Absolute Certainties

What are absolutes certainties in life? They are that we are born and that one day we shall die. So if death is inevitable, why do we not prepare for it as we prepare for birth?

The Bible explains that we can have 1 birth (physical) and 2 deaths (physical and spiritual) or we can have 2 births (physical and spiritual) and 1 death (just physical). It is the latter that we should set our eyes on. All humans comprise the physical and the spirit. The physical may be alive but the spiritual, because of our sinful state (we can never measure up to God’s standard of righteousness) is dead. Where would we be upon death of our body and our spirit remaining dead? Like it or not, the Bible tells us, hell.  Even here on earth, our dead spirit separates us from God. We are blinded and cannot see Him. If we say we are fine without God, we are wrong. We are only fine here on earth because some goodness remains on earth. God is still here. We enjoy earth now only because He is in it. Everything good here is because of Him. To be in hell is to be permanently separated from Him, to be permanently separated from all that you think or know is good on this earth (the birds, the trees, human companionship etc). Imagine just darkness and loneliness and being without the One to whom we are created for.

How do we avoid being permanently separated from Him? Answer: To have our names written in the Book of Life. To be recorded in the Book of Life means we are first to have new life. When we follow Yeshua and make Him our Lord, we are given new birth (spiritual). Our body comes alive once and dies once. Our spirit is given new life, new birth- a 2^nd chance. Yeshua died to prevent us from hell, to prevent us from being eternally separated from Him, the worse fate we could ever have.

Instruments not Servants

Philippians 1:15

To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and strife, but others out of good will. 

Matthew 7:21-23

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name? Then I will announce to them, “I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!”

Some may appear as true servants of God (with many gifts – of tongue, healing etc). But these may just be instruments that God uses to honour His Word. (Didn’t God use Balaam to bless Israel? Balaam who would have cursed Israel for a reward?) (see Numbers 22 & 23).  

An excerpt from Oswald Chambers “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount” : -   “God honors His words no matter who preaches it. The people Jesus Christ refers to in Matthew 7:21 were instruments but an instrument is not a servant. A servant is one who has given up the right to self to the God whom he or she proclaims, a witness to Jesus, a satisfaction to Jesus Christ wherever he or she goes. The baptism of the Holy Spirit turns people into the incarnation of what they preach until *the appearance and reality are one and the same” *The Holy Spirit does this. How?

1.       The Holy Spirit is to be received (we are not to believe the Holy Spirit but to receive)

2.       When we are saved – by God’s grace God put in us the possibility of not sinning. We are no longer slaves to sin [to say we cannot sin anymore is a lie. If we magically cannot sin anymore on salvation our obedience would not be worth anything]

3.       From the moment of putting in us the possibility of not sinning (or the emancipation of our bondage from sin), our character is of value to God. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Fear and trembling and gratitude that He gave us a chance to work it out, to be completely delivered. The Holy Spirit works in our salvation, in the entire process enabling us, assisting us until, we move from the appearance of servanthood to the reality of servanthood.

Salvation

Salvation

1.       Salvation is not just deliverance from sin or experience of personal holiness.

2.      Its much more. It is the spirit of God in me which brings me into an intimate relationship with Him.

Christ died (He is the sacrificial lamb)

We accept

 

He lives in us

 

Sins forgiven

Not slaves to sin

Reconciled to God

Close intimate relationship with Him

Think deeply of such a gift.

1.       Redemption – We are sinful in nature, in disposition, in our spiritual DNA. He give humans a system from before Christ to deal with the unintended sins- the sacrificial system (Read through Leviticus and Numbers). He prepared humans for Christ – the ultimate sacrificial lamb to wash all our sins away.

2.       And on the cross all our sins were laid on Him. (The Israelites laid their hands on the sacrificial animal).

3.       And on the cross when He died our old self died.

4.       We are freed from being slaves to sin. We are freed from our old sinful disposition from our old spiritual DNA. We inherit His disposition. We are given new life- to start over. No longer are we Adam but Christ.

5.       He lives in us. He becomes more and more and we become less. With His spirit in us we can love Him (for how can any human in our own strength and ability love Him truly?) and we can love others (even those who are our enemies – for how can we do this on our own strength?) We can be what we cannot be, do what we cannot do , with Him being in us. Without Him in us, yes we can still do good obey His laws but truly  if we examine ourselves, +it will be mechanical and for self serving purposes which can range from pride, keeping busy, assuaging guilt, just simply doing because it is the culture of family or friends or society, because it is acceptable, because we wish to save ourselves from hell. (Does God really need our good works? No. He is not small. He wants an intimate relationship with us. With this relationship flows good works) Its  all about “us”, “me”, “I”. Without Him, we will run out of steam. If only we will accept His gift. Surrender ALL parts.

True Salvation

How can we truly be saved? First the Holy Spirit will work in us to help us: -

(a) BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus. Believe here is a verb. It is active. Believe in His words and His promises and acting on them. "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved" Acts 16.31

(b) RECEIVE our Lord Jesus, take Him, His commandments, His promises into our lives. We are recipients of Y'shua (Jesus). Act and accept our position as recipients ie our position as children of God! (John1:12)

(c) REPENT -Turn from sin and unbelief to God (we can only do this through Christ. He is the way "I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me" John 14:6)

(d) Only through obedience to Christ, there is eternal salvation, there is salvation from God's wrath at judgement day (Hebrews 5:9)

(e) Childlike belief in of God. "Truly i say to you unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Believing all "impossibilities" like young children do. Trusting easily like all young children do.Leaning and depending on God like children to their parents.

(f) Denying self and others and making God our treasure above all. With our being in the world, interacting with people who hurt us,who praise us and being exposed to many things of the world, the culture of the world, focusing on doing what God wants may be difficult. Focusing and doing what He commands gives us however some fixed unwavering STABLE grounding and guide on how we should decide, how we should act, what we should say, who we should Fear ( or rather NOT fear). The world gives no such stability. Changes all the time. Denying self and making God our treasure gives us this stability (and much joy). It is proof that we are truly saved from the "world" and delivered into God's kingdom.

Luke 14:33
In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not say good-bye to all his possession cannot be My disciple.

Matthew 10:37
The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Mark 8: 34-35
Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, "If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross , and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it."