1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach
others also.
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What does that say to you? First of all, what is grace. It is somewhat different between the Hebrew
and Greek scriptures. The best quick
translation for the Greek is, “unmerited favor.” You don’t deserve it but because of the work
of Christ in your life, you get it. ‘So
what,’ you say? So, if you happen to be
a weak-kneed, lilly-livered fear groveler in your own right, in Christ you can
be a princely warrior of great faith.
This grace might not be useful to you right away but if you continue to
build up your most Holy Faith, you will finally have access to it. It can take some time to grow past your
natural fears.
Grace is a gift given at the moment of your salvation and it
goes beyond favor with Jesus. In Acts
4:33 it says that great grace was upon them all and no one had any lack. Why is that?
Because faith in Christ will give you the boldness to act on the
benefits of that relationship. Grace is
just one of the many gifts we have and it does not merely work between us and
Jesus. His grace will get you that job,
often buy you a second chance and walk you through the mob that is out for your
blood, unscathed. This is why we are
told to be strong in His grace. Through
our faith in the Word of God and works of Jesus it is empowered and even super
powered to deliver on our behalf.
Once you have partaken this grace upon yourself you can then
teach that same understanding to others who will keep the faith. In this country we have largely lost the
battles we had won earlier for righteousness in government and public
decency. We failed as a church to remain
strong in our convictions and beliefs through the grace of God and because of
that we cannot pray in school and our own Supreme Court has twisted the meaning
of our constitution from where congress cannot create a religion to where
religion needs to stay out of government.
This is a position of great weakness. We have churches who have abdicated all
holiness and righteousness and now support the gay and lesbian lobby. They have chosen the ideals of the creature
rather than those of the creator. I have
heard all the arguments for gay marriage and in my own experience, all the gay
and lesbian people I have known were really nice people. It’s not about what is nice or not nice. It is not about what I want and what you
want. It is about what God wants and He
wants a church who will stand in His grace and His authority and take a
scriptural position without spot or wrinkle.
Grace will carry you through when all forsake you because
Jesus won’t forsake you. I have no
desire to dislike or attack those who do not believe what I believe but if you do
believe the Word of God then you need to walk in all of it; not just the parts
you are comfortable with. That means
that your ‘stand’ will be looked down upon and even if you do not verbally or
physically attack someone based on their life choices, they still won’t like
you. All you can do is love them, keep
your beliefs intact and trust God to work on them. Do not become like those who attack sinners
and try and browbeat them into submission.
Let the love of God win their hearts and their lifestyle will one day
follow it home.
3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of
Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this
life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
So…now that you have taken a stand…even in love…people will cut
you off, cuss you out and turn their backs on you. Welcome to the army of God. It hurts when your natural family clashes
with your spiritual you, and old and dear friends no longer feel comfortable
around you. This is war…not you against
them…but you against the powers of darkness.
Your goal must be to serve God…not man…and that is both expensive in
emotional pain and loss, and wonderful in spiritual discernment and gifts. The positives far outweigh the negative but
they are not without pain and suffering.
This is the life of the man and woman of God who have chosen to don the
whole armor of God. Grace will make you
strong. Faith will let you experience
the love, but there is a price to this life.
5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not
crowned, except he strive lawfully.
I have seen more potential leaders fall because of this
verse than almost any other. It
absolutely coincides with Matthew 13:3-9.
We are the branches of God and it is our responsibility to bear good fruit. We always speak of having root in ourselves
but that strong internal foundation is what allows us to have full connection
to Jesus who is the vine. John 15 says, “5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for
without me ye can do nothing.” Every
impatient man or woman who has told me they were tired of waiting for the
pastor to release them to ministry and wanted to begin NOW has had a difficult
time abiding in Christ.
How do I know this? I
know it because they weren’t perfected in love.
If you are attacked by someone, do you take offense? Why? I
can hear you screaming, “Because they attacked me preacher, that’s why!” In reality they attacked God and because they
attacked Him through you…you took offense.
Paul ‘felt’ the offenses (2 Corinthians 11:29). How could he not? The point is he understood they were not coming
against him but against God. It goes on
to say he “gloried in his infirmities.”
You say, “But it’s not an infirmity, it’s an attack!” Really, does it weaken you and make you
struggle? It’s an infirmity…and it can
turn into a sickness if treated incorrectly.
We all believe that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was his
eyesight. Perhaps, maybe even probably,
but what if that thorn in the flesh was that Paul had a deep disgust for
ignorant and non-educated folks? That
would make it even more likely that God would send him to the gentiles, the
most ignorant and non-educated spiritual orphans (didn’t want to use the B word)
on the planet. Don’t you see it? God doesn’t want to send you where you are
strong so you can get the praise. God is
sending you where you are weakest so He can get the glory. If you are a racist He’ll send you to another
race until they’re family. If you’re an
arrogant He’ll keep sending you to those who are stronger and better than you
are until you begin to doubt yourself.
Once that happens He’ll sweep in and do things his way until you learn
to rest in Him and Him alone.
Do you suppose Luke 20:18 means you will be able to remain
intact? Do you know why some Christians
seem to be unchanged after years of service to God? Because they are. The phrase ‘it doesn’t take all that’ has
been bandied about the church for millennia.
You must be broken. The only way
to avoid it is to take yourselves out of God’s hands. Are you proud of your gifts? Broken.
Are you proud of your skills?
Broken. Are you still flying off
the handle at people from time to time?
Broken. Do you talk about people
behind their backs? Broken.
I could go on for hours listing all the flaws that might be in your
character and need to be broken off of you.
Our problem is they need to be broken off of you and few of us look up
to God and say, “Not my will but thy will be done Lord.”
God loves you and has purposed to use you in His kingdom but
He really doesn’t want YOU. He wants the
you He has been creating one broken habit and personal attitude at a time. Personally I believe in soliciting promises
from God. I don’t really care what they
are as long as you pray thoroughly over them before claiming them. Once you have these great and precious (to
you) promises in your life and know…that you know…that you know, that God has
promised them, continue to throw yourself upon the rock that is Christ Jesus
until you have broken off all the bits that make YOU weak and unsuitable to
God’s work and let Him piece you back together as He sees fit. Bit by broken bit He will fulfill His promises
to you and one day you will find yourself right in the middle of what He
promised.
My point is that you won’t look quite so much like yourself
any more. You will look and act and
think like Jesus which is what you really want.
People will cuss you out and you will pray for them with love. They will cheat you and you will trust God to
fix the problem. When this day finally
arrives…and probably a bit before…you will also find yourself in the middle of
ministry with other like minded folks who also threw themselves on the rock
only to be healed and made whole. There
are no shortcuts to real power and real ministry.
6 The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of
the fruits.
The amplified says, “[It
is] the hard- working farmer [who labors to produce] who must be the first
partaker of the fruits.” What have
we learned so far? Be strong in the
grace of our Lord Jesus. Take what you
have learned and plant it in other faithful men so they can go and do
likewise. Endure a hard life and hard
circumstances so you can please God. Do not
be entangled in the goals and desires of this life. If you want to be the best you must strive
lawfully. God will withhold the crown
from you until you have fully surrendered to His perfect will.
Difficult, yes?
Absolutely. I was reminded the
other day that there are men and women in the pulpit with PhD’s who couldn’t
pray through a hangnail and there are those without any worldly credentials who
are anointed to raise the dead. Which
one has paid the greater price for ministry?
I am absolutely in favor of education but that education must be in the
Word of God. Paul understood the
benefits of education and religion better than most but he ultimately said,
“Religion and worldly benefits without Christ are but dung (Philippians
3:8).
It’s not enough to be educated. You must be trained as a soldier is
trained. You can take a man or woman
into a classroom and teach them everything there is to know about war. Does it make them a soldier? No. It
makes them a theoretical warrior which is rather like a backseat driver or a
armchair quarterback. You learn to drive
by getting behind the wheel and mixing with other drivers. You learn football by getting hammered by
other guys and knocked repeatedly to the ground. I know what all the controls on an airplane
are for but it does not make me a pilot.
I don’t know the feel of a plane that is about to fall out of the sky
and requires a quick response from me. I
don’t know how hard to pull back on the controls to flare in preparation for
landing, and I don’t really know how a sudden gust of wind might mess me up on
landing.
You can know scripture backwards and forwards. You could even have memorized the Bible. None of these things let’s you know what an
unction feels like; it’s different from me to you. They don’t build your faith or teach you at
gut that you can step out of the boat and walk on that water. All those things require practical action on
your part. You can understand Hebrew
like an Israeli Jew or Greek like someone born on the island but it will not be
the boot camp of ministry required for God to say, “Well done.” Well done requires trials and tribulations
that help you to realize exactly who you are in Christ and who He is in you. It requires blood, sweat and tears to reap
faith, hope and love.
If you ask, “What does this have to do with verse six,” I
will tell you. When you as a man or
woman of God have struggled and bled and wept over countless souls… When you have stayed up late and your eyes
have burned for lack of sleep over the needs of the people… When you have taken the food off your table
and the money out of your accounts to meet the needs of others and have been
expected to do so with a smile and good grace…
When you have done all these things and more and the lazy poor complain
that you make so much money as a pastor or church leader, just remember verse
six. You don’t deserve first fruits
because of your head knowledge.
You deserve first fruits for your blood and sweat and
pain. You deserve first fruits (after
God of course) for your sleepless nights and long days. You are the ox that treadeth out the corn and
often the donkey that has carried the great loads. All the blessings along the way and the
sorrows you minister to every day are yours equally. That is why you deserve to reap the rewards and
let those who begrudge you your worldly gifts first walk the same paths and
carry the same burdens. Let their eyes
burn with fatigue and their legs stumble from too many loads. Whenever Paul says he suffers I hope you will
have new revelation of what that suffering may entail.
7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee
understanding in all things.
I hope this has opened your eyes to the reality of
ministry. You will be required to spend
more time in prayer and wounds and griefs than others. At times it will seem that you are always
pouring yourself into the same wounded souls but this is no surprise. Jesus said, “The poor you have with you
always.” They are those who don’t get it
and can’t understand or handle the process of growth. Perhaps they don’t have that root in
themselves and perhaps they just don’t want to try.
This verse is also a prayer from the Apostle himself. “So what preacher,” you might ask. So receive it! It says in James 1:5 that if you lack wisdom
ask God and He will give it to you in great measure. Receive it and walk in it. In all your getting get an
understanding. I used to believe so many
things that I now realize would have made God’s Word weak and powerless. His grace is more than sufficient and I am
full of joy over his move in my life.
There is a special feeling that I get whenever I fully understand a
portion of God’s word. It is a settled
feeling that lets me know God has worked it out in my head and heart and it is
what it is. To be sure I don’t know all
of that verse or portion of scripture but I know that little portion
perfectly. Too many of us have walked in
ignorance in our basic knowledge because we have learned the traditions of men
and not the free flow of the Spirit of God.
8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was
raised from the dead according to my gospel: 9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an
evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
Paul says, “According to my gospel,” three times; twice in
Romans (2:16, 16:25) and here in Timothy.
Why is that? Isn’t there only one
gospel? Of course there is, but there
are so many interpretations and opinions that it can get confusing. One church says you baptize in the name of
Jesus only while another says you baptize in the name of the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. My late apostle used to
baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Jesus Name just to
cover all bets. We begin to be petty in
our simple beliefs and try to wrap God into a narrow belief system that is
comfortable to us. You pray in tongues
and I say they are no longer in effect.
I prophesy and you call me a heretic.
Foolishness all of it.
Paul obtained an understanding. He took that understanding and taught clearly
and in as unambiguous a way as he could.
In other words, he made it understandable. All he was trying to get across is Jesus
Christ crucified and raised from the dead on the third day. He hammered the forgiveness of sins until it
was clear that this was his purpose. His
gospel was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles and
this is why he suffered and was called a liar and fool. In spite of all this he realized that the
Word of God itself is still as free and full of saving power as ever.
Though the Word of God CAN be deep and in many areas is very
much so, there is always a clear and powerful portion that any babe can
understand. Jesus Christ came, He loved
us, He died for us, He rose again on the third day and set us free from our
bondage to the flesh. All of this
requires faith on our part and will ultimately set us free. He whom the son sets free is free
indeed. God’s Word cannot be bound by
our ignorance or traditions. These only
serve to separate us from the absolute best God has for us. The greater our understanding of the Word of
God the greater our freedom and liberty in Christ.
10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes,
that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory.
Remember when I said you weren’t perfected in love? Just how angry or irritated do you get when
the saints won’t listen or spend their free time wallowing in sin? The parable of the sower is one of those that
ought to be memorized, studied and understood by every minister of the
gospel. You ought to be able to look at
the people in your church and think, “Stony ground, good ground, weed covered
ground,” and know what might make a change in their status. You ought to hear the story of the fig tree
in your heart and think, “I need to dig around this person and fertilize them
with the Word and water them with it to see if they will grow. I need to remember that they are not mine to
judge.
I may know what they need and reprove, rebuke and exhort
them to change, but ultimately, only God will be their judge. I can’t judge them and toss out the tares and
keep the wheat because only God can know who is truly a wheat and a tare. I can’t have that certainty because even
though I might have all gifts like healing and wisdom and knowledge, even if I
have discerning of spirits, it is still just a small portion of God’s perfect
knowledge and discernment. With all nine
gifts I might know the person is fully in Satan’s camp now, but only God who is
outside of time and sees our entire life in a single glance can know the person
will or will not come to Him one day.
As 1 Corinthians 13 says, “Love suffers a long time and is
kind while doing it. Love doesn’t envy
someone else for the gifts they have received, the money they have earned or
the things they might own. Love doesn’t
puff itself up and make itself into someone better than you because love only
wants what is best for YOU. Love doesn’t
act badly and doesn’t get angry quickly.”
(Get my book “Heart On Fire” for Kindle if you want to get the entire
breakdown of what love is. I highly
recommend it.)
You might say you love the person but you don’t have to put
up with their foolishness. This is not
true. You may not approve of it, but you
absolutely do have to put up with it unless that foolishness is a direct attack
against you. Like Jannes and Jambres (2
Timothy 3:8), if they are manifestly against you and you are the head of the
ministry, you are free to turn them over to their father the devil for the
destruction of the flesh until they learn not to blaspheme against God’s
will. You however are not allowed to
destroy their flesh or take actions against them. When you release them to Satan, it is
opposite of forgiving on Earth so God will forgive in Heaven. You are holding them responsible for their
actions and God will chasten them accordingly by withdrawing his
protection. Hopefully they will learn
and one day run back to God and repent.
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him,
we shall also live with him: 12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if
we deny him, he also will deny us: 13 If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful: he cannot deny himself.
How can we do less than our Lord and Savior? That question is full of passion and zeal yet
one of the most difficult things we might attempt. Our God loves us and in His love He empowers
us. This power is largely a spiritual
thing and while spiritual power is the greatest of all powers, it is a
difficult one for man to surrender to. We know that the weapons of our warfare are
not carnal (natural, mental, financial, military, fleshly) but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). Learning to function in spiritual realms is
the most important thing we could accomplish.
Any fool, baby, addict, liar, thief and even fairly normal people can
strengthen their fleshly man. It takes a
man of great power and heart to strengthen spirit and deny the flesh.
I have heard many saints say, ‘Christians aren’t supposed to
suffer.’ Really? The word translated here is hypomeno and means to endure patiently. Endure in this context means you are going to
go through something you don’t want to go through. You can hardly say you endured your honeymoon
when you were with a partner you absolutely loved and went to a place that was
fun and inspiring. When verse three says
you should endure hardness as a good soldier it gives you the exact idea Paul
is reaching for here.
Are you willing to suffer for God? Again, I have had people tell me God does not
expect us to suffer for righteousness sake even though God said He expects us
to suffer for righteousness sake. I call
that the gospel of wishful thinking. Why
do we suffer all these things? We suffer
them and remain faithful so we might reign with Him when all the testing is
done. We don’t suffer for the sake of
suffering. We suffer for the ability to
tell our flesh to be silent.
Do you find yourself in a place of fear right now? You are not yet perfected in love. Perfect love casts out all fear because fear
has torment and love comforts the heart perfectly. Others around you might have some fear but
not if they have been perfected in love and trust God completely. Never fear to where you deny God his
direction in your life…not to say you are unworthy or that you are too
frightened. Always press toward the call
of God in your life. When you deny God
He is forced by our actions to deny us.
No matter how much you might want to give up, remember…God never will
and if you gather your faith for another go, He remains faithful.
14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them
before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the
subverting of the hearers.
And now… Keeping
these things in mind, do not become one of those who argues over every little
spiritual rule and regulation that strikes your fancy on any given day. The word of God is absolute but we are
not. We frequently add rules upon rules
upon rules until we feel like our heads will explode or we’ll become
Pharisees. Stealing is a sin, but Jesus
forgave a sinner on the cross next to him simply because he asked. Lying is a sin and something I personally
hate, but God saves and delivers liars.
Homosexuality is an abomination to God and yet…He sent His son to die
for them. You can read the ten
commandments and 612 laws contained in the Old Testament till you’re blue in
the face and still miss the whole purpose of God’s Word…redemption.
God’s expectations are important but it’s not the
expectation of a law abiding son or daughter as much as the heart of a beloved
child that He is looking for. As long as
you are saying, “Yes Lord,” or “Not my will but thy will be done,” God will put
up with and graciously correct you from a lot of flaws. The idea that you might not be saved if you
are baptized or not baptized or baptized in the name of Jesus only or baptized
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are ludicrous. In His own words, “Behold I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
invites me in I will come and sup with them and they with me.” That is a marriage supper invitation and the
dishes aren’t being served here.
God loves you. You
need Jesus. You need salvation for
yourself. God will continue to work
through all the other stuff one point at a time as you mature in your
walk. Murder is a sin, but it is just a
sin. You might get the death penalty
from man but God will accept acquittal for your spirit if you get saved so He
can present you to Himself faultless. I
won’t argue about whether you can sin so bad He won’t forgive you because if
you sin THAT MUCH you won’t want Him to forgive you. He’ll have turned you off spiritually and you
will never ask. As long as you have a
desire to get saved God has a desire to get you saved.
God detests sin. He
always detests sin. Have we established
that? Good. Now…you cannot stop sinning (Romans 7:15-25)
on your own but you can be changed by God, through Christ, a bit at a time,
line upon line and precept upon precept and I’ll tell you how.
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
But preacher, you said to stop arguing about individual
points and policies! Yes I did. Stop arguing.
Stop accusing. Stop yelling. Stop complaining. Stop being such a miserable cuss that nobody
want’s to be around you. Learn to
appreciate the mature and the immature saints.
Learn to appreciate the male and female saints for what they bring. Learn to appreciate the trials and
tribulations of life as Paul did, knowing that they bring you to a closer
relationship to God. Remember who you
were and how you were when you came to Jesus and do not expect others to grow
faster or slower than you did. People
are different and will learn the levels and layers of our God at their own
rate. Learn to appreciate even that
because it gives you a chance to see the miraculous organization of God in your
lives.
Once you develop a love that overcomes your NATURAL
frustration of how long it takes others to grow, STUDY. Study to show God that YOU YOURSELF are
worthy of promotion and greater things.
Study to show our King of Kings and Lord of Lords that YOU are not the
thorn in the side of the local church because of your argumentative ways. Study to show God that YOU love those who
aren’t quite finished in the great spiritual classroom. Study until YOU stop doing and saying and
teaching foolish things.
Now…some time before you actually arrive at this place of
perfect blessedness God will begin to use you.
You won’t be flawless or completely mature (naturally, emotionally or
intellectually) yet but you will be on your way to that noble goal. Your spirit (which is perfect and mature)
will argue with your mind (which is not done growing) and you will find
yourself winning the spiritual battle more and more. Keep studying. Get that mind renewed. When you get as smart as God you can
quit. I trust this will keep everyone
studying hard for as long as you live in your body and perhaps longer.
As I said, God will use you.
He will put you in situations where you are unprepared and not quite
ready. If you heed your spirit and
control your flesh you will do well. If
not, you will get other opportunities to build your skills. This is how workmen grow. You become an apprentice and someone teaches
you a thing or two. They begin to send
you out on your own to do certain tasks.
You still aren’t ready to run the business but you are working and you
are growing. One day your boss will hand
you your walking papers and tell you it’s time to open your own business. You will go out and the skills you have
learned will support you and those you help.
Even after beginning your own work you still need to go back
and learn from your former boss. He or
she has taught you everything you know, but not everything they know. Keep learning. Do not allow your successes to go to your
head. Those successes came through them
and will one day exceed theirs, but they have gained something you still lack,
the wisdom of long service and many trials.
Timothy was a great preacher and teacher by this time. He had a huge following and he still listened
when his spiritual father spoke. He
still learned. Paul was his father and boss
and now was becoming his mentor.
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they
will increase unto more ungodliness. 17 And their word will eat as doth
a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 18 Who concerning the truth have
erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of
some.
Consider the life of Moses.
After returning to Egypt and kicking Egypt’s collective rear ends
through God’s miracles he left. Did he
leave alone with just the descendants of Jacob?
Not even close. He had a huge
mixed multitude that followed him. Some
of them loved and trusted the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but many just
followed the money and wealth. These
were the babblers and whisperers. They
were the ones who acted like Satan in the Garden of Eden saying, “Are you sure
God said that…hmmm?” They sowed doubt
and offered ‘progressive’ solutions to Israel’s problems. They whispered and mumbled and invented their
own doctrines until God Himself had to step in and break things up. It didn’t even take an entire generation for
them to get Israel to sin. Sound
familiar?
Moses was a type of Jesus and now, hundreds of years later after
Jesus Himself has died and been resurrected we have Hymenaeus and Philetus who
began to teach Christ’s disciples that it was all over and there was no
resurrection left. Once again we have
those who curse God’s gifts and malign His offices. They won’t walk in the perfection of
scripture so they make it more comfortable to themselves so they can live what they
think God expects. The echo of, “Yea…hath
God said (Genesis 3:1)?” whispers from their lips throughout history. We delete Apostles from our organizations and
silence prophets in our churches.
I could go on of course but I’ll stop here with this one
admonition. The Word of God is holy and
perfect and absolutely true. When God is
using figures of speech they are clear and understood. When he says a sin is a sin He is not
temporizing, he expects you to stop sinning.
God has little use for lukewarm (wishy washy) saints. He has less than little use for them. They are a nasty taste in His mouth and He
will spew them out. He cannot abide sin
huggers and transgression lovers. We are
to flee youthful lusts, not embrace and encourage them. There is a way that seems right, correct,
noble, honorable and good to a man but that way leads to the VIOLENT death of
judgment (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). The
coming of Jesus did not make these lifestyles acceptable.
Many so called church people accept these very ways and call
them good.
19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one
that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
Consider this, God gave His word. Perhaps you or someone you know doesn’t like
part of it. Maybe you feel premarital
sex or homosexuality or getting drunk or going to degrading parties are not
that bad. Perhaps you believe God’s
grace is more than sufficient to cover you as you boldly ignore the holiness
and truth of God’s Word. I’m not going
to give a lot of cute homilies or pat you on your head. Scripture is clear enough and if you have an
honest question about what is a sin and what is not you can ask someone who has
dedicated their life to obeying God’s word.
The last half of this scripture says it all and you need to heed those
words.
God has placed a seal on each of our lives when we came to
Him. The Lord knows which of us are His
no matter what we might choose to believe.
Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Do I need to tell you what iniquity is? Here’s just a few.
Galatians 5:19-21 -
Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are
immorality, impurity, indecency, Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit
(factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies), Envy, drunkenness,
carousing, and the like. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that
those who do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God.
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels
of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to Honour, and
some to dishonor. 21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a
vessel unto Honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared
unto every good work.
You are a vessel.
Your life choices determine your type.
The structure, material and construction of a priceless vase or chamber
pot (ancient toilet) are essentially the same.
We control how we are used and how we use ourselves. If you have in the past been forced into
terrible things by your youth or those stronger than you and have now been
accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:5-7) you can be changed from dishonor to
honor. The sins of verse 19 can
be stopped. You can ask Jesus
into your heart. Verse 21 says we must
purge ourselves of these things and then we shall be a sanctified
vessel of honor. Sanctified in this case
means separated, holy and without sin.
Notice it says we must be prepared unto every good
work. Remember this chapter was all
about turning away from the sins of the past and embracing the ways of God with
a pure heart. The Greek word ‘repent’
means just this, to turn away from the sin you were committing and going
another direction. Holding a grudge for
years will not help anyone at all. The
person or persons who caused your difficulty probably do not care and even if
they do, they cannot undo what has been done.
The choice is yours if you want to make a clean break from the past and
step into God’s glorious future. He is
available to give you strength of will and strength of character but YOU must
be the one to take that step.
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness,
faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But
foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
Let’s take a look at the path of God into holiness and
righteousness. You don’t have to be
young to have youthful lusts. They tend
to become a pattern in your life but they began many years ago. Notice it says to flee youthful desires,
cravings, longings for what is forbidden.
Those passions are a part of your young physical body and must be
sublimated and controlled. Sublimated
means to expend those passions in other areas like sports. The fact that God says to ‘flee’ those lusts
should tell you just how dangerous they are.
If a young teen gets pregnant or gets someone pregnant it is because
they ignored this verse.
I can think of a few young men and women right now who have
chosen the better path. They follow
righteousness and strive to serve God faithfully. They walk in faith and feel ashamed but
purged from past mistakes. They believe
the Word of God and pour their passions into serving Him. They love God’s people, even those who have
not fully surrendered to God. They
grieve for and love the lost, encouraging them to come back to God. They choose peace and link up with like
minded believers to spread God’s message of love to all the earth. Their heart is focused on the work and words
of God and they are pure in their love for God, not living a false life before
Him.
One of the greatest flaws in this country is our educational
system. We have allowed non-believing
college professors to mold the hearts and minds of our children. They bring up the question ‘hath God said,’
almost daily and in many cases state boldly, ‘there is no God.’ These predacious barracudas sweep in to young
adults who have moved away from their parents home for the first time and fill
their minds with lies and half truths until some of our children no longer even
know their own names. Our purpose in
sending our children to college is so their education will allow them to obtain
a job or career and be able to support themselves. Their purpose is to sit on their little
soapboxes and spew their demonic dogma to all who will hear.
I know that there are some godly and God fearing college
professors out there; but I have experienced false doctrine out of so called
Christian professors eager to twist some scripture totally out of context. Why?
Because in the college system you are frequently honored by the number
of papers you write. My purpose in
stating this is to point out how dangerous college can be for the minds of our
youth. The so called progressive
movement was begun in colleges by professors who chafed under the life God
requires. The only way to change it is
to deny God and His rules. Satan has had
almost free reign in most schools for many decades and will not give them up
easily.
Even many seminaries which are supposed to prepare men and
women for ministry no longer teach the infallibility of God’s word. They have become schools of psycho-social
life without any understanding of the power of the true God. As parents it is our responsibility to
determine what a school teaches and what they believe before we send our
children there to learn. Just because a
college has Christian somewhere in their name does not mean they have held on
to their faith roots. This chapter is
all about producing and growing faithful Christians and we must above all take
care for our children.
24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be
gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25 In meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the
acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the
snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
This verse absolutely hammers the fire and brimstone, “You’re
going to HELL,” preacher who sends his people to picket the homes of
homosexuals killed in action to curse their dead children. Is sin serious? Yes.
Is homosexuality a serious sin?
Yes. Will they go to Hell if they
do not change and repent? Yes. Will you change their minds by cussing them
out and calling them terrible things?
No. All those sins committed in
Galatians chapter five will keep you out of heaven if you fail to repent and
turn your life around but you cannot reach people by treating them with
contempt. How did Jesus reach you? Was it with a belt or with love?
I love that this says we must be gentle with all. The word man is not included in the
Greek. We are required to be gentle with
all human beings whether male or female, ready at all times to teach and be patient. All these things require faith in God that He
has the situation under control.
Patience requires love and faith.
We understand that these people are living lives that endanger
themselves and their eternal life. Even
knowing this we are required to be meek and humble in our dealings with
them. Why? Because if we do anything to anger or drive
them away we are not following the example of Jesus who would not even put out
a glowing ember on a bit of flax.
They are already in the Devil’s hands. Their future is as secure as Satan can make
it. He will be doing whatever he can to
get them to go into the grave in sin and we must be smarter, more loving and
more gracious to overcome his lies and deceit. Satan tells his children that we are unloving,
rude, arrogant and always angry and all too often we display just those
examples. Why are you angry or
rude? Do you think you can defend
God? He doesn’t need your defense or
your help bringing punishment. He is
quite capable of taking care of Himself and His rules. What He needs from you is a gracious loving
example of Jesus to show the world and draw them to Him. That is our job, to raise up the love of
Christ in the world.
This is our job beloved.
It’s not easy and it is not going to make your flesh happy but it is our
job. Your spirit will love you for it
though.
Bishop J
