There is another term for a Contriteness of heart which our requirement for entry into the promised kingdom and that term is "Contrition." This is the word of promise as we will soon learn. But first I want again the turn to a teaching of Pastor Hoekstra's which is found in my e-sword program. And also that I will for now continue to use the ESV translation for my quotes of scripture. One other thing there is also a warning that accompanies this study, this I will treat in the next meditation.
"Walking with Jesus the Way We Received Him"
"As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the LORD, so walk in Him . . . Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" (Colossians 2:6 and Galatians 3:3)
In this vital matter of relating rightly to the risen LORD, one common mistake is attempting to develop our Christian walk in a different manner than we began it. Our present verse points us to the proper outlook. We are to build our life with the LORD upon the very same terms that we began that life. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." We are to walk with Christ Jesus the way we received Him. if indeed we did receive Him, I interject this because it is apparent to me that there are millions who have not done so. This known by the way they talk and act in every day life....that being no change in their manner of life what so ever. Even in their Bible study time they exhibit no understanding and remain stuck in the world and earthy or the practice things of the Bible. I have also notice in many of the scholars and theologians when speaking of Bible history and the Bibles meanings. There is absolutely no revelation of the spiritual things hidden within the context of the Bible or any of the other Hebrew writings. These people do bring out some every interesting facts and some are on the traditions of the Hebrew children which only served to point them to the Christ and His appointed time after which all things changed for them and mankind.
We receive the LORD and His great Salvation as gifts of Grace. "Thanks be to GOD for His indescribable gift! . . . For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of GOD" (2Corinthians 9:15 and Ephesians 2:8). We must, therefore, walk in Him with a "grace-receiving" mentality. "And of His fullness we have all received, and Grace for [upon] Grace" (John 1:16). We must never attempt to treat the Christian life as something we can manufacture or earn. Sinful, earthly fathers were created with a desire to give beneficial gifts to their children. Even more so, our Holy, Heavenly Father has a heart to give all that is needed to those who are willing to ask and receive. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthews 7:11).
Galatians 3:3 reinforces the necessity of keeping our pattern for beginning a walk with GOD the same one we use for developing that walk: "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" These rhetorical questions warn of the deadly danger of having our approach to Christian growth differ from how we found spiritual birth. The Holy Spirit alone was able to bring us spiritual birth. The flesh of man could avail nothing. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). The Holy Spirit must bring us spiritual progress. The flesh can contribute nothing. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing" (John 6:63). Any change in approach from birth to growth is foolishness. It is doomed to failure.
We began by Grace, so we must continue by grace. We began by the Spirit, so we must continue by the Spirit. Yes, we are to walk as Jesus walked and the way we received Him. Any changes in approach are unacceptable, ineffective, impossible."
Promises to those of a Contrite or of a Contrition of heart:
Psalm 34:8-14, 15-18 "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears toward their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit."
Psalm 51:10-13, 14-17 "Create in me a clean heart, O GOD, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your Salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O GOD, O GOD of my Salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Your Righteousness. O LORD, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. For You will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of GOD are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O GOD, You will not despise."
Isaiah 57:14-21 "It shall be said, "Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way." For thus says the One Who is High and lifted up, Who inhabits eternity, Whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the High and Holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before Me, and the breath of life that I made. Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid My face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near," says the LORD, "and I will heal (restore) him. But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace," says my GOD, "for the wicked."
Isaiah 66:1-2 "Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is My Throne, and the earth is My footstool; what is the house that you would build for Me, and what is the place of My rest? All these things My hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word."
Joel 2:12-17 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your GOD, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your GOD? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, and make not Your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their GOD?'"
2Corinthians 7:5, 6-7, 8-12 "For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.
But GOD, Who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of GOD."
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