The Law and the Prophets [were proclaimed] until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
Message: Life Coram Deo
What the Lord is Saying: Now to study sanctification—setting us apart as God’s holy people, pleasing God and enabling us to do what He approves of. Grace dominates and fuels the Christian; the Christian life is a race (Hebrews 12:1-2); and we are to fight against the spiritual powers of the devil. Protestant reforms described to live Coram Deo as "before the face of God." We are to be intense in our desires and acts of service in committing to follow God. We are not trying to earn any favor from God, but instead have a love of gratitude for God always for sacrifice of Jesus and the work of the Spirit in our lives to make us like Christ.
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Matthew 5:20
For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Message: True Righteousness
What the Lord is Saying: As we live, we must value righteousness. In life there is a legal righteousness which meeting the perfect standard of God's justice. This righteousness meets all of the demands of the law - and is imputed to us when we believe in Jesus, his righteousness or perfect obedience is put on our record and in the heavenly courtroom we are declared perfectly righteous. Practical righteousness however is a daily work to love God, obey Him and repent when we fall short. This could be what is talked about in today's passage, as the scribes and Pharisees were more concerned of keeping the law while the follower of Jesus is focused on the heart and doing good out of the gratitude of the heart - and this moves us toward sanctification.
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John 7:7
The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.
Message: Our Enemy the World
What the Lord is Saying: As Christians, we need to have a single minded desire for Holiness. A desire to live in practice to have a desire each day for obedience but also internally, a love for God and neighbor. We need to fight each day as well to fend off the foes in our lives that are wanting to take our desires off of Christ - the world, our flesh, the devil. The world represents the people in the world that because of the Fall have been infected with pride, lust, and all manner of godliness. These people hate Christ and those united to Him by faith alone. They may not necessarily persecute us but they do want to infect us with its values. Thus, the world does not have a love for God and the things of God, but there is a non-biblical ideal they have. So we as Christians are called to preach the message of the Gospel, the good news, to this fallen world. We live in the world, but we are not of the world. We resist it by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Romans 8:1-11
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Message: Our Enemy the Flesh
What the Lord is Saying: There is a lust that we have somewhat instinctively for the flesh and the desires of the flesh. God gives us an affection for godliness, but still we are drawn ourselves to sin - temptation that the world offers to us so freely and easily. Often Christians or religious people will being to outlaw behaviors of the flesh such as movies, dancing, alcohol, cards, and other things such as public schools. But their are harder works of the flesh such as envy, covetousness, discontentment, unjust hatred, and other inward affections that are often just as difficult, if not more to avoid. This lust grabs me I know. Even the old movies I watch can pull me away. I think it is hard at times to differentiate between the lust of the flesh and good things that I could simply do with my time.
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2 Corinthians 11:14-15
14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
Message: Our Enemy the Devil
What the Lord is Saying: Satan, the devil is a fallen angel who has rebelled against God and sought to enlist others in his cause. Satan is not mentioned much today as a cause for opposition to God's ways. Others in the past have spoken of Satan like Martin Luther wrote often of his battles with the devil. The word says they disguise themselves as angels of light. Satan will twist the truth. We need to remain focused on God's truth and His word.
Summary: We are to be intense in our desire to follow God, valuing righteous living and to resist the schemes of the flesh, Satan and the world.
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