Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 46 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Rom 5:12- 6:13.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 46 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; ROM 5:12- 6:13.

 

Announcementsopening prayer:  

 

 

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]?

 

It is obvious when one looks at church history that this question has been a major source of confusion.

 

1CO 9:21

under the law of Christ

 

We might say that we are under a law of grace. Christ is the ultimate gift and that is what grace is - gifts.

 

ROM 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

 

"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 new creatures that we are, the crucifixion of the sinful nature, the word, the Holy Spirit, election, predestination, adoption, the life; all of this and more comprises the gifts that came with Christ. These are now our law or way. They move us, constrain us, motivate us, and propel us to do the will of the Father. Laws like the Mosaic Law are legal in nature.

 

The word certainly has guidelines, but the New Testament is not a list of procedures and rituals. The New Testament presents the facts concerning the grace gifts of God that came with Christ, which were kept secret from long ages past. It reveals the virtues and the fruits of the Christ life, which has now all 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 and grace.

 

JOH 1:17

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

 

The Law, and all like it, are legal systems. They are based on rules, procedures, regulations, rituals, restrictions, for which conformity brings blessing and violation brings curse.

 

Think about our own legal system, though not perfect, if followed, it is one of the best every devised. But you have to follow rules, procedures, regulations, certain rituals, and restrictions. If you need to bring a case to court or are accused of a crime you have to follow these things. If you violate a rule of the court your case may be thrown out or you may be found in contempt of the court and arrested and detained or fined.

 

DEU 11:26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:

 

DEU 11:27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today;

 

DEU 11:28 and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

 

DEU 11:29 And it shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

 

They had to observe the rite of circumcision, all the feasts at the prescribed time, all the Levitical offerings in the prescribed way, and the offerings had to be given in the place that God designated. They could not eat any blood. Any Jew who tried to seduce his brothers into idol worship was to be stoned to death. They could not cut their hair in the fashion of the pagan. They could not eat unclean things. They were to tithe the produce of their land. They were to harvest the land in a way that left some for the poor and widows. Only the Levites could be priests. They were to stone rebellious sons to death. Parapets had to be made for roofs. You could not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, plow your field with an ox and a donkey together, or wear a material mixed of wool and linen together. Only virgins qualified for a first marriage. There was the death penalty for adultery. A fornicator was to pay a fine to the girl's father and marry her, and he cannot ever divorce her. No eunuchs or those of illegitimate birth were allowed to enter the house of God. Anyone made unclean had to go outside the camp. A brother was to marry his brother's widow. If two men are fighting and the wife of one comes to help her husband and squeezes the genitals of the other then her hand was to be cut off.

 

Failure to perform all of the Law, which included the proper sacrifices called for when iniquity was committed, resulted in the curse of the Law.

 

DEU 28:15 "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

 

The list of curses is extensive and very punitive, and it is worth reading. In fact, it is worth reading the book of Deuteronomy in order to get a feeling for the Law and then to compare it with the plan of God for the church age believer.

 

The Law was fulfilled by Christ at Calvary. He was the true sacrifice that satisfied the righteous demands of the Law. No longer in the shadow of a fearful Mt. Sinai we live in the peace of the New Jerusalem.

 

When we sin and even when we go into reversionism we do not find ourselves stoned to death and we do not lose our inheritance as sons. If we don't recover from a life of carnality then we do lose some of the inheritance, but we do not lose our position in Christ, nor all the blessings that come with that position. We are under grace and not under the Law. We are not told what to do on certain days or the way in which we are to do certain things that we deem a part of the will of God. We are told to love but not specifically how to manifest it in each case. We are told to pray, but we are not given lines to say. We are to ask for that which is in our hearts. We are told to give, but not how much. We are to be cheerful, gracious givers who give as each one purposes in his own heart. We are told to serve one another but are not each given certain tasks. We are each given a spiritual gift but not formally told what it is. We are to determine our spiritual gift from spiritual growth in the Holy Spirit.  

 

DEU 8:15 He brought water for you out of the rock of flint.

 

1CO 10:4

for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

 

He followed them, but now He is in us and we are in Him.

 

DEU 18:15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.

 

DEU 18:16 This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, lest I die.'

 

DEU 18:17 "And the Lord said to me, 'They have spoken well.

 

DEU 18:18 'I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

 

The blazing fire, darkness, and gloom of Mt. Sinai along with the booming voice of God scared the daylights out of Israel and so they requested not to hear that voice or to see that great fire and though their faith was weak, the Lord said that they had spoken well, though they did not know why they did. In essence they were asking for a Mediator and a gentle Savior, and as we know, this was God's plan all along, for the Law was all about Him.

 

Instead of:

 

EXO 19:18-19

Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.

 

ZEC 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

He is just and endowed with salvation,

Humble, and mounted on a donkey,

Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

 

That is a great difference from Sinai. The Lord was so meek that so many in Israel were not afraid to put Him to death. At Sinai, they were afraid of His voice.

 

HEB 12:18 … 22

For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind

 

…But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels

 

When Christ died, the veil hiding the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom and so now the believer is not outside the veil but to the contrary he lives in the Holy of Holies, but not the one made with human hands, but the one now seated at the right hand of God.

 

HEB 10:19-22

Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

The difference is the difference between a slave of the house and a son. The unbeliever cannot see God as anything other than a law-giver, but the believer sees God as a salvation giver, grace giver, Son giver, life giver, an everything that is good … giver. Grace is the glorious liberty and freedom of the children of God.

 

We are called sons but we are also called stewards. The steward is a managing slave of the house, but this speaks to our service and not to our position as sons. It was preposterous to the Roman culture for a son to also be a slave, but God's ways are not man's. If you were the steward of a wealthy man's kitchen you were likely under orders and rules by the owner on how to run it exactly. Now consider a son of the owner in that same position, in fact, an adult son. He has the freedom to run it as he pleases, but if he loves his father, he will do so according to the father's will and the father will entrust him with all its management.