Title: Spiritual Saints (2 Chronicles 07:12-16)
Contents Today, our Korean church is a nation that has received amazing blessings in a spiritual sense.
Even though it has only been 100 years since the Gospel was introduced, the Korean church has grown to the extent that what is sown with blood and sweat sprouts, grows, blossoms, and bears fruit, and has now grown to the point where churches are built all over the country.
William Pud, the founder of the Salvation Army, said, “The greatest danger in the 20th century is that there is religion but no Holy Spirit, atonement is preached, but regeneration is ignored, morality is there, but there is no fear of God, speaking of heaven but not hell. It will be the flow of the times.” He prophesied, but our Korean church has grown into a spiritual church as if rejecting these prophecies. In this sense, the Korean church is a blessed church.
When God sees humans, there are two main types of people. Those are the people of the flesh and the people of the spirit. Here, the fleshly person refers to a person who has not been saved, and when the meaning of the Greek is interpreted, it is interpreted in two ways.
The first is soma, which refers to a physiological body, and the second is sarx, which refers to a fallen and sinful body. “The natural man does not receive the Spirit of God, and to them it is foolishness, and they do not understand it, for they discern these things spiritually” (1 Corinthians 2:14-)
This natural person is not saved and is a natural person. These are the kinds of people who, if they do not repent and believe in Jesus, will perish and go to judgment. On the other hand, spiritual people refer to those who have been saved by believing in Jesus. However, the text tells us that this spiritual person is classified into two according to the maturity of their faith.
“Brothers, I cannot speak to you as I do to spiritual men, but as to carnal beings, to children in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1).
First, there are those who are carnal. This refers to those who believe in Jesus Christ and are born again, but the maturity of their faith is like a child, so they are immature and want to live in a worldly world. Contrary to this, when we refer to those who have been born again and whose faith has reached a mature stage, they are called spiritual saints.
“The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one” (1 Corinthians 2:15).
These saints have already grown in their faith and are people who do not live according to the lusts of the flesh, but live according to the Spirit. They are those who have received the full assurance of God and have become the owners of faith to receive victory, blessings, and rewards. Therefore, as we become saints today, we must not all become natural, but we must all grow in faith and become spiritual saints.
1. Those who worship in spirit and truth are spiritual saints.
“There is a time and now is when those who truly worship the Father will worship in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for such worshipers. God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).
Worship that is genuine and pleasing to God is worship offered only in spirit and truth, thanks to God's grace. Therefore, spiritual saints are those who rejoice in worshiping God in spirit and truth above all else.
“Will God really dwell on the earth with man? If the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot tolerate you, how much more will the temple that I have built come? Hear the prayer of the sound and the rain, and hear the prayer of your servant toward this place, day and night, toward the former place where You said, “I will put my name there” (2 Chronicles 6:18-20). )
Solomon built the house of God and prayed, and fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. I did. After that, God appeared to Solomon and said,
“I have already heard your prayers and have chosen this place to be a sacrifice for me. If I close the sky and do not bring down the boat, or if I cause locusts to eat the land, or if there is a pestilence among my people, If my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. I will lift up my eyes and incline to the prayers of this place, because I have chosen the former, I have sanctified it so that my name may dwell here forever; my eyes and my heart will always be here” (2 Chronicles 7:1-16).
The temple is a place where God's people worship in spirit and in truth, and God said that he would put his eyes and heart in that temple. Therefore, because the Jews were God-centered people, they were people who met God and lived according to God's revelation, so they led a temple-centered life where God's eyes and heart stayed. Indeed, Jews cannot live without a temple.
They met God, served, fellowshipped, and sacrificed in the temple of God. Today's worship is the fulfillment of this sacrificial law in Christ Jesus, and this worship must be offered only in spirit and truth.
“You come to be seen before me, and who has demanded it of you, and you tread only my courts” (Isaiah 1:12).
Indeed, God meets us through worship, and the attitude to attend that worship must be done with genuine sincerity. We should not have a worship service that only steps on the yard as a formality. Spiritual saints worship in spirit and truth.
Then, what is worship in spirit and in truth? First of all, this is worship in a state of holiness through complete repentance. Worship. Worship offered in this way is in spirit and in truth, and spiritual saints are the saints who offer this kind of worship.
2. Spiritual saints eat spiritual food.
“Therefore, putting away all malice, and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander, and like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Spirit, so that by this you may be saved” (1 Peter 2:1-2).
When you drink spiritual milk, you gain weight, gain spiritual power, and change into a spiritual form. To become a spiritual saint like this, you must eat spiritual food.
"You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were satisfied. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures forever" (John 6:26-17).
These are the words Jesus said to them when many people followed Him after Jesus gave thanks to 5 barley loaves and 2 fish and fed the 5,000 seniors, but after 12 loaves left behind. At that time, the purpose of many people who followed Jesus was to follow Jesus because they wanted to be satisfied and not starve.
To these people, Jesus said that the food of the flesh is only food that perishes, and there is food that does not perish, which is food for eternal life. This food of eternal life is the spiritual food.
A person lives and eats food, but just because he eats for this body does not mean he will live forever. Even if you eat the food of the body, you will die someday. Then, what is the food that never dies? That is the Word of God. The words of the Bible that contain the truth of eternal life are spiritual food and food for eternal life.
Spiritual saints are those who eat and live the word of God as the food of eternal life.
Therefore, spiritual saints are those who eat and live the word of God as food for eternal life. Therefore, spiritual saints cannot endure spiritual malnutrition without eating spiritual food. So, just as spiritual saints eat the food of the body every day, they cannot live without eating the Word of God, which is the food of the spirit.
General MacArthur, who was one of the spiritual saints, said, "I never eat bread for the body until I read the Bible in the morning." This also expresses the confession of this spiritual state. Not only this. The first president of the United States, George Washington, said, "Without the Bible, you cannot do politics right away." Newton, the scientist who discovered the gravitational force, said, 'The Word of God is the noblest philosophy above science. It is the food of life overflowing with authority and vitality that takes precedence over any other books, science, or material in the world, the Word of God.
The spiritual saints are the people who live by longing for this word of God.
3. Spiritual saints are saints who know how to distinguish spiritual things.
"Spiritual things are discerned by spiritual things. The natural do not receive the things of the Spirit of God, which to them are foolishness, and they do not understand them, for they discern these things spiritually" (1 Corinthians 2:13-14 )
This means that only spiritual believers can discern what is the good, perfect, and pleasing will of God. It is not worldly and carnal, but is given as a gift to spiritual saints regarding the eternal kingdom of heaven.
“He that is after the flesh sets mind for the things of the flesh, and the things of the Spirit according to the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:5).
A spiritual saint is one who not only discerns spiritual things like this, but also wants to live by fulfilling that spiritual one. Truly, they are spiritual powers who discern spiritual things and live by looking at spiritual things.
“Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, think of things above and not things of earth” (Colossians 3:1).
The hope of spiritual saints is only in heaven. Dear saints, where is your level of faith now? Are you a saint in the flesh, a saint in the spirit, a saint who worships in spirit and truth, or a saint who only attends worship formally? Are you a saint who lives by reading and meditating on a daily basis, isn't it? Are you a saint who discerns spiritual things and lives with heavenly things in mind, or are you still just a carnal saint who lives intoxicated with earthly things?
Now, I pray that all of us will become spiritual saints by quietly and humbly examining our faith status and repenting.