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The Light
Dr David Wood
THE LIGHT
ARE YOU NAKED? – PART TEN
OR, I AM FULLY CLOTHED AND ARMOURED!
Greeting in
the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! November is here! Pretty soon
we will be eating Turkey or should I say overeating turkey with all of our
favorite foods. I know you probably do not overeat but I do, I guess the fruit
of the spirit of self control needs some additional work. This month we have an
opportunity to take stewardship seriously and that is by voting either early or
on the 3rd of November. God takes stewardship very seriously. Not
to exercise stewardship of the things He has placed in our hand like voting is
sin. It has adverse consequences. Let us briefly review Matthew 25.
Matthew 25:14-15
(KJV)
14 For the kingdom of heaven is
as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and
delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents,
to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several
ability; and straightway took his journey.
This of course
is a picture of Jesus and the Church. Notice the phrase “several ability”.
This refers to the abilities that we have naturally, those God given talents we
received at our natural birth. We see that the one given five increased by
another five, the one given two increased by another two and this was the Lords
response to them.
Matthew 25:23 (KJV)
23 His lord said unto him, Well done,
good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will
make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
I like the
sound of this! What happened to the person who was given one talent?
Matthew 25:24-26
(KJV)
24 Then he which had received the one
talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where
thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid
thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto
him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I
sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
How did the
Lord respond?
Matthew 25:28-30
(KJV)
28 Take therefore the talent from
him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto
every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him
that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I do not like
the sound of this and I am determined not to be that man. Now I want to make
two points here. Consider the next verse.
Luke 16:11 (KJV)
11 If therefore ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true
riches?
Have you been
wondering why you remain in poverty or the land of just enough and sickness
visits your house and stays? Consider the truth unveiled above. Second, we now
see our President and many in Congress and the United Nations saying we need to
redistribute the wealth. What direction did God redistribute the wealth and
what direction are they wanting to redistribute? God took from the “wicked and
slothful” person and gave it to the productive person. If someone says to do it
different who is their father or who is the source of that saying? The Devil!
The idea of taking from the productive and giving to the unproductive is
wickedness.
Let us shift
gears and delve into the teaching for this month. We have been studying the
clothing and armour that God has given or made available for us. At salvation
He clothed us with the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness
(Isaiah 61:10). We are instructed or commanded to put on or take to ourselves
much more but in these instances we must chose to do it on purpose. When you
got up this morning your cloths did not just fly on you and through no effort of
your own you were fully clothed and ready for the day. So with the help or the
Holy Spirit we are to take or put on certain clothing and armour.
We have put on
humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. You see,
humility is a position of power and pride is a position of weakness. We have
put on the light which yields revelation of the Word, fellowship with the
Godhead and a return to rule over darkness. We are anointed (covered) and
filled with the Holy Spirit. Love is one of our garments. Love never fails,
never comes to an end. Love fuels our faith and faith is what pleases God and
faith is what gives us the victory over the devil. Finally we put on Christ; we
received His broken body and His shed blood which is an impenetrable hedge in
our lives. This broken body and blood causes the destroyer to pass over us just
as he did that night in Egypt when God redeemed His people from Pharaohs hand.
We are also
told to take unto ourselves the whole armour of God. This is the personal
armour of God, the armour of love and light. So far we have talked about having
our loins girt about with the truth (Word, Holy Spirit, love). We have talked
about the breastplate of righteousness which placed us in right standing with
God and escorted us into the Garden of Eden. We have feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace. This good news of wholeness! That is the
state of living with nothing missing and nothing broken in our lives. This is
possible, we just must understand that we must abandon the way of the world and
walk in faith. We already have been given; receive it in Jesus name,
prosperity, quietness, rest and oneness with the Godhead and ourselves. And
last month we talked about the shield of faith. When we walk by faith we are
absolutely separated from the curse. Faith is adherence to, confidence in,
persuasion of and reliance upon the gospel system of Truth. Let us quit talking
about it and wondering about and do it.
Now on to this
months teaching on “the helmet of salvation,”
Ephesians 6:17
(KJV)
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God:
Much like a
shield a helmet also separates us from adversity. The helmet physically covers
the head. Spiritually it covers the heart or the middle man. The middle man is
the part of us that makes decisions. The middle man decides what we take in,
whether it is of the world or of God. Whether it contaminates our faith our
minds with the way of the world or it feed our spirit man making us stronger.
Scripture tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and
those words bring the curse or the blessing.
Matthew 12:35 (KJV)
35 A good man out of the good
treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the
evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
We find out in
1 Thessalonians that this helmet is hope. In Scripture hope does not disappoint
like natural hope. Biblical hope is an earnest expectation of the imminent
manifestation of the promises of God.
1
Thessalonians 5:8 (KJV)
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
To better
appreciate this hope lets look at salvation. Our salvation is much more then
escape from the fire of hell. It is deliverance, redemption from the entire
curse. We have entered the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the blessing,
the Garden of Eden. We have a defender and we have a defense. Jesus is our
defender, our mediator, our advocate and our intercessor!
1 Timothy 2:5
(KJV)
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus;
1 John 2:1 (KJV)
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous:
Hebrews 7:25 (KJV)
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
We also have
been given a defense.
Ecclesiastes
7:12 (KJV)
12 For wisdom is a defence, and money is a
defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to
them that have it.
So you see we
must walk in wisdom. James tells us that if we lack wisdom just ask and we will
receive. Solomon says that money is a defence. God expects you and I to have
money!
To have
salvation also means that we have been delivered. Delivered from what? The
power of darkness (Colossians 1:13), the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10),
death and the bondage of the fear of death (2 Corinthians 1:10 and Hebrews
2:14-15), and we are delivered from spiritual death and hell (Revelation
1:17-18).
Salvation
brings with it health.
Proverbs
4:20-23 (KJV)
20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of
thine heart.
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to
all their flesh.
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the
issues of life.
1 Peter 2:24 (KJV)
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that
we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were
healed.
Salvation also
provides us with a place of absolute safety. Thank you Jesus!
Psalms 4:8 (KJV)
8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only
makest me dwell in safety.
Notice we lay
down in peace or wholeness. That is why we can or should sleep so well, there
is nothing missing or broken in our lives. Notice also that the LORD only makes
us dwell in safety! If we are not in safety then it is of our doing, we have
not acted in wisdom and allowed the curse into our life.
Leviticus
25:18 (KJV)
18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do
them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
Do the Word of
God and safety is a byproduct. Notice until Jesus made Himself available to go
to the cross he lived in absolute safety. Jesus is our example, we are His
disciples.
Luke 4:28-30 (KJV)
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were
filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the
brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong.
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
You can do the
same thing!
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