The Calibration Block
The Calibration Block (The Bible Study)
I am going to begin this teaching by relaying something the Holy Spirit spoke to me back in 2003 that has changed the way I think and the way I teach ever since that time. In 2003 I was working the graveyard shift at a Titanium casting facility in Central Oregon. I worked in the straightening department where we would re-align the castings structurally according to specific blue print specifications. It is a very technical job as it has to be, because many of those castings are for aircraft that the lives of many people will depend on being structurally sound. So the specifications are very tight and the quality control very rigid. One of the tools we use to measure the castings with is a large rock table made of solid granite usually very thick, very large, very heavy, and, very precise. The surface of the table is usually within a flatness of at least .002 thousandths of an inch. So basically if you divided an inch up into a thousand equal pieces the entire surface of your table should be accurate within the tolerance of two of those little thousandths. The table has to be that flat as much of the measuring equipment used to evaluate the castings will be set up on the granite rock which will ensure an accurate reliable measuring of the castings.
I tell you about the table only to tell you that at break time I didn’t really want to go to the break room so I just sat back in my chair and put my feet up on the rock, it doesn’t hurt the rock, but wow what an expensive foot rest. As you can guess there is some significance as to what I am about to share and having my feet up resting on a rock of this kind. As I was was sitting there the Holy Spirit spoke something to me in that quiet moment. He asked me to identify all the different kinds of measuring equipment we had in that facility. Oh wow! there are so many different kinds of measuring tools it would have taken me all night to track them down. So I began to relay in my mind all of the different measuring tools we had in the building. Some of the tools are very cheap, inexpensive, easy to find tools, and some of the measuring tools are hundreds of thousands of dollars and very large requiring specially trained operators to use them. And there are some measuring tools that get used constantly having to be replaced from time to time for wear and others that almost never see use for years, those tools usually have very specific purposes. But there is one thing all these tools have in common and it is what the Holy Spirit asked me about next.
After I had gone through countless different types of measuring tools(I still wasn’t done) the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “now calibrate them”.
For those of you not familiar with the process of calibration it is simple and it is the one thing that must happen to ALL measuring tools or they will not be valid, usable tools. To calibrate a measuring tool you must measure a very specific set of precision ground blocks with the tool that is requiring calibration.
There are several blocks in most sets of calibration blocks but my set had seven blocks. The measuring equipment must be tuned in perfect alignment with the calibration blocks so that the equipment will measure accurately when it is use. If the tool for some reason cannot be calibrated it must be thrown away or repaired no matter how expensive it is because it is no longer a reliable tool of measurement as it is not in alignment with the calibration blocks.
Here’s the clincher and you don’t want to miss this, the calibration blocks are called ‘The master set’ and they are known as ‘the standard’. That’s when the Holy Spirit spoke to me concerning Jesus showing me that Jesus is the standard and the Master!
It was then that I realized that I was being shown that all of those measuring tools were like all of the people who are following Jesus. Some great, some small, some of great apparent value, and some some not considered very valuable, some were used all the time, some used hardly ever. Also The tools are of many different configurations just like Christians are all gifted uniquely and differently. However like the measuring equipment, unless we are in alignment with the Master or ‘The Standard’ we are good for nothing to the Lord any more no matter how great our giftings, or abilities, or influence.
In other words we must be in perfect alignment with Jesus Himself or we are not really, truly followers of His. As Jesus said in the book of John, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:5-7
The Word of God (The Bible) tells us who Jesus is. In the ‘Old Testament’ there was prophecy of the coming Messiah and a revealing of the heart of God Himself and what He calls righteousness. In the Gospels we read the stories of Jesus and we read His very own Words telling us who He is, what He wants us to be, and what we can expect if we follow Him. And even in the Book of Revelation we read Jesus Words to John as He is speaking to John the messages He had for the Christians of seven major Churches, words that still ring true to our Churches today concerning the desire of Christ for those that follow Him. We need to understand that Jesus was teaching us to be just like Him, obviously we are not Jesus, but He wants us to be like Him. We are to follow Him in every respect that He Himself taught us to. He didn’t teach a special Gospel that was only relevant to the people of His day on Earth and another Gospel for the ‘modern Church’.
As Jesus said in Matthew 10:24 “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. So there is no ‘advanced’ Gospel for those who become to great to follow the simplicity of the message that Jesus gave us to preach and the power He gave us to preach it with.
Peter understood this when he was in a boat rowing across the sea of Galilee during a storm. He and the Disciples all saw someone walking across the sea in the storm, they were so afraid of what they saw that they thought it was a ghost. That is when Jesus told them, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Peter, upon hearing this and knowing Jesus as closely as he did said to Jesus, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Why would Peter think that if it was Jesus He would want Peter to do exactly what He was doing?
Now this is the one word answer that chokes me up every time. Jesus answered Peter and said, “Come”. What Jesus was doing was unheard of and unless it was recorded in the Bible we would have never believed that Jesus would have performed such a sign. But not only did He do it, but he was more than happy to call any disciple that dare do what they were supposed to do, and get out of their safe little boat and get into the scary water and follow Jesus while doing the absolute impossible. And why? Because Jesus did it, and He wants us to follow His words and His actions as true followers of Jesus Christ.
So just to re-cap from the first part of this message, let me once again define in my own words what calibration is. Calibration is simply bringing anything, any tool, any devise, or any appliance into alignment with a standard value. In other words calibration means making something accurate and true. Calibration could involve making an oven read accurate temperatures in it’s display, so that whatever temperature it reads is exactly the temperature that is in the oven. Calibration could involve tuning a piano to play the right notes in accordance with the right keys. Or it could involve getting a rifle to be dead on with it’s rifle scope at 100 yards. No matter how you look at it calibration is alignment of a tool with a separate guide or ‘standard’. In the case of the oven, the display reading will have to be tuned with a master temp gauge that actually goes in the oven and reads the temp directly(this tool also has to be calibrated). The piano will have to be tuned to calibrated set of tuning forks by a master tuner or he will use an electronic devise, and, you guessed it, even those tools have to be calibrated. And the rifle will be made to come into alignment with the scope using a laser bore sighting tool.
For those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ calibration simply means coming into alignment with the Word of God. And even more specifically into alignment with Jesus Himself. And why is that? Because Jesus Himself is the Word.
Coming into alignment with “The Living Word” of God
Read John 1: 1-15, the Bible in one way or another is a testimony of Jesus Himself on many different levels from Genesis to Revelation. So much so that it is easy to see why He is called ‘the Living Word’. We are called to come into alignment with Jesus because He is the Living Word of God. We are called to be dead to this World and alive in Jesus Christ. After all the first commandment Jesus ever gave to His Disciples was “follow me”, make no mistake about it, when He said follow me He meant leave your life and and find your life in me. He wanted them to believe and follow His Words AND His actions to the point that all who followed Him emulated His very life. In this way we who follow Jesus become a light unto the World just as He was a light unto the World. But we are not a ‘true’ light if we are not ‘in calibration’ with the master, and that is Christ Himself. So in order to be calibrated to Jesus we must come into exact direct alignment with His Word. And I do mean His Word and not our own definition of what His Word should be in our opinion, but what is actually there. Many people find this to be challenging to say the least and some see it as impossible. Because they want both the World and Jesus, but as Jesus said “no one can serve two Masters for he will either hate the one and love the other, or love the one and hate the other.”
Our way is not His way, we can not calibrate Gods Word with our Heart
Most ‘challenging’ Bible teaching is done just to show rebellious people that they have a problem with God and they need to change, this is even the root of the salvation message. Many rebellious people don’t seem to be angrily or purposefully rebellious, but then their rebellion is against God because in their heart they don’t feel God is loving or understanding enough and therefore He is the one that needs to change and not them. And yet they will hide this from themselves trying to believe they have no problem with God, that is until His Word ends up right in their face showing them God in yet one more way they didn’t really want to see Him. So they make up all kinds of personal little doctrines to make God appear more ‘loving’ in their own eyes.
And why? Because they want to judge God Himself using their own heart and feelings as a measuring stick for His Word. So inevitably their Bibles will gather dust while their refrigerator begins to get covered with all kinds of pretty new magnets containing misconstrued scriptures and heart felt little sayings that are later mistaken for scripture itself in their own minds. In fact you can take choice little pieces of scripture from all different places in the Bible and stick them all together on the refrigerator to form a ‘new Gospel’ that sounds similar to the one found in God’s Word but is really just a twisting of His own Words in His own mouth to create an alternate ‘salvation’ that doesn’t require obedience to God’s Holy Word at all.
This is just one of the many ways that people introduce God to their own man made salvation designed just for Him,..a salvation from looking like a big ol’ meanie in the sky, a salvation from looking like He just doesn’t understand the hearts of His own creation, a salvation from looking uncaring and unloving. It is just so blasphemous I can barely write this, I am almost breaking down with grief and sorrow as I am writing. This is what happens when humans try to calibrate Jesus to themselves.
Many people demand that God accepts them the way they are, and that if He were truly loving He would see that even though they are not perfect their intentions are good, so if He were truly merciful and full of ‘grace’ He would cut them a break. These people are just sure they are a more advanced form of Christian than those ‘Bible thumpers’ because they understand people and they ‘get’ peoples hearts because in their own mind God has made them so loving and kind. In fact if they were in charge of the Universe there would be no need for judgment of any kind because they would just love everyone into tears and reconciliation with Heaven and there would be teddy bears, and rainbows, and chocolate for everyone.
Listen to me! I will say this really, really clear, Jesus may love you the way you are, but He does not accept you the way you are. If He did there would be no need for salvation, and no change would be required from us to receive eternal life or a relationship with God. The goal of the Word of God isn’t to get God to accept us the way we are, it’s to reveal to us God and His ways so that we will do something very, very, very, necessary! We need to accept God the way He is! This is true worship!
God has never told us that He will accept us the way we are, and He has been very clear about the fact that a relationship with Him involves us constantly changing as we continually learn to come into alignment with His Word, His ways, and HIS HEART,…because our hearts are, as the Bible says, desperately wicked(Jeremiah 17:9). In other words in order to have a relationship with God and to receive salvation we MUST change and we must change in accordance with His Word. He loves us so much that He gave us the life and the blood of His own Son so that we would even be able to be made clean so that we would have the privilege to obey His Word, We must repent for our sins and for having followed our own heart, be cleansed by the Blood of Jesus and obey the Word of God and then and only then can we be made acceptable in His sight.
Hell is full of people that Jesus loves, the reason that those people ended up in hell isn’t because Jesus didn’t love them it’s because they rejected Jesus, because they couldn’t accept Him the way He is. The Bible even says that we can do many great things in the name of Jesus and still not know Him because we are lawless(do not obey His commandments, or heed His Word).
Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.22“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23)
The people speaking to Jesus on judgment day in this passage are saying that they operated in the power of God in the name of Jesus apparently they were doing this to glorify God(how many today even do this?) So what were the reasons Jesus gave that they would not enter into Heaven? I mean after all isn’t every one who calls on the name of the Lord saved just as Acts 2:21 says? Well there is a lot I could say about Acts 2:21 in fact that is a whole teaching and that is another day but basically in Matthew 7: 21-23 Jesus says with His own mouth that not everyone who calls Him Lord will be saved.
The people in this passage speaking to Jesus were serving Jesus in accordance with their own ideas of the way they should serve the Lord. They had their own ideas as to what was pleasing to God. Does that mean we shouldn’t cast out demons, heal the sick, and prophecy? Are we somehow more likely to avoid judgment if we just ignore the power of God as a part of our testimony all together? Of course not, we should do all those things because those are some of the things Jesus taught us to do as followers of Him. In fact the power of God is part of the very Gospel message itself, and those who really follow Jesus will run right into the power of God anyway it is inevitable. So what are the reasons that Jesus calls these people workers of iniquity and tells them to depart from Him?
Well basically Jesus gives three reasons, 1) Only those who do the will of the Father will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. 2) Jesus never actually knew them. 3) They practiced lawlessness.
I want to take a look at these three reasons that the people in this passage will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. These three reasons are so important because it helps us identify what it means to be in calibration with the Word of God and with the will of God in ways we may not have considered. Also it seems that many will go to judgment day thinking they are right on with God and they really aren’t so right on. Some feel that the manifestations of power in their life are the evidence that they are in alignment with God and some feel that their character and their version of love is the evidence that they are right with God. This is why I really want to finish examining what Jesus had to say to the people standing before Him on judgment day, because honestly I really do not want to be standing with that crowd at that moment, and I tell you the truth, I have stood in that place many times in my life and it was really easy to get there.
Another “Master or standard”
It becomes clear the immensity and depth of our calling and what it means to truly examine ourselves with Christ as the measuring stick. Of course non of us will ever be Jesus, but as Christians we are all called to be like Him and if we are truly His then He is transforming us into His image from glory to glory. However sometimes I think many including myself(more often than I care to mention) forget what, and who glory is. Instead we choose to come up with our own definition of what is Christ-like rather than what truly is like Christ. The only real reason that this happens is because all to often we find another glory, something other than Jesus that captures our attention, our focus, and gains our adoration. It takes a lot to care for and nurture another glory and it is easy for a person to end up serving another master, and obeying the will of something that is in opposition to the will of God. In this third part of the calibration block, the will of God is going to be the issue. The question that was posed at the end of part two of the calibration block was, what are the three reasons that Jesus gives that the people of Matthew 7: 21-23 were not allowed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
These are the people who had prophesied in Jesus name, cast out demons, and in Jesus name had performed many miracles and yet they were not allowed into the Kingdom of Heaven by the very Jesus by whom they had done all these spiritual works. So in review, the three reasons are, 1) They were not doing the will of the Father(even if they were doing the things that are supposed to be done for God). 2) Jesus says He doesn’t even know them. and 3) they practiced lawlessness.
The following is an analysis in the form of a Bible study that examines the three reasons that the people that Jesus was speaking to in Matthew 7:21-23 did not make it into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Reason #1 - Only those who do the will of the Father who is in Heaven will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (v21)
A) Peter's struggle with the will of God (The Cross)
How do we know that the cross has to do with “will” (Matthew 26:39) Jesus will and Gods will were separate for a moment but Jesus did not sin in that He surrendered His will to the Fathers will.
1) Jesus told us that if we want to follow Him we must lay down our own lives, take up our own cross, and then follow Him. Peter had laid down his life (Matthew 19:27), but could not accept the work of the cross in Jesus' life (Matthew 16:17-25)
2) Peter cut off the ear of the of the high Priests Guard (because he was most likely after the High Priest) (John 18:10, Matthew 26:51,Mark 14:47, Luke 22:50) to try and save Jesus from the cross (the will of God)
3) Peter denies Jesus as Jesus had Prophesied in order to save himself. (Matthew 26:69-75) Jesus had prophesied this (Matthew 26:3-34)
B) Mary's struggle with the will of God
1) Luke 2:41-51 - (emph v49) Some translations say “Fathers house” some say “Fathers will.”
2) John 2:1-11 - The Wedding feast of Cana, it was not Jesus time yet, but He had yet to be revealed so He did as she requested.
3) Matthew 12:46-50 – 'Who are my Mother and Brothers but these here who do the will of my Father.” (This occurred after He had been revealed)
C) The surrender of Jesus to the will of the Father and the will of God being His purpose.
1) John 4:34 – “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.”
2) John 5:30, 6:38 – “Do the Fathers will”
3) Matthew 26:39 (Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42) - “Not my will but your Yours be done.”
D) Our Instruction to do the Fathers will
1) Matthew 6:10 - This is a very part of the pattern of prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.
2) Matthew 7:21(Luke 6:46) - “Only those who do the will of My Father”
3) Matthew 26:41 (Galatians 5:17, Romans 8:5-8) - “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” We are to surrender our flesh to the spirit
Reason #2 - “I never knew you!”
Abraham was (and is) a friend of God, Moses spoke to God face to face as one speaks to a friend, David was a man after Gods own heart, Enoch walked with God, Elijah talked with God, and so many other Prophets spoke with God and spoke His Word to the people... is it possible for us to know Jesus and actually have a living real relationship with Him? Not only is it possible but it is a part of our life with Him.
A) The Road to Emmaus – Luke 24:13-35 (allegory to life,)
1) Luke 24:13-16 - Jesus began walking with them as they were talking about Him but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.(ref. 2 Corinthians 3:6-18 & 4:3-6) The Journey was approximately seven miles.
2) Luke 24:17-24 - Jesus began to talk to them,and they began a conversation with Jesus (likened to prayer). Then they began to relay their understanding of Jesus all the way to the crucifixion, and burial, but they were perplexed over the idea of a resurrected Jesus (v22-24). Interesting that Peter and the Disciples were grieved at the times that Jesus said He was going to be crucified and die, but they never understood or heard the part of His message concerning the resurrection after three days (eg. Matthew 16:2, 16:22-23, Luke 18:31-33)
3) Luke 24:25-26 – Jesus rebukes the men for their lack of understanding of the Word of God concerning His death and resurrection, and reveals to them that His suffering and resurrection were all a part of Gods plan. (eg. Psalm 16:10, 22:14-18, 52 13-15 & 53:1-12)
4) Luke 24:27 – Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets Jesus explained Himself in all the Scriptures (There are so many Scriptures for this that it would be an extensive book)
5) Luke 24:28-29 - As they approached Emmaus Jesus acted as if He would pass by, they urged Him to come stay with them as the day was passing which is also a prophetic revelation of their current position with Jesus as well as ours. (Revelation 3:20, John 8:12, John 12:35-36)
6) Luke 24:30-31 – When Jesus broke bread with them their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. It is in the relationship where we walk with Jesus, we invite Him in, and we eat with Him that we come to know Him in intimacy and true relationship.
(Matthew 4:4, John 6:35-58, Luke 22:15-20)
7) When we come to know Him, we are known by Him, and we are His very own.
(John 10:14 & 27-28, John 14:6-7, and 1 John 2:3-6)
We see Him now in part in Heaven we will know Him as we are also known by Him. (1 Corinthians 13:12, 1 John 3:1-3)
And finally! We come to the last reason that Jesus said that “many” would not enter into the Kingdom of God no matter how many spiritual things they performed in His name which we read in Matthew 7:21-23 which actually begins in Matthew 7:13 where Jesus tells us that “gate” that leads to life (Heaven) is narrow and “few” find it, and the gate is “wide” that that leads to destruction (Hell) and “many” enter through it.
C) “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness
There is so much I could write here and I did..LOL! But it looks like I erased what I had written. Ck, not gonna lie, that was painful. The rest of this Bible study will come out soon and it will be more complete than what I am about to write but I just wanted to put a few things down to address this statement that Jesus made.
1) Galatians 2:16 – We know that no man is justified by the works of the law, so what did Jesus mean by saying “you who practice lawlessness?” (Galatians 3:1-14, Romans 3:20) We know that it is only by faith we can receive salvation (Hebrews 11:6, Ephesians 2:8, Acts 15:11).
We even have the story of the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-21, Matthew 19:16-22)
who came to Jesus and specifically asked Jesus what he must do to attain eternal life.
Jesus at first told him, “you know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.” and the young ruler said, “teacher all these things I have kept from my youth until now.” You will notice that Jesus didn't dispute that fact with him. And then the bible records in the Mark account of this story that Jesus, “felt a love for him.”
Some translations even say, “a great love for him.”.... Then Jesus said, “one thing you still lack.” For the sake of the study I'm going to stop the sentence right there. Jesus felt a love for the man, and yet Jesus love could not give the man and give him eternal life, and the he had kept the law since his youth all the way until now...And the law couldn't save him! How then is lawlessness an issue!
2) Matthew 22:36-40 - Jesus issues two main commandments. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. And the second is like it, 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” (translations vary slightly)
Before I say anything else I want to make it clear that we should never get the order of the importance of these two laws mixed up. If you ever put the commandment to 'love your neighbor as yourself' above the commandment to “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. “
Then you have just created a recipe for your church to become a social club with a cross on top of the building. Many man pleasing institutions that were established in Christ have lost sight of having Jesus as their first love and fallen away (Revelation 2:1-7 emph v4). And in our personal walk it is an equally bad result.
3) Mark 12:28-31 – In the Gospel of Mark account of Jesus answering the Scribe concerning which was the first and foremost commandment. Jesus answers with the same answer we saw in Matthew 22:37-40. but in Mark, the Scribe(Lawyer) acknowledges that Jesus was correct in His answer, which is true these commandments are actually given in the books of the law (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 & Leviticus 19:18), but in verse 34 Jesus says, “you are not far from the Kingdom of God.”... Again the law could not save the man, and...what is it that made him, “not far from the Kingdom of God?”
4) Deuteronomy 20:1-18 – This is the part of the Bible where we find the 10 Commandments and wow did I have a great Bible study on this...but...arrrgh. Oh well, That will be coming out soon. But I will point out in just a quick little sentence or two that the two Commandments Jesus gave actually encompass the 10 Commandments God gave Moses. Each of the 10 commandments could fall under either one of the two Commandments Jesus gave us.... And why are the Commandments Jesus gave so important in our relationship with Him?
5) John 14:21(John 14:15 & 15:10) - Jesus said that he who keeps His commandments is the one who loves Him, and that the Father will love that person, and Jesus will love that person and disclose Himself to them. We are to Love God with all of our hearts and to love our Brother as our self, but this is only possible with a transformed heart, which is something God promised to give to those who truly turned from their wickedness, repent and follow Him (Ezekiel 11:18-21, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5) and we know that salvation is by faith through the grace of God, (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 4:13-16 & 5:1)... So as I think about the people who cried out, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? Didn't they believe they were saved by the grace of God through faith? What did the law have to do with their salvation... The simple answer is that when we are truly transformed by Christ, when we have genuinely laid down our own lives, taken up our own crosses, and have followed Jesus with all of our hearts (Matthew 16:24-25) then there will be a very real change in our lives. And when we fall short of the commandments that Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin and we will respond with repentance desiring to please God and to stay in relationship with Him.
6) 1 John 2:3-6 – Question: Is it possible to truly love Jesus and not not keep His commandments? Answer: Nope! We must love God in truth and in deed. We saw how in Revelation 2:1-7 in the letter to Ephesus(The Church of the Ephesians) That you can be doing great things for God and still lose it all for the sin of losing God as your first love. And we can see that in 1 John 3:14-18 That to hate your brother is equal to murder (Matthew 5:21,22)... And to ignore Jesus Commandments is by definition: lawlessness.
7) Lastly I want to take a moment to point out that God's people were also warned about the literal condition of lawlessness which is open sin. I will point out just a few examples and also point out that we are even warned that in the last days lawlessness will increase which causes love to grow cold (Matthew 24:12), that's right, you will almost always find in scripture that lawlessness opposes love and that those that love Jesus, love each other and because they love Him, they keep His commandments.
But we can't “keep the law” by obedience alone but rather/also by living in the Spirit and those who walk by the Spirit overcome the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-18 & Romans 8:1-14)
Literal Lawlessness
8) Galatians 5:19-21 We are told that the deeds of the flesh will lead to death without repentance(2 Corinthians 12:20-21) and that those who do those things will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10, repentance leads to verse 11), walking in unrepentant sin and willful rebellion is a death sentence no matter what you profess, Matthew 7:21-23 is evidence of that.
We are told that in the last days that sin in the body of Christ will increase (1 Timothy 4:1, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, and 2 Timothy 4:3)...but we must be ready to combat those things by the prescription Paul gives to Timothy in (2 Timothy 4:2) and why? Because (2 Timothy 16 & Hebrews 4:12)
* also see - Romans 1:18-32, 1 Timothy 1:5-11)
This Bible study is about to become a bit bigger and in fact I think it will become a book. I have missed so many things in here that it definitely isn't complete. I hope by walking through this Bible study you will grow in your knowledge of scripture, truth, and a greater understanding of him who has called us, and saved us, and cleansed us, and is now forming us into His image from glory to Glory. And by Understanding Matthew 7:13-23 a little better and responding with the seriousness it deserves, then we can be encouraged by Matthew 7:24-27.
A Bible study by Daniel Paul Hoskins
4/17/24 (a work in progress)