THINGS ACCOMPANYING SALVATION
Tuesday – October 31, 2017
Greetings and welcome back to this wonderful Bible Study focused on the Book of Hebrews. Let us now review our primary text from this wonderful Book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 6:9-10 (KJV)
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time discussing the works of the flesh from Galatians 5:19-21 and admonishing each of us not to be too hasty to dismiss those things as having nothing to do with us. We must sit before the Lord and get His counsel and follow it. Recall that I have focused for the moment on Hebrews 6:9 and the “things that accompany salvation”. I talked about the change of nature which may not be readily perceptible physically. Other persons saved or not will soon recognize that something has changed. The newly saved person will know immediately or soon after that they are indeed different. They will know immediately when they are turning to the left or to the right after another God. The question is; will they choose to heed that conviction and direction and remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit or will they harden their hearts? I’m talking about you and me. Yep, something changed all right, we changed Kingdoms, we upgraded big time. I next mentioned that soon after salvation we would start to observe the righteous fruits of our spirit man. Let’s review these from our secondary text.
Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
As we delve into this it may be useful to have a paradigm or construct from which to view these things. We are supernatural being when we are born again. Our spirit man or soul man has many compartments or organs much like the physical body has many organ systems, organs, and components of those organs. Those organs have been present since our spiritual and physical conception in the womb of our mother. Another way one might also think of these fruits of the spirit is as trees each producing one of the nine fruits. Before salvation these organs or trees were producing but it was darkness, deadness, nothing that was furthering the Kingdom of God but instead furthering the kingdom of darkness. These organs were producing the works of the flesh as discussed yesterday. This is what might be referred to in other places as dead works, dead fruit. For example, all words are spiritual however some are life and some are death. Unlike the organs of our natural body these spiritual organs don’t just grow and accommodate to increasing physical maturity they must consciously be developed. For example, on the righteous side one can practice love, on the evil side one can practice fear.
Good spiritual fruit is produced much the way good natural fruit is produced and that is with effort and cultivation. Also, remember that fruit is something that is tangible and useful to another person. We are not talking about a pleasant looking and acting fella; the world has a lot of those as well. We are talking about a fruit that provides spiritual nourishment resulting in a physical manifestation. If you think of these fruits as being produced by a spiritual organ then think about this. We are made in the image and likeness of God, we are the children of God, we are of like kind, so just as we have the same physical organs of our parents so do we have the spiritual organs of our Heavenly Father. Just as a newborn baby can accomplish nothing useful so with the spiritual baby however with time that spiritual baby can become a fully functioning son of God just as the physical baby may go on to be an Olympian. Each one of us must ask ourselves where we are in our spiritual maturity.
The first fruit of our quickened spirit is love. This is agape, Godly love or the love of God. As I have mentioned many times in these teachings, Godly love is at its core obedience to the Word of God. Other aspects include being selfless or dying to self and mindfulness of and adherence to Blood Covenant.
John 14:21 (KJV)
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
We have an obligation to know the commandments of our Lord and to actually do those commandments, it is only in this way we can demonstrate our love for Him. Anything short of that is disobedience and absolutely prevents the manifestation of our Heavenly Father in our lives or the Lord Jesus. Disobedience (includes the failure to know the commands and guard them) which is sin and opens the door for the thief who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. In our minds eye let’s imagine a counterweight scale (like lady justice) with abundant victorious life on one side and stealing, killing, and destroying on the other. Are you having trouble choosing the one you want? The choice is entirely ours.
Matthew 10:38-41 (KJV)
38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
Selflessness, His agenda, not ours, that is where the abundant life exists. Our cross is the assignment the Lord has given us to do, it is our purpose in the body of Christ. You see the whole purpose of Jesus coming was to go to the Cross, that is how to view that term, to take up our cross. When we take up our cross, our reward is the same as that of Jesus. Think of it brother and sister! When we choose Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior we are in Him and all that applies to Him applies to us. It is all activated and made a present and future reality by faith powered by love (obedience) as led of the Spirit. Now what about the Blood Covenant.
Hebrews 12:24 (KJV)
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Without The Blood Covenant, the redeeming Blood of Jesus, there would be no salvation, no complete obliteration of sin, and thus no restoration of mankind. A sinless man sinned and so only a sinless man could pay the price of that sin. When two parties enter into a blood covenant there are many obligations which are equally binding upon both parties. A very important obligation is that of reciprocating actions. An example is the following. Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac and Isaac was willing to be sacrificed for God at the request of the Father, for they trusted the Father (Jehovah). Because of what Abraham and Isaac did the Father had to be willing to reciprocate and sacrifice His Son, Jesus had to be willing as Isaac had been willing to be sacrificed for God, God was willing for mankind. In this fashion salvation came to mankind. Abraham knew that if he killed Isaac that God would raise him from the dead for he was the child of promise to bring the blessing to all mankind. Jesus was that promise and the Father did in fact raise Him from the dead and He (Jesus) is an eternal blessing for all. Likewise, we must be are willing to die to self and live to Him for we have also been raised from the dead. Tomorrow we will pick-up right here.
Until our next publication, I speak blessing into your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
Numbers 6:24-26 (KJV)
24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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