Witness

Ro 8:16 – The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

MHCC
Ro 8:17 – v10-17 If the Spirit be in us, Christ is in us. He dwells in the heart by faith. Grace in the soul is its new nature; the soul is alive to God, and has begun its holy happiness which shall endure for ever. The righteousness of Christ imputed, secures the soul, the better part, from death. From hence we see how much it is our duty to walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. If any habitually live according to corrupt lustings, they will certainly perish in their sins, whatever they profess. And what can a worldly life present, worthy for a moment to be put against this noble prize of our high calling? Let us then, by the Spirit, endeavour more and more to mortify the flesh. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit brings a new and Divine life to the soul, though in a feeble state. And the sons of God have the Spirit to work in them the disposition of children; they have not the spirit of bondage, which the Old Testament church was under, through the darkness of that dispensation. The Spirit of adoption was not then plentifully poured out. Also it refers to that spirit of bondage, under which many saints were at their conversion. Many speak peace to themselves, to whom God does not speak peace. But those who are sanctified, have God’s Spirit witnessing with their spirits, in and by his speaking peace to the soul. Though we may now seem to be losers for Christ, we shall not, we cannot, be losers by him in the end.

FBN
Ro 8:16 – The Spirit itself; the Holy Spirit. Beareth witness with our spirit; by working in us the dispositions, and leading us to form the habits and cherish the hopes of the children of God; and by his influence, enabling us to discern in ourselves these scriptural evidences of being born of God.

PNTC
Ro 8:16 – The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. The Spirit of God is one witness to the fact. Our spirit is a corroborative witness. How do each bear witness? (1) Witness is usually borne in words, but not always. God’s Spirit bears witness in words (see Heb 10:15). The Holy Spirit shows us how we must become God’s children, and how to continue the Christian life. (2) It bears testimony in our lives by its fruits [Mt 7:16]. Do we bear the fruit of the Spirit? (See Ga 5:22-23). (3) Does our own spirit testify that we “mind the things of the Spirit?” [Ro 8:5]. Does our consciousness recognize its fruits, inward as well as outward? If the testimony of our spirit is that what God’s Spirit witnesseth of the sons of God is true of us, then they concur in the testimony that we are the children of God.

Witness
The witness here is “Summartureo” which is to mean to bear witness with, bear joint witness.
In whole KJV, this word was only used four times! also bear witness 2, testify unto 1, bear witness with 1.

Rev 2:18 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness , and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another

Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Romans 9:11 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

My personal thoughts
What is my witness with the Holy Spirit that i am in Christ? I use the verse of faith resulting in works as an outward evidence and witness of internal working of the Holy Spirit. Jas 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

There must be
1. Change life
2. Change of direction towards God
3. There must be attributes of the Holy Spirit Gal 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
4. Abhor the flesh
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like
5. Desire and consuming spiritual food
6. Desire and persistent relationship with God. Prayer. Meditation.
7. Shifting of priorities towards God.

Temptations

But it goes against the way
I am to put my human nature down
and let the Spirit take control of all I do.

‘Cause when those trials come,
my human nature shouts the thing to do;
and God’s soft prompting
can be easily ignored.

Does Jesus care when I’ve tried and failed
To resist some temptation strong;
When for my deep grief there is no relief,
Though my tears flow all the night long?

John Piper – The unregenerated are weary in their sins. The regenerated are weary of their sins.

Heb 10:18 – Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Heb 10:26 – For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

MHCC – Heb 10:18
v11-18 Under the new covenant, or gospel dispensation, full and final pardon is to be had. This makes a vast difference between the new covenant and the old one. Under the old, sacrifices must be often repeated, and after all, only pardon as to this world was to be obtained by them. Under the new, one Sacrifice is enough to procure for all nations and ages, spiritual pardon, or being freed from punishment in the world to come. Well might this be called a new covenant. Let none suppose that human inventions can avail those who put them in the place of the sacrifice of the Son of God. What then remains, but that we seek an interest in this Sacrifice by faith; and the seal of it to our souls, by the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience? So that by the law being written in our hearts, we may know that we are justified, and that God will no more remember our sins.

FBN – Heb 10:26
Sin willfully; by renouncing Christ after having embraced him, and rejecting his gospel after having known and acknowledged it to be his. Chap Heb 6:4-8. No other atonement will ever be made, and if we reject this after having known its efficacy, and willfully turn away, refusing to trust in it for salvation, we shall perish

PNTC – Heb 10:26
For if we sin wilfully. Deliberately trample under foot Christ’s will; apostasize from the faith in life. Remaineth no more sacrifice. We have, in that case, rejected Christ, the only sacrifice for sin.

Ok, so Heb 10:26 is talking about apostasy which means to give up Jesus entirely. If we give up Jesus, who else is going to pay for our crimes ala sin? No one, thus we gave up our only acceptable sacrifice.

Ro 6:1 – What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

Do you struggle with sin? I know I do. If I can put an anology? My son and myself and food. I love eating, it’s a natural trait in me. Not to the point of gluttony, but I can eat anytime. No so for my son. He eats very little for breakfast, he takes his time to eat for lunch, and he takes his time to eat for dinner. No supper, no snacks, no ice-cream, no nothing. You can offer it to him, and he’d say, no thanks. However, if you need a partner for snack, call me.
So it’s only natural that I am of a probable bigger size. I’ve once dropped to a mere 76kg from 93kg and I felt good, but it was difficulty. It was regimental lifestyle. Minimal food intake and maximum energy usage by going for long distance runs, work out, etc. Active… very active. However, I’ve gain back some weight back to 83kg, which is a whopping 7kg! I’m still struggling to lose it, but I like my current relaxed diet lifestyle.

As I ponder this, isn’s this the same as struggling with sins? Each of us are made up differently. Some struggle more than others. Does that mean that God will forsake us? Whenever I struggle with sins, God comes as an after thought. Yet how does the bible teach us? Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Before the attempt and struggle, we need to submit to God, and then resist the devil. The two prong question then is
1. did you submit to God?
2. did you resist the devil?

Moreoften than not, we’ll probably think to ourselves, I can’t resist any longer. Did you flee from the scene as Joseph did from Potipher’s wife? Or are we lingering and longing as did Lot’s wife during the destruction of Sodom and Gormorrah? We often speaks of God’s grace, but not his wrath.

It was not easy for me to stop several bad lifestyle habits such as gaming, smoking, drinking, cursing, swearing, anger, impatience, and the list goes on. We are not perfect. However, we in Christ is perfect, and we should be living for him. But what happens when we fail and fall to sin? Get up and conform again to Christ! There is a saying, “worldy repentance leads to destruction, while Godly repentance leads to life”.

What are we warned about temptations?
1. Mt 26:41 – Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
2. Lu 4:13 – And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
3. Heb 3:8 – Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
4. Jas 1:12 – Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
5. 1Co 10:9 – Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
PMTC – Neither let us tempt Christ, as, etc. The event referred to is narrated in Nu 21:4-6, which see. The application is, that we should not be discontented over hardships or long for the sinful pleasures of a former life from which we have parted.
6. Jas 1:14 – But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

What are the promises that God has given to us with regards to sin?
1. 1Co 10:13 – There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.a

2. 1Jo 1:9 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Some of the common methods used to overcome habits common to most people.
1. Take notes of situation
– When? Is it of a perculiar time? Change the activity or the time.
– Where? Is it of perculiar location, as above, change it.
– How? How did it happened? 5 senses.
– Why? Why did you fail? Did we entertain the thoughts and temptations?
– What? What cause the trigger? 5 senses

2. Set a time to start the change and track from thence. The occurence should happen fewer and fewer as the interval stretches longer and longer.

3. For us Christians, we have an additional ammo.. Prayer! God! Holy Spirit!

Of course, it’s always easier said than done. Got to put it into action again. 🙂

Returneth

Ho 6:3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

This was my devotional verse for today. It seems to remind me of my yesterday thoughts on God does move. Hosea 6:3 affirms tha fact that God does not move. He is always there, constant. If there is any illustration that God has forsaken, God has turned his back, God has departed, I do not think it is literal. But a manner of speech to describe God’s response.

Just as the child in his disobedience causes the good parent to turn away. The parents will be more than happy to recieve the child once again when the child returns and repent. Was the parents permanently gone? No. The parents had always been there waiting. This is just like God, he is always there for us, as long as we are always there for him. Our God is a holy God, sin is intolerable to him. The question then is, we are sinners, acceptable to God by grace through the spilling of blood from the slain lamb Jesus Christ. Past, present, future sins have all been paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross for those who have like in Hosea 5:15 1) Aknowledge 2)Repented 3) Seek early. Our earthly parents may depart from us, but we have the full assurance of our God that “he will never leave us not forsake us” Heb 13:5

Some will surely complained about the parental examples, that the parents have dumped, abused, etc. No, I’m referring to the good responsible parents as our good LORD is. 1 Jn 1:9 reminds me “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

Matthew Henry commented “v1-3 Those who have gone from God by consent, and in a body, drawing one another to sin, should, by consent and in a body, return to him, which will be for his glory, and their good. It will be of great use for support under afflictions, and to encourage our repentance, to keep up good thoughts of God, and of his purposes and designs concerning us. Deliverance out of trouble should be to them as life from the dead. God will revive them: the assurance of this should engage them to return to him. But this seems to have a further reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us admire the wisdom and goodness of God, that when the prophet foretold the deliverance of the church out of her troubles, he should point out our salvation by Christ; and now these words are fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ, it confirms our faith, that this is He that should come and we are to look for no other. Here is a precious blessing promised; this is life eternal, to know God. The returns of the favour of God are secured to us as firmly as the return of the morning after a dark night. He shall come to us as the latter and former rain unto the earth, which refreshes it, and makes it fruitful. The grace of God in Christ is both the latter and the former rain; and by it the good work of our fruit-bearing is begun and carried on. And as the Redeemer was raised from the grave, so will He revive the hearts and hopes of all that trust in him. The feeblest glimpse of hope in his word, is a sure earnest of increasing light and comfort, which shall be attended with purifying, comforting grace that makes fruitful.”

The first sentence “drawing one another to sin” reminds me of Isa 53:6 “we have turned every one to his own way”. Isn’t it true? Not only do we sin, we urge and encourage others to do likewise. God forbid.

John Piper shared in Facebook which I liked “The old and unregenerated are weary in their sin. The old and long regenerated are weary of their sin.” Which are you? The former or the latter?