The One Thing Needful
Exactly just what is it that
the Lord wants us to do? What are we to pray for? What is missing in our lives?
Why do we continue to sin, even when we don’t want to? These are important
questions to ask, and to be answered. We need to start where the Bible starts,
in order to understand what is wrong with unregenerate human nature.
In Genesis chapter three, we
find the serpent tempting Eve. The temptation is centered around a certain tree
in the Garden of Eden, the name of this tree is the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. Here we find Eve telling the serpent "From the fruit of the
trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the
middle of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat from it or touch it,
lest you die.'" His response is typical of a devil, he said in return
to her, "You surely shall not die!
"For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
The picture is clear, God has allowed Adam and Eve to eat of any of the trees in the garden, with this one exception, God didn’t want them to eat of, or even touch, this one tree called, the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.” God had a reason for commanding Adam and Eve not to even touch this one particular tree. It was because He, a God of love, knew that the moment they touched it, or ate of it, they would die! Would you want your children to eat something that would kill them? Wouldn’t you also tell them not to even touch it, this is what God did! Now listen to the Devil again, "You surely shall not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Here we find a Devil, void of love, telling them that they wouldn’t die, he was calling God a liar! This was all that was necessary, for Eve to disobey God, and notice that Adam wasn’t away in some other part of the garden; he was right there while all of this was taking place, Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
One of the first things they discovered was that they were naked, and when they heard the sound of the Lord God in the garden, they hid themselves from God.
This is the very sleep of death that all of us are in while unregenerate, this is the mind-set that we all have had, we believed that we are “Like God, knowing good and evil.” We wouldn’t say anything like that; we wouldn’t want others to hear us say that we think we are as smart as God! But, watch as we go about living our lives; when we don’t pray, and look to God for each and every decision of life, we are saying with our actions, “I am as smart as God!”
Take note of the way Jesus
lived His life, “John 8:28. Jesus therefore said, "When you lift up the
Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own
initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” Could this be the power of His holy life,
doing “Nothing on His own initiative?” When we make decisions without praying, and waiting on God’s will
to be revealed to us, we do something that Jesus,
never did!
This might seem like an unimportant subject, “a little thing,” but, my friend this is everything! This is what went wrong with mankind, this was man’s fall, he fell from the holiness and goodness of God, into his own thinking, his own god-ship! He lost all that was Divine, for you see, God, and God alone is love, when man fell, he fell from love, into selfishness!
Allow me to emphasize
this, without being “Born of God,” as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3. Jesus
answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Only when one knows that he
has lost the Divine presence of God, or, in God’s words, died, can one
understand the only remedy that will work in our lives. We must be redeemed, we
must truly be born again, Listen to Jesus again, the one who has been sent to
save us, John 3:5-6. Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. “
When God said we would die, He was telling the truth, and in fact Adam and Eve, did die, and along with them, all of their posterity died as well, they died to all of the Divine presence of God. This, and this alone is the reason we must be born again, and this second birth must be the birthing again of the Spirit of God in us, as Jesus had said. We truly have that birthing of the flesh, that is what is wrong with us; our “Old nature” must be put to death so that we can experience the new birth of God’s Divine Spirit.
This is a great and wonderful truth, the Apostle Paul tells us about this process of death to the flesh in Romans chapter six; verse 3-7. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. What amazing truths we find here, how different than that which we so often hear from the pulpits of the worldly church system! Let’s examine these truths. Baptism is a picture in the natural, of that which has already happened in the spiritual, “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death” When we go down under the water, we are presenting a picture of the death and burial of the old man. When we are raised up again, from under the water, we see another picture of the resurrection to newness of life. Baptism is a complete picture of our dying to self, or, the “old man” and being born again, of the Spirit. Now listen again to Paul, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Can you see this glorious picture emerging from His Spirit filled words? After being born again of the very Spirit of God, we CAN walk in newness of life! But this transformation can only occur after we have truly been born again from above; only then can we walk in newness of life.
Let’s look at another Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:17. KJV “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Do you see this wonderful truth, we become new creatures, we are not given a little overhaul, we are made into new creatures, now watch what happens as a result of this “all things are becoming new” Why is it so necessary for “ALL things to become new,” why must this happen? It happens because we are no longer the old creature that we were in our original birth, that consisted of nothing but flesh and blood, but now we have truly become a new creature, born from above, born to newness of life. This really takes on its real meaning when we look at Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. The word “transformed” is the Greek word “metamorphoo” which means to transform (literally or figuratively, "metamorphose"): -change, transfigure, transform. This is the same word we use to describe the process of an ugly caterpillar changing into a beautiful butterfly.
Look back at Romans chapter six again, verse 6. “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;” Yes, this is always true, when we are truly crucified with Him, we become “new creatures” born from above, and we are no longer slaves to sin. Look again at another promise of God, verse 14, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” Many say, this Scripture means that God does not see our sins, He simply forgives our sins. The grace of God to many people, is a license to continue in sin, with impunity, but is this really what God is teaching us here? Let’s look at the very next verse to find out, Verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? God forbid! This is very clear; the phrase “God forbid” means NO! But, let’s continue. Romans 6:16-18. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. This is always very clear to those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear, to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness!
There are many
Scriptures that show in a definitive way, the necessity of dying to “self.”
Let’s look at just a few of them, Matthew 16:24-25. Then Jesus said to His
disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save
his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall
find it.” These are the
very words of our Redeemer. Unless we deny our “self-life” we will lose our
true life. The reason for this is simple, and if you have really studied the
Word of God you already know the answer to this question. Galatians 5:16-17. But
I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the
things that you please. You can see
by these very clear words, that the old nature, or flesh, sets its desire
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in
opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
The Scripture tells us here that as long as we have not died to the self-life “we
cannot do the things that we please” This experience becomes known to each,
and everyone, who tries to follow the will of God, without truly having a
birthing of the Lamb of God first take place in themselves. All you will find
happening is the experience that the Apostle Paul describes in Romans chapter
seven; this is called the Romans seven experience.
The
Romans Seven
Experience
Romans 7:14-15 For
we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I
would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. And again in verses
18-19. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for
the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good
that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.
In this chapter, the Apostle Paul tries to show us the difference between a Gospel experience, and a legal experience, the difference between law and grace. Here we see that the unregenerate person, after seeing that the will of God is right, just, and holy, he or she will then try to do the will of God, and after trying to live holy (live in obedience to God), they soon find out that they are a slave to sin, and the harder they struggle against sin, the stronger the power of sin becomes in their life. Most people today, never try to live holy before God, they have been told that they can’t obey God, and so, they don’t try to live above sin. In the case of such people, they never see the extent of the power of sin in their lives, because, they never try to live in victory. Let’s look at the example of someone discovering that the will of God is indeed good, just, and holy, as it is portrayed in this chapter very well. After the discovery of total bondage to sin, something else happens, they find themselves in a state of total wretchedness, Romans 7:24. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? When we find ourselves in this state of wretchedness, we will always cry out, Wretched man that I am! The reason for this is rather simple, we discover, the goodness of God’s will, and then try to obey this new way of life, we truly try to maintain a pure conscience before God, knowing now, that this is the only proper way of living our lives. But, when we try, we seem to always fail, we fall very short of the goodness, and glory of God, it is at this very stage of our reaching out for God, that we discover the absolute wretchedness of our being! Now, and only now, will we cry out for help, because, only when we discover the absolute depravity of our being, our total helplessness, will we really cry out for God’s help!
The Scripture tells us this, in Jeremiah 29:13. “And you will seek Me, and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” This Scripture says clearly that we will find the Lord only when we search for Him with all of our hearts. The Romans seven experience truly brings this about. (Romans 7:24)
Another Important
Scripture
John 15:1-6 "I
am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. "Every branch in Me
that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He
prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. "You are already clean because of
the word which I have spoken to you. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither
can you, unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he
who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can
do nothing. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a
branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and
they are burned.” This portion of Scripture is very important to
understand, it is very clear, we are being told in no uncertain words, that God
has a job to do in us, to better understand this “job” that God must do in our
lives, let’s look at another Scripture, Romans 8:29. For whom He foreknew,
He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might
be the first-born among many brethren; Here it becomes obvious, that God
wants us to be holy, just as Jesus is holy, the phrase “His Son“ is
referring to Jesus, for He was truly the first born. Now back to John chapter
fifteen, the Lord is saying that if we are bearing fruit, He is going to prune
us, “Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may
bear more fruit.” As for the branches that are not bearing fruit, we
are told that, “He takes away.” In verse six we are told what the phrase
“He takes away” means, "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is
thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into
the fire, and they are burned.” Look carefully at what God is telling us in
this portion of Scripture, if we bear fruit, He will prune us, in order that we
bear more fruit, if we don’t bear fruit, He takes us away. In verse five we are
told "I am the vine, you are
the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart
from Me you can do nothing.” To truly abide in Him is to bear fruit, and if
we don’t abide in Him we can do NOTHING! You might be thinking, I can do
certain things, without God’s help, and this is true, in Galatians chapter
five, starting with the nineteenth verse, we are given a list of the things we
can do without God’s help, let’s look at them. Galatians 5:19-21 Now the
deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes,
dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these,
of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. We can truly accomplish
all of these things without God’s help, but these are the very things that will
earn us a free trip to Hell! Look again at what the Apostle just said, I
forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Look now at the proof of our being born
of God, His Spirit will manifest things in our lives that are very different
than that which our natural selves produce, Galatians 5: 22-23. But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
An important thing to ask
yourself right now is this, which of these two types of fruit are practiced in
your life?
The Importance Of
This Fruit That Jesus Was Talking About?
Do you understand just how clear this is, we must bear fruit, or we will ultimately be cast into the fire, but, if we are bearing fruit, we will be pruned so that we bear a lot of fruit! What is this fruit that we are supposed to bear? This fruit is two fold, the first part of it is described in Galatians 5:22, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Yes, this is the first part of the fruit that appears in the believer’s life after he starts to abide in the Lord. We cannot pretend to have this fruit, for it is all from God, in our natural state, we are void of this fruit. That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And again, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born again.' (John chapter three)
Truly "That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” No truer words were ever spoken, the flesh can only pretend the virtues of Galatians 5:22-23. To abide in the Lord is to constantly abide in these virtues. The Romans seven experience is hurried along when we start to expect these virtues to be ever-present with us, while we remain without a true birthing of the meek and lowly Lamb of God!
The second type of fruit, that only comes when we are truly abiding in the Lord, is the effect we start to have on others, we speak a few of the words of life, and people are deeply effected, they start to see their need to be born again, they start to truly hunger and thirst for righteousness. Yes, if we abide in the Lord, we will lead many souls into the Kingdom of God, this is the second type of the fruit of God, it comes about because the first part of the fruit of God, the fruit of His Spirit, is evident in our lives, the fruit of God’s Spirit draws people to Him!
The Word of God has said in John 15:5. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. Look closely at these words; for they are very important, He is truly the vine, and this vine is “real” life, nothing but this vine is life! We are the branches, a branch must abide, in the vine, for it will, in the strictest sense of the word, die, if it doesn’t abide, or stay in the vine. Who doesn’t know that when you cut a branch off of a tree, it begins to die at that very instance it is severed from the tree. If you understand the relationship between the tree, and it’s branches, then you can see the importance of abiding, or, remaining in the Christ of God. For, God, and God alone, is life, and to be severed from Him is to truly, and absolutely die. We come into this world severed from God, for when Adam and Eve partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we were in them, partaking of that same tree of sin, and so, we are born into this world truly dead to all that is good, to all that is God! The only thing in us that quickly becomes evident is the great ME, Mine, My and I, this becomes very evident.
It is for this reason we absolutely need to be born again, Jesus knew what He was talking about, we must be born again, of the Spirit of God! This is the only way we can again have that which Adam lost, the Spirit of the Living God, living and abiding in us, as we live and abide in Him.
We Must Die!
Yes, we must die to the self-life, if we want to be enjoined to God’s life from above. This is brought out in crystal clear words in the book of Romans, chapter six, verses 3-7. Verses that need to be repeated. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. This Scripture is worth repeating, the Lord God is making it so very clear in these verses, that death to the self-life is the beginning of the new life. Truly, we can’t serve the Lord and the flesh, at the same time; we must deny one of them, in order to serve the other.
Look back at Adam and Eve, they died to God the moment they touched the forbidden tree of death, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had already warned them that they would die if they even touched that tree, the Devil said that they would not die, for Satan knew that they would start living for him, the moment they touched this tree. You can see that in order to live for the Devil, and self, we must die to God, the same is true in order for us to reverse the process, if we want to be born again from above, we must die to self, the world, and the Devil. I would like to add an interesting insight at this point. The moment we truly die to self, at that very moment, we die to the world as well, for only the self-life is attracted to the world.
We are told this great truth in many different ways in the Bible, in Matthew 16, 24-25, we are told - "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.” Yes, we must lose or forfeit our self-life, in order to gain Eternal life. Why does God require this death to self, why is it so necessary, again, in Galatians chapter five we can see deeper into the necessity for this death to self. Galatians 5:16-17. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” Here we have it, “These are in opposition to one another.” Yes, the Spirit of God and our flesh, or old nature, are very much, in opposition to one another, and indeed when we try to live with both of these, the Spirit, and the flesh, we will not be able to “do the things that we please.” If you remember what we were told in Romans chapter seven, you will see this principle in operation, Romans 7:15. “For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.” And again verse 19, “For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” This is always the inevitable result of trying to obey and follow God, without dying to self.
Here in Romans chapter six, we find the wording of death applied to the believer again. Romans 6:6-7 “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” Yes, this death to our old self is absolutely necessary; it is the beginning of true life!
After We Die To
Self, Or Join Jesus In His Death, We Must Now Walk By The Spirit!
Galatians 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Our old nature is very different from the Spirit of God, our old nature, or flesh, does all that it does from a spirit of selfishness, it always has an ulterior motive behind everything that it does. It will go after nothing, unless the flesh sends it. Now compare God’s Spirit with this, the Spirit of God does all that it does from a Spirit of love, giving all, expecting, and wanting nothing in return.
This oversimplified explanation shows the core difference between the Spirit of God and our flesh. This is why Jesus said in John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Truly apart from Him, we can do nothing! Again, the reason this is always true, is simple, all that we do before we are actually born of the Spirit of love, is from our storehouse of selfishness. Why do I call it a Spirit of love? It is because God is love, and when we are born of His Spirit, truly we are born of the Spirit of love.
What are the
results of our walking after the Spirit?
When we are born from above, of the very Spirit of God, we will have a great change come over us, this change will manifest itself in our lives in such a way that others will notice it, especially those who know us best. This manifested change is according to the Scripture, and was foretold in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Do you see this, we become new creatures, and how would it be possible for someone who knew us, not to see this great transformation? The very foundations of our lives have changed, the motives of everything we do have now been changed. The difference in our life is so great that it is almost unbelievable.
When this Spirit of love starts to rule in our lives, we are even startled at the differences we see in our own life. We can now say with the Apostle Paul, I live, yet, not I but Christ lives in me! The main difference in this new life of the Spirit is this; we are now resting from our own effort at living a righteous life, we seem to be flying an airplane all right, but the plane is on autopilot, we are just sitting there, everything is being done automatically for us. Before we are born of the Spirit of love, we constantly see our failures, we find ourselves asking God to forgive us for this infraction of His law of love, and to forgive us for that infraction of His law of love. We start to become weary with our efforts at obeying His law of love, which law we break, without even trying. It is so natural for us to break God’s law of love, that even when we try with all of our might not to break it, we fail.
Why Do We Fail At
Walking In God’s Law Of Love?
This question is easy to answer, until we have the goodness and love of God in our lives, in other words, until we are truly born of the Spirit of God and abide in HIM, we can’t have a practice of goodness and love coming from our lives, we can only long after these things until we are born of them. When you were a little child did you ever wish, after seeing a little bird fly, that you could take off and fly, like the bird flew? Now that we are grown, we understand all of the reasons that we can’t fly like birds fly, we have solid, not hollow bones, we don’t have wings, etc. This is also the reason why being unconverted, we don’t walk holy, and pleasing to God. When Adam and Eve fell, we were in them, and as a consequence, we fell from the life and Spirit of God as they did. We were born into this world dead to God, and His will, our only salvation is to be re-united with God, to be born again of His Spirit, and life, for just as we will always fail at flying like the little birds fly, we will also fail at walking in holiness, until we are born of holiness, yes, until we become “new creations in Christ, we will only listen to and follow our old nature, our fleshly self!
More Scriptures
that shows us the will of God for our lives.
To see God’s desire for us we need only read Titus 2:11-15 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
And Jude 24. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.
Let’s look a few other things -
What did the grace of God bring us?
1. It instructs us to deny ungodliness.
2. To deny worldly desires.
3. To live sensibly. Righteously and godly, When?
4. In the present age.
Why did Jesus die
for us?
That He might redeem us.
From what?
From every lawless deed. And purify for Himself a people.
For what purpose?
For His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Yes, this is the
reason we were redeemed, to be “A people for His own possession, zealous for
good deeds.” Titus 2:14
Again, in 1 Peter chapter four, verse one, we are told - Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Yes, suffering in the flesh is the message of the Bible, if you want to be set free from sin, you must die to self in all of its aspects, and when this is accomplished, when we truly are united to Jesus Christ in His death, and this is the only way we can be united with Him, we will have “Ceased from sin.” Having quoted this Scripture to many people, I have received this response many times – We will live holy, but not here on earth, only in Heaven! I always ask those that say this to read verse two, the very next verse to see if this thought is right. 1 Peter 4:2. So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. This Scripture makes it very clear that God wants us to live holy (obedient) Now!
How Do We Acquire
This Constant Victory Over The Flesh, The Devil, And The World?
Here I must take you to an
Old Testament Scripture, for it foretells the work of God’s Holy Spirit in a
very special way.
Ezekiel Chapter
36:25-27
25 "Then I
will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you
from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26. "Moreover,
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove
the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27. "And I
will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you
will be careful to observe My ordinances.
What
wonderful promises! God in the first of these verses, verse twenty-five, said that He
will cleanse us from all of our filthiness! That word filthiness means sin! But
that’s not all; God will remove all of the idols in our life! An Idol is
something that we love more than God. It can be anything; a person, a hobby, a
fancy car, just about anything. If you spend a lot of time thinking about it,
if it is the very thing you love to think about or talk about, it is your Idol!
And our God has in this Scripture promised to take it from us, for we won't
give it up on our own. Let’s read on. . . A
new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh. Then God promises to remove our “Heart of stone.” The Bible uses
the word "heart" here to refer to man’s will, the place we make our
decisions (the decision to obey or disobey God.) Notice here, that God refers
to a stony heart; this means a stubborn, rebellious will (heart). We won’t stop
being rebellious and stubborn on our own, so the God of love has promised to
remove this rebellious heart from us and replaces it with a moldable heart, “And I will put My spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do
them.” And now after heart surgery, we are ready to receive the most
precious gift anyone could possibly receive, God’s Spirit. (And I will put My spirit within you.)
But God knows that this is still not enough. Look at the next part of this
promise. And cause you to walk in My
statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do [them]. Now God has
committed Himself to cause us to obey Him! What more need
we ask of Him? Do you see what the grace of God is really all about? Now do you
understand what the Apostle is talking about in Ephesians 2:8-10. “For by grace are you saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest
any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them.”
Therefore, let us fear lest,
while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to
have come short of it.
There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of
God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his
works, as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest,
lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.
It is important that we understand this Scripture,
God is telling us that being born of His Spirit is truly entering His rest. We
do not need to struggle anymore with trying to obey God, being engrafted in the
vine; we start to do the will of God from our hearts. We start trusting God to
bring about His work in and through our lives.
After
I was sanctified, I awoke to newness of life; I found that within my being was
born a tremendous desire to do all of the will of my God, and only the will of
God. I didn’t need to struggle with sin, I wanted so much to please the Lord,
that it was unthinkable to sin! This might sound strange to many people today,
but it is the truth, you have no idea how much God loves you and how great His
power is in those who love Him, and have truly given themselves to Him. After
being sanctified, I understood Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with
which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made
us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised
us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus,
in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His
grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. This is
the faith part, will you believe God? Will you take Him at His word? Will you
place your faith in Him, now, right this moment? Will you enter His rest? Please take note of the fact that
God is the one who does all of these things! Your part is to repent and believe, and
then to follow the leading of God’s precious Spirit!
Remember, "There remains therefore a rest to the people of God
" Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest!
If you have ears to hear, and eyes to see, may God's Spirit grant you understanding in this, God never meant for us to think of His grace as a license to sin!
But
rather as authority to be FREE FROM SIN!