With todays being I am on the way to closing this blog as its purpose will have been reached. I am about to look into the Grace and GOD first and then into the Grace of my LORD, Christ Jesus, the duration of this effect is unknown to me. But as has become my habit I will again call on Pastor Hoekstra and his teaching on Grace the person of Christ my LORD. Then I will begin the journey into Grace with the use of the ESV translation. And as always should the LORD within me give insight I will add it there and then. But first I wont to look again at GOD's Faithfulness.
"The Work of the Holy Spirit unto Obedience"
"I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." (Ezekiel 36:27)
"When we placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we were born again. We are made new creatures in Christ. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). We received a new spiritual heart, as promised of old. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you" (Ezekiel 36:26).
Now, how does a new creature in Christ grow in a life of obedience? Our natural thinking might assume that a Christian could grow in obedience by simply doing his best to walk in the will of GOD. The next verse in Ezekiel's prophecy reveals that GOD has a better plan in mind. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes." The born again follower of Jesus is not designed to operate on his own best efforts. The Holy Spirit is to be the heavenly dynamic developing a life of obedience.
A disobedient life would include attitudes and actions that our fallen physical bodies naturally crave. These are to be taken to the cross, to be rendered as crucified with Christ. "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of GOD is coming upon the sons of disobedience" (Colossians 3:5-6). The Holy Spirit wants to enable us to respond properly concerning such carnal desires. "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Romans 8:13). These fallen, natural cravings are described as the "lusts of the flesh" in Galatians. They are overcome as we yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
Again, this work of the Holy Spirit is not automatic or "robotic." Rather, it is a relational matter. It is realized in our lives through humble dependency which the Holy Spirit within develops. It is possible to resist the work of the Holy Spirit in us. "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51). It is when we depend upon the Holy Spirit to lead us in the path of obedience that we will truly live as obedient children of GOD. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of GOD, these are sons of GOD" (Romans 8:14).
Divine Faithfulness:
Deuteronomy 7:7-11 and 9:4-5 "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is GOD, the faithful GOD Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate Him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates Him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today."
Deuteronomy 9:4-5 "Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,' whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that He may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
1Kings 8:56-61 "Blessed be the LORD Who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. Not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He spoke by Moses His servant (in our case it is Paul and the revelation of Grace in Christ given him). The LORD our GOD be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us or forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His rules, which He commanded our fathers. Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may He maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is GOD; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our GOD, walking in His statutes and keeping His commandments, as at this day."
Psalm 36:5-9 "Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of GOD; Your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast You saved, O LORD. How precious is Your steadfast love, O GOD! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They feast on the abundance of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your Light (order) do we see light."
Psalm 89:1-4 and 105:8-15 "I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, "Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness." You have said, "I have made a covenant with My chosen ones; I have sworn to David My servant: 'I Will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.'"
Psalm 105:8-15 "He remembers His covenant forever, the word that He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that He made with Abraham, His sworn promise to Isaac, which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute, (ours is based on Better Promises in the blood of Jesus) to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance." When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, He allowed no one to oppress them; He rebuked kings on their account, saying, "Touch not My anointed ones, do My prophets no harm!"
1Corinthians 1:3, 4-9 "Grace to you and peace from GOD our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my GOD always for you because of the Grace of GOD that was given you in (through) Christ Jesus, that in every way you are enriched by Him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our LORD, Jesus Christ, Who sustains you to the end, guiltless in the day of our LORD, Jesus Christ. GOD is Faithful, by Whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our LORD."
Hebrews 6:13-7:3 "When GOD made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, HE swore by Himself (in Genesis 22:15-18), saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when GOD desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an Oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for GOD to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High GOD, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of GOD He continues a Priest forever."
1Peter 4:12-19 "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of Glory and of GOD rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify GOD in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of GOD; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of GOD? And "If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" Therefore let those who suffer according to GOD's Will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good."
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