Not Of Faith

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Not Of Faith

Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because [ he eateth] not of faith: for whatsoever [ is] not of faith is sin.

 

Often times in our walk, we are all in need of godly repentance. However, we tend to let those things which are behind us hinder us from pushing towards that which is in front of us. Most of us do this every day we are given and we don’t even realize we are doing it. It is my prayer this evening and during this study that the Lord opens up to us all His understanding of His work in us and the rest in Him which He has called us to.
I pray we can all come to a clearer spiritual wisdom and knowledge of just what the purpose of sin is and why it is so important to our foundation of Christ. For without sin, we cannot know the altar for which they who serve themselves cannot know. Those who serve the tabernacle/ themselves cannot partake of the altar.

 

Building On A Solid Foundation

Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

Heb 13:11  For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.

Heb 13:12  Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

Heb 13:13  Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Heb 13:14  For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

 

2Co 5:1 KJVR  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2Co 5:2 KJVR  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

2Co 5:3 KJVR  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

2Co 5:4 KJVR  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

 

2Co 5:7 KJVR  (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 

 

It is only because of our sin that a Savior is needed.  The bodies of those beasts are burned outside the camp right where Christ is. This path is very important to understand, because the blood “where the life is” is brought into the sanctuary. This path that we must take has always been told to be outside the camp. It is only outside the camp of God’s people that we can be burned and ultimately turned into something that is nothing less than the image of God. All that is left outside the camp is Christ because it is outside the camp that Christ’s blood covers the whole camp, and it is only our High Priest Jesus Christ who can offer our life to God the Father. The following verses should help clear this point up:

Exo 33:2  And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

Exo 33:3  Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

 

Exo 33:7  And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

Exo 13:17 KJVR  And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:

The only ones willing to seek the Lord go outside the camp to do so, and that is simply because the Lord has willed it to be this way in those whom He has willed it in.  Outside the camp is where Christ suffered, and those who Christ is working in and with will also suffer much trial and tribulation outside the camp of Israel – those Jews who say they are Jews but are not.  When we first come to see a glimpse of Christ and what Christ will do in us, we tend to want to go back to what we have been freed from. We want to go back to the oppressions of Egypt or spiritually speaking, the church we have come from, because we see that war produces death and who wants to go through death? Notice that it is the people who would repent if God led them the short and most dangerous route, but we must be willing to go outside the camp of those same people.

Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

A few chapters later after we are told what Moses did with the tabernacle, we see that we are NOT to kindle fire in our habitations which is just another way to say our tabernacle. Why? It is the Sabbath rest, and we should all be aware that Christ is our Sabbath and it is Christ’s work that we are resting in. It is the consuming fire of the Word of God that does the work and NOT us. For that, when we are tried with a fiery tribulation, we are said to be in bad standing with the Lord by “those who say they are Jews but are not”. After all, we are outside the camp of what everyone thinks is the church of God. Indeed it is, but they are of the seed of the whore harlot wife of God.

Exo 35:3  Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

Heb 12:29 KJVR  For our God is a consuming fire.

 

Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

Heb 4:5  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

You might be asking yourself, “How does this have anything to do with sin?” It is sin which we serve first. It is our natural master.

Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

Those we serve are our masters, but what does this produce?

 Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever

1Co 3:10  According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

 

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

 

Have we not all been told, and do the scriptures not teach that Christ’s blood has bought us? That is fairly obvious right? Why is it then we live as if our sin is somehow more important than the blood which has redeemed us? How many times have you and I prayed in such a manner as, “please Lord forgive me, forgive me, forgive me of my sin”, when we are told that we are forgiven.  When we are guilty of this, it is because we don’t fully believe in the sovereignty of God. In fact, we are told EXACTLY how to ask for forgiveness and how often to do so, but do we always have faith and believe this? I’ll let you judge yourself on that.

           1Th 5:17  Pray without ceasing.

 

Remember how often to pray?

 

Mat 6:5  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [ are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

 

Mat 6:6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

 

Mat 6:7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [ do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

 

So, we pray without ceasing, and when we pray we are not to be hypocrites, by entering into our closet, not using vain repetitions, pray “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us”, and finally – BELIEVE YOU ARE FORGIVEN:

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Mat 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread.

Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

 

           Mar 11:22  And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

Mar 11:23  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Mar 11:24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Mar 11:25  And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

Mar 11:26  But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

 

In verse 23 we see it is a MOUNTAIN that will be removed if we believe it will be removed but only if we don’t doubt it. The mountains we pray to be removed are HUGE SINS that otherwise could not be removed without the faith of Christ. It isn’t our faith, it is the faith of Christ which will move the mountain. Remember, we are in our rest, in Christ, and He does the work.

 

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but 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.

Turning Back, Reaching Forth

Rev 1:10 KJVR  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

 

Rev 1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

 

I find that when I study the physical things around me, I am able to glean a little more about the Spirit of God in that, Lord willing, He shows me a little more of Himself and the path He has me on. While John tells us that he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, be turned and saw, and Paul eloquently tells us that he presses towards the mark of the high calling of God. So, with spiritual eyes we can see, as John did, that while early in our walk we are moving forward we tend to look back to that which is behind us, and later in our walk we learn to press forward towards our reward.

 

Doesn’t nature itself tell us just that? During our proverbial walk, we start out in the east and we move towards the west. Naturally speaking, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So, if we use this physical example of what we physical know to be true, we can spiritually see that one of many ways to interpret this spiritually is that we start off our walk, as John, with the Son, Christ pushing us from behind as a parent does to their children in order to teach them how they should go. All the while, we are looking back on the sin that we have committed and come through in our lives.

 

Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

 

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

As our walk progresses and we mature in the Lord, we get to a point where the Lord lets us walk “as if” we are on our own because He is above us in that we are not being nudged from behind but LED from the front. We simply bask in the heat of the day, the heat of the Lord; because we know He is the source of our comfort, our heat in the “noon” of the day. Finally, when we mature past this point we finally can see ourselves being led by the Lord as He appears more clearly to the west of us and as our walk continues to mature. 

 

Obviously, there are many degrees to this basic example, and they vary as much as the angle of the physical sun varies as it makes it path through the sky each and every day. Depending on the season, the sun is lower or higher on the horizon, etc. The point I am hopefully being used to drive home is that when we start in the east with sin as our master, spiritually speaking, we start by having the Lord push us from behind so that we can look behind us to see where we have come from, the sin that has been forgiven, and the things we must be dead to as we are baptized into Christ’s death. As we mature, the Lord then places Himself and His prize in front of us for us to continually look towards as we are matured into the mind and life of Christ.

 

Amazingly we can see that in life, mostly the entire human population wants to be older when we are younger. We want to do all the things the older people we see get to do, and as we get older in age we want to become younger again. Essentially, we want certain parts of our youth back and occasionally we want it all back as natural humans. It truly is opposite of what the mind of Christ is hopefully teaching us about our walk with Christ spiritually.
Carnally speaking, when we are young and immature we tend to look forwards always to tomorrow, etc., and when we get older we look back and want what we have already come from instead of enjoying what we have to look forward to. Of course, we hopefully gain a certain amount of gratitude and respect for the life we are given as we physically age. Can you see how these two things are opposite of what the Spirit leads us to?

 

 

Edification, Exhortation and Comfort

 

 

1Co 14:3  But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

 

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

 

As we all go through our custom made trials and tribulations, know that those same trials and tribulations are being done so while we are in fire. I once was given the revelation that as God loves you He kills you, and He does so with fire. God loves us so He submits us to agonizing suffering so that we too can be outside the camp and glorify Him through our obedience to those sufferings. After all, everything that has been talked about today points to one thing: Jesus Christ. We should also be able to see, Lord willing, that anything other than the proper way to pray, as given to us by Christ, is simply NOT repenting with godly repentance but with man’s repentance.

 

Godly repentance simply does as Christ instructed in that it is not repetitious but direct and to the point, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”.  Godly repentance acts to acknowledge God’s sovereign Will working all things after His counsel and accepting whatever that Will is in our lives. This is HUGE to accepting that when we sin, we are forgiven, and God has caused us to come to that point in our lives to commit the sin simply because CHRIST SAID SO at the same time He told us how to pray, “and lead us NOT into  TEMPTATION….”. If Christ says God leads us into temptation, we better believe Him and PRAY that He “delivers us from evil” by leading us NOT into temptation.

 

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

 

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

 

We are guaranteed “fiery trials and much tribulation” if God is working with us. Does this mean something physical? It can, but often times it is the huge MOUNTAINOUS SINS in our life that we MUST endure, knowing God is working all things for our good.

 

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

 

Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

 

The reward, the pressing towards the mark is INHERITANCE with Christ as heirs in the kingdom of God. What higher calling can there possibly be, but it comes with a price…., “I am crucified with Christ…. I die daily”.

 

Rom 8:16 KJVR  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

 

Rom 8:17 KJVR  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint- heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

 

We must suffer with Christ, picking up our cross and dying daily to the sin that so easily besets us.

 

Heb 12:1 KJVR  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Heb 12:2 KJVR  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Heb 12:3 KJVR  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Heb 12:4 KJVR  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 

 class=”bibleverse”>(ISV) In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  

Conclusion

 

The Lord was good to me when He gave me this closing, because I think it sums up exactly what this is all about, what all of our sinful nature produces as Christ abolishes the beast on the throne and takes His rightful seat IN US. If we endure scourging of the Lord, if we endure to end, if we OVERCOME, we will be a part of what Isaiah describes so beautifully:

 

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

 

Isa 2:17  And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

Isa 2:18  And the idols he shall utterly abolish.

Isa 2:19  And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Isa 2:20  In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made [ each one] for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

Isa 2:21  To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Isa 2:22  Cease ye from man, whose breath [ is] in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

 

Isa 2:2  And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Isa 2:3  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Isa 2:4  And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Isa 2:5  O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD

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