Good morning. Remember last time that Paul said he was going to
find out the power of those who were arrogant. For the kingdom of God does not
consist in words but in power. You can give all kinds of fancy “teachings”, but
they are useless if there is no power in you or in what you say. The Gospel has
transforming power. It can not only bring about healings and so on, but it can
also bring a change in your heart and your attitude. He then goes through the
thing about someone among them having his father’s wife (not talking about his
mother – stepmother). Paul gets a bit “hot under the collar“. I on my part,
though absent in body but present in spirit, I have already judged him who has
committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when
you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan (my Bible says that means to put
him out of the church, so that he does not have the fellowship of believers to
help protect him from the attacks of the devil) for the destruction of his
flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That is
what you would call tough love. It is probably also part of where the idea of
shunning someone in the church was first initiated. Father thank You that we
have the fellowship of other believers to help guide and protect us when we are
attacked by the enemy.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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