We Have Received the Spirit Which Is Of God, That We Might Know the Things That Are Freely Given Us of God - Part 1429

"I charge [thee] therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom -- Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables .... BUT watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." (II Timothy 4:1-5)

How many times have you heard that the doctrines written in the scriptures are inconsequential? That doctrines are no longer necessary in the modern day religious culture. I certainly have. Nevertheless, as noted in the scripture above, we are charged to preach the Word, to be instant both in season and out, able to reprove and rebuke, and also, to exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

Note the last instruction -- to exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. The word "exhort" means to "strongly encourage or urge (someone) to do something." So, with that definition in mind, we should strongly encourage or urge someone with all long suffering to understand the teachings and doctrines of Christ.

Thus, as believers in Jesus by faith, each and every one of us has not only been given a mandate to preach the Word, but one that includes understanding the doctrines contained in the scriptures. And these doctrines? According to Hebrews 6:1-2, these include:

The doctrine of Christ.

The foundation of repentance from dead works.

Faith toward God.

The doctrine of baptisms.

Laying on of hands.

Resurrection of the dead.

Eternal judgment.

If we back up a bit, we understand these are considered the first principles of the oracles of God. (Hebrews 5:12) It is for this reason that we study His Word to show ourselves approved under God -- so that we can know how to stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1)

How can we do this? As the scripture states, we can learn and understand Jesus' teachings because we have received not the spirit of this world, but rather, the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches -- comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

In other words, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual, and pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, does judge all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. (I Corinthians 2:12-15; Philippians 3:14)

"For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:16) And, as it was on the day of Pentecost (with 3,000 souls repenting and being water baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sin), there should be one accord, because God is not the Author of confusion.

If there is confusion, it is because we have not fully understood His Word, or as Paul said, we are still babes in Christ. Too often, we have let the weak and beggarly elements take us back into bondage. (Galatians 4:9) And, as a consequence, we desire to be under the law. But what does apostle Paul write that clarifies the difference between the old covenant and the new testament?

"For it is written -- that Abraham had TWO sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by the promise -- which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants, the one from the mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

But Jerusalem, which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, "Rejoice, thou barren that bears not, break forth and cry, that thou travails not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband." Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

Nevertheless, what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." So then brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." (Galatians 5:21-31; Genesis 16:15; Genesis 21:2, 10-12; Romans 9:7-8; Hebrews 11:11; Deuteronomy 33:2; Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 54:1; Galatians 3:28-29, 22; Acts 3:25; Genesis 21:9; Galatians 5:11; John 8:35)

Written so clearly and yet there remains envying and strife and division? Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God rightly answers this question, when he writes unto the church of God in Corinth -- to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. .

"And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal [even] as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto, ye were not able [to bear it], neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions. Are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one saith, "I am of Paul; and another, I [am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters, but God that gives the increase. Now he that plants and waters are one; and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building, according to the grace of God which is given unto me. As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereon -- for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 3:1-12)

This is our instruction going forward, to stop being babes in the Word, and to recognize that we are labourers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry ... according to the grace of God! So, take on the armour, and begin preaching the foundation of the gospel that is Jesus Christ. Learn the doctrine of Christ, and about repentance, and faith, and baptisms, and laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement. In so doing, let your faith stand in the demonstration of the Spirit and power so "that your faith [does] not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." (I Corinthians 2:4-5)

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God/" (I Corinthians 1:18)

Stand in the offering plate.