if you would turn around and tell them that is “another gospel,” they would say, “No, it is not another gospel. It is THE GOSPEL.”

The results are that the inspired Scriptures are not final. In fact, the Scriptures are quite hostile to such people. If you want to “bum up” a religious person, just put some straight truth on him. Man, he will get hostile, even though the Gospel is what will save him. Yet you put the Gospel on him, and he will become hostile. He will let you know what kind of a spirit he really has. This great Gospel of Jesus Christ will still uncover every spirit. It will show us what we really are. In fact, that is what the Gospel is for first of all–to show us our true condition.

There are two things that the Gospel of God will do. It will show you your true condition first. Secondly, it will show you a way out of it. The Gospel will not pat you on the back when you are wrong. The Gospel will not make a way for you when you are not right. When your attitude is wrong and old ugly feelings down in your heart are manifesting a wrong spirit, the Gospel will not make any room for you.

In Gal 6:1-12, we see that Paul is talking about how the enemy, working through the realms of religion, has switched mankind to another gospel and has caused them to pervert the very Gospel of God. I say again that the false teachings of religion have perverted many of the big things of righteousness. The very nature of God Himself has been substituted. The false teachings of religion cause you to feel that God will put up with and go along with things that His Gospel is totally against.

Sinners, religious or otherwise, are talking about the love of God. I have thought much on this lately. You never saw a world that hangs so much on the love of God. Sinners without any religious affiliation and religious sinners will grab for that one straw–the love of God–when you go to put the heat on them. According to the Bible, anyone who is not regenerated knows nothing about the love of God. No one knows about the love of God unless he has been born again. A sinner knows nothing about the love of God, but we have unregenerate men from the pulpit right on down telling all about what God loves. Unless you have been born again, you are as ignorant about the love of God as a hog is about Sunday.

Let us get right to the Gospel. This may be a little rough, but it will not hurt you. When God uses a dusting rag on the Church, it is a sword. That is a pretty rough thing to dust you off with, but He will get the dust off if you will hold still; and if you do not hold still, He may take an ear off or something else. We have an unregenerate world standing right up in battle and telling you and me what the love of God is. I want this driven down securely: No one knows anything about the love of God until he has been born again and is living in Christ Jesus. We find that in the many religious sects and cults of our day, they are all telling you about the love of God. Yet right in the same breath, they tell you how they sin and everyone sins. If you still live in sin, you know nothing about the love of God.

God is love. That is His very nature, but this perverting of the Gospel by men who know nothing of the love of God endeavors to drag Him down to a human level when they begin to tell you how God loves and what God loves. May God help the true preachers in our day to raise up and tell the world that God is angry with the sinner every day. You do not have the love of God abiding on you when you commit sin. Read I John, II John, and III John. The wrath of God abides on you when you commit sin. Even bumper stickers now say, “Smile. God loves you.” Some will say, “Don’t you think He loves the world?” Certainly, He does; but I am talking about experiencing and knowing the love of God to the place where you are able to get up and give directions and tell people what God loves and what He hates.

Certainly, God loves the world. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8. However, and I want you to get this: that does “not” mean that we can continue to live a life of sin, being slaves to sin, and still be “ok” with God! God’s love for the sinner is shown in that He gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on an old rugged cross, to take our sins “from” us, that we might have a “right” relationship with Him!

Let us find where the love of God really is. The Gospel will tell us where the love of God is. Friend, somebody needs to open the machine guns of truth against this evil thing. I pray God will drop a spiritual bomb and blow it wide open so that men and women can see what a sad condition they are in. Some may ask, “Are you sure that no sinner knows the love of God?” I am positive of it. Certainly, God has a love for them; but I want to make it plain that no one knows anything of the love of God until he has been truly born again and regenerated. Paul said in Galatians 1:15 and 16, But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood…

John 3:16, the true and ooure Gospel, says that God so loved the world–a world of lost humanity–that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him (the Greek says “into Him”) should not perish, but have everlasting life. How much did God love them? This verse shows us the degree of His love and the immensity of His love. God’s love was wrapped up in Jesus Christ. When we turn Jesus Christ and His Word down, there is nothing but the wrath of God abiding on us. God’s love is in Jesus Christ!

Romans, Chapter 8, is sometimes read to try to strengthen the feeble knees of sinners and make them feel that they can go on in their sin. They are told by many preachers that if they profess an experience with God, the grace of God will cover them; and they will never be lost. That is a doctrine that comes from the pits of hell. There are no such statements as that in the Gospel; but oh, this Scripture in Romans 8:38 and 39 is misused so many times: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Where is the love of God? It is in Jesus Christ. If you are not in Jesus Christ, you do not know anything about the love of God. When you come in old-time repentance and are born again, you are grafted into the living Vine and baptized by one Spirit into Jesus Christ. When you get into Jesus Christ, you begin to know what the love of God is. Someone may say, “Why, he said right there that nothing will separate you.” He nailed it right down that if we will stay in Christ, nothing can separate us from the love of God. When you are born again, the Spirit of God sheds abroad the love of God in your heart; and when you stay in Christ, there is nothing that can separate you from the love of Christ. However, you can separate yourself from Christ.

In I John 3:1, we read, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.. We become as different to the world as Jesus was. This old thing of fusing the Church and the world together is an act of Satan. He has tried to work it all down through the ages, but real salvation makes you and keeps you as separate from the world as Jesus Himself was. The reason why you are different is that the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart.

You get an understanding of what the love of God really is. Too many people do not understand what it means to be a partaker of His nature. We know that love is one of His attributes; but that is His very nature, also. II Peter 1:1-4 tells us: Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. That is the way that you grow. The way that you get grace and peace multiplied is by getting a greater knowledge of God, and you get a greater knowledge of God as you study and meditate upon His Word and allow Holy Ghost to bring this revelation home

I want you to see that the love of God is only revealed as we are born again. In John 1:13, we are told that we are those Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. We are not doing what we want to do or what man wants us to do, but we are doing what God said to do. We are born of God; and when we are born of God, He gives us power to become sons of God through His divine power. We are made a partaker of His divine nature. Right there we begin to know the love of God.

I can tell you right now that you have never seen a Holy Ghost filled believer fight holiness. You have never seen a Holy Ghost filled believer that wanted to commit sin. When the love of God is shed abroad in your heart, you will love the things that God loves. Yes, you become a partaker of His divine nature.

In regard to a false love of God, let us go back now to Galatians 1:6-12. According to Paul, another gospel has completely changed the definition of God’s love. This is sad, but it is true. God’s love today according to religious derelicts is a growing toleration. Now let us just lay it out like it is. The farther we go, the filthier that which calls itself the Church becomes and the more her people look like Jezebels. They are so much like the world that no one can tell where the world stops and the Church starts; but all the time they are setting this image up as the love of God getting greater. They feel that the love of God is getting greater in that it is tolerating more and more.

I can prove to you by the Gospel that the love of God will have less toleration the farther you go with God and the straighter and more narrow your life will get. Furthermore, you will love it that way. People who are filled with the Holy Spirit love the naked truth sharp and straight just like it is. I Corinthians 13:6 says that charity Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. It does not rejoice in iniquity; but this thing which is being set forth as the love of God today is declaring it to be a growing toleration of more and more of that which is questionable, polluted, filthy, and vile.

With this false love comes an animosity and a hatred for any true servant who thunders out the Word of God as it is. Isn’t it a strange thing that they can love everything from the darkness of the Babylonian church clear on through! They have a love that will cover all the filth and ungodliness; but let a man walk up who will lay the truth out as it is, and they will hate that individual. Let us put the test where it belongs, my friend. There is a hatred that rises up against a servant of God who will still thunder out the words of God that say, “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (I Peter 1:16).

In the Gospel, God lets us know that if we are going to understand and possess His love, we must also possess His holiness. The same divine power that quickens us into a new life sheds the love of God abroad. “Another gospel” which Paul talks about has made such a deep impression on the hearts and minds of people. In fact, too many of those who claim to be God’s people even accept the thought of another gospel; and when one cries out against it, they say that he is not manifesting love.

Someone said, “Do you really think God’s people are affected by that?” It is pitiful, my friend, when we consider this great move under the guise of “Grace” whose image is nothing more than a production of this very false image of love that I am talking about. Many of the people of God have been swept away with the movement that claims to be the Church of God. They have joined ranks, and now they will get red faced if you stand up and preach a separate Gospel that separates a people from sin and false religion.

Friends, you can talk all you want to about Babylonian church raising up one of these days; and she is going to raise up one of these days and do just what the Bible says–she will swallow up all her daughters. However, she will not have to have any guns to swallow them up. This thing that I am preaching about has laid the groundwork and opened up the way. Friends, Babylon is not going to have to rise up and make the deceived come home. We can see how they are walking back home under the powerful deception of this thing. Yes, sadly many are walking under the delusion of a false gospel which is leading them right back into Religious house of Babylon.

Some will say, “don’t you know that isn’t the way to win the world?” This is what I am speaking against. “Another gospel which is not another” has worked on the minds of more people than we are ready to realize. I can bring it right down closer.

The culture of the world has invaded the church to such a great degree that today there is hardly a noticeable difference between the two. We see that the culture in which the “church” people are living in our day is totally different that the culture the saints in the Book of Acts lived. You are not abiding by this Gospel. You have “another gospel,” and you are perverting the Gospel of Christ. It is the same old spirit. My friend, the Word and the Spirit of God send forth a message to tell you to lay hold of some things that are not conducive to Christianity and to get them out of your life, get them out of your home, and get rid of them. Then, along you come with the idea that you can still be a saint and hang on to these things. You say, “I will live my life.” Friends, that is not this Gospel; that is “another gospel.”

Somebody said, “How are we going to tell the difference?” I will tell you before we get through. “Another gospel” has made such deep impressions on the hearts and minds of the people that many even of God’s people will not accept the thought of another gospel. I do not make a hobby of preaching against false religion; but when God says preach that message, I preach that message. When you stand up and cry out against false religion, people say that you are not manifesting love. This modern worldly religious love accepts everything and everybody but those who obey the Gospel. The Church of Babylon is laughing as it looks at many in the church today, for they are being lead astray, walking right into her arms. All it took was a false teaching on love.

May the God of true mercy, grace and love allow Holy Ghost bring to home this revelation to open our eyes!

Go to the Cross

Posted: May 7, 2011 in disciples life, teaching

“There is no victory over the indwelling power of sin, and there is no pardon for the guilt of sin, but as the soul deals with the blood of Christ. The great end of our dear Lord’s death was to destroy the works of the devil. Sin is the great work of Satan. To overcome this, to break its power, subdue its dominion, repair its ruins, and release from its condemnation, the blessed Son of God suffered the ignominious death of the cross.

All that bitter agony which He endured – all that mental suffering – the sorrow of His soul in the garden – the sufferings of His body on the cross – all was for sin. See, then, the close and beautiful connection between the death of Christ and the death of sin. All true sanctification comes through the cross.

Reader, seek it there. The cross brought into your soul by the eternal Spirit will be the death of your sins. Go to the cross – oh, go to the cross of Jesus. In simplicity of faith, go. With the strong corruption, go. With the burden of guilt, go, go to the cross. You will find nothing but love there – nothing but welcome there – nothing but purity there. The precious blood of Jesus ‘cleanses us from all sin.’ And while you are kept low beneath the cross, your enemy dares not approach you, sin shall not have dominion over you, nor shall Satan, your accuser, condemn you.”

–Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts

KINGDOM LIGHT

Posted: May 5, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
Tags: kingdom growth, Kingdom life, Kingdom living, Kingdom teaching, radical christianity

Christ Jesus came from heaven to earth. He was born without an earthly father by the seed of God through the Holy Spirit. Jesus was born outside the lineage of Adam and is without the curse of Adam’s sin. He matured as a natural man without a sin heritage and was filled with God by the Holy Spirit at His baptism. Without the hindrance of a damaged soul, body, and spirit, He was one with His Father in heaven. All the love, power, and wisdom of God the Father abode in the man Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

Christ Jesus did not come to establish the Christian religion nor any other religion. He did not come to give us a religious order nor provide us with a set of ritualistic rules and practices to get us to heaven when we die. He came to redeem mankind and the kingdoms of earth. He came and now abides within believers to establish a very practical kingdom of God, one in which peace and good will toward man prevails. One of the mistakes of religious-thinking people is to consider Jesus as the champion of the Christian religion and compare Him to the champions of other religions of the world.

The supreme wisdom, truth, and understandings given through Jesus Christ are not for the purpose of being catalogued, classified, and labeled as religious doctrines and practices by man. The words of Jesus are not for establishing theology, religious services, or any other religious ritual. The teachings of Jesus are to be the foundational framework for guiding and empowering the individual and every form of authority in the world. The basic kingdom principles are not just a guide for religion or church. Every ruling authority must eventually structure the base of its function by the principles of God’s kingdom given through Christ Jesus. No other form or set of principles will ever lead to peace on earth and good will toward man.

The theme of the Bible is the message of Jesus. The message of Jesus is the kingdom of God or, said another way, the rule of God from heaven on earth through redeemed man. The message of Jesus is not just how to get to heaven when we die or how to establish a set of doctrines for our denomination. As we stop looking with religious eyes and begin to ask God for practical understanding of His Word to guide and empower our lives today, we may be amazed at how simple, practical, and real His Word really is; especially the teachings of Christ Jesus in the Gospels.

In the passing church age, many Christians separated the religious from the real within their minds. They would stand outside a church building and function in the real part of their thinking discussing things that are real to them, such as their jobs or a recent sporting event. Then, they would walk inside the church building, sit down, and subconsciously shift their minds to the unreal religious portion of their minds. Everything that happened, every word heard or spoken, was then affecting only the religious portion of their soul. Little, if any, crossed over into the reality portion of their minds. This great wall of separation within the individual prevented the principles and wisdom of God from greatly affecting their life experience. It was not available in the reality portion of their lives to guide their life decisions. Decisions about education, job, business, family, entertainment and other important areas of real life were made without the benefit of the supreme wisdom of God’s kingdom principles.

Religion can become a blinding force that can rob a person of sight. One may see the words of a portion of scripture and not see the meaning and application of it for his life. One may hear the Word spoken and yet not have ears to hear the powerful truth that will affect his or her daily life. The words spoken may have doctrinal or religious meaning for the religious portion of their lives and have little or no effect on the kingdom of God ruling their entire life. The instruction and empowering principles for kingdom living will not appear to the person looking at the Bible with religious eyes and denominationally colored vision.

I have been a part of church services where the Word from God was brought with power and obviously affected the people in the congregation. Yet, I was amazed to see the people shift at the final Amen, back to their real mode and resume conversation about recent sporting events and other such things as though nothing had happened. Only the religious part of their lives was affected and little or nothing changed in their daily lives.

Christ Jesus did not come to earth to fill a portion of our lives or to become a part of our lives. Christ must fill our entire life and become our life. The will of God will be done, and the kingdom of God will come in our lives when Jesus is our life. “Christ in you the hope of glory.”

Similarly, we must not interpret nor apply the Bible from a partitioned perspective. We must seek an undivided view of spiritual interpretation of the Bible for our whole life experience. True purpose for man’s life can only come from knowing God’s purpose from His words. The words of God are a living and powerful force guiding the metamorphosis of the heavenly kingdom of God on earth. A major purpose of man is to intimately relate to God in such a way that Christ is formed within him to establish the kingdom of God and rule and reign with him on the planet.

Ruling and reigning with Him encompasses every aspect of life, not just religious matters. All governments, businesses, families, schools, churches, and other institutions in the earth are to be ruled by Christ living in man. Science, technology, arts, all disciplines of knowledge and practice, and every skill of man are to be ruled by the indwelling Christ in man.

The kingdom of God is much larger than the local church. It is given birth from the church but grows to encompass all aspects of earth. The kingdom of God is larger than redemption. It is in part the reason for redemption and the purpose of the church. The kingdom of God and His righteous ways of doing and being will rule our lives and, eventually, our world as we individually and cumulatively seek Jesus, the message of God. Jesus is the message of the kingdom of God on earth from heaven. He is the King over all other rulers and authorities in the world. He is the Lord over all other men and angels or any created thing.

The King is now present on earth to rule and reign with believers. The message of Jesus, the gospel of the kingdom of God, is coming forth on earth by the indwelling Spirit of Christ within believers. Christ in you the hope of Glory (Col 1:27). He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father (John 14:12).

The enlightenment of the kingdom of God in the beginning of the seventh millennium challenges many of our traditional interpretations of scripture. Even the translations from the original language of the Bible coming forth during the sixth millennium beg to be reevaluated. A return to the original Greek and Hebrew text of the Bible
viewed in the light of the revelation of the kingdom is needed to clean up some religious traditions interpreted into our contemporary Bibles.

When the Apostles, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, penned the New Testament, they were often recording events they personally witnessed or heard directly from the Lord. Paul, for example, taught the kingdom of God from the perspective of personally experiencing the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit performing miracles of healing, deliverance, and personal protection. Kingdom power was a part of their daily lives, along with persecutions from the Jewish religious leaders and resistance from a few church leaders.

Though kingdom power and authority were a part of their everyday lives, they lived two thousand years ago. There has been movement toward the fulfillment of some things since that time. Sometimes, because the Bible is so everlasting and alive, I feel that we are still living in that same time frame. Of course, most things do not change in the spiritual realm. The Word of God is forever settled in heaven; and, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Though the Word never changes, our ability to understand it does change as God gives clarification of revelation by the Holy Spirit. Some people talk about returning to first century Christianity. I believe we are entering even a greater season. Seventh millennium kingdom reality will exceed that of the first century. I believe Paul and the others would say a big Amen to that.

Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom of God. After Pentecost the disciples had clear revelation of the gospel of the kingdom and proclaimed it with great power and clarity. Paul and others of his day had clearer revelation of the kingdom than any subsequent generation throughout the fifth and sixth millennia.

Paul, toward the end of his ministry, clearly warned that apostasy would soon occur within the church. The great apostasy that began after the first century caused the revelation of the kingdom and the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom to be hidden and lost to the church in general. The great revelation and power of the first century was adulterated and lost as vast darkness covered the world. The church became a religious monstrosity as man’s fallen ways replaced the pure leadership of Jesus Christ working within men through the Holy Spirit.

The apostles of the Lamb and the disciples of the first century had a clear revelation of the kingdom of God. Their original writings in the Greek language reflected the understanding of the kingdom of God. Unfortunately, the major English translations of the Bible we have today were translated fifteen hundred or more years after the first century. The great apostasy of the dark ages caused the pure word of the kingdom to be perverted, as many false doctrines of religion affected man’s understanding and clouded the great gospel of the kingdom. Paul had warned that apostasy would come after he was gone. It came and caused the pure word of the kingdom of God to be taken from the church and replaced with other doctrines and rituals.

(Acts 20:29-31 NKJV) For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.

In the second and third centuries, Christians were greatly persecuted. They were tortured, beheaded, burned, and thrown to wild beasts. Christians survived in caves, wilderness areas, and undercover in cities. Despite the attempt by Roman emperors to eradicate Christianity, it continued to spread and to remain relatively pure.

In the fourth century, Constantine, a Roman emperor, was miraculously converted to Christianity and made it the state religion, bringing an end to the great persecution. The state church of the fourth and fifth centuries was very different from the pilgrim spiritual church of the first three centuries. Constantine established Sunday as a day of worship and rest. During this time the church was no longer being purified by persecution and soon experienced an inrush of pagan ideas and ways. The church’s prosperity was its greatest peril. This was the beginning of corrupt leadership and practices within the church. Instead of the church separating itself from paganism it adapted to it.

Church leaders established a hierarchy of control and power. They fought for position, bought and sold religious favors and positions, openly lived immorally, and developed doctrines to favor their positions of power. The Papal system developed with a number of locally powerful Popes. Eventually the power shifted toward Rome and a universal, all-powerful Pope. In the fifth century the Barbarians overthrew a portion of the empire and some were converted to Christianity. However, their conversions were nominal and helped introduce increased pagan practices into the church.

Though some Popes were better than others, in general, from about the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, the corruption continued. The Spiritual life of the first century church was replaced with a politically powerful, corrupt, and very ritualistic religious system. In this system, the people were required to pay for forgiveness of their sins, the church collected taxes, and leaders made themselves as gods. Indulgences were sold–the greater the sin, the greater the price. The church became very rich. Church doctrines were established by the Papal hierarchy to bring political authority under the Pope. According to their rules, salvation or forgiveness of sins could not be had outside the Roman Catholic Church. It was absolutely necessary for every human creature, in order to obtain forgiveness, to be subject to the Roman Pontiff. Any one with a different view was considered a heretic. In an attempt to rid the world of heresy, the church killed many of them.

Though the church was polluted by perverted leadership and false doctrines, I personally believe that there were real Christians with godly beliefs and practices on the fringes and hidden within the church body. It seems from scripture that there is always at least a remnant of godly people during even the darkest of times. They may not be openly visible and history may pass them by but they are there (Romans 11:3-5).

The renaissance period of learning brought a renewed interest in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, which began to expose the unscriptural corruption of the medieval church. Early reformers met with strong and deadly resistance from the church. The church began persecuting Christians instead of the Roman government persecuting them. The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries began the modern reformation of Christianity. Spiritual truth began to be restored, piece-by- piece, as biblical teachings were revealed to men. The restoration of revelation continues today and the church continues to attempt to free itself of the lingering doctrines and rituals of the past apostasy.

It was during the early part of the current restoration period (1611) that King James authorized the English translation of the Bible that we still use today. It was in this period of limited, spiritual light and ritualistic, religious background that the Bible began to be translated into other languages. Over twenty major editions of the English New Testament appeared before the Hampton Court Conference in which King James approved the project that produced the King James Version (KJV). Most of these, as well as the KJV, were little more than revisions of the earlier work of William Tyndale. The translation of the NKJ New Testament is estimated to be up to ninety percent of the actual wording of Tyndale’s New Testament.

With the light they had, the men sought to translate the Hebrew and Greek text into English. But, they did not have the revelation of the kingdom of God or the gospel of the kingdom that the original first century writers had. They sought to make sense of the Word in the context and framework of their revelation and understanding at the time. Many of the Hebrew and Greek words could be translated different ways. There is no exact word-for-word comparison between the languages. The translators had to rely on their understanding of the context and the speaker’s intent to determine which way to go with the translation and which English words to use.

A number of revisions of the King James Version have been produced, including the American Standard Version in 1901 and the New American Standard Version in 1959. All of the translations and revisions have borne the impression of the clarity of revelation and understanding of God from the point in time they were written. They also bear the essence of the spiritual color (area of revealed truth) of the individuals doing the translating.

God continues to reveal Himself and His ways to His people according to what they can receive and handle. The church is still very much affected by the trappings of the apostate church of past centuries. As periods of enlightenment come one after another, revelation comes forth and truth is restored to the church. It was only about four hundred years ago when salvation by grace through faith was restored to the church. From that time to the present, many powerful truths have been revealed to God’s people. With each new enlightenment we tend to think we now have it all. yet the revelation of God continues to come.

The original text, as it was originally written, is believed to be the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, God-breathed and without error. The translations of the Bible are not. They are an evolved series of translations through different languages from the original.

The recent clarification of revelation of Christ in believers producing the victorious kingdom of God lifestyle with authority over the enemy and all of his works sheds bright new light on the Word of God. At this present point in time, the revelation of kingdom begs for a return to the original language texts as much as possible. The clear revelation that may be clearly seen through the Holy Spirit in the Greek and Hebrew text may be obscured in our translations. We must depend on the anointing of the Holy Spirit to open and explain the scripture to our spirit.

1 John 2:27: But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

Considering the Hebrew and Greek text in light of the kingdom of God potential now and in the future may cause passages speaking of victorious kingdom living to become brilliantly alive; and it may cause some passages to crumble, which seem to say that God’s people can only wait to die or escape.

Various doctrines and rituals of the church originated in the apostate past or in the beginning light of the reformation period. Some long-held traditional doctrines may need to be exposed to the light of the kingdom by the Holy Spirit and measured by the Hebrew and Greek scriptures.

Keep on Pursuing Love
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Sin no more!

Posted: May 3, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Christian life, discipleship, kingdom of darkness, Kingdom teaching, radical christianity, righteousness, Spirit first, Spirit led life

For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions. Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and [a]faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and [b]faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy]. (Rom 6:10-14 AMP)

As I woke this morning I felt in my spirit that we are in the day of urgency, when we must present our bodies before the Lord as living sacrifices and with that we must live sinless lives.

The Word is filled with powerful passages of the power of God, the power of His Christ to not only defeat sin, but to live righteous lives having had sin’s power broken in our lives. We must live in the faith of God’s Word, believing in it’s power. Does not His Word declare:

“But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life” (Rom 6:22)

Not only that if we truly believe the word of our Lord, then we can live a life without sin:

“And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11)

Are we living lives free from sin today – have we grasped His Word allowing it to live out through our lives? I look at my life and tremble for I see a past not merely as I walked as one not knowing Christ but even as one who had received the truth – I read 1 Cor 15 and Holy Spirit brings such a conviction into my life such as when I read the verse stating “Let’s eat and drink because tomorrow we’re going to die!

So what is the answer to not living so carelessly as to put the gospel message in my life to shame? We find it in verse 34 “Come back to the right point of view, and stop sinning”. And what is that right point of view? That I have been, thru the cross of Christ my Lord been set free from sin.

The Spirit has been searching my thoughts as of late and I have questioned my self as to whether I have been living the religious game – O’ how many of us think we can live as the world lives and yet have the fragrance of the Lord on our lives! We must come out from the world and all its thinking, allowing Holy Ghost to separate us unto the Lord. We must go to the alter of the Lord and having laid our lives down their, allow our lives to be put to death in the baptism of the Lord.

God call’s us (those called by His Name) to be Holy even as He is Holy. The good news is that we can not do it on our own – the best news is where we fail, God Triumphs! All of our works can not achieve it, only thru Christ can we live a righteous and holy life. We must humble ourselves, having realized that we are completely incapable of pleasing a Holy & Righteous God – Yet through His Son we can! The Word say’s say that our works are but filthy rags in His sight – think of the dirtiest rag you have ever seen, then think of what you consider the best deed you’ve ever done – Now look back at that picture of the dirty rag – there you have the view of what your great deed looks like before the Lord!

God doesn’t accept just anything. Worship is the act of offering what God asks, with a heart of affection. Both Cain and King Saul experienced God’s rejection from the altar.

Neither men met the simple criteria of true worship, and were refused for it. God reveals the worship He enjoys in scripture, particularly the sacrificial law. May it be noted, Jesus satisfied all of the law’s sacrificial requirements, freeing us to worship our Father in spirit and in truth. Still, the sacrificial law recorded in scripture offers us precious revelation on true worship.

While the Old Testament prescribes all the outward acts of worship, it doubly reveals the inward spirit Father is looking for.

The matter is clear. The closer we draw to spirit-based worship, the farther we flee from human cleverness. He’s not looking for originality or invention, but authenticity and humility. I understand that creativity and authenticity are not mutually exclusive. Still, the essence of spirit-based worship is to depart from intellectual demonstration to enter into humble observation of His magnificence. Psalm 46:10 explains, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, requires a yielding of the intellect to matters of spirit.

Yet still, can we admit that what God wants, and what our fallen nature wants to give Him are two very different things? He doesn’t want what we want for Him. He wants what He wants. Period.

There is nothing artificial sweet about the cross of Christ, or the surrender of self-will to the sovereignty of God. The sweetness lies in the reward of sacrifice, which is the unabated fellowship of spirit to Spirit. We don’t need to sweeten the pot to gain the favor of God. Humble grains of obedience will do.

If the generation we live in is too see the beautiful reality of God’s Bride, we must come out from under religion, we must start walking in righteousness with holy lives through Christ Jesus our Lord. We must be willing to put to death every worldly desire, every worldly agenda and submit our lives to the Father in everything we do and say. For it is then that the world shall witness His Glory, shining forth through broken vessels.

Today we must live free of sin, no longer slaves to it’s power – that power which Jesus Christ broke – that power which is destroyed through the message of the cross, by the power of the Blood of the Lamb, shown forth in the testimony of our lives lived through Christ. For when we take the fullness of what our Lord did there and apply it through the revelation of Holy Ghost in Spiritual truth, it is then that it may be seen fully manifested in our lives.

Today is the day that we must surrender to the cross and sin no more!!!

For we who are called by His Name, do indeed serve an Awesome God!

IHS,
Russ Welch

UNIVERSAL RECIPROCITY

Posted: May 2, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Bride of Christ, Christian life, kingdom growth, Kingdom living, kingdom of darkness, Kingdom teaching

UNIVERSAL RECIPROCITY

Universal reciprocity can be viewed as The Universal Bank in Heaven. It is the only completely secure bank. All other banks can fail, but our deposits are secure in God’s bank. Just as a natural bank is a place where we deposit our money or treasures until we call for them, so the bank of heaven is a depository for our treasures until we call for them. The enemy would like for us to believe that we cannot make withdrawals from the bank of heaven now, that we must wait until we die and go to heaven to have any use of our account in heaven. That same enemy desires that we believe everything about heaven pertains to only the future, and not now. This would be like a bank forbidding us the use of our checking account. Yes, we are to lay up treasures in heaven, not on earth. But where does Scripture say that we must die and go to heaven to before we can access them?

We are being used of God in the business of ruling and reigning on earth with Him. We are God’s earthly managers bringing forth His will on earth as it is in heaven. God’s universal laws govern the working arrangement between God and His earthly managers (mankind). As good managers of God’s assets we are instructed to lay up treasures in heaven by faithfully and obediently managing our lives and all He has put into our hands. We are clearly instructed not to gather treasures on earth for ourselves.

Matthew 6:19-20: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Meeting needs of mankind and the world around us makes a deposit in our account in the universal bank in heaven. We are God’s possession and all that is in our hands belongs to Him. Our personal accounts in heaven are His riches reserved for us. When we have need, God supplies all our need according to His riches in glory.

Philippians 4:17: Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.

Matthew 19:21: Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

1 Peter 1:4: …to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

Phil 4:19: And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

SOWING AND REAPING

One of the major banking laws governing business activities of the “Universal Bank in Heaven” is the universal law of sowing and reaping. In the realm of physics, this law may be expressed as the law of cause and effect. Isaac Newton said, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” In the realm of finance, one might refer to it as the law of investment and return. A preacher might express it as giving and receiving. The farmer would speak of planting and harvesting. In any case, the law always involves a costly sowing process. We must take what we have and plant it. We may desire to consume it, but we know there will be no harvest if we do not plant.

Psalm 126:5-6: Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Galatians 6:7-l0: Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

We will reap what we sow, if we do not lose heart. We must patiently wait and remain until harvest time. All sowing requires a period of natural growth before harvest. If we, for any reason, lose heart and leave or quit before the harvest time, we will miss the harvest. It may be wasted or another may gather the harvest we planted. Man does not decide when it is harvest time; the crop does. We must be available and ready to put in the sickle immediately when the harvest time comes.

No one can reap until someone has sown. To look for a harvest without sowing means that we are looking to receive from what someone else has sown. This is like borrowing and must be paid back. The account books will be balanced. To continue to borrow (seeking to reap without sowing) will put us further and further in debt and into the bondage of lack. It’s much the same as if we continued to borrow money from a natural bank, but made no payments. We are given an original inheritance in our account but if we never use it to do good, we make no deposits. Our inheritance will soon be gone and we will have nothing in the universal bank to draw upon.

We are to sow (doing good) to all, but especially to those of the household of faith. The more we can do to really meet the needs of God’s people and all mankind, the more we will reap. Helping to provide food for people by farming, processing, or distributing, is sowing. Using what we have to manufacture and distribute or otherwise provide clothing, clean water, adequate housing, transportation, medical services, and so on are forms of meeting needs. Mankind’s greatest need is to be rightly related to God. Preaching and teaching the Word of God, bringing forth the ministry of Jesus by the Holy Spirit to save, heal and deliver is a major area of meeting human needs. The more we do to establish systems or provide resources to accomplish these things, the more we will reap.

2 Corinthians 9:6-12: But this I say: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: ‘He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness remains forever.’” Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God.

Hebrews 6:10: For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

Becoming Better Managers

Who can meet more needs for mankind, the skilled or the unskilled, the diligent or the slothful, those with Godly wisdom or the unwise, the one who cares for others or the one who cares only for himself, the one who receives wise counsel or the one who listens only to himself, the one who labors or the one who talks idly? The one who meets more needs is making more deposits and subsequently will reap more from the Universal Bank in Heaven.

It is not necessary that men know the good we do. The return does not depend on men. It depends on God and His accounting and reward system in Heaven. We will be rewarded openly for using that which we have to meet the needs of others in secret. Prayer and fasting makes a deposit in the Bank of Heaven. Anything that meets human need, especially the needs of the brethren, makes a deposit.

Matthew 6:1-4,6,17-18: “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in Heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what you right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” “But you when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Giving to a person or an organization that is meeting human needs makes a deposit. Investing in a company that is meeting human needs makes a deposit.

The amount of return is based on the net value produced. It costs something to maintain our life and any system of endeavor. The net product is what is left of the value we added after subtracting the value that we consumed or used.

There is positive and negative sowing. If we do good to one person but take away from another, the value we added to mankind is lessened by the amount of negative we sowed. If we go out to help the world but offend our own children, we may take away as much or more than we deposited. The net value added to mankind is our deposit in the Bank of Heaven. If we have not been giving to God by adding value to mankind but have been consuming all God has placed into our hands, we have been robbing God – robbing the bank of heaven.

Malachi 3:8-9: “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.”

Jesus said that when we give to the brethren, we give to Him. We give to God by giving to others. Our gift to an organization is a gift to God only if the organization is meeting people’s needs.

Malachi is a transitional book. It is the last book of the Old Testament and in part speaks into the New Testament. The tithe was God’s instruction in the old covenant law that does not transcend into the kingdom. In the new covenant we, and all that we have in our hands are God’s. We are to administer it according to His instruction. In the time of the old covenant, they did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide and empower their lives. Basic laws and rules and the words of the prophets were the Israelites primary forms of direction. There was no potential for them to all become priests and kings as in the new covenant. Rather, God appointed some to be priests and sent prophets to anoint some as kings.

In the kingdom our lives are about giving and serving God by serving His people. We are to be hearing and obeying God’s desire and direction as to how and where we give or serve. In so doing, our treasures are stored in heaven to be drawn upon as needed to provide for meeting more needs in obedience to God’s direction through the Holy Spirit.

There is no room in the kingdom for greed and covetous practices such as have perverted the ways of people, including many Christians, in past centuries. Failure and depletion of available provision comes from the disobedience of keeping back for ourselves what God has given us to invest in meeting needs, which is the business of kingdom management.

Keep on Pursuing Love
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Teaching, Training And Disciplining in the Christian Community

Posted: May 1, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Christian life, discipleship, kingdom growth, Kingdom living, kingdom of darkness, radical christianity, Spirit led life

Teaching, Training And Disciplining in the Christian Community – By Dr. David Ryser

The western model of teaching and training is based in value being placed upon the dissemination of information. Knowledge, and by implication wisdom, is defined as a collection of a body of information. Relationship between the teacher and student is considered unimportant or even irrelevant.

However, even those shaped by this system instinctively know its shortcoming by remembering our best (and most effective) teachers as those with whom we had the strongest/closest relationship. What we call teaching (or training or education) the culture of the Bible called reasoning (Acts 17:2; 17:17; 18:4; 19 8, 9 to reference a few instances). Teaching/training, biblically, is relational and interactive (Luke 2:46, 47) When a child comes home from school in the typical American household, he/she is asked “Did you learn anything at school today”? whereas the Jewish child is more likely to be asked “Did you ask any good questions at school today”?).

There are numerous examples in the scriptures of people being trained to carry out the call of God for their lives, and they point to the centrality of relational teaching/training. Two such examples come readily to mind. The first is the training of Joshua by Moses. Joshua was trained to take leadership of Israel for more than forty years, by being with Moses observing, assisting, and serving. The second is the relationship between Elijah and Elisha.

Elijah was commanded by God to anoint Elisha as his successor. Although no implicit command to train Elisha for his ministry is given, Elijah takes Elisha into his home for some 15 years as Elisha observes, assists, and serves Elijah as his servant. This method of training is particularly remarkable in this case because there existed, and had existed since the time of Samuel, several “schools of the prophets” (cf 2 Kings 2:1-5) throughout Israel?and Elijah?s successor came from none of these.

This relational teaching/training model continued to develop during the exile and intertestamental periods and was the basis for the rabbi-disciple relationship whereby the student would attach himself to a teacher not so much for the purpose of learning what the teacher knew as to become what the teacher was (Matthew 10:24, 25a; Luke 6:40). Jesus used this model as He chose 12 men to be with Him in ministry, intending to turn over His ministry to them upon His departure.

These were not mere followers, Jesus had over 500 of those (1 Corinthians 15:6), but men chosen to be with Him and learn by observing, assisting, and serving Him. Even within the group of 12, there were 3 whom Jesus was more intimate with and who were privileged to see and do more than the others and to relate with Jesus at a higher/deeper level.

This relational model continues through the remainder of the New Testament. Paul trains the younger members of his ministry team, Titus and Timothy being the most notable examples, though there were others as well (Colossians 4:7-14 as well as Aquila and Priscilla) – as they accompany him during the time of his ministry and observe, assist, and serve him. There are other examples; for example, Mark had two such relationships (with Barnabas and Peter) during his time of training for ministry.

And this model of teaching/training is not restricted solely to raising up ministries, but is also utilized in the raising up of disciples by more mature disciples (Romans 15:14; Colossians 3:16; Titus 2:3-5; Hebrews 3:13; 10:25; 1 Peter 5:5a) as the people of God speak into one another’s lives. Doing this effectively requires relationship, and the level of effectiveness is determined by the intimacy of the relationship.

To sum up, the biblical model of teaching/training can best be described by the word mentoring. This requires the mentor and those being mentored to be in relationship; which requires, among other things, those in this relationship to spend time together so as the student observes, assists, and serves the mentor, then questions and answers – and thus teaching/training takes place in context. This method should be in place at every level of Church life from Disciplining new converts to maturing believers and training leaders (even in a school of ministry) with the goal of instructing, enabling, empowering, utilizing, and releasing giftings and ministries. Just as Jesus attempted to duplicate Himself in His followers, a pattern perpetuated by His disciples, so the Church seeks to duplicate the character of Jesus (modeled by the mentor) and pass on passion for Him and a vision for establishing His kingdom to those being discipled.

Radical Disciples – A Remnant Revolution

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Teaching, Training And Disciplining in the Christian Community