Ephesians 1:3 (KJV) Not All Appreciate Them

Ephesians 1:3 (KJV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

The Word of God says our blessings are:

• Spiritual and
• In heavenly places

We err to our hurt when we think, expect or seek from God blessings that are temporal and earthly. The blessings God gives are rich and administered to us through the wisdom and prudence of God. They are blessings such as:

• Holiness before Him
• Adoption as His children 
• Forgiveness of sins
• An expectation of heaven 
• An inheritance awaiting us

The blessings that belong to the Christian are abundant and sweet. They are greater than we could have ever hoped. But they are spiritual and heavenly so only the spiritually minded Christian can appreciate them.

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Ephesians 1:3 (KJV) Not All Appreciate Them

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Galatians 6:16 (KJV) True Israel

Galatians 6:16 (KJV)
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

The Book of Galatians not only speaks of the flesh and the Spirit but also of an Israel after the flesh and an Israel of God. Gill says of the Israel of God, “Israel his elect; who are redeemed by him, out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation; who are called by his grace, and are styled Israel his called”

There is an Israel who is not Israel at all. They have

• the blood of the Jews and 
• the traditions of the Jews but not 
• the heart of the Jews 

because their heart is not after God.

Then there is an Israel who is true though not Israel after the flesh.

• They do not possess the blood of the Jews. 
• They do not keep the traditions of the Jews 

but they are Israel indeed because they possess a heart after God’s own heart.

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Galatians 6:16 True Israel

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Galatians 5:5 (JV) Eternal Failure

Galatians 5:5 (KJV)
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

The thrust of the whole book of Galatians is to contrast the flesh and the Spirit and to once and for all decimate any notion of earning true righteousness through fleshly obedience to the law.

The flesh attempts to work out righteousness. Those involved come to see themselves as righteous based upon their success in that obedience. The more they obey, the more righteous they see themselves. Thus they are prone to self-righteous pride and a judgmental heart towards those who have not attained their level of obedience. They see themselves as righteous and refuse to see their own unrighteousness.

Believers on the other hand have a hope. They know they are not righteous therefore they have no reason to judge others. By faith they wait for that hope for righteousness to be finally fulfilled by God.

Believers obey but they do so for different reasons than those who walk in the flesh. They obey from the position of hope. The flesh obeys from the position of work.

• The one obeys because of the promise of God the other obeys because of the power of the flesh. 
• The one has a Biblical expectation of fulfillment; the other faces the shattered reality of eternal failure.

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Galatians 5:5 (JV) Eternal Failure

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Galatians 4:30 (KJV) Cast It Away

Galatians 4:30 (KJV)
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 freewoman.

What picture the wives of Abraham serve there can be no doubt. The word of God clearly teaches the women are the two covenants and that Hagar (Agar) answers to Mount Sinai, The Mosaic Law.

The free woman was firstWhich is also the clear teaching of the Bible. Grace came first. The Law was second.

The free woman produces through promiseIt is not by works but by faith in the promises of God that righteousness springs

Notice that we are to cast out the bond woman And her son.

• We are not to embrace them as the original and truest way. 
• We are not to make a room for them so they are welcome to stay 
• We are not to defend them as members of the same faith 
• We are to utterly cast them away. 

This all speaks of the Judaizers of Paul’s day, the modern Messianic movement. It is an offense to the gospel of Christ to present Messianic Judaism as anything less than a false doctrine. It is as reprehensible as any non-Christian cult. It is an error that condemns souls forever to hell. Cast it away! Call on believers of all nations to unite with the New Testament House of God, which is a local, visible Baptist Church.

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Galatians 4:30 (KJV) Cast It Away

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Esther 7:9 (KJV) Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out

Esther 7:9 (KJV)
And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.

Haman had built the gallows:

• For a man the king delighted to honor
• Without proof of the man’s guilt
• Without authority to do the deed for which it was designed.

Harbonah may have been the very messenger sent to fetch Haman to the banquet or else he was in close enough relationship to the messenger to have received word of the gallows. In the very room where Haman plotted against Esther’s family stood a man who knew Haman’s secret plan for Esther’s cousin.

Such evil as his may linger for a very long time but it does not escape the eye of God.

He is taken by the snare he created for another.

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Esther 7:9 (KJV) Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out

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Galatians 2:14 (KJV) Peter Lived Like a Gentile

Galatians 2:14 (KJV)
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Paul clearly affirmed that, though Peter was a Jew and the apostle to the circumcision, he lived after the manner of the Gentiles. The writers say this is in regards to eating with Gentiles and eating meat that Jews were commanded not to eat. I suggest that this would also include other burdens placed upon the Jews by the religious leaders.

Though Peter, Barnabas and some others had a “relapse” that Paul boldly confronted, the truth is still plain enough; these early believers, though Jews by blood, lived as do Gentiles and not Jews.

The modern Messianic Jews are wrong.

• They are the new Judaizers and not the remnant of what real Christianity looks like. 
• They are the followers of the heretics Paul, Peter, John and Jude all preached against.

They are not the ones who can bring us back to first century Christianity. They are the ones who attempt to remove unsuspecting souls from the faith.

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Galatians 2:14 (KJV) Peter Lived Like a Gentile

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Esther 6:2-3 (KJV) Perfect Timing

Esther 6:2-3 (KJV)
And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him.

Mordecai did what was right without thought for compensation or reward. The circumstances with Esther had led him to be in the right place to hear of the conspiracy against the king.

They also put him in a prominent place to be spotted by hateful Haman. Haman’s plot against the Jews had been hatched and the date for its execution set. But neither Haman nor the devil knew what God was preparing for a rescue. Mordecai had exposed the conspiracy against the king because it was the right thing to do. No reward was offered and none was expected. But now, just when the Jews need some “inside help”, God reminded the King of Mordecai’s deed. Mordecai’s reward did not come immediately. He did not expect to receive a reward at all. But when the reward came it was:

• Perfect timing
• Perfectly executed and
• Perfectly suited to the crisis the Jews faced

It would be best if we serve God because He is worthy. It would be best if we were content and sought no reward. But the Bible does promise us rewards that will be perfectly timed, perfectly fulfilled and perfectly suited according to our service for the Saviour.

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Esther 6:2-3 (KJV) Perfect Timing

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2 Corinthians 13:10 A Wiser Course of Preaching

2 Corinthians 13:10 (KJV)
Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.

There is a power that comes with the call to preach, a power of persuasion, rhetoric and influence. Not all preachers have this power to the same degree or over the same number of people but we all possess it.  A preacher is wise to recognize it and to handle the power carefully.

Paul classifies the power into just two groups:

• The power to edification 
• The power to destruction

He does not say a preacher must always use the power to edification. There is an appropriate time to pull down and destroy. However he does indicate a desire to edify rather than destroy. I have met some preachers whose whole ministry is focused on destruction. Every message is meant to condemn intimidate cast down and tear up.

A wiser course would be to plow up only so you can plant, water, nurture and grow.

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2 Corinthians 13:10 A Wiser Course of Preaching

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2 Corinthians 12:13 Strong, Giving and Generous

2 Corinthians 12:13 (KJV)
For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

The very next verse Paul says he still refuses to be a burden to this church. This is not meant to be a blessing. I see it as more of a rebuke against them.

A church that doesn’t carry the financial burden of their preacher (and of missionaries) is a substandard church. They are less than what they God intends them to be. It is the grace of God that moves upon a church to provide for their preacher, even at great sacrifice for themselves, it is not a “good and perfect” gift from above when the financial support has to come from other sources.

The pastor must weigh his own situation of course, but he wrongs his church when he seeks his support from outside. He weakens the health of his church when he keeps their burdens light through burdening others.

Somewhere some pastor has led his church to be

• Strong, 
• Giving and 
• Generous

For others to depend too heavily upon them is to condemn their own ministry to weakness.

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2 Corinthians 12:13 Strong, Giving and Generous

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2 Corinthians 11:22-23 (KJV) So Much More

2 Corinthians 11:22-23 (KJV)
Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

Paul’s enemies against the gospel were obviously Jews but not just Jews, they were Jews with another gospel.

• They were of the same blood as Paul, 
• They had embraced some part of that Christian faith as Paul had, but 
• They were enemies of Paul and the Gospel that he preached.

In contending against this false gospel, Paul did not disavow his heritage. It would have been foolish to do so. He was a Hebrew. He was an Israelite. He was of the seed of Abraham. But he was more; he was a minister of Christ.

Gill writes, “The apostle could have answered to this question that they were not, being neither sent by Christ, nor preachers of him, and who sought their own things and not his, being false apostles, and deceitful workers…” Rather than arguing that they weren’t ministers of Christ, however, his argument is he is more.

The Jew who becomes a Christian doesn’t give up his blood or his heritage but he becomes something much more.

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2 Corinthians 11:22-23 (KJV) So Much More

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2 Corinthians 10:18 (KJV) Only His Approval

2 Corinthians 10:18 (KJV)
For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

Paul has much to say in this chapter about his relationship with other preachers. I think he means the false teachers known in his day as Judaizers.

He won’t compare himself among them.Paul has no interest in signing up for a popularity contest.

He wouldn’t take credit for another man’s laborPaul had a team and understood that a large part of his ministry relied upon them. He was quick to give them credit and never attempted to usurp over another man’s ministry.

He did not puff himself up but waited on the Lord’s commendation.You will notice no church buildings were named after Paul, especially in his lifetime.

Paul’s interest was Jesus Christ and it was Jesus Christ Paul promoted. It was only His approval Paul sought.

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2 Corinthians 10:18 (KJV) Only His Approval

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2 Corinthians 9:5 (KJV) How To Collect

2 Corinthians 9:5 (KJV)
Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.

Preachers find themselves constantly in the place of having to raise money. We raise it for:

• Buildings, 
• Busses and 
• Benevolence

We raise it to assist some believer in need and most often we raise it for the sake of supporting missionaries who carry God’s Word abroad.

Paul gives a number of helpful lessons concerning the raising of this money:

• It ought to be handled ethically so there is no question of misuse
• It ought to be collected in such a manner as people may give cheerfully and not grudgingly

This passage teaches that it ought to be announced well in advance so that the collection does not appear to be forced by the preacher.

The time frame mentioned in this chapter and the one previous is one year. This is good reason for our Faith Promise to be a one-year commitment. It also teaches me to announce well in advance how our missions offering will be collected and when.

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For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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2 Corinthians 9:5 (KJV) How To Collect

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2 Corinthians 8:1-2 (KJV) The Grace of Giving

2 Corinthians 8:1-2 (KJV)
Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

We often think of the grace of God in terms of its benefit to ourselves.

• His grace in saving us
• His grace in providing for us
• His grace in empowering us
• Etc.

The grace of God Paul wants us to learn of here might not be so attractive. This grace:

• Was in the midst of trials and affliction and
• Was despite their deep poverty

The churches of Macedonia experienced no relief, so far as we can see, from these troubles and yet God moved upon them to give. Paul goes further to say this gift was not what he hoped for from them but went far beyond what could possibly have been expected.

When God moves his people to give beyond their reasonable means, that’s called grace.

The Macedonian churches had a compelling example because this is the very same grace that belonged to our Lord who, 2 Corinthians 8:9… though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

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2 Corinthians 8:1-2 (KJV) The Grace of Giving

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2 Corinthians 4:1-5 (KJV) Paul’s Plan for Preaching

2 Corinthians 7:11 (KJV)
For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

There is a kind of sorrow that is of little use and is in many ways destructive. It is:

• A sorrow after a worldly sort
• A sorrow for getting caught and 
• A sorrow over the consequences 

Those with this sorrow have no intention of changing but of making better sure they don’t get caught again. These who sorrow after this sort hate the source of their sorrow and will blame that source rather than their actions.

There is another type of sorrow, which is after a godly sort. Albert Barnes says of it,
“…such sorrow as has respect to God, or is according to his will, or as leads the soul to him. This is a very important expression in regard to true repentance, and shows the exact nature of that sorrow which is connected with a return to God.”

Those who sorrow after a godly sort:

• Benefit from the sorrow, are 
• Thankful for that sorrow and 
• Appreciate the source of such sorrow

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2 Corinthians 4:1-5 (KJV) Paul’s Plan for Preaching

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2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (KJV) Love Him Back

2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (KJV)
O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

The Apostle expresses here what I believe is the constant struggle of the preacher; he grows to love his congregation but they don’t always equally love him.

In the case of Paul, the problem was others who came to claim that affection for themselves. We too have enemies vying for our congregation’s affection:

Sometimes it is a worldly loveA sports event or a boat or a cabin in the hills.

Sometimes it is another agendaA political cause, a social issue or a pet peeve.

Sometimes it is another preacherThey abound today through TV, radio and social media.

Sometimes it is a nearby churchWhose members try to draw from other churches into their own.

Every pastor I think has experienced those emotions when it becomes obvious that a member of his church hasn’t the same love for him that he has for the member.

Paul simply urges them to love him as much as he loves them.

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2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (KJV) Love Him Back

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2 Corinthians 5:4 (KJV) Immerse Mortality into Service

2 Corinthians 5:4 (KJV)
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.

Paul’s contrast is not between death and life but between mortality and life. He does not say that he wishes death to be swallowed up of life but that mortality should be swallowed up of life.

Of this Gill writes, “…his desire is, that it may be swallowed up “of the life”, which is properly and emphatically life, as this life is not…” As this life is all we know, we tend to cling to it as life. Paul did not believe it to be so but was confident that mortality is a cheap substitute of the real thing.

Paul did not want to replace death with life. Perhaps this is the thinking of the person who commits suicide. His concern is not with the eternal but with the now. Earthly life has been a failure in his eyes so that it is more a death than life and death would seem more like life. Paul’s mindset was on the eternal. This mortality is so far below what awaits the believer that it isn’t properly called life. Life is what we have in heaven. He wasn’t looking for this mortality to end. He used it to the fullest for Christ. He was, however, completely confident that a day was coming when what he then experienced as mortality would be so swallowed by what God promised as life that his mortal years would be as nothing.

Such a confidence compels a person to plunge mortality into Christian service.

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2 Corinthians 5:4  (KJV) Immerse Mortality into Service

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2 Corinthians 4:1-5 Paul’s Plan for Preaching

2 Corinthians 4:1-5 (KJV)
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.

This passage lays out clearly the work of the ministry. Paul had no intention of:

• Manipulating his message to please people
• Tweaking the sermon to fit the culture
• Avoiding topics that would be less popular

Paul’s ministry plan was to:

• Bring everything into the open, 
• Expose all he could to all of the Word of God he could and 
• Commend the results of that to the Lord

Paul did not preach himself. He wasn’t trying to build himself up as a leader and role model (other than that he did encourage people to follow him as he followed Christ). His only purpose was to clearly, completely and honestly preach Christ and trust that souls would respond. He also trusted that, if they did not, that would be the work of the devil. It wasn’t his place to “make” people believe. He did not concern himself with that. He only preached the truth and gave the results of that truth to God.

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2 Corinthians 4:1-5 Paul’s Plan for Preaching

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