The
Second Sending
A comprehensive, verse by verse, study of the Gospel of John with an emphasis
on the love of God and the way of faith in the life of the believer in Jesus
Christ.
Notes and references for Sunday, July 7, 2003, The
Conflict of Two Loves.
Hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be
Take my
life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
John Hintz may come back to complete the book of Malachi.
May be nice to go through some of the unfamiliar books, major and minor
prophets.
Prayer: Estelle, Brian & Julie, Wes & family, Herman & study,
Alta, Lonnie, Vic & family, Anita, Herman's mother, Mitch & Susan, John
& Jeanette, Betty, Ann, missionaries and outreach
Offertory
Love from the flesh has no merit, even motherly love; just as our righteousness
has no merit.
There is nothing from our flesh nature that honors God, the flesh you is always
there and continuously being corrupted.
Ephesians 4:22
that, in
reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is
being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
Human love and righteousness comes from a corrupted being therefore they are
corrupt.
Jeremiah 17:9
"The
heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can
understand it?
Human love is deceitful and desperately sick, well what does God want!
What do you want God? Accept His love and righteousness by faith.
Ecclesiastes 9:3
This is an
evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men.
Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in
their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.
Human love is continually being corrupted, deceitful and desperately sick, full
of evil and insane.
Job 15:15
"Behold,
He puts no trust in His holy ones, And the heavens are not pure in His sight;
God doesn't trust us, He loves us, He knows we are going to fail.
If you build relationships on trust, they will fail because you will fail;
build your relationships on spiritual love, faith in the Holy Spirit, on the
rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ.
If you walk in the power of the Holy Spirit you will be trustworthy.
If you can't trust God it is over; life is over, He is the only one
trustworthy.
Job 15:16
How much
less one who is detestable and corrupt, Man, who drinks iniquity like water!
Man drinks
iniquity like water, man is detestable and corrupt, therefore what comes from
him is detestable and corrupt.
Psalm 14:1-3
For the
choir director. A Psalm of David.
The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are
corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does
good. The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if
there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have
all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does
good, not even one.
Our love is
corrupt, it is not good, don’t mix it with His love, something that is so pure
and so wonderful.
Psalm 53:3
Every one
of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one
who does good, not even one.
In summary: Ephesians 4:22, Jeremiah 17:9, Ecclesiastes 9:3, Job 15:15-16,
Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:3 teach that the flesh you, our heart, human love and
righteousness:
Is being
corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit
Is more
deceitful than all else and is desperately sick
Is full of
evil and insane
Is not
trustworthy
Is detestable
and corrupt
All have
turned aside, all have become corrupt, no one does good, not even one.
Don’t try
to offer God something for or from yourself, God does not accept our
production.
Genesis
4:3-5
3 So it came about in the course of time that
Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.
4 Abel, on his part also brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for
Abel and for his offering;
5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no
regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.:
What did
Cain do wrong? Cain brought God his very
best, and God said no, yet He accepts Abel’s.
What’s going on God? The work of
the hands, trying to offer God something that is cursed, “Cursed is the ground
because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.” This is similar to Balaam, he attempted to
curse those who God had blessed.
Faith is
our only acceptable offering, and by faith in the Holy Spirit we are enabled to
return to God life rather than dust and ashes.
Isaiah
64:6
For all of
us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a
filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the
wind, take us away.
Our love
and righteousness have no merit, there is nothing we have for God, we are in a
hopeless and helpless situation, our flesh nature must be crucified, and we
must be resurrected to newness of life in the Holy Spirit, by faith in the Holy
Spirit; now the love and righteousness that comes from us is of the Holy
Spirit; this love and righteousness is glorifying to Him.
Therefore
we are not to wrap our human love around His spiritual love. He discards our love, and by faith in the
Holy Spirit pours into us His love.
John
11:1-10
1
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her
sister Martha.
2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped
His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he
whom You love is sick."
4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to
end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified
by it."
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer
in the place where He was.
7 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to
Judea again."
8 The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now
seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?"
9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If
anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this
world.
10 "But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the
light is not in him."
Sisters
plea on the basis of human love, God’s love comes under scrutiny.
Sometimes
our greatest problems with God come from the belief “He doesn’t love me.” Why?
Because we have decided what God’s love is; this is from human wisdom,
now we judge how God loves. Stop. God is love, accept it, believe it! God’s love can delay, just trust him, never
try to interpret God’s love from the circumstances of your life. This is why it is called a battle of faith. Just trust him. Just trust Him when you don’t see what’s
going on. Just trust him.
The isolation
of suffering and testing is very rare, others are usually involved.
Are you
willing to follow the Spirit to the place of danger? Fear stops you from walking in the Spirit by
faith, causes you to run away, blinds you to the plan of God. Fear is one of the most damaging strongholds
in the soul, we must allow the Spirit of the Living God to tear down the
stronghold of fear.
Fear
blinds; faith is the battle, and faith needs scripture and doctrine in the
soul, so it is a desire of the Spirit to lead you to the scriptures and reveal the
truth of them which give and strengthen faith.
A love of the scriptures is characteristic of walking by faith in the
Holy Spirit. The scriptures will lead
you to a life a faith, just trust God, it is not for you to understand all that
God is doing, just trust him.
Walk in the
light. Trust in God, He will direct your
paths, just trust him.