Deut 8:18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. (NIV)

In Pt1 (Mt 6:19-34) Jesus spoke about not making riches (mammon) into a God and having a divided heart, that is we can’t serve God and mammon at the same time (v24). So how can we tell if we have a heart that covets riches; Jesus gives the answer in Matt 6:32 For the pagans (unconverted) ‘run’ after all these things. (NIV)

We can so easily come under the pressure of the world system (Rom 12:2) and find ourselves running after riches, position or status. Working our fingers to the bone in order to provide for ourselves or our families. Our low self esteem feels inferior to others without designer labels, flashy cars and big houses.

Stop and think for a moment! Is this how God wants us to exist, stressing over material goods, overstretching our health, denying ourselves the ‘me time’ of rest and play. As D.L. Moody used to say, “No, a thousand times no”.

God’s way in life is always found in trusting Him. He is our provider, from Him comes our finance, strength, ability and vision for life. Phil 4:19 And with all his abundant wealth through Christ Jesus, my God will supply all your needs. (GNT) ; Many have turned God’s promises into trite phrases that trip off the tongue without ever putting them to the test. This is because they are fearful that God will let them down or they’ve never experienced God’s provision before and don’t know where to start.

In our next Blog we will look at how we can trust God as our provider.

Meditation Point: God has given Himself names to show mankind how He wants to relate to them in life. One of these names is ‘Jehovah Jireh’ which means, The Lord our provider (Gen 22:14. Read this story).

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Matt 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (NKJV)

In Mt 6:19-34 Jesus gives a general discourse regarding our use of money and things and whether we will pursue them and make a god of them or whether we will trust God to provide. Matt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. The word ‘mammon’ is an Aramaic word speaking of worldly wealth and riches  with a strong negative connotation thus pointing out the dangers of wrong use.

So let’s look at some points in this story. In v 19-21 Jesus warns against the accumulation of riches. There is nothing wrong with storing up wealth; many people invest in pension funds, stocks and shares, property, inheritance for their children or as a fall back when times are tough; but as Jesus points out, are we storing up riches for riches sake or are we doing it to put it to good use.

Jesus exposes our motive for riches by asking us where our heart is. Is our heart a covetous heart that lusts after riches or is it a heart that wants to use riches for the promotion of the kingdom of God; He links this with v 22 which is a Hebrew idiom regarding our use of riches: The eye is the lamp of the body. So if you have a good eye (that is, if you are generous) your whole body will be full of light; but if you have an evil eye (if you are stingy) your whole body will be full of darkness. (JNT)

In other words, are you stingy or generous with money and things. Are we givers or are we hoarders. Prov 11:24-25 One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.  A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

In this verse, God is showing us that to selfishly hoard riches will bring us to poverty but if we use our riches to meet the needs of others it will bring even greater prosperity. Giving is God’s antidote to a selfish heart, giving forces us to look outside ourselves toward others. God gave His Son as a sacrifice, He sowed Him as a seed to meet the needs of sinful mankind and now He is reaping the harvest with billions of sons coming into His family.

Meditation Point: We are freed up to give when we see God’s purpose for our lives. His purpose is to grow His Kingdom.

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We’ve seen that in Christ we are holy. Today we will look holiness being worked out in our lives which is called the process of sanctification. Sanctification is a verb and means to make holy.

What we must always keep in mind is that if holiness is from within, it can only be accessed by faith. Faith releases the power of God to to change us from within and release the fruit of the Spirit (character of God) into and through our lives; and that faith is released through God’s Word. Rom 10:17  Faith comes through hearing God’s Word.

Example: We hear a rumour at work that there will soon be redundancies. We now have 2 options: we can either worry, fret  and stress or we can trust God who is our provider and sustainer.

A) Worrying and fretting about anything is a  ‘ work of the flesh’ (Gal 5:19-21) because we are seeking to resolve the situation by what we can do. It is putting our trust in our own abilities and strength and is unbelief; and when we work, He rests.

B) Trusting in God through His Word means we are looking to God to do the work on our behalf, therefore, “Father, according to your word of Phil 4:6, I will not be anxious, fret or worry about anything. Instead I give this situation to you and trust you to provide and sustain me. I will rest while you work”.

As we let go of the situation into God’s keeping, He works on our behalf and provides what we need. It may be we retain our job or are made redundant and have a period of inactivity before we find another one; but as we steadfastly trust God by holding to and confessing His Word, He will provide for us.

Heb 10:23-24 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  (NKJV)

Trusting God through His Word now releases within us and through us peace, joy and self control, the particular fruit of the Spirit that we need for this situation (Gal 5:22,23). Instead of exhibiting the work of the flesh, we are now bearing the fruit of God’s Spirit in our life.

This is the holiness that reveals God’s glory in our lives and is generated from within by the power of the Holy Spirit. John 15:8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. (NKJV)

Meditation Point: I must not exhibit the work of the flesh through struggle in my own strength but bear the fruit of the Spirit through trust and rest in God’s Word.

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The Parable of Jn 15 (the vine and the branches) perfectly illustrates New Testament holiness. Jesus often used God’s creation to teach spiritual truths.

A vine is fruitful because the life or sap of the vine travels up through the vine and out into and along to the end of the branches and produces the fruit; Hence the fruit is produced from within the vine.

To prevent the wastage of sap,the husbandman keeps the vine healthy by pruning (cleansing) the branches so they will bear more fruit and cuts off any branches that are dead or diseased.

As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual (1 Cor 15:46). Christ is the living vine and we are the living branches. Because we are now ‘In Christ’,  the sap or life of Christ flows from Christ into us producing the 9 fold fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22,23); Hence the fruit is produced from within us by the operation of the Holy Spirit.

It is important to realise that as a branch, we will never be cut off from Christ the vine. At the beginning of the Parable (v3) Jesus assures His disciples that they have already been cleansed (pruned)  by the Word of God.

In Christ we are now perfect and holy before God the Father (Eph 1:4) and now the process of sanctification (to make holy) takes place; that is, as we live out who we are In Christ, that holiness is worked out in us bearing fruit for God. Holiness and the process of sanctification produces fruit from within.

Holiness that is produced from the outside by our own achievements is dead works, whereas holiness produced from within by the Holy Spirit is good works and brings glory to God.

John 15:8  When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. (NLT)

Meditation Point: It is as I function out of who I am In Christ that the fruit of a holy life is expressed through me.

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2 Cor 5:21

God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God. (NET)

In our last Blog we looked at Old Testament holiness. Today we’re looking at New Testament holiness.

What’s the difference between the two:

1) O.T. holiness is outward holiness achieved by obeying the law.

2) N.T. holiness is inward holiness achieved by receiving the grace of God.

N.T. holiness was imputed (given) to us at salvation. When Jesus died on the cross He took the judgement and punishment of God for all the sin committed by mankind, past, present & future; and His shed blood didn’t just cover sin (O.T. animal blood) but washed it away completely. we were cleansed from all unrighteousness.

But God went one step further: He not only forgave and took away our sins, He also nailed our sin nature to the cross with Christ. Therefore with Christ we were (past tense) crucified, we died, went down into the grave and rose from the dead to live in resurrection life; and when we rose from the dead, God gave us a new righteous nature. Our old sin nature was removed to be replaced by a new righteous nature.

2 Cor 5:17  If anyone be in Christ, they are a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

As we see from 2 Cor 5:21 (above), Jesus who knew no sin, took our sin upon Himself and gave us His righteousness. This is the exchange that took place at the cross; and our righteousness now makes us holy. Holiness means to be set apart, we’ve been set apart from the world by dint of being righteous.

Eph 4:24 Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.   (KJV)

So we are now holy from within, therefore this holiness must find expression in our outward lifestyle. This is called sanctification which is the process of working out holiness in our life.

In our next Blog we will look at how we bear this fruit of holiness using the picture of the vine and the branches. Jn ch 15.

Meditation Point: Because I am ‘In Christ’, I am the righteousness of God and have been set apart (holiness) from the world.

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