I must confess I had no idea nor a laid out plan as to how this revealing of GODS mighty Promises would flow when I started. Each day I sought GOD as to what area that HE wanted me to do for that or the next day and then I did what I was led to. In the process we have found many words and phrases that are interlocked and bring us to where we right now and where I see this heading at the moment. The revealing of the LORD Christ. Or that portion of mans original make up that was lost to him by one mans disobedience to the law, the Word spoken directly to him, "do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" in Genesis 2:17. What we are about to see this the promise of Restoration as found in Genesis 3:15 which is also a law, a law of Promise coupled with another in 12:3 also in Genesis. These we have looked at already throughout this investigation. With each coming in with what was shared from the pen of Pastor Hoekstra's and his teaching on Grace which I will draw from with this study. And has become my habit I will use the ESV translation as oppose to the KJV. And do not forget that I take the liberty to edit everything by way of divine inspiration while copying and pasting herein. Also we are on a spiritual plane in all that is shared.
"The Holy Spirit and Going On with GOD"
"Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:2-3)
"The work of the Holy Spirit is required for people to start out with GOD through New Birth and Justification. Do not forget that before New Birth there has to be a death of the old law of sin and death. As it pertains to our flesh man, he has to be terminated as in the bruising of its head. The Holy Spirit must also be at work in believers if they are to go on with GOD in Growth and Sanctification. These Truths are declared in Galatians 3:2-3 (which we viewed earlier regarding "The Inability of the Law to Sanctify").
The opening portion of our present scripture passage uses a question to address starting out with GOD. "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" The answer to this question is obvious. No one could ever have the Spirit of GOD come to indwell them on the basis of their performance before GOD's law. The penalty of disobedience as stated in Genesis 2:17. Only the "hearing of faith" could ever cause that. The Holy Spirit came to live in us when we heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believed in Him. (The same Holy Spirit which John the baptist saw and bore witness to lighting on Jesus, in the figure of a dove. After they performed the deed of righteousness required by the Jewish Law of Moses.) At that time, our sins were forgiven, we were Justified (declared not guilty, Righteous in GOD's sight), and we were born again by the Spirit. All of this marked our beginning with GOD. All of this involved the work of the Holy Spirit on our behalf.
The closing words of our passage use two additional questions to apply this issue of the Spirit's work to our going on with GOD. "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" We who are the children of GOD began with Him "in the Spirit." Now, it would be spiritually senseless, to think that we could progress with GOD "by the flesh." Surely, we agree with the LORD that we could not produce our own spiritual birth into His Family. We had to be "born of the Spirit" (John 3:6). Certainly, we want to agree with GOD that we cannot manufacture our own spiritual growth, that is, be "made perfect by the flesh." We can both nullify and totally stop what GOD wants to accomplish within us as we have seen within the confines of our studies so far. Disobedience and unbelief and our becoming wickedness by the practices of sin under the guise of righteousness and the worshiping of pagan holidays. Mocking both GOD and the blood of our risen LORD in this most unholy practice. Thusly forsaking the LORD and His working within us by vail actions of willful self love.
When the LORD desires that we mature and develop in this New Life conjoined to Christ. Such Growth in Christ is a Spiritual Matter. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." The resources that we have all received from our earthly parents are of the flesh. These natural capabilities cannot cause spiritual development to take place in our lives. The perfecting process, being made increasingly like the LORD Christ Jesus, necessitates the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in us. Remember, the means GOD uses to start us out with Him (to justify us) are the means He uses to Grow us up in HIM (to sanctify us)."
Restoration of the Divine things:
Psalm 51:10-13 "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."
Isaiah 57:14-21 "And 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 (in man) 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 (place a new spirit within ) 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 (his spirit in) 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."
Jeremiah 3:19-23 "'I said, How I would set you among My sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call Me, My Father, and would not turn from following ME. Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to ME, O house of Israel, declares the LORD.'" A voice on the barn heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the LORD their God. "Return, O faithless sons; I Will heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to You, for You are the LORD our GOD. Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our GOD is the salvation of Israel."
Jeremiah 30:12-17 "For thus says the LORD: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant. Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you. Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey on you I Will make a prey. For I Will restore (spiritual) health to you, and your wounds I Will heal, declares the LORD, because they have called you an outcast: 'It is Zion, for whom no one cares!'"
Hosea 14:4-7 "I Will heal their apostasy; I Will love them freely, for MY anger has turned from them. I Will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath MY shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon."
Micah 7:14-20 "Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I Will show them marvelous things. The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the LORD our GOD, and they shall be in fear (great reverence) of You. Who (what) is a GOD like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because HE delights in steadfast love. He Will again have compassion on us; HE Will tread our iniquities underfoot. You Will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You Will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast Love to Abraham, as You have sworn to our fathers from the days of old."
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