Part I : “Pay Close Attention To Yourself…”

Apostle Paul’s advice to Timothy concerning the born again person conforming to godliness.

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul tells him “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing…” (I Timothy 6:3) [Emphasis mine]

The Apostle Peter writing to believers stated the “doctrine conforming to godliness” as follows:

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the formers lusts, which were yours in your ignorance but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY FOR I AM HOLY.” And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (I Peter 1: 14-19)

In other words, after a person is born again, if he is properly instructed in the truth, they, with the help of the Holy Spirit, will begin to purify their souls of defilement (sin):

“And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (I John 3:3)

Over a period of time they will become more and more Christlike in their manner of living or conduct.

This process is known as progressive sanctification. Sanctification is the separation of the believer from evil things and ways. The Greek word from which sanctification comes from means “to make holy”. This sanctification is God’s will for the believer and His purpose in calling him by the gospel. It must be learned from God as He teaches it by His Word and it must be pursued by the believer, earnestly and undeviatingly, cooperating with the Holy Spirit who gives the desire and the power to accomplish it. The following scriptures witness to these truths:

I Thessalonians 4:3 says “This is the will of God, your sanctification…”

I Thessalonians 4:7 says “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

I Thessalonians 4:4 says “…that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor”

The Lord Jesus said in John 17:17 as He prayed for His followers “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.”

Philippians 2:13 says “…for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

Some who claim to be born again take the teaching on the grace of God too far. They believe that willful sinning is okay after salvation because “it is all under grace”. That they can live in fornication, impurity, immorality or other habitual sin and still be in fellowship with the Holy Lord Jesus and the Holy Father God is in direct opposite to what the Word of God teaches. Concerning these believers, it is truly as Paul told Timothy in the opening verse, “….he is conceited and understands nothing;…”. The Apostle John warns the recipients of his letter known as II John to “Watch yourselves that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God;…” (II John 1:8-9)

Our brother, the Apostle Paul, told Timothy to “Pay close attention to yourself” (I Timothy 4:16a) and “….discipline (i.e. train) yourself for the purpose of godliness;…” (I Timothy 4:7b).

Concerning godliness and after exhorting Timothy to “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness…” Apostle Paul said “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” (I Timothy 4:10) The man who the Lord Jesus used to write a large portion of the New Testament and He sent to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (that is you and me) was daily laboring and striving to be godly in his conduct. He knew the struggle and the temptations that come our way and learned how to overcome them with the Holy Spirit’s help.

Paul advised Timothy to “Pay close attention to yourself…”. We would be wise to heed his advice to Timothy. Apostle Peter exhorts us:

“Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (I Peter1:13)

Let us keep sober in mind and spirit and not be drunk on the spirit of this world (Satan’s kingdom) where anything goes, no boundaries; as long as it makes me look good, meets my emotional needs, it is okay. Where, in a deceived state, I can act like a god (make my own rules) and walk in pride and arrogance toward God and His Word; be wise in my own eyes. Grieving the Holy Spirit by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption.

Instead, let us examine ourselves and see if there is any wicked way in us when compared with God’s Word and the Lord Jesus’ life. Not in a condemning way. “There istherefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. (Romans 8:1) If we find ourselves in sin or with unconfessed sin, let us repent (i.e. agree with what God says about it and turn from it) and purpose not to do it again. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. (I John 1:9-10)

Paul’s experience birthed this advice: “Pay close attention to yourself…”
My thoughts.
My words.
My actions .
What I am listening to.
What I am watching.
What I am entertained by.
What I am laughing at (a type of approval).
The motives behind my actions.
Is there any malice, wrath, anger?
Am I speaking truth or a lie?
Am I slandering someone?
Am I acting as a judge?
Am I walking in Pride? (Pride always sees the faults in others)
Am I being jealous?
Am I a manslayer? (“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer…” I John 3:15)

And we could go on and on with this list. Each of us has areas we need to bring into submission to the Word of God. And as we study God’s word, He will reveal sin we are not even aware of.

In closing, three reasons as to why Paul’s admonishment to “Pay close attention toyourself…” is needed:

This concludes Part I of this post.  Please return for Part II in the next post.  Thank you!

What Is God Looking For ?

God is looking for “good and faithful”  servants; not necessarily gifted, educated, or cultured ones.

Author Unknown

The Lord Jesus, when discussing the end of time and His second coming, told a parable about a master going on a trip and leaving different amounts of his possessions with different servants while he was away.  Upon His return, he calls the servants in to give an account of what they did with his possessions while he was gone.

The first had been given five talents and upon questioning  he shared that he had made five talents more.  As a result the master said this:

“Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25: 21)

Now we know this is a picture of Jesus going away to receive His heavenly kingdom and, while He is gone, He has given gifts (talents) to every Christian for edifying  his fellow Christian and the Church.  Upon His coming for the Church, there will be the Judgement Seat of Christ where the Christian will receive rewards for what he has done with these gifts. (More will be shared in future posts about this.)

Today, let us be found to be good stewards of whatever gifts God has entrusted to us.  Let our goal be to please our master and serve our fellow Christian so we can hear Him say of us “Well done, good and faithful slave”.  Amen.

Carl

 

 

Who Are “Those That Do Not Obey The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus”?

Who are these people who will suffer the eternal wrath of the Lamb at the end of time?

In II Thessalonians 1: 6-10 our brother Paul writes the following to the Christians at Thessalonica:

“….For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed –for our testimony to you was believed.” [Emphasis mine]

In this scripture, Paul uses two different terms to describe the people who will suffer eternally the Wrath of the Lamb.

The first is “those who do not know God”. These are people who have no biblical, saving relationship with our God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Hindus, Islamics, Buddhist, Jews, all of the different world faiths, non-religious, atheist, humanist, and others will make up this group. A vast group of people. You shudder at the thought of what is going to happen to them.

The second is “those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus”. Now a casual reading of this could lead some to wonder or believe that self-effort or works may be involved in salvation. Or that a born again person can fall away due to not doing something that the Lord required. While studying sanctification, I found a verse that explains who these people are. I put my thoughts before you for your consideration.

In I Peter 1: 1-2 Peter writes about the three things that happen in the salvation of a sinner.

“…who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood:…”

The first is that the sinner is “chosen” by God and then, secondly, the Holy Spirit begins the “setting apart” or sanctifying work that brings the sinner to the point where they “obey” or, another way of saying it, express their faith in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this in Acts 6:7 where it says;

“And the word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”

Then, thirdly, as the result of the sinner’s obedience/faith in the gospel of the Lord Jesus, he is “sprinkled” with the Lord’s blood. Salvation is complete.

The second step concerning the work of the Holy Spirit sanctifying someone is also known as positional sanctification. Sanctify means to “set apart”; to set apart from the sinful nature and the world to serve God. At the point of salvation, God the Father moves the saved sinner from the dominion of Satan to the kingdom of His beloved Son. The sinner is in a new position. In Christ. After salvation, the believer begins a process known as progressive sanctification where little by little with the help of the Holy Spirit; he begins to get the sin out of his life and grows in Christlikeness. This Christlikeness, ABOVE ALL, is what God desires for the believer.

Therefore, in II Thessalonians this descriptive term, “those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” refers to a LOST person who the Holy Spirit tried to draw to Christ but the person resisted His ministry and never exercised their faith in the gospel presentation they heard. This person was never born again. They remained in their original state of a sin.

The following Book of Hebrew scriptures show people doing this. The text is Hebrews 3:7 -4:2 and I will only quote pieces to give you the overview. Read the entire section when you can.

“Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEART AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,….. (v7-8)

“Take care brethren lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God, “ (12)

“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. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.” (3:1-2)

We see the writer of Hebrews using Old Testament examples to exhort the Jews who are seriously considering the claims of Jesus as the Messiah to go on to put their faith in the good news (gospel) that is being preached to them. If they do not put their faith in the good news being preached to them and return to the abrogated (formally ended by God) temple sacrifices, they will not enter the Sabbath rest, i.e. salvation. Notice in the scriptures above that God is speaking to them, unbelieving hearts are in the people; therefore, they do not unite faith with the word preached. They are not saved. They do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Another example is found in Acts 7:51. We find Stephen before the Jewish Council addressing the High Priest and other leaders of Israel. He says the following to them:

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in the heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. “

It is interesting to note in the account of the Pharisee Nicodemus coming to the Lord at night in John chapter 3, when he said to Jesus “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the these signs that You do unless God is with him.”, the “we” in the original Greek grammar refers to this Council that Stephen was speaking before and Nicodemus was a member of. My point here is that the High Priest and the leaders of Israel knew that Jesus had come from God because of the multitudes of miracles (signs) He had done. Yet, they resisted the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying ministry of bringing them to faith in the Son of God. Instead, they killed him.

Of this group, the Bible tells us that only Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38) exercised faith and believed or obeyed the gospel.

It is sobering to know that according to what Jesus told the disciple about being brought before kings and courts, that the Holy Spirit is giving Stephen what to say to these men and He is telling them that you always resist Me like your fathers did.

For a positive example of this, listen to what Peter told the Pentecost crowd when he concluded preaching the gospel after the Holy Spirit fell and they wanted to know what they should do. Peter, led by the Holy Spirit, said:

“Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts2:38)

Their obedience is recorded in verse 41:

“So then, those who had received the word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Here you have about 3000 Jews receiving the word (i.e. gospel that Peter preached) and obeying what he said (i.e. exercising their faith in what they heard) and being born again. Just opposite from what the leaders of Israel did.

Therefore, in conclusion, the people referred to in Thessalonians are people who had the opportunity to hear the gospel (good news) but rejected it. They never united the word preached with faith to come to salvation. They resisted the sanctifying work or “setting apart” work of the Holy Spirit.

The only seemingly contradiction to this view is this: did God the Father make a mistake in choosing some people before the foundation of the world because these people rejected the gospel? Now, we know He does not make mistakes; therefore, there is an explanation.

The Word says God “is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9) He is delaying the end of time so people can be saved.

The Lord Jesus said about the Holy Spirit that “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgement, because the ruler of this world has been judged. (John 16:8-10)

These two verses show that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to the whole world and, of course, the Lord Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. So these verses show that God desires that all men come to salvation but since He will not violate a person’s free will, some will reject the gospel and others will unite their faith with the gospel preached and be saved.

Let us leave the choosing to Him and let us be about the reaching out to all men.

Thank you for your time. Please forward any comments or thoughts concerning this matter.

“Pay close attention to yourself…” (Paul to Timothy)

Carl

My first blog post!

Welcome. I started this blog as a means of sharing what the Lord is showing me in His Word (The Bible) concerning the born again person and his relationship and fellowship with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  As the Holy Spirit leads us into truth, we will grow in Christ likeness, learning to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects,..” (Colossians 1:10)  I hope you will join me on this pilgrimage and share your feedback, both positive and negative.

Today the post is the result of a question from one of our relatives concerning what did Jesus do while His earthly body was dead in the grave.   Hope you find it interesting.

I close with Paul’s advice to Timothy concerning becoming more Christ like.  Thank you for visiting.

“Pay Close Attention To Yourself…”

Carl

What Did Jesus Do Between His Death On The Cross and His Resurrection

As best I can tell by searching the scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ went to the following two places after His physical death. The reader is encouraged to look up the scriptures noted and read them. A New American Standard Bible was used for this study.

1. PARADISE: In Luke 23: 39 – 43 we have the story of the two criminals being crucified with Christ. One of them rails against Him and the other stands up for Him saying that “this man has done nothing wrong”. This second criminal tells the Lord “Jesus, remember me when you come in Your kingdom!” And the Lord replies “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Paradise in the New Testament is the same as Abraham’s bosom mentioned in Jesus’ story in Luke 16:19-31. The term “Abraham’s bosom” represents blessedness after death. Because Abraham was the founder of the Hebrew nation, to be honored with his intimacy was the highest bliss. The term “bosom” is derived either from the Roman custom of reclining on the left side at meals, Lazarus being in the place of honor at Abraham’s right, leaning on his breast; or from its appropriateness as expressing closest fellowship (see John 1:18, 13:23). (Source: Pictorial Bible Dictionary)

Here The Lord tells a story concerning a rich man and a beggar that both die. Abraham’s bosom is where the righteous Old Testament people went when they died. As I understand it they could not go into God’s presence since the sin question had never once-and-for-all been settled. The Lord’s death for our sins and His resurrection settled the sin question once-and-for-all; therefore, in Hebrews 12:22-23 when it describes our new home it says “you have come to””…..the spirits of righteous men made perfect,…”. This statement refers to the occupants of Abraham’s bosom being made perfect because of what the Lord did and they are now in God’s presence.

The Old Testament Jew believed in Sheol (the grave) which was divided into Hades where the non-righteous person (a.k.a. the lost) went and Abraham’s bosom where the righteous Old Testament dead went. In the story the rich man died and “lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom”. He wanted Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his figure in the water and put it on his tongue since he was “in agony in this flame”. But since a great chasm is between the two places, he could not. The beggar was being comforted since he had suffered much in his earthly life.

You are encouraged to read the story in Luke 16 for yourself. I believe it is an actual true story in the sense that the people are real people who had lived and tells what happened after their death. It also sheds light on the importance of God’s Word as far as salvation is concerned.

Evidently, The Lord and the just-saved criminal both went to Abraham’s bosom/paradise after dying. Though it is not clearly stated anywhere that I know of in the scripture, the Lord could of revealed to the righteous dead the gospel; i.e. what He had accomplished through the substitutionary atonement, future resurrection and that He was the promised sacrifice that all of the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to and that these people were trusting in for their personal salvation. It is interesting to note that Moses and Elijah appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration to talk with a glorified Lord Jesus about His coming death and resurrection; therefore, maybe the people in Abraham’s bosom were already enlightened about the gospel.

2. TARTARUS: In I Peter 3:18-22 it says that the Lord went and “made proclamation to the spirits now in prison who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah…”

The Greek scholar Wuest tells us there are just two prisons in the unseen world where evil spirits are confined. Tartarus is where fallen angels are kept and the Bottomless Pit in Revelation 9:1-12 is the prison of demons.

In I Peter 3:19-20 and II Peter 2:4-5, Peter associates these spirits (a.k.a. fallen angels) with the period before the Flood mentioned in Genesis 6: 1-7. These are fallen angels who committed fornication with human evil women and created a hybrid race part angel and part man. It is suggested that Satan intended to wipe out the human race and thereby foil God’s plan of redemption. In regards to this “wiping out”, remember that there were only eight people on the ark during the flood. All the other righteous people on earth had died naturally, been murdered or died in some accident. If they would have been alive, they would have been on the ark with Noah. They would not of suffered the wrath of God; i.e. the flood.

God would not have incarnated Himself in a race of part angel and part man. Therefore, the divine plan of the incarnation and substitutionary atonement of the Son of God would not have happened. This is probably why God destroyed the whole world with the flood except for Noah and his 7 family members. The New Testament tells us that God put these fallen angels into a prison that they will never get out of until they are cast into the lake of fire with death, hades and Satan at the end of time. See Revelation 20:10. Some authors state that the demons are the disembodied spirits of the fallen angels’ hybrid children and some say they are fallen angels.

The Lord went to this prison and made a proclamation to these fallen angels. Though it does not reveal the text of this proclamation in the New Testament, it is thought to be a proclamation of victory over Satan’s scheme to stop God’s plan of salvation. Praise His Mighty Name!

The End!

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