Category: encouragement

Walking in the Spirit #4

Sunday, October 7, 2012

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24,25 KJV).

Now that we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, we have a new identity, and this identity should impact our lifestyles for God’s glory.

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness [sexual lustfulness], idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance [strife, fighting], emulations [jealous quarrels], wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings [drunken, disorderly feasts], and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (verses 19-21). (The use of the pronoun “they” instead of “we” indicates that Christians are not being spoken of here. These are lost people, who have no choice but to sin, to walk in their Adamic nature.)

Our old sin nature produces the above sins. However, we Christians have a new nature in Christ, and it too produces fruit. Rather than sins, it produces the righteousness the Law demanded: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (verses 22,23). Contrast this with verses 19-21, and then re-read today’s Scripture. We have life in Christ: this life is not our old, self-centered life (verses 19-21), but it is selfless, seeking the benefit of others (verses 22,23).

The indwelling Holy Spirit works in us believers to generate “the fruit of the Spirit,” which is called “the fruits of righteousness” in Philippians 1:9-11: “And this I pray, that ye may [be] filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

When we walk by faith in an intelligent understanding of God’s Word to us, Paul’s epistles, we “walk in the Spirit,” who will take that sound doctrine and produce the life of Jesus Christ in us (today’s Scripture). This will bring God glory and praise.

Walking in the Spirit #3

Saturday, October 6, 2012

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24,25 KJV).

Now that we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, we have a new identity, and this identity should impact our lifestyles for God’s glory.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (verses 16-18). Notice how the Bible links our “flesh” (sin nature) to the Law. The Mosaic Law demands that we perform, and our flesh loves to perform because it can then boast, “Look at my religious ‘goodness!’”

As Galatians 5:16-18 said above, introducing the Mosaic Law into the Christian life is counterproductive: it creates a war, a struggle, between you and Christ, which is vividly described in Romans chapter 7. The Mosaic Law demands you perform to gain God’s acceptance (Deuteronomy 28:1ff.), while the Christian life is Christ performing in you the believer because you already are accepted of God in Christ (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:6). This is why Mosaic Law-keeping does not belong in our Dispensation of Grace. It “frustrate[s] [hinders] the grace of God” (Galatians 2:21), since God’s grace teaches us it is Christ, not us, who must perform to make us accepted of God!

Galatians 5:18 said, “If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” The Holy Spirit does not lead anyone in the Dispensation of Grace to operate under the performance-based acceptance system of Judaism (Mosaic Law-keeping). If a Christian attempts Law-keeping, it is literally his or her own doing (not God’s doing), and it is done to their spiritual detriment (misery and defeat)! The indwelling Spirit of God leads us to enjoy the life we have in Christ, and we should walk by faith in His performance (today’s Scripture).

Walking in the Spirit #2

Friday, October 5, 2012

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24,25 KJV).

Now that we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, we have a new identity, and this identity should impact our lifestyles for God’s glory.

Sadly, it is often assumed—even by some professing grace believers—that grace is a license to sin. Since “[we] are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14b), some erroneously conclude that we are free to live any way we want. Verse 15 cautions us, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid [May God never let that happen!!].” God’s grace teaches us to “[deny] ungodliness and worldly lusts” and it teaches us to live “soberly, righteously, and godly” (Titus 2:12).

In Galatians 5:13, we are exhorted: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Christ has made us free from the burden of the Mosaic Law, the “yoke of bondage” (verse 1), a system of rules we could never keep, but this does not mean that God does not care how we live.

We are not under Israel’s performance-based acceptance system. Nevertheless, grace teaches us that God fulfills in us believers the righteousness the Law demanded. Never should we abuse God’s grace by using it “for an occasion to the flesh;” grace should never be (ab)used to promote selfish living (preferring to serve sin rather than serve God and fellow Christians). Verses 14,15: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (verse 16). We have new life in Christ, and when we by faith let Him live His life in us, we will not live sinfully and selfishly (today’s Scripture).

Walking in the Spirit #1

Thursday, October 4, 2012

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24,25 KJV).

Now that we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, we have a new identity, which should impact our lifestyles for God’s glory.

Saints, from conception, we had an identity in Adam. Imagine, when we were still forming in our mothers’ wombs, God exclaimed, “They look so cute and innocent, but I know better!” As King David wrote, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). This identity in Adam caused us to sin, and thus we lived in rebellion against God and His will for our lives. We could not help but sin, for it was our very nature.

So, on Calvary’s cross, when Jesus Christ died, we died to sin, too. “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20a). Today’s Scripture explains that, as Christians, we “have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” The “flesh” here is the old sin nature, our old identity in Adam, and it was put to death at Calvary: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him [Christ], that the body of sin [our Adamic nature] might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6).

But, God did not leave us dead. When He resurrected Christ, He also raised us: “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” (verses 4b,5). We have a new identity in Christ, and this new identity will produce “newness of life.” “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh [physical body] I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Saints, we do not have to serve sin: we can walk by faith in our identity in Christ, and let Christ live in and through us. 🙂

A New Creature

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

“Therefore 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 KJV).

As today’s Scripture suggests, when someone trusts Jesus Christ alone as his or her personal Saviour, he or she receives a new identity in Christ!

Although we could list more, here are five things that happen to a person the instant he or she trusts in Christ’s finished crosswork on Calvary as sufficient payment for his or her sins:

  • Circumcised: God severs the old, spiritual, sinful relationship the individual had to Adam, and gives him or her a new relationship with Him, one no longer hindered by sin, but permanently maintained by Christ’s performance and mediatorship (Colossians 2:11-13).
  • Regenerated: The individual, once “[spiritually] dead in trespasses and sins,” is now given new life, eternal life, the life of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:1-23; Ephesians 2:1,5).
  • Indwelt: The Holy Ghost comes to live in the inner man of the individual, and He will use God’s written Word—which is studied and believed rightly divided—to transform the mind and heart, and ultimately the lifestyle, of the individual (Romans 12:1,2; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:14).
  • Baptized: The Holy Spirit baptizes the individual into the Church the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). This is not water baptism, but a supernatural baptism that the Holy Spirit performs (Colossians 2:12). This is the only baptism needed today, and it is the only baptism that saves us today!
  • Sealed: The saint is sealed by and with the Holy Ghost until the day of the rapture (Ephesians 1:12,13; Ephesians 4:30). Salvation is permanent, for Jesus Christ paid the price of our sin debt in full, and we can rest in His finished crosswork.

The individual is now a saint, one who is “holy,” separated unto God for the purpose for which He originally created him or her.

Saints, we are dead to sin, so let us walk by faith in our new identity, in our “new creature” status, the “one new man,” everlasting members of the Church the Body of Christ (Ephesians 2:15). 🙂

A Departing Saint and an Incoming Saint

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

“And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Corinthians 12:26,27 KJV).

Saints, rejoice with us! One saint is going home to be with the Lord, and another just trusted Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour!

Mrs. “B.,” a family friend, trusted Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour about 40 years ago. She was a great Christian mother and wife. For the past five years, she has endured Alzheimer’s disease. Within the last few weeks, her health has rapidly deteriorated, and as of the last few days, she is less alert, and is sleeping more. She is nearing home, drifting away from this world, and inching closer to the heavenly abode which marks the end of the Christian’s earthly life. The Lord has not forgotten her, and He will usher her home in His own time: therein we shall rejoice!

Ms. “K.,” someone with whom I just spoke on the phone, has trusted Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour. She is only a few minutes old in the Lord, but how she is just as much a member of the Church the Body of Christ as Mrs. “B.” Welcome to the family of God, Ms. “K.” You have new life in Christ! Therein we shall rejoice!

As today’s Scripture indicates, we mourn that Mrs. “B.” is unable to bid us a (temporal) farewell, and that she will not understand when we bid her a (temporal) farewell. How we mourn that she is suffering, but are comforted in the fact that she is not fully mentally aware of that suffering. If only she could remember, for her “to be absent from the body, [is] to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Though she cannot comprehend that verse anymore, we rejoice on her behalf, for she is nearing heaven’s glory.

In summation, we rejoice that, one day, Ms. “K.” and Mrs. “B.” will meet each other in eternity, two saints whose earthly lives briefly overlapped…. 🙂

Expect the Adversaries

Sunday, September 30, 2012

“For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:9 KJV).

Hypothetically, if we are the Lord’s children, then we will have an easy life? Right? Wrong!

As one Christian brother expressed it, “God has not promised us Christians a rose petal pathway.” Contrary to the feel-good cliché “God wants you healthy and wealthy,” our membership in the Church the Body of Christ does not ensure our lives will be trouble-free.

While we Christians serve the Lord Jesus Christ, this world has never been and will never be His friend: “They hated [Jesus Christ] without a cause” (John 15:25; cf. Psalm 35:19). During His 33 years on earth, the world was very unkind to our Lord and Saviour. He was hated, belittled, and executed by His own people. The world will “love” Christ living His life in us to the same extent they “loved” Him living His life during His earthly ministry—not at all!

In the verse previous to today’s Scripture, Paul is staying at Ephesus until Pentecost. Today’s Scripture says that while Paul had opportunity to preach and teach in Ephesus, the satanic policy of evil had its men in place. Evil men, Satan’s cohorts, were eager to divide Paul’s audience and persecute Christians, including harming the Apostle himself. Today’s Scripture refers to Acts 19:21–20:1, when Paul preached against the pagan goddess Diana in Ephesus. Fearing financial ruin, the local idol makers anger the Ephesians and cause them to turn against Paul. This riot in Ephesus (present-day western Turkey) forces Paul to depart to Macedonia (present-day northern Greece).

The Philippian believers endured intense persecution, yet Paul encouraged them: “And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God” (1:28). Do not fear or be intimidated by Satan’s evil world system. (“Satan” is a Hebrew word meaning “adversary.”) The devil is our adversary because he is God’s adversary. Thankfully, Satan’s tactics do not have to destroy us: God’s grace is sufficient for us to bear them (2 Corinthians 12:9,10).

Expect the adversaries, and expect God’s grace to endure them! 🙂

The Remaining Two-Thirds

Saturday, September 29, 2012

“Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34 KJV).

On average, you will spend one-third of your life sleeping. Of what will the remaining two-thirds of your earthly life consist?

In the context of today’s Scripture, it is noontime, and Jesus is tired from traveling, so He rests in Samaria by sitting on Jacob’s well (verses 5,6). His disciples have gone into nearby Sychar to buy food, and while He waits for their return, He speaks with a Samaritan woman who comes to draw water from the well (verses 7-26). (The Samaritans are not full-blooded Jews, so they and Israel usually do not associate with each other; see verse 9.)

As their conversation proceeds, the Samaritan woman learns that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah (verses 25,26). She quickly goes to the city to tell them of Jesus, and she comes back to Jesus with additional Samaritans (verses 28-30). Before they come to Jesus, His disciples finally return, and urge Him to eat (verse 31). The Lord replies, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of” (verse 32). His disciples then ask in verse 33: “Hath any man brought him aught to eat?”

Today’s Scripture is our Lord’s answer. The very thing for which He lives is not physical food: “My meat is to do the will of him [God the Father] that sent me, and to finish His work.” Our Lord has in mind the salvation of these Samaritans: “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (verse 35). Essentially, He is saying, “Look at the harvest of those souls!” (cf. Matthew 9:36,37). Later, many Samaritans believe on Christ, and He dwells with them two days (verses 39-43).

Saints, our Lord was consumed with fulfilling the work to which His heavenly Father had appointed Him. Can we say that about the remaining two-thirds of our lives? Are we walking by faith in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, allowing God to fulfill His will in us? Or, are we spiritually sleeping, doing nothing (Ephesians 5:14)?

The Patient Waiting for Christ

Saturday, September 22, 2012

“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5 KJV).

Saints, we must patiently wait for the Lord to come and take us home!

In today’s Scripture, the Apostle Paul reminds the Thessalonian believers—and us—that the Lord will “direct” (guide) our hearts, our innermost beings, “into the love of God” and “into the patient waiting for Christ.” These two doctrines are crucial to the Christian life.

“The love of God [Christ]” “constraineth” (motivates, empowers) us so that our lives are pleasing to God (2 Corinthians 5:14,15). But our Christian lives are not only meant to be experienced here on earth: in eternity future, Christ’s life in us will be lived in the heavenly places!

“The patient waiting for Christ” means we are to be patiently waiting for the day when Jesus Christ will rapture us, the Church that is His Body. (Sadly, absurd modern “bibles,” including NKJV, pervert “patient waiting for Christ” to read “the patience [or perseverance] of Christ,” thus cleverly denying the rapture!)

As our King James Bible declares, we are not simply exercising Christ’s patience; we are patiently waiting for Christ to come get us (there is a major difference). While we who have trusted in Jesus Christ alone as Saviour often earnestly pray for Him to hurriedly return to rescue us from this nasty, miserable world, that is not patience. 🙂 The actual purpose of the rapture—“our gathering together unto [Christ]” (2 Thessalonians 2:1)—is to remove us from earth so God can inaugurate us into our governmental positions in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6,7; Colossians 1:16,17).

We patiently wait for our Lord Jesus Christ. He is still extending His grace and mercy to mankind. As long as there are still (lost) people willing to trust Him, our Dispensation of Grace will continue to operate. It will be terminated when no one else wants to trust Christ alone as their personal Saviour. Be patient, saints! 🙂

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Tell Them Who He Is!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

“And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?” (Matthew 21:10 KJV).

Who is this which was aforementioned, and why is it such a shame that the inhabitants of Jerusalem asked, “Who is this?”

“And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway [immediately] ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send them” (verses 1-3).

“All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet [Zechariah 9:9], saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (verses 4,5).

Verses 6-9: “And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”

Jerusalem’s residents then ask, “Who is this?” Not only are they ignorant of Zechariah 9:9, the prophecy Jesus Christ is fulfilling, but they also willingly ignore the multitudes proclaiming who Jesus Christ is, recorded in Mark 11:10—“blessed be the kingdom of our father David”—and Luke 19:38—“Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Jesus Christ was Israel’s long-promised King, but unbelief kept most of them from seeing it (twice). Even today, unfortunately, most church members echo about Jesus Christ, “Who is this?” May we continue to study and believe the King James Bible rightly divided, so we can tell them who He is! 🙂