20)
For when ye were the
servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21)
What fruit had ye then in
those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end
of those things is death.
22)
But now being made free
from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the
end everlasting life.
23)
For the wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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cannot escape the fact that scripture points to the fact that the Lord has an
expectancy of us. Isaiah speaks of one who has planted a vineyard, fences it in
and works the field. The husbandman does all that is necessary for his
grapevines to produce good grapes—yet, the vines yield sour grapes.
Is
this not like the Lord? He has invested much time in the preparation of a
people. Why? So that His "yield" might be
"fruit unto holiness." Indeed, He has a right to expect this
in that He has worked for us to be free from any bondage to the flesh. He did
this before He did anything else because He knew that no fruit was possible as
long as we were living a fleshly life. Spiritual fruit can come only from a
spiritual life. That is why we are saved to live a life of holiness. Despite
the fact that we have been given the Greatest Gift, after salvation, many
remain concerned with the things of the flesh.
One
of the most important things that one with the Holy Ghost must understand is
that he cannot keep a carnal mind. Specifically, this describes a mind that is
concerned with self only
, as opposed to being concerned with what God wants. The devil works
through our minds to tie us up with personal things—and render His things of
less importance.
All
efforts to protect or care for ourselves are misdirected, at best. You see, in
ourselves, we have no power to stop or "fix" anything .
Either God stops it or you "deal." To "mind" the things of
the flesh makes no sense after salvation, for in order to get saved, we had to forsake ourselves and focus on God. As long as
we are thirsting after our own recognition, God will not get His.
We
need to thank God that we are not saved by our human understanding, for if this
were not so, very few of us would be saved, today. Now
that we are saved, we are bound to bring others to the knowledge we have been
so blessed to receive. In that we have this responsibility, we cannot afford to
advance our own thoughts or feelings. This will not bring about advancing the
truth of God's Word.
In
What
the Lord is waiting for in His people is their murmuring and complaining to be
turned to praise. In that He is the
author of the law of planting and reaping, He knows that it is in our best
interest to plant that which is positive. God's point in all that He allows us
to "go through" is that we plant the seed of reproduction.
We
are not going to be able to escape the fact that if we are to produce
"fruit unto holiness," we must be willing to set the example by doing
what God says. Often, this means that we will have to give up something—and
this is one of the primary causes of our murmuring and complaining.
What
if we would turn that murmuring and complaining into PRAISE.
Just think of the endless possibilities. We could actually begin to experience
real joy—and this is the result of reveling in the truth of God's Word.