The Living Part II

The Living Part II

 

Matthew 22:32

 

I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

 

In The Living Part I it was stated that one promise of the covenant was “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” (Ezekiel 36:25). It was further stated that this sprinkling of clean water, is the preaching of the gospel in the power of God the Holy Ghost. And that the end ordained was that those who were sprinkled with the gospel should be clean. Those to whom the Spirit of God gives an ear to hear the gospel preached, have closed with the gospel, they have eaten the words and they have assimilated the truths into their souls, by a power which is not their own. The Spirit of the living God has put the truth in the hearts of those to whom He sends the gospel in power. And this is the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” that the apostle Paul spoke of in his first Corinthian epistle: “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (I Corinthians 2:4). Preaching in “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” is always efficacious in the salvation of the elect as it is written: “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake” (I Thessalonians 1:4-5).

 

Furthermore, this work of the Holy Ghost is according to the second promise of scripture by the prophet Ezekiel: (2.) “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” (Ezekiel 36:26). The apostle Paul said to the Corinthian Believers: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (I Corinthians 3:16)? When the Third Person of the Godhead takes His abode in the heart of an elect sinner there are always noticeable affects. (a.) “A new heart also will I give you” Biblically speaking: the heart consists of the mind, the affections, and the will. These all suffered ruin in the fall of Adam the “first man” (I Corinthians 15:45), that is the first representative man who bindingly acted for himself as well as others.

 

In the fall, the mind of man turned to enmity against God, that is, continual hostility, aversion, and blame. The apostle Paul said: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). Adam and Eve showed their natural aversion to God in the garden: “ And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8). The apostle Peter demonstrated the same aversion in his heart: “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). And Jeremiah said: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9). In the condition that men are born in there is nothing that man can do to please or appease the living God. Man can do nothing because of the hatred of his heart, as it is written: “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause” (John 15:25). Man cannot do anything to please God because of the bondage of his own heart in sin, darkness, and spiritual death. Man can do nothing because He will do nothing but those things his ruined nature will allow, and that is always enmity to the Living God. Jeremiah describes another example of man’s desperate state before the new heart was given saying: “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth” (Jeremiah 31:18-19).

 

(b.) The affections of the ruined nature are turned toward the things of this present evil world, as said the apostle John: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (I John 2:15-17). And the apostle James wrote: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy” (James 4:4)? To the regenerated and redeemed elect the apostle giveth this exhortation: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2)

 

(c.) The will of the natural man is bent to evil, as said the prophet Hosea: “And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him” (Hosea 11:7). Our Lord Jesus said: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him” (Matthew 7:11)? Our Lord stated the plight of all men by nature when He spoke to the Pharisees saying : “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40). The prophet Jeremiah spoke of the corrupted will of nature man: “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken” (Jeremiah 6:16-17). The will of man is bound by his corrupt nature, so that he is the bond slave of sin and rebellion. But the Lord gives grace to those whom He has predestinated to adoption of children by Jesus Christ according to his will (Ephesians 1:5): as it is written: “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them” (Psalm 68:18).

 

(3.) A Third promise given through the pen of the prophet Ezekiel is: “and a new spirit will I put within you”. The Holy Spirit is put in the children of the covenant at the new birth. Individual believers are temples of the Holy Ghost as was pointed out above: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (I Corinthians 3:16). The manner of the Spirit’s indwelling believers is mysterious. To those who live in a house of dust the co-habitation of a Divine Person is a wonder in itself. 

 

“That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). We are born of nature in spiritual death (Ephesians 2:1) and the children of God are quickened by Christ (John 5:21) and  it is written: “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (I John 4:13). In the apprehension of the writer it appears that: “Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “I live by the faith of the Son of God” The life of the Spirit in the believer is the spirit that is born at the birth from above “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”  it is a real spiritual entity which is put in believers and it is of His Spirit (I John4:13). It is a spirit of faith: “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak” (II Corinthians 4:13). Believers, believe because a spirit of faith has been put in them, it is to them a “new spirit”. That which is put in believers of the Spirit of God is that which makes them believe: “ For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it” (I Corinthians 4:7).

 

The new spirit that is put in believers by the Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth. We know it is a spirit of truth because the Spirit of God from whence believers receive the new spirit is the Spirit of truth, as it is written: “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John14:17). Those who have a spirit of truth receive the truth. Those who have a spirit of error do not receive the truth it is written: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (John 8:44-47). Those who have the spirit of truth hear the truth, and they know it is the truth when they hear it because the spirit bears witness to the truth, as our Lord Jesus replied in the following verse: “Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:37).

 

The new spirit which is in believers is a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17). The new spirit is a spirit of power, love and a sound mind: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7). Those who are joined to the Lord in covenant union, are joined to Him vitally and experientially through regeneration in faith, hope, and charity (love, writer): “  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (I Corinthians 13:13): “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father” (I Thessalonians 1:3).

 

This new spirit is the spirit of love, faith, and obedience, of fellowship with God rather than rebellion and hatred toward Him as in the days of unregeneracy. The new heart has a new object of love, as it is written: “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us” (I John 4:17-19). When love replaces hatred the hard and stony heart is broken up and a heart of flesh which is capable of communion and fellowship with God through Jesus Christ is put in its place.

 

 

Believers know that their “body is dead because of sin” (in the reckoning or mind  of God, having been “crucified with Christ” Galatians 2:20) and they know that “the Spirit is life because of righteousness” as it is written: “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans 8:10). Our Lord Jesus said “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Unbelievers do not hear the voice of the Good Shepherd because they do not have the Spirit of truth: “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17). Believers are the sheep of Christ and they hear His voice “because he hath given us of his Spirit” (I John 4:13) “And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth” (I John 5:6). As said the apostle John “The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (III John 1:1-4) The children of God walk in truth, because of the truth that is put in them by the Spirit of God, as it is written: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16).

 

There are “unclean spirits” (Luke 8:29; 9:42; 11:24). There is “the spirit of antichrist” as it is written: “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world” (I John 4:3). There is “the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” as said the apostle John: “We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (I John 4:6). The children of God hear the Good Shepherd and follow Him, and a stranger will they not follow because of the Spirit of truth that dwells in them. Those who follow “another Jesus” (I Corinthians 11:4), a Jesus who cannot save without consent of the dead are not of the living. They worship under another gospel which is not true, because conditioned on the will of man who must choose Christ while spiritually dead (Galatians 1:6; Ephesians 2:1). And therefore they know not the God of the living, but they are: “Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand” (Psalm 88:5).

 

Reader are you among the living or among the dead? You may discern your state by understanding whether you hear the voice (believe the doctrine of Christ) of the Good Shepherd. Those who believe the Jesus who relinquishes his sovereignty to others and puts the salvation of his sheep in their own hands are of the dead. Those who are working their way to glory are among the dead also. The God of the Bible is the God of the living, all of whom He raised from the dead in the body of Jesus Christ, as it is written: “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).

 

AJ Ison

 

See the writer’s blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com hear the true gospel preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.