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Tuesday, December
23, 2008
Comparing Spiritual Things
Romans 10:1-4 Brethren, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. (2) For I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. (3)
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. (4) For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth. (KJV)
What we see happening back in the time of
Paul continues today as well, same mankind, same deceptions, people that
actually do have a zeal to serve God but are stuck in the old, that being
the old law and its rituals. Our right standing with God today is based on
belief apart from the works of the law, because that law could never bring
a believer to be justified with our Lord. Some people today still mix and
match, they hold to the doctrine of baptism, but that circumcision stuff is
out of bounds. You have to realize, that if you accept one part you get the
whole package; kind of like a woman getting pregnant, you have a total
package in the womb not just a partial one.
Romans 10:5 For Moses describeth the
righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. (KJV)
If you choose to follow the old law then
you get the whole package people; which according to the works of the old
law, it kept people on the outside, not able to enter into the inward
working of our Lord. That is why it is vital that you learn to rightly
divide the
Word of truth; taking the meaning of the
law and putting it into the Spiritual context of what it represents.
Because God is a spirit, and those of you that desire to worship Him must
do so in Spirit and in truth.
Mark 16:15-16 And he said unto them, Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (16) He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned. (KJV)
Here is a verse that gets people; I
should say religious people, who are still hung up on outward rituals and
not the inward working of our Lord. ‘Baptize’ simply means to immerse. So,
the fact that our Lord is a Spirit and operates in a spiritual realm, how
would baptize apply today?
Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (26)
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word, (27) That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not
having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish. (KJV)
How does one become clean or cleansed in
the sight of God, a God that looks to the inward man and not the outward
one? Would it not take living Spiritual waters to sanctify and cleanse us?
Or is pouring water over or dunking them the answer? You have to decide for
yourself which realm you truly desire to abide in and stay there, because
remember, we are either with Him or against Him; and those who are in
between, the lukewarm ones, are even worse.
John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. (KJV)
The Word of God is described as living
waters, something pure that cleanses and brings new life to the believer.
So with this in mind, are you still limiting God by hanging onto the
outward rituals, or are you looking in the realm of the Spirit to see the
true meaning of the Word? The more you get out of the old, the more you are
able to tap into the new, that realm of the eternal where all things are
now possible to them that believe.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 Then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols, will I cleanse you. (26) 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. (27) And I
will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye
shall keep my judgments, and do them. (KJV)
Our filthiness is within, and the
cleansing our Lord desires to do for His people is an inward cleansing, a
process that is complete. Still think pouring water over or dunking someone
is what our Lord intended, or is it a pour excuse for those that hold more
to the outward realm than the inward one?
Hebrews 10:20-22 By a new and living way,
which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
(21) And having an high priest over the house of God; (22) Let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (KJV)
Let’s compare the two; now ask yourself
honestly, which one would our Lord accept as justified, someone who was
walking and abiding in a new and living way allowing the living waters to
cleanse them, or someone that thought they had to get slam dunked in a
river to find justification?
Titus 3:5-7 Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing
of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (6) Which he shed on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; (7) That being justified by
his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
(KJV)
Do you desire to be clean in the sight of
God, or are you more concerned with what man claims is a cleansing process?
A new and living way will bring life and peace, justification to the
believer, while those that hold to the outward will have their reward when
they do things to be seen of men. Having been given the choice between the
two, for myself I will take the inward over the outward any day, because I
know where the outward is leading, to a dead end trail that ends at the
graveyard of other dead beats.
1 Corinthians 2:12-13 Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (13) Which
things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but
which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
(KJV)
Thayer’s definition for
‘comparing’:
4793
sugkrino-
1) to join
together fitly, to compound, to combine
2) to interpret
3) to compare
How are you interpreting the Word; is it
by the outward things other people do, or are you allowing the Lord to
interpret the inward meaning for you to see and understand? Remember what
our Lord asked when He was here on earth, that someday when He returned
would He find faith on earth? The Holy Ghost was sent for our benefit and
is looking to take the things of God and show them or compare them to
spiritual people. Are you one of those that is getting His message?
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