On January 20th I shared on the subject of Penitence I again am picking up the subject dealing with the duty of our Repentance. But first Pastor Hoekstra's writing on Grace and Spiritual Fruit. And as has become my normal practice I will use the ESV translation as also found in my e-Sword program.
"Even More on Grace and Spiritual Fruit"
"He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit . . . the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering . . . ." (John 15:5 and Galatians 5:22)
"As we abide in Christ, His Spiritual Fruit develops in our lives. This occurs through the work of the Holy Spirit, applying the Grace resources of GOD to our inner man. This spiritual produce then appears as Godly Character in us. Which is restoring within our new character that which mankind through Adam lost when he ate of the forbidden fruit of Genesis 2, in Genesis 3. Keeping in mind that when the term of Adam is used it covers both woman and man as being one person just as it also does when we use the male gender of him, his and he.
Love is the primary indication that we are trusting the LORD to bring forth fruit in us. "The fruit of the Spirit is Love." In fact, some see love as the singular fruit, with joy, peace, etc. as aspects of that Love.
This is Divine Love ("agape" Love), a Love that flows from the heart of GOD. "Beloved, let us Love one another, for Love is of GOD" (1John 4:7). Such Love is not stirred by the "loveability" of the object. It is a unique, Heavenly Love available only from the LORD. It is the selfless Love that seeks those out who only know mans loose love of which there are three types in number. None of which compare to GODS Agape as it alone is selfless serving Love.
"The fruit of the Spirit is . . . joy." Joy is gladness of heart, or gaiety, an inner spiritual happiness that does not depend upon circumstances. It is a Spiritual delight in the LORD that is always available, no matter what is happening around us. "Rejoice in the LORD always. Again I will say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4).
"The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . peace." This Peace is related to a cessation of hostility between parties. It affects our restored Relationship with the LORD. "We have peace with GOD through our LORD Christ Jesus" (Romans 5:1). It also impacts our Relationship with others. "For He Himself is our peace, Who has made both [i. e., Hebrew and Gentile] One, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us" (Ephesians 2:14). This Peace also involves a Spiritual calm and tranquility within our hearts. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to GOD; and the Peace of GOD, which surpasses all understanding, Will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).
"The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . longsuffering." Longsuffering would include patience and forbearance. It would embrace a willingness to forgive and to not seek vengeance. "Put on . . . longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another" (Colossians 3:12-13).
Note carefully; we do not produce these qualities by our capabilities. This Fruit is solely the work of GOD in us: "the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering."
Repentance has Duties:
2Kings 17:13 "Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by My servants the prophets."
2Chronicles 30:6 "So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, "O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that HE may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria."
Proverbs 1:23 "If you turn at My reproof, behold, I Will pour out My Spirit to you; I Will make My words known to you." Isaiah 22:12-14, Jeremiah 25:5 and Ezekiel 14:6 "In that day the LORD GOD of Hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." The LORD of Hosts has revealed Himself in my ears: "Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die," says the LORD GOD of Hosts.
Jeremiah 25:4-7 "You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all His servants the prophets, saying, 'Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I Will do you no harm.' Yet you have not listened to Me, declares the LORD, that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm."
Ezekiel 14:6-8 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the LORD GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from Me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult Me through him, I the LORD Will answer him Myself. And I Will set My face against that man; I Will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of My people, and you shall know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 18:30-32, 33:11, Daniel 4:27 "Therefore I Will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the LORD GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the LORD GOD; so turn, and live."
Ezekiel 33:10-16 "And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: 'Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?' Say to them, As I live, declares the LORD GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? "And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, though I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live."
Dan 4:24 "This is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules. Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity."
Hosea 14:1-3 "Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, "Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, 'Our God,' to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy."
Joel 2:12-14 and Malachi 3:7 "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?"
Malachi 3:5-7 "Then I Will draw near to you for judgment. I Will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear Me, says the LORD of Hosts. "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I Will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?'
Matthew 3:1-6 "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.'" Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins."
Luke 13:1-5 "There were some present at that very time who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And He answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Acts 3:17-24 "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what GOD foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that HIS Christ would suffer, He thus fulfilled.
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the LORD, and that HE may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, Whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which GOD spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago. Moses said, 'The LORD GOD Will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to Him in whatever He tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.' And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.
Acts 8:14-24 "Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of GOD, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for HE had not yet been given to any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the Gift of GOD with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before GOD. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the LORD that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the LORD, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."
Acts 17:22-31, 26:20 "So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The GOD Who made the world and everything in it, being LORD of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is HE served by human hands, as though HE needed anything, since HE Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And HE made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek GOD, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet HE is actually not far from each one of us, for "'In HIM we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed His offspring.' Being then GOD's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance GOD overlooked, but now HE commands all people everywhere to repent, because HE has fixed a day on which HE Will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom HE has appointed; and of this HE has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead."
Acts 26:19-23 "Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to GOD, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had the help that comes from GOD, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, HE would proclaim Light both to our people and to the Gentiles."
No comments:
Post a Comment