Our Divine Spiritual Richness

 Before I get into my targeted subject for today which is the sufferings and death of Christ that redeemed the human race, not just a select few but rather the world. Yes that is right Redemption is available for all of humanity. And Pastor Hoekstra's teaching on Grace as the means of our being protected from the devil. I want to look at some thing that Norman Grubb's shared on face book, in the following where he stated this truth, which he drew from Romans.

"There was some area of response in Abraham. I think there is an area of response in all men because we haven’t totally fallen (there is small seed hidden within all of humanity awaiting the individuals redemption to be opened). There remains an area in which God can appeal to us. God did reveal Himself to Abraham and said that through Abraham He would restore to the world His blessing in which He told him, “If you identify yourself with Me [walk as one with Me] now, I will appear to you as the God of Glory.” Abraham saw the glory of it. I will bless you and make you a blessing. And in you all families of the earth will be blessed.” So we have here the moving out of the universal Grace of God to the one of many men to whom He could get within hearing distance of His purposes. So, we see the falsity of any idea that God would come as a punishing wrathful God. We will see later on that God had to appear like that for His purposes but He appeared to Abraham, who was the one to whom He could reveal Himself, the God of all Grace. He says, “As you identify with Me, not only will I bless you, but all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Through you will come the complete restoration of the harmony for which the human race had been created.” God’s harmony is how God’s love-nature is found by us that can now come into being.

So, through Abraham He began a family to whom and by whom He began to express His Grace and His righteousness. The Bible says, “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness,” which means that the Eternal Christ was imputed to Abraham before there was a historical Christ. Just as He was with Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Melchizedek king of Salem and then Abraham. Now because the only way in which a fallen sinner can be righteous is in the righteousness of Christ through the atonement. Therefore, the “Lamb slain” was “slain from the foundation of the world,” in Spirit before He came into history. Here and there, there were men who could move in and find the efficacy of an atonement in the Eternal Christ which had not yet taken place in the historic reality of the Cross."

Did you hear within the same words and phrases used in our studies? By way of the key found in Amos 3:3 and Genesis 1:1-2 with Romans 8:16-18. Now for Pastor Hoekstra and his teachings on Grace.

 "Protection from the Devil through Faith"


"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith." (1Peter 5:8-9)


"As we walk by faith, GOD's Grace is imparted into our lives, bringing us many blessings in our LORD. We have seen that among these heavenly delights are the assurance of salvation and security of salvation. "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of GOD, that you may know that you have eternal life . . . who are kept by the power of GOD through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1John 5:13 and 1Peter 1:5). Related to these is protection from the devil through faith. 

Godly Christian living involves a spiritual gravity and a spiritual attentiveness. "Be sober, be vigilant." These necessary traits that the LORD wants to develop in us do not nullify the reality of joy and peace in the LORD. However, such earnestness is mandatory due to the enemy that we have. "Because your adversary the devil walks about." We have a committed and intimidating spiritual opponent, and he has an organized army of fallen, rebellious, religious, demonic cohorts. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). The intention of our spiritual foe is deadly. He goes about "like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Our enemy is not merely desiring to frustrate us or make us miserable. He wants to devour us, to devastate our lives. Jesus stated the matter this way. "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy" (John 10:10). 

Although our adversary is relentless and imposing, God's gracious remedy is simple and effective. "Resist him" We are to oppose him. We are to stand against him. How are we to accomplish this? Are we to pit our own strength against his? Never! We effectively stand against him by being "steadfast in the faith." We simply continue trusting in the great truths of GOD's word, which declare Christ as victor over our foe. "For this purpose the Son of GOD was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil . . . Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it [the cross]" (1John 3:8 and Colossians 2:15). By faith, we renounce the enemy and submit to our LORD. Thereby, GOD promises us that the enemy will flee. "Therefore submit to GOD. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).


Suffered and Died to Redeem the Race, Christ's Death,

Isaiah 53:10 "Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; HE has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring; HE shall prolong His days; the Will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied; by His knowledge shall the righteous one, My servant, make many to be accounted righteous, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the many, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."


John 10:11-18 (Jesus is speaking) "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father."


John 12:20-26 "Now among those who went up to worship at the feast (the Passover) were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow (be joined to) Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him."


Romans 5:6-11 and 14:5-9 "For while we were still weak, at the right time (the appointed end, the end of the Hebrew / Jewish only Age) Christ died for the ungodly (those of the Jews and indeed all of humanity born of woman, from the beginning to the end of the last Age). For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but GOD shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved (in His Salvation) by Him from the wrath of GOD. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled (redeemed back) to GOD by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved (find His Salvation) by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in GOD through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received reconciliation (place trust in the expiatory death of Christ)."

Romans 14:5-9 "One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the LORD. The one who eats, eats in honor of the LORD, since he gives thanks to GOD, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the LORD and gives thanks to GOD. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the LORD, and if we die, we die to the LORD. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the LORD's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be LORD both of the dead and of the living."


1Corinthians 15:3-11 "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, HE appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the Grace of GOD I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the Grace of GOD that is within me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed."


2Corinthians 5:11-15 and Colossians 1:21-3:4, 5, Hebrews 2:5-9 "Therefore, knowing the fear (reverence and revere) of the LORD, we persuade others. But what we are is known to GOD, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for GOD; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him Who for their sake died and was raised."

Colossians 2:20-3:4, 5 "If with Christ you died [are identified with Christ's death] to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—"Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of GOD. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in GOD. When Christ Who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in His Glory.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."

Hebrews 2:5-9 "For it was not to angels that GOD subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that You are mindful of Him, or the son of man, that You care for Him? (Psalm 8:4) You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under His feet." (Psalm 8:5-6) Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, HE left nothing outside His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. But we see Him Who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the Grace of GOD He might taste death for everyone."


Revelation 5:6-10 "Between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of GOD sent out into all the earth. And He went and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne. And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for GOD from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our GOD, and they shall reign on the earth."