UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JANUARY 09, 2024.

SUBJECT : UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM!

Memory verse: "He answered and said unto them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” (Matthew 13 vs 11.) 

READ: First Corinthians 2 vs 6 - 16 :

2:6: However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

2:7: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,

2:8: which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

2:9: But as it is written, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

2:10: But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

2:11: For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

2:12: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

INTIMATION:

The mysteries of the kingdom are the knowledge that is outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, and can be made known only by Divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God, and to those only who are illumined by His Spirit. In the ordinary sense a mystery implies knowledge withheld; its Scriptural significance is truth revealed. Hence the terms especially associated with the subject are “made known,” “manifested,” “revealed,” “preached,” “understand,” “dispensation.” 

The definition given above may be best illustrated by the following passage; “the mystery which has been hidden from all ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints” (Colossians 1 vs 26). The mystery is used of: (a) spiritual truth generally, as revealed in the gospel. Among the ancientGreeks “the mysteries” were religious rites and ceremonies practiced by secret societies into which any one who so desired might be received. Those who were initiated into these “mysteries” became possessors of certain knowledge, which was not imparted to the uninitiated, and were called ‘the perfected.’

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul has these ‘mysteries’ in mind and presents the gospel in contrast thereto. Here ‘the perfected’ are, of course, the believers, who alone can perceive the things revealed in the Scriptures.

b) Christ, who is God Himself revealed under the conditions of human life, and submitting even to death, but subsequently raised from among the dead, that the will of God to co-ordinate the universe in Him, and subject it to Him, might in due time be accomplished, as declared in the gospel.

(c) the Church, which is Christ’s Body, that is, the union of redeemed persons with God in Christ. (d) the rapture into the presence of Christ of those members of the Church which is His Body who shall be alive in the earth at His ‘Parousia’—His second coming (First Corinthians 15 vs 51). (e) the operation of those hidden forces that either retard or accelerate the kingdom of God (Matthew 13 vs 11; Mark 4 vs 11). (f) the cause of the present condition of Israel (Romans 11 vs 25). (g) the spirit of disobedience to God. (h) the ways of God in grace.

These mysteries; the secret or hidden truths of the kingdom reign of God were being revealed to those who were willing to listen and learn. However, for those who would not listen to Jesus, the truth concerning the kingdom reign would not be revealed simply because they would not listen to Jesus. 

God revealed the eternal plan of salvation to all men through Jesus. Through the grace of the gospel that was revealed on the cross (Titus 2 vs 11), God is able to establish our hearts in Christ Jesus. Therefore, it is upon the foundation of the event of the death of Jesus for our sins and His resurrection for our hope that we spiritually stand justified before God (see First Corinthians 15 vs 1 - 5). Upon the foundation of the fact of the gospel event we are emotionally assured that we will be raised in the end to walk with Jesus in a heavenly environment. 

Before the world was created, God had planned the events of the cross and resurrection. The mystery of the gospel (mystery of the kingdom), however, was not revealed to man until the coming of Jesus. Neither was it revealed to Satan. If the gospel event had been revealed to Satan, then he surely would not have moved the people against Jesus to have Him crucified. The fact that Jesus was crucified is evidence that Satan had no idea that the cross was indeed the plan of God to make Jesus the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. 

The mystery (also known as the mystery of Christ) was the eternal plan of redemption that God has now revealed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. It was not revealed in times before the coming of Jesus. It has been revealed in these times in order that men might understand God’s plan that all men be reconciled to Him through Jesus (See First Corinthians 2 vs 10 - 13). The mystery of Christ (God) is God’s plan of grace that was revealed on the cross for the salvation of all men. It was unknown until its revelation to the apostles by the Holy Spirit. 

The humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ in other to accomplish His mission on earth reveals the heart of the gospel “the mystery of godliness” (the secret of how we become godly). Jesus incarnation (manifested in the flesh—Jesus was a man) is the basis of our being right with God. His resurrection showed that the Holy Spirit’s power was in Him. We can’t please God on our own; we must depend on Christ. As a man, Jesus lived a perfect life, and so He is a perfect example of how to live. As God, Jesus gives us the power to do what is right. It is possible to live a godly life through following Christ. 

God’s “hidden wisdom” was His offer of salvation to all people. Originally unknown to humanity, this plan became crystal clear when Jesus rose from the dead. His resurrection proved that He had power over sin and death and could offer us this power as well. God’s plan, however, is still hidden to unbelievers because they either refuse to accept it, choose to ignore it, or simply haven’t heard about it. 

All Christians ought to open their mouths for Jesus. It is the obligation of those who have been washed with the blood of the Lamb to proclaim to all an answer for their problem of sin and death. The fact that one has been saved out of his spiritual death in sin by the grace of God obligates him to proclaim the mystery of Christ to others. With the knowledge of the grace of God comes the responsibility of sharing God’s grace. 

Prayer: Abba Father, You have revealed Your eternal plan for our redemption through Jesus Christ Your Son who came as a propitiation for our sins. Endue me with the revelational knowledge; my eyes of understanding being enlightened, to know the reason and hope of Your calling, and the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in the saints, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Gain What You Cannot Lose

 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

Here are two great incentives from Jesus to become a World Christian and to dedicate yourself to the cause of Frontier Missions. As a goer or a sender.

1. Every impossibility with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). The conversion of hardened sinners will be the work of God and will accord with his sovereign plan. We need not fear or fret over our weakness. The battle is the Lord’s, and he will give the victory.

2. Christ promises to work for us, and to be for us so much that, when our missionary life is over, we will not be able to say we’ve sacrificed anything (Mark 10:29–30).

When we follow his missionary prescription, we discover that even the painful side effects work to improve our condition. Our spiritual health, our joy, improves a hundredfold. And when we die, we do not die. We gain eternal life.

I do not appeal to you to screw up your courage and sacrifice for Christ. I appeal to you to renounce all you have, to obtain life that satisfies your deepest longings. I appeal to you to count all things as rubbish for the surpassing value of standing in the service of the King of kings. I appeal to you to take off your store-bought rags and put on the garments of God’s ambassadors.

I promise you persecutions and privations — but remember the joy! “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).

On January 8, 1956, five Waorani Indians of Ecuador killed Jim Elliot and his four missionary companions as they were trying to bring the gospel to the Waorani tribe of sixty people.

Four young wives lost husbands and nine children lost their fathers. Elisabeth Elliot wrote that the world called it a nightmare of tragedy. Then she added, “The world did not recognize the truth of the second clause in Jim Elliot’s credo: ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’”

GOD WORKS IN YOU TO PLEASE HIM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

 

MONDAY JANUARY 08, 2024.

SUBJECT: GOD WORKS IN YOU TO PLEASE HIM!

Memory verse: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2 vs 13.)

READ: Hebrews 13 vs 20 - 21:

13:20: Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

13:21: make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

INTIMATION: 

To please God is to do His will; to walk in accordance with His precepts. It’s on this pivot that all that pertains to life and godliness revolve. God works in us as we have responded to His work for us. He worked for us through the cross; the gift of His only begotten Son as a propitiation for our sins. We are sinners who had no hopes of saving ourselves from God’s condemnation. But Christ came, took our place, paid the wages we owed—the wages of sin which is death. And died fro our sins to salvage us—set us free—from the consequences of sin and death, and separation from God. 

It is on this premise that we work out our salvation in appreciation of what Christ has done for us. Our sense of gratitude for the work of God in reference to our salvation, therefore, should move us into action. In this way God is living in us. When we are motivated into action by the redemptive work of God, then we work according to His purposes. And when we work according to the purposes of God, it is God who works in us. Christians do not work in order to be saved. They work out their salvation because they are saved. When we respond to the sacrificial blood of Jesus on the cross, then it is God who is working in us. 

God has not left us alone in our struggles to do His will—to obey His laws. He wants to come alongside us and be within us to help, hence His gift of the Holy Spirit—our Helper. God gives us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. As a believer, you are not left to your own resources to cope with problems. God created you for His specific purposes that are predetermined by Him, even before the foundation of the world. Consequently, only Him can work out His plan and purpose in you. 

In Ephesians 1 vs 11, the Scripture says, “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” God is sovereign and in control of all things. He works all things in us according the counsel of His will. God’s purposes for the believers cannot be thwarted, no matter how hard Satan tries, or what he brings our way.

Jesus gave us the assurances when He said, in John 6 vs 37 - 40, “All the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Godhead—the Trinity—in union with one another, is at work in the world, and in every believer. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit never work independently of the other. The will of the Father (Loving Father) is accomplished by the Son (our Sacrificial Savior) with the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit (our Faithful Companion). Thus, anyone who makes a sincere commitment to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior is secure in God’s promises, even the promise of everlasting life with Him. 

God’s work for us began when Christ died on the cross in our place. His work in us began when we first believed. Now, the Holy Spirit—our Helper—lives in us, enabling us to be more like Christ every day, helping us accomplish the will of God for us. This is the Christian growth and maturity that began when we accepted Jesus, and continues until Christ returns to perfect us and take us home to the Father.

Sometimes, by human assessment, you feel as though you aren’t making progress in your spiritual life, especially when sometimes you fall into sin. But be of good cheer, it is a gradual process that will only come to perfection when Christ returns. Now, look at this Scripture, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1 vs 6.) Be confident that when God starts a project, He completes it! God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us grow in grace until He has completed His work in our lives. Never let your shortcomings, and your feeling of incompleteness, or distress becloud you of God’s promise and provision.

All that is required of the believer is to believe Him and keep His commandments. The same commandments He has sent an Helper—the Holy Spirit—to help us in our weaknesses. God works in us to make us the kind of people that would please Him, and He equips us to do the kind of work that would please Him. Yours is to yield to the total control of the Spirit that His fruit will be fully manifested in you—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In the real sense of it, He does all things. What a benevolent Father!

Prayer: Abba Father, I surrender completely to You. Work Your work in me that I may be complete in every good work to do Your will and please You at all times, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!I

Grace Denied and Supplied

 Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)

The need for inner strength arises not just from the depletions of everyday stress, but from the suffering and afflictions that come from time to time. And they do come.

Suffering is inevitably added to heart-weariness on the way to heaven. When it comes, the heart may waver and the narrow way that leads to life may look impossibly hard. It’s hard enough to have a narrow road and steep hills that test the old jalopy’s strength to the limit. But what shall we do when the car breaks down?

Paul cried out three times with this question because of some affliction in his life. He asked for relief from his thorn in the flesh. But God’s grace did not come in the form he asked. It came in another form. Christ answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Here we see grace given in the form of Christ’s sustaining power in unrelieved affliction — one grace given, we could say, within the circle of another grace denied. And Paul responded with faith in the sufficiency of this future grace: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

God often blesses us with a “grace given” in the circle of “grace denied.” 

For example, on a beastly hot day in July, the water pump on our car stopped working, and twenty miles from any town we were stranded on the interstate in Tennessee.

I had prayed that morning that the car would work well and that we would come to our destination safely. Now the car had died. The grace of trouble-free travel had been denied. No one was stopping as we stood around our car. Then my son Abraham (about eleven at the time) said, “Daddy, we should pray.” So we bowed behind the car and asked God for some future grace — a help in time of need. When we looked up, a pickup truck had pulled over.

The driver was a mechanic who worked about twenty miles away. He said he would be willing to go get the parts and come back and fix the car. I rode with him to town and was able to share the gospel with him. We were on our way in about five hours.

Now the remarkable thing about that answer to our prayer is that it came inside the circle of a prayer denied. We asked for a trouble-free trip. God gave us trouble. But in the midst of a grace denied, we got a grace supplied. And I am learning to trust God’s wisdom in giving the grace that is best for me and for unbelieving mechanics and for the watching faith of eleven-year-old boys.

We should not be surprised that God gives us wonderful graces in the midst of suffering that we had asked him to spare us. He knows best how to apportion his grace for our good and for his glory.

SANCTIFICATION IS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JANUARY 07, 2024.

SUBJECT : SANCTIFICATION IS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Memory verse: "Sanctify them by Your truth, Your word is truth." (John 17 vs 17.) 

READ: John 14 vs 23 - 26:

14:23: Jesus answered and said to him, "if anyone loves Me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

14:24: He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word which is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

14:25: These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.

14:26: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

INTIMATION:

A follower of Christ becomes sanctified (separated from the ways of the world) through believing and applying the Word of God in their daily living. He or she has already accepted the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for forgiveness and remission of sin and has declared Him as his or her Lord and Savior. Daily application of God's Word has a purifying effect on our minds and hearts. Scripture points out sin, motivates us to confess and forsake sin, renews our relationship with Christ, and guides us back to the right path. Obedience to the truth of God will separate one from the world in the sense that one obeys God and not men. One’s continued obedience maintains the separation from the world.

The Scripture says, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of heart." (Hebrews 4 vs 12.) There is life-changing power in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the embodiment of that power of God. The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin, and also assures them of the truth of the gospel. The Holy Spirit is the power of our new lives in Christ. He begins a lifelong process of change  making us more like Jesus. 

To ‘sanctify” literally means to "to separate," to set apart for sacred purposes, to purify. We can purify ourselves by reading God's Word, thoughtfully applying it to our lives, and preparing our hearts to participate in worship through anticipation, self-examination, and meditation. We cannot become sanctified on our own, but God gives us the Holy Spirit to help us obey and to give us power to overcome sin. We rely on God's power to free us from the grip of sin. Don't use the excuse that you can't help slipping into sin to continue in your sinful lifestyle, for God has made available His power, through the Holy Spirit, to overcome our evil desires.

A message about sanctification without a message about empowerment simply produces pressure. Because it causes people to go out and start trying to live a sanctified life without knowing how to do what they know they should be doing. If we don't know about the power of the Holy Spirit to help us do what He has revealed to us to do and not do, we would be overcome. We see the commands, such as the one in First Peter 1 vs 14 - 16, about not conforming to the former lusts that governed us before when we were in ignorance and didn't know the requirements of the Gospel, and about being holy even as God is holy, and we realize out inability to do all that without help. Hence the need to go back to our empowerer—the Holy Spirit. 

If you study the subject of holiness, for instance, you will learn that there is no such as a person becoming holy apart from a great involvement with the Holy Spirit in his life. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is the power of God given to us to do in us and through us and for us and to us what we could never do on our own.

Jesus said in John 15 vs 5, "....Without Me you can do nothing." We are not capable of anything in our own powers or strength, "....For by strength no man shall prevail" (First Samuel 2 vs 9). To make available His power to help mankind, God became a man in Jesus so that Jesus could die for our sins. Jesus rose from the dead to offer salvation to all people through spiritual renewal and rebirth. When Jesus ascended into heaven, His physical presence left the earth, but He promised to send the Holy Spirit so that His spiritual presence would still be among humankind. All believers have the power of the Holy Spirit available to them. It's only the power of God in the Holy Spirit given to us that can the believers have the strength to do all things (Philippians 4 vs 13).

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for the gift of Jesus Christ our Messiah, and the Holy Spirit our Helper. Your faithfulness endures forever, and without the Holy Spirit empowerment I am capable of doing nothing. May I never take my focus away from You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen,

PRAISE THE LORD!

God’s Will Is That You Draw Near

Let us draw near with a true heart. (Hebrews 10:22)

The command we are given in this passage is to draw near to God. The great aim of the writer of the book of Hebrews is that we get near God, that we have fellowship with him, that we not settle for a Christian life at a distance from God.

This drawing near is not a physical act. It’s not building a tower of Babel by your achievements to get to heaven. It’s not necessarily going to a church building. Or walking to an altar at the front. It is an invisible act of the heart. You can do it while standing absolutely still, or while lying in a hospital bed, or on the train as you commute to work.

This is the center of the gospel — this is what the garden of Gethsemane and Good Friday are all about — that God has done astonishing and costly things to draw us near to himself. He has sent his Son to suffer and to die so that through him we might draw near. Everything that he has done in the great plan of redemption is so that we might draw near. And that nearness is for our joy and for his glory. 

He does not need us. If we stay away, he is not impoverished. He does not need us in order to be happy in the fellowship of the Trinity. But he magnifies his mercy by giving us free access through his Son, in spite of our sin, to the one Reality that can satisfy our souls completely and forever, namely, himself. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

This is God’s will for you, even as you read this. This is why Christ died: that you would draw near to God.

NOT ENTERING GOD’S REST IS THE RESULT OF UNBELIEF!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JANUARY 06, 2024.

SUBJECT :NOT ENTERING GOD’S REST IS THE RESULT OF UNBELIEF!

Memory verse: "For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it." (Hebrews 4 vs 2.)

READ: Hebrews 4 vs 1 - 7:

4:1: Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 

4:2: For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

4:3: For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest'" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4:4: For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works";

4:5: And again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest."

4:6: Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,

4:7: Again He designates a certain day, saying to David, "Today," after such a long time, as it had been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts."

INTIMATION:

The Bible says that, when people hear God's Word but do not believe it, "the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Unbelief results in disobedience and not entering His rest. One cannot claim to believe in God if he or she does not obey the will of God—the Word of God. If a person’s faith does not move him or her to continue to obey the will of God, he or she will not enter into God’s final rest of heaven. 

Many of the Christians filling our churches today know a great deal about Christ, but they do not know Christ personally—they do not combine their knowledge with faith. They do not believe completely in Him and do not act on what they know. Consequently, they turn back on the promises of God, and doubt that God would fulfill His promises. Especially when a problem shows up in their life, they will be overwhelmed by the difficulties of the present moment, and allow that to overshadow the reality of God's promise. They are tempted to trust in their abilities to handle their problems. Never trust in your efforts that are never adequate, but rather on Christ’s unfailing power, or else you can be in danger of turning back.

The things that keeps us from God's ultimate blessings ("entering His rest" includes; (1) Not worshipping or submitting to Him. (2) Hardening our hearts, especially to sin. (3) Trying God's patience because of stubborn doubts. (4) Ungrateful hearts—not being thankful. In the passage we read today, the Bible warns us not to harden our hearts, but to reject the glamour of sin and anything else that would lead us away from God. 

Although the works of the promised rest were finished from the foundation of the world, only those who believe do enter that rest (do obtain His promised blessings). God even swore in His anger that the unbelieving hearts would not enter His rest (Psalm 95 vs 11). For the Christians that believes, the apostle Paul has a word for you in First Thessalonians 2 vs 13, "For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe." The Word only works in the life of those who believe.

God wants us to enter His rest; to be at peace with Him now and rest eternally with Him later. He offers the opportunity to enter His ultimate place of rest, that is, invites us to come to Christ. To enter His rest, you must believe that God has this relationship in mind for you (Jeremiah 29 vs 11). It is not subject to your creating it; it is already in place, and you must trust in Christ for it; and you must determine to obey Him. We do not need to wait for the next life to enjoy God's rest and peace; we may have it daily now! Our daily rest in the Lord will not end with death, but will become an eternal rest in the place that Christ is preparing for us.

Prayer: Abba Father, You have said it, I believe it, and that settles it. In Christ Jesus I have rest round about, and in Him I live, and move, and have my being. Give me the grace never to shift my focus on Christ at anytime. Blessed be Your name forever, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!