ALL ARE WELCOME
An inner desire for the Truth is found through-out the Word of God; 2Pe 3:18 “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
It is important for all believers to recognize that being an ambassador for Christ demands that we, as servants of the Lord, know the importance of our responsibility to all mankind.
We are also responsible to communicate the Gospel, or the “Good News” to those who have positive volition whenever the Gospel is given; Act 16:31, Eph 2:8-10.
Paul and Silas, instead of crying out and becoming bitter, they prayed and sang the popular doctrinal Hymns of their day and also their prayers and songs were also doctrinal.
E.G. & E.G. = Phil 4:6 Be anxious or stop worrying for nothing or stop being worried about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
The secret or the mueo and why we can be content is now given in Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Because the word of God was being magnified and the lyrics were doctrinal according to passages like Col 3:12-17.
Col 3:12-17, and Eph 5:18-21, were commanded by our apostle Paul to use as guidance and direction for prayer and singing.
They reveal to us everything that we need to know and understand concerning how we should pray, and how we should sing, and how we should not use meaningless and repetitious lyrics.
In the ancient world, if you lost a prisoner who had escaped from the jail on your watch, then you would be put to death for losing your prisoner.
Acts 16:31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.”
“We have learned,” or “we are learning” or “we will learn” concerning the election of the calling of God for all those who desire the truth no matter what it costs.
I want you to prepare yourself for spiritual warfare that is coming right on time as God promotes those who desire to be promoted by the Lord in the perfect environment that believers function under.
Prin: Man’s perfect environment is first mentioned in Gen 2:15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
I am going to try some of the doctrinal privileges that we all have as members of the Church, as well as the fact that we are the Bride who is getting herself ready for her husband, Rev 19:7.
The Bridegroom is also waiting for God the Father to tell His Son to go and get His Bride and bring all of them back with Him coming from heaven to meet His bride and then take her away.
Col 2:6 “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, which was by grace through faith, then we are told to walk in Him.”
The questions we should have are questions that answer how do we grow?
One of the answers is Gal 5:16 “But I say, walk by means of the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
There is a command given in verse 16 which states “to walk by means of the Spirit” = a dative of advantage which says “it is to our benefit or our advantage” to walk by means of the Holy Spirit.
One of the best advantages of “walking by means of the Spirit (the instrumental case of the Greek noun pneuma) translated by means of the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
The word desire is the Greek noun epithyumia which is in the singular because it points to the entire old sin nature.
1. In Galatians 5:16 walking by means of the Spirit is contrasted with carrying out the desires of the flesh so that there is obviously a battle within all of us going on.
It is going to be the Holy Spirit versus the sin nature; Gal 5:14-18.
I call this spiritual cannibalism which refers to believers consuming one another or devouring one another by the sins of the tongue especially judging, criticism or speaking evil about others.
This includes believers speaking evil of believers and unbelievers which is far worse than any sin the unbelievers can commit, with the exception of the sin of unbelief.
Matt 25:40 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, {even} the least {of them,} you did it to Me.”
We will start in Acts 7 to give you some insight and some background to our passage in Acts 9:1-5.
Notice that Stephen, the first deacon of the Church, was totally being academically correct as he points out the rebellion of the Jews against our Lord Jesus Christ.
“cut to the quick” literally means cut through the dead, unfeeling hearts because the people of God had lost their love for the Word of God.
This is also taught in Acts 22:1-11.
There are many times when we are told that to attack another believer is to attack the Lord Himself.
Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest = Rom 14:1 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, {but} not for {the purpose of} passing judgment on his opinions.
We are not to receive other believers with the purpose of changing them into our doctrinal beliefs but instead give them the room to grow.
1. In Gal 5:16 walking by means of the Spirit is contrasted with carrying out the desires of the flesh so that there is obviously a battle within all of us going on.
2. In Gal 2:20, we also need to remember that the Christian life which is said to be lived by faith is contrasted with the Galatian attempt to live the Christian life by means of the flesh as is stated in Gal 3:3.
Paul says, “having begun by the Spirit are you now trying to be matured by the sin nature?”
Here we see that the sin nature is a counterfeit which produces pseudo-spirituality.
The Stereo type Christian is filled with fear, which includes worry and anxiety.The Stereo type Christian is also filled with hatred, which includes anger, even violence.
The Stereo type can murder either mentally or physically; 1Jo 3:15.
The Stereo type Christian loves to feel sorry for themselves and fall into sins related to self-pity or sins related to guilt. (Like Jonah; Elijah).
The Stereo type Christian activism include arrogance, pride, jealousy, implacability, bitterness, vindictiveness, inordinate ambition and inordinate competition, all motivational sins, and sinful thoughts.
Not only that but the Stereo type Christian is filled with verbal sins which include gossip, maligning, slander, judging, lying, and verbal deception.
The Stereo Type Christian often gets involved with partying and usually their sins include chemical sins, sexual sins, criminal sins.
The conclusion from all of this is that we have two options that are fundamental to understand because there are many people who think that you can be a little spiritual and a little carnal at the same time.
When it comes to walking in the spiritual life, we need to have our spiritual muscles of the spiritual life which are the spiritual skills.
When you walk by the Spirit you are exercising all of the spiritual skills; you are developing the muscles of the spiritual life.
“walking by means of the Holy Spirit” increases the circulation of doctrine in your soul.
The more you use doctrine in your soul the more you will develop the ability to utilize it, whereas the less you use it the more you will lose it.
No comments:
Post a Comment