IT IS IMPORTANT
Wednesday – November 23, 2016
Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, from Eastern Gate Ministries International and The Three Minute Word publication. God is so good. He has given us His Word and many things in His Word are repeated time and again and many things He speaks about at quite some length. I have been teaching about the relationship of the Jewish peoples, the Gentiles, and the Church.
The Apostle Paul by the unction of the Holy Spirit spends a lot of space talking about this in Ephesians and also in the Book or Epistle to the Romans. Obviously this is very important to God that we understand the Jewish people and our relationship with them. In what we call the Old Covenant or Old Testament we find three types of law; there is Civil Law, Moral Law, and ceremonial (sacrifice) law. With the coming of Jesus and His sacrifice at Calvary the ceremonial or laws of sacrifice for sin were done away with having no place. Civil Law remains but has flexibility based on the circumstances and culture. For example if you borrow your neighbors ox (car) and it falls in the ditch and breaks a leg (you have an accident) the proper remedy for that is negotiable. Moral Law which would include the Ten Commandments are not flexible, not subject to change, and are eternal. The Old Testament remains very relevant and is for our education in righteousness.
Romans 15:4 (KJV)
4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
There is a doctrine of devils that is prevalent today which is that the Old Testament does not apply to us and perhaps the favorite quote is that we are not under the law (referring to the whole Old Covenant) but we are under grace. Basically as the teaching goes, anything goes, Jesus paid for all sin. First let us consider the following verse.
Romans 6:14-16 (KJV)
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
When Adam sinned he bowed his knee to the devil and abdicated the authority God had given to man to the devil. The devil rules or exercises authority by deception (lies) getting us to do his will and not the will of God. The law was given to clearing identify sin and for a season men who wanted to serve God were subject to the law or under or the servant of the law. Then came Jesus and with Him the payment for sin and the return of the Blessing, the Holy Spirit who puts His super on our natural and empowers us to overcome, overcome sin, just like Jesus. We by the exercise of our will choose the leadership and way of God thus we are “under grace”. If all sin is gone what is this next passage all about?
1 John 1:7-9 (KJV)
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We, Christians, have the capacity to sin as do all other persons. We sin when we choose deception over Truth, over light. Remember the lie, the enticement to sin will come as a lust of the flesh, a lust of the eye, and as pride of life. When we do realize we have sinned we must repent immediately agreeing with God that it is sin, it is wrong, we are without excuse, asking Him to cleanse us with that eternal Blood of redemption. We will instantly move from a position of unrighteousness (not in right standing with the Father with the door wide open for the devil to steal, kill, and destroy in our life) to a position or righteousness, the door is closed, the hedge is up.
Friday I will be returning to our text in Ephesians and continuing our study. I believe that this study was led of the Holy Spirit of God and cleared some things up for people. To reiterate my original point, God did not anoint the Apostle Paul to write lengthy sections about the Jews and our (Christian) relationship to the Jews to fill space or fulfil some whim of Paul, it is for our instruction that we be more like Him (a Jew in the flesh). God did not have thirty-nine books placed in the Bible of sixty-six books detailing the Jewish people to bulk up the Bible. The former rain (Word of God in the Old Testament) is for our learning in the ways of righteousness by faith in love led of the Spirit of God. Awake, repent, arise, tear down the high place, and triumph Church of the living God. All things are possible with God.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
