I am about to step into an area where few people have gone and with that step the title heading of this area of GODS Divine Guidance could be changed to Divine Instruction. In yesterdays post I touched lightly on this subject. Before I room on I must raise again the subject of our obedience to GOD because all things of receiving of HIM is based upon it, OBEDIENCE. To fail this is rebellion, plan and simple. So I will jump into Pastor Hoekstra's writing on Grace and then make use of the ESV translation in this out look. And as is my usual habit I will allow the LORD to give insight where and when HE deems appropriate.
"More on the Resurrection and Justification"
"[You were] buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses . . . He has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." (Colossians 2:12-13)
"These truth-packed verses unfold the role of the resurrection as we start out with GOD through HIS Justification, when HE declared us Righteous in Christ. In this initial work of the LORD on our behalf, we were "buried with Him in baptism." Here, baptism is referring to our identification with Christ, not with water baptism. When we first believed on the Lord Jesus, we were joined to HIM, made one with Him, identified with HIM. "We have been united together in the likeness of His death," in Romans 6:5. From GOD's perspective, we who trust in Jesus Christ died on the cross with Him and were buried in the tomb with Him. Water baptism bears testimony to this Truth, but it does not produce this reality. Identification with Christ makes this our spiritual history before GOD. In GOD's sight, our old life was crucified and buried.
Through faith in Christ and our identification with Him, we were also raised from the tomb with Jesus. "In which [that is, by identification] you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of GOD, Who raised Him from the dead." Just as His death became our death through identification, so also His resurrection became our resurrection. "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection," in Romans 6:5. In GOD's sight, we were raised to a Newness of Life in Christ. "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism [that is, by identification] into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in Newness of Life" also in Romans 6:4.
The next verse in Colossians offers another aspect of our need for a personal spiritual resurrection. "And you, being dead in your trespasses . . . He has made alive together with Him." Before we were justified through faith in Christ, we were not only guilty and condemned, we were spiritually dead (in our rebellion). We had no true life in us. We could not relate to GOD or interact with HIM. For us to start out with GOD in justification, the LORD had to raise us with Christ from our spiritual deadness (caused by rebellion in unbelief)."
Divine Inspiration:
Promises of Special interest,
Exodus 4:10-12 "But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my LORD, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since You have spoken to Your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I Will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."
Isaiah 50:4-11 "The LORD GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning HE awakens; HE awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The LORD GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the LORD GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He Who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the LORD GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment."
Isaiah 51:12-16 "I, I am HE Who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking. I AM the LORD your God, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of Hosts is His name. And I have put My words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of My hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, 'You are My people.'"
Jeremiah 5:14-17 "Therefore thus says the LORD, the GOD of Hosts: "Because you have spoken this word, behold, I AM making My words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them. Behold, I AM bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. Their quiver is like an open tomb; they are all mighty warriors. They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; your fortified cities in which you trust they shall beat down with the sword."
Matthew 10:16-23 (Jesus is speaking) "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for My sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes."
Luke 21:12-19 (Jesus is speaking) "But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I Will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for My name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives."
1Corinthians 2:6-13 "Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of GOD, which GOD decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the LORD of Glory. But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what GOD has prepared for those who love HIM"— these things GOD has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of GOD. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of GOD except the Spirit of GOD. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is (from) GOD, that we might understand the things freely given us by GOD. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual."
Divine Instruction:
Proverbs 1:8-19 "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse"— my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors."
Proverbs 6:6-11 "Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man."
Proverbs 30:24-28 "Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer; the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings' palaces."
Isaiah 1:1-3 "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand."
Jeremiah 8:1-7 "At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the LORD of Hosts. "You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but My people know not the rules of the LORD."
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