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Chapter Nine
HOW DO WE RECEIVE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS?
Man, by nature, or in his natural state reacts in three realms: physical, mental and moral. We say man lives in these three realms. Normally, he is free physically, mentally and morally.
Man receives many physical benefits by consciously appropriating them. The response to his physical needs is guided by his mental and moral natures. However, he may and does continually receive benefits without any mental effort. He breathes, his heart beats, and all the chemical reactions take place without any consciousness. If this were not so, when a sick person became unconscious, no treatment would avail anything.
This is not true in the mental, moral and spiritual realms. Man cannot receive any mental, moral or spiritual benefits in unconsciousness. The teacher cannot teach a sleeping child. Neither can a preacher get anything into the heart of a sleeping bench-warmer.
Man can live physically without any mentality, but he cannot live mentally without the physical thinking apparatus, and this in turn depends on the functioning of other organs of the body. Man receives mental benefits from communications from his contemporaries, from recorded history—profane and inspired, and from discovered truth.
Man can have no moral life apart from his mental life. Man's moral being, both subjective and objective, has its
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basis in his mental life. Man has a moral sensibility. Paul calls it "conscience". This inner mentor acts through his mental processes. Man receives moral benefits from the moral teachings of men. He receives blessings morally from the teachings of the Bible which is the secret of God's blessings on us as a nation. Not only do saved people respond to the moral teachings of the Bible, but lost people also. Even lost people are greatly benefited, temporarily perhaps often times, by the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This is what Peter had in mind when he wrote, (II Peter 2:20-22) "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But, it is happened unto them according to the true proverb. The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."
These had temporarily benefited morally, they "had escaped the pollutions of the world." They had not escaped the wrath of God; they had not been regenerated; they had not become new creatures in Christ Jesus. They had experienced a great moral reformation, but it did not last. Had it lasted it would not have saved them. I dare say that in many cases this reformation does last. This is more common than we may think. My judgment is that much of the so-called evangelistic campaigns brings sinners to moral reformation and not to faith in Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and hence to regeneration. This reformation is brought about by preaching much about Jesus and His wonderful moral teachings and then pressing on them for a decision. They are not given enough about the glorious Person of Jesus and His redemptive work for them to know saving truth, believe, and become the children of God.
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HOW DO WE RECEIVE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS?
What I have been trying to get before you is that we, by nature, in all that we have by our first birth, live in three spheres: physical, mental, and moral. In these spheres we are free agents.
I have come a long way in this short article to get to our heading: "HOW DO WE RECEIVE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS?" This question is yet unanswered. A person may receive physical, mental, and moral benefits and receive no spiritual blessing whatever.
Man, by nature, has no spiritual being. He is dead spiritually. He has no spiritual relation with God. He is dead in trespasses and sins. He is without God and without hope in the world. (Ephesians 2:1-3) "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: Wherein in time past ye walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Therefore, the first spiritual blessing man must receive is spiritual life itself.
God mediates all His spiritual blessings through His Word, and we receive them by faith. This is the way man receives spiritual life. The agency in producing spiritual life in us is the Holy Spirit ("born of the Spirit"). The instrument is the revealed Word of God: not any and all parts of the Word of God, but the truth that is life-giving. Nicodemus believed that Jesus was a teacher sent from God, which is true, but he had no spiritual life. Jesus said, to him (John 3:3-6, 7) "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." ("from above"). What he believed about Jesus was true and nothing was wrong with how he believed. He just did not know enough about Jesus. He did not know saving truth, or life-giving truth.
John said (John 20:31), "These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
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and that believing ye might have life through His name." Nicodemus knew Him as "a teacher come from God", but he did not believe in Him as "the Christ, the Son of God."
James says (James 1:18), "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures."
Peter says (I Peter 1:23), "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
John says (I John 5:1), "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."
Paul says (I Corinthians 4:15b), "For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel."
Man is not dead like a dead tree. He lives the natural life, the life he has by his first birth. He has physical life, mental life, and moral life. The Holy Spirit makes impact upon man's thinking apparatus, his mentality, and his moral sensibilities, with the life-giving Word—the gospel, the saving truth about Jesus. This brings life, makes the believer a child of God and he becomes a spiritual being in happy filial relationship to God.
We, who are children of God. have the privilege of teaching the life-giving truth about Jesus and, like Paul, in Christ Jesus, beget people to this new life through the gospel.
There are those who seem to think that this spiritual life is imparted by some kind of ceremony, or that it does not come without some physical act. This is altogether false. Spiritual life comes by faith in the life-giving truth in Christ Jesus. It becomes the voice of the Son of God and those, who hear, live. No ceremony avails; only faith in saving truth. (Ephesians 2:4, 5, 8, 9) "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) . . . For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; Not of works, lest any man should boast."
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HOW DO WE RECEIVE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS?
(Colossians 3:16a) "Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly in all wisdom;" (II Timothy 3:16, 17) "All scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works." All spiritual blessings are mediated through the
Word of God and we receive them by faith. They are not bestowed through any
physical act in itself. If any one is sick and unconscious, there is nothing
that we can do to be a spiritual blessing to him. To perform some kind of
ceremony on an infant is worth nothing to the child. When one dies, there is
nothing that we can do to benefit him at all. Trying to do so is worse than
nonsense. It is our privilege to minister the manifold grace of God and, as good
stewards, we should be faithful in this great privilege. We receive spiritual
gifts by faith in what God has revealed in His Word.
Revealed truth is God's means of bestowing spiritual blessings. Do you want to
receive abundance of spiritual blessings? You will find them by faith in God's
Word.