The Second Epistle.
Sunday, November 5, 2000.
Why God
Loves Us.
By Rev. James R. Bingham
Special to corndancer.com
POSTED FROM Memphis, Tennessee
Malachi 1: 2,3
I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob.
And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Romans 7: 19
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Let's talk about love. Love in the real sense, the spiritual sense. Any other type of love is simply that, a type of love. But spiritual love is agape love.
You are familiar with the term agape. It denotes "unconditional." Don't worry, I'm not going to try to impress you with the little bit of Latin I know, or the touch of Greek, the smidgen of Hebrew. In fact, I only know enough of those languages to get myself into linguistic trouble.
Instead, I've decided to use the most reliable of all sources for my definition of love, The Holy Spirit.
Let's talk. Isn't it possible that you and I (or anyone else for that matter) can come to a point where enough is enough? What determines when enough is enough? Considering how we disrespect the laws of God, isn't it just a matter of Him saying, "Enough is enough! Away with you!?"
Can A Woman's
Spiritual Love Change A Man?
Can a woman love a man, in the natural sense, even though he beats her and cheats on her, and takes money from the house and spends it loosely on wine and women, on let's say gambling? Should she?
If she does, it is considered a strange love. She is told to get away from him and to seek comfort in a shelter for battered women -- and to take the children with her. "Don't stay there because he will eventually hurt you real bad or even kill you."
Yet, even in a case such as this, a woman can offer a kind of love that can change that man. It must be the biblically principled spiritual love. If she wants to hold-on to him and see him change, she can't rely on carnal or natural love. That's what got him acting the way he's acting. He thinks that he wants natural love. He thinks he wants to be made to feel like a natural man. He doesn't know, nor can he yet recognize, real love in an agape sense. Something has a hold of him -- and I'm not talking about the Holy Ghost.
He's doing things because he is living in the natural. The natural is darkness. It's the flesh. It is sensuous and provoking. The natural is controlling. Worst of all, it is evil.
By Living in the Flesh,
Paul Realizes He Is No Good.
Let's look at Romans 7: 18. Paul said, "For I know that in me (that is to my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." This is very good and honest on the part of Paul. Here he admits that he realizes, as we all should realize, that he is a wretched soul -- meaning, that by living in the flesh, he is no good.
Paul says there is no good in him. He is speaking of the natural man. That is to say, 'trying to conform to this world'. Translation: We want the flesh, that which pleases us. Don't we? We want to be satisfied and gratified, anything but sanctified. Give us the good times, fill our pockets with money, and whatever you do, don't bother us with burdensome spiritual concerns. We don't want our troubles and we sure don't want anybody else's.
If I could just live my life, enjoying the things of this earth, as long as I don't hurt anybody, I would be a happy soul. That's in the natural. Yet, all the while, there is something inside of me that says, "Come out of this, or come out of her!" That's the will. It's in you. It says, I want to leave all this old earthly, good for nothing life alone. I want to go to church…. and I'm going. I want to treat everybody right, and I'm going to do just that. I want to give my tithes to God, and I shall! I want to be what God wants me to be, and I will!!
What to Do When
Money Is Short and Bills Are Long.
But, but…. How do we do this? How do you live the way you should live when everything around you keeps pulling at you? Money is short and your bills are long. Your frustrations are long and your temper is short. A women sees a man who is much more handsome and productive than her husband. A man sees a woman who is finer than his wife.
Paul said, "...how to perform that which is good I find not."
He says, the good that I would do, I don't do, and the evil that I would not do, I do. He's saying that something has got a hold of me and it's not the Holy Ghost. In verse 23 he says it is a law other than God's law, warring inside of him, bringing him into the captivity of sin. And in verse 24 he says, "O wretched man that I am!" Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24 KJV)
Paul's solution comes in chapter 8, verse 1. He says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit....
....That's being in Christ. To walk after is to follow. To follow is to be in pursuit. To be in pursuit is to seek. There it is. We must seek that which is of the Spirit. What is the Spirit with a capital S? It is the Kingdom of God. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things shall be added unto you. Seek the Kingdom. Christ is the Kingdom. Be in the Kingdom, be in Christ.
Remember that song, "I want to be in the Kingdom. I want to be in the Kingdom, when all the saints come home?" Yes, yes, but do I have the right? After all that I've done, why would God allow me in His kingdom? Good question!
I'm yet a wretched man, and even if I seek after God, I still have two warring spirits inside of me, the spirit of Good and the spirit of evil.
And the evil looks good.
Woe unto them that call evil good. Just like Cain and Abel, or Isaac and Ishmael, or Jacob and Esau. Jacob was good and kind. He was obedient. But, so was Esau. Was Esau good? Isaac loved Esau. He was in line for the blessings, the promise of Abraham. It was his birthright. A surface look at the scriptures suggests that Jacob took advantage of Esau, who was tired and faint from working in the field. Jacob bought Esau's birthright for food. Later he was dressed like Esau and outright tricked his father to receive the blessings that Esau should have received. But God loved Jacob, and hated Esau. Why did God love Jacob and hate Esau? Did Jacob take advantage of Esau or did he seize the opportunity to make a profitable exchange?
Listen, there is a part of Jacob within each of us. Here we go. He was fleshly, yes. Even his name is defined as a trickster, a supplanter. He was a schemer.
To Be Satisfied, Gratified....
Anything But Sanctified.
Esau was kind, hardworking. Yes, he was. But there was one thing Esau did that Jacob did not do. Esau despised his birthright. He despised the spirit of the Abrahamic Covenant, the promise that was his as the eldest son. He was, by right of birth, the next in line to receive the continued promise as given to Abraham. He did not grasp this because it was a spiritual concept, and it required faith. Instead he sold it for food. He wanted to be satisfied, gratified, anything but sanctified. He said, "What good is this birthright to me?"
Esau could find no significance in something he couldn't see. He had no faith. By giving up his birthright, Esau blasphemed against the Holy Spirit. He wanted something he could see and feel, therefore he despised that which was spiritual, and said it was worthless. He said God's promise was worthless. He blasphemed against the Holy Spirit.
According to Matthew 12:31, the only thing God will not forgive in this life or the next is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But Jacob trusted that the birthright had real worth and scooped it up. Therefore God gave him something he didn't really know he wanted. He didn't see it either, but he trusted. He had faith!
That is our answer. Walk by faith, not by sight.
Seek after the Spirit. By doing so, you seek the Kingdom of God.
Trust in the LORD. Ps 34:3-4 says Trust in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. That is a promise of the kingdom.
A New and Meaningful Desire
Will Be Placed in Our Heart.
As a natural man, we don't know what blessings we gain by trusting in the Lord. But, when we do trust him, we discover that he will place a new desire, a meaningful desire in our heart. This is how you strengthen that which we call faith.
God has a plan for you. The plan is embedded in His will. Yes! Jesus said, you must be born again. You must be born of the spirit. If you are born of the spirit, you become a new creature. God will give you new desires. Remember this, "Thangs I use'ta do, I don't do no mo'?"
Jesus died, that you may trust him. Yes. There was a whole lot more going on at the crucifixion than a man dying on the cross. When Jesus died he justified the act of Jacob and bought your birthright outright. He paid the price. Now you can receive the promise.
God loves us because there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, new creatures. Without a doubt, God loves His son.
God loves us because He loves His Son. The blood of his Son covers us. His act of unselfish self-sacrifice justified us that we may be sanctified. It assured us of God's love. "Blessed Assurance!"
The Schemer and Trickster
Becomes a New Creature in Jesus.
You, however, must believe, receive and claim that love. Esau didn't claim it. Jacob did. Jacob was a liar, a cheat, a schemer, and a trickster -- just like us. But he claimed the righteousness of God. He wrestled with it all night long. He believed and claimed it and said I won't let go until you bless me. What was he holding on to? He didn't rightly know, but he wouldn't let go. As a result, God gave him a new name, Israel. He gave him a new life. God made him a new creature. If we trust Him, we too, will become new creatures in Christ Jesus.
God loves us because we are His by birthright. You, by the spirit, are the children of God. There is a blessing waiting for you that you don't see. You've been claiming the wrong thing. Seek the kingdom.
Are you hung up on wanting a husband? Trust God, he'll send you the right one. Why? Because he loves you.
You want money in your pocket, for your bills? Trust God, seek him. He has already given you the money. You've just been putting it in the wrong place. Make your money a gift to the spirit, tithe, and God will show you the money. Why? Because he loves you.
Are you drinking and doing drugs, fornicating and lying, trying to get even, and twisting the truth to make things go your way. That's not where you want to be. Look at all the trouble it's costing you. Trust in the LORD. He has already delivered you. Why? Because He loves you.
That, my friends, is the real definition of love. That's agape love. No matter what the sin, no matter where you've been or what you've been, God loves you. Claim your deliverance. Claim your inheritance. All that you desire in Jesus name, all that you want to become in Jesus name, it's already here. Claim it. Ask for it. Claim it! Ask for it. Claim it! Ask for it. It's yours, it's mine for the asking. We have not because we ask not. Claim it. Ask for it.
Shake off the shackles of the devil and say, I claim victory in the name of the most high God.
Give God Some Praise!
EDITOR'S NOTE: Rev. Bingham
can be reached by E-mail at
jamesrbingham@juno.com.
His phone number in Memphis is
901.785.5691.