12)
Giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light:
13)
Who hath delivered us from
the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14)
In whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15)
Who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16)
For by him were all things
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things
were created by him, and for him:
17)
And he is before all
things, and by him all things consist.
18)
And he is the head of the
body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in
all things he might have the preeminence.
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P |
erhaps
as important as our text for today, is the subject of today's message. It
appears to be the Lord's thought that eventually, we may master the concept of
"past accomplishments"—that is, His
past accomplishments.
It
is apparent from the lives of the "modern" saints of God that it is
neither accepted nor understood that there is much that the Lord has already
done. In that most of us have been trained by the unsaved from an early age, we
have a concept of God that says that He will do whatever, whenever
. Sadder, still, is the fact that some trained by the saved believe the
same thing. The fact of the matter is that all that will be purchased by
Him has already been purchased at
As
opposed to accepting what the Lord tells us to save ourselves some misery, we
spend a lot of time waiting on that which will never happen. We either try to
get the Lord to do things against His law, or we worry about what He has
already taken care of. Evidently, we think that that which presents a problem
to us, also presents a problem to Him. All that is necessary for the people of
God to enjoy His benefits, is for us to accept them.
Throughout
Christendom, the redeemed are making dangerous choices: choices to accept what
they feel, hear, or are told by someone else over what the Lord has said and
done.
We
will never be able to escape or circumvent the fact that God moves by and
honors faith—be it positive or negative. So, what we "get" is truly what we deserve
because of how we think. One thing is certain: "fear" operates as
"absolutely" as "faith". Therefore, if one's fear is
strong, its "end" will be as "solid" as would that of a
strong faith.
The
time is upon us to understand the absolute necessity of operating by the Word
of God, with no vestige of doubting or questioning Him. Nothing positive is
produced in our lives by how we "feel" about anything. If we never learn to operate according to scripture, we
will effectively "fail" at everything.
Causing
major problems in the Church, today, is that too many neither know nor accept the truth of God's Word. The only way that
one comes to know exactly what is "true" is by applying His
principles to his life on a consistent basis. This is how one becomes
convinced of truth.
The
only way for the child of God to
handle and be victorious over
problems is to meet them with the Word of God. The Lord has made things as easy
for us as possible by giving us His Word. This is the means that we have to let
the devil know that we do not have to "fall" for what he brings our
way as truth.
Many churches, today, are teaching and
living a fallacy by advancing a "salvation" that does not include the
infilling of the Holy Ghost (with "other tongues" as His evidence)
and baptism in the name of Jesus.
We have the Word of God that we might know the requirements of God. He cannot
and will not be ignored. So, "we have been
delivered" from the "mundane" things that constitute the life of
most that we might complete our job of winning souls to the truth of salvation.
Deliverance
means victory. This is what we have and this is what others must see in order
to be won. No one need fall short of this example if he is willing to give
up living by the spirit of darkness and wholly embrace living by the revelation
of the Word of God.