Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 45 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Rom 5:12- 6:13.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 45 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; ROM 5:12- 6:13.

 

Announcementsopening prayer: 

 

 

COL 3:12 And so, as those who have been chosen of God [called out], holy [set apart] and beloved [loved perfectly by God forever], put on a heart [splagchnon - bowels or affections] of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness [accepts God's dealings with us as good without disputing] and patience;

 

COL 3:13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

 

COL 3:14 And beyond [upon] all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

 

The Greek preposition, epi, can also mean upon. It makes love, the greatest of all virtues, to be the binding factor that is like an outer garment to all virtue. To Greeks and Romans, virtue was more in line with human strength and character and not in sacrifice, which was thought to be weakness.

 

COL 3:15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

 

COL 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

 

COL 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

 

Love is the outer garment that holds all the other virtues in place. Love embraces and knits together all the other virtues.

 

The verb "put on" is not written but carried over by rule to love. It is a command, put on love.

 

"Let rule" [really "let umpire] is a present active imperative. Christ should always be the umpire of the soul which often comes into conflict between the flesh and the Spirit.

 

This is tranquility of soul, taking every thought into captivity to Christ, as well as peace in the body of Christ. "Let dwell" in verse 16 is also a present active imperative. The verb means to live in a home, thus the word should be so familiar to the believer and loved by the believer that he and the word have a certain at-home-ness with one another.

 

Is the Holy Spirit going to force you to do these things? He will not since that would make you cease to be an individual. Yet it is also true that no person can do these things from their flesh. They are all commands for you and every believer.

 

The believer is to have such a mind from learning the word of God by means of the Spirit and actively setting his mind on doing such things through the power of the Spirit.

 

Throughout his spiritual growth the believer will have to be reproved and corrected many times from the word of God. Understanding takes time and as it increases the believer will find that he easily discerns the power that he is under and that God has implanted His deep desire into his heart.

 

In essence he is saying in himself, "Father Your will not mine. Lord, Your way and not mine. Spirit, Your power and not mine."

 

It is natural for a believer to be saying, "If He wishes me to do something, let Him tell me and I will then determine what I will do. To a person with such a heart God can reveal almost nothing.

 

It is not a matter of willing to do what we may approve of, but rather a willingness to do whatever God may ask of us.

 

Chafer puts it well: A yieldedness to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one particular issue: it is rather a matter of having taken the will of God as the rule of one's life. To be in the will of God is simply to be willing to do His will without reference to any particular thing He may choose. It is electing His will to be final, even before we know what He may wish us to do. It is, therefore, not a question of being willing to do some one thing: it is a question of being willing to do anything, when, where and how, it may seem best in His heart of love. It is taking the normal and natural position of childlike trust which has already consented to the wish of the Father even before anything of the outworking of His wish is revealed.

 

ROM 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

 

ROM 6:13 and do not go on presenting [present tense: stop presenting] the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present [aorist tense: make the decision now] yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

ROM 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

 

How do we apply to life the principle, "under grace and not under law [legal principle]?

 

1CO 9:19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.

 

1CO 9:20 And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law;

 

1CO 9:21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law.

 

Israel, under law, placed under the Law at Sinai, with a veil between them and God, had to think of their behavior, in all its details, as affecting their relationship to God. The Law was written on tables by the hand of divine authority. It was external to them. They could not be in union with it and there was no union with them and God as we have in the church age. They were not, to a man, indwelt by the Holy Spirit as the true church is.

 

"under the law of Christ" - fully united to Christ's way. As the Law was to control and guide Israel so now the Spirit of God, proceeding from Christ as the Head, controls and guides the believer.

 

The word certainly has guidelines, but the New Testament is not a list of procedures and rituals. The New Testament presents the facts that were kept secret from  long ages past. It reveals the virtues and the fruits of Christ which has now been given to His bride. The application of these things to everyday life is all done by means of the Spirit of God that Christ gave. This is now the law of Christ.

 

1CO 9:21

under the law of Christ

 

JOH 16:7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

 

JOH 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears [the truth that the believer takes into his heart], He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

 

JOH 16:14 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.

 

JOH 16:15 "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.

 

ROM 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit [newness of life] and not in oldness of the letter.

 

ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

ROM 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

 

The scene in Simon the Leper's house in Bethany just a few days before the crucifixion.

 

The disciples: Just a few years ago some of them were listening to John the Baptist in the wilderness like a flock of scattered helpless sheep. Neither man nor angel was able to comfort them; but since they had found Jesus, their humbled souls were like a sparrow who had found a house, and the swallow a nest, where they may drop their weary wings.

 

Yet among them we find Judas, the son of perdition. He is never in his own eyes a helpless sinner; he never thirsted for God and never had his affections on the things above. He is here because he is ambitious. In Jesus he sees a power to establish a new kingdom, but only of the earthly kind in which he hopes to have a powerful position.

 

Who is the master of the house? His name is Simon and his surname is Leper. He keeps this surname despite the fact that he has been healed by Jesus. He has been healed from a horrible disease that no earthly physician could heal him from. He keeps his name to honor his Lord.

 

The man sitting next to Jesus is Lazarus. Not many days ago he lay dead in a tomb. Lazarus come forth! Now he is relaxing next to Jesus having escaped the prison of a tomb.

 

Mary, Lazarus' sister, who wept over his death and found herself fully disappointed that Jesus did not come to heal him approaches Jesus, deeply affected by gratitude, veneration, and love. She feels impelled to display to Him her inmost soul once more, and to manifest her reverential and devout attachment to Him. She breaks the seal of an extremely costly alabaster bottle of perfume and anoints His head and feet. The whole house is filled with the fragrance of the ointment. We may imagine that all of heaven was filled with it and inhaled with delight by the holy angels. Mary wipes His feet with her hair. She wishes to cling to Him as ivy to a tree.

 

While angels rejoice, Judas complains that the ointment could have been sold and the money given to the poor. What Jesus was about to do for the poor was infinitely more valuable, yet Judas cares nothing for that. He has been stealing from the money bag, thinking he was preparing to strengthen his position in Jesus' earthly kingdom.

 

Mary shows so much devotion and love and reverence. Judas shows nothing but contempt. Jesus commands that Mary be left alone and that what she did was divinely good. "The poor you have with you always, but you don't always have Me."

 

Where in all the world can we meet with a contrast so striking, so appalling, and beyond measure dreadful, as is here presented to us in Mary's tender and affectionate act, and the horrible procedure of this unhappy son of perdition?

 

As we approach the cross in this ritual given to us, who do we most identify with? As we learn the word of God month to month and we return to this table, we more approach the affections of Mary and draw closer to the One who delivered us. We see more how horrible is the old Adamic nature, which Judas fully displayed in all its terrible darkness on that night.

 

1 Cor 11:23-26

 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  25 In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."  26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.