Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matthew 11:11

Somewhere, we have picked up some really heinous ideas and called them wisdom.  Take John…  He lived in the wilderness his whole life, fasting and praying, and preparing for Messiah.  He was to be the messenger, and he was to prepare the way for Jesus, so through him, all the world might be saved.  This was his mission, his job, and he knew it.  He knew it so well, that when Jesus’ “ministry” started to outshine his own, he didn’t even care.

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Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.

Matthew 13:52 (portion)

The product of knowing about the Kingdom is to bring forth treasures.  These treasures are New, created now.  We refer back to the word.

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It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

God wants us free.  He wants you free, He wants me free.  He wants me to point you to His freedom, and you to point me there.  He wants each of us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

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I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 (portion)

The only pure life is the life yielded to the Spirit.

If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

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If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

John 14:15

If you’re in it, you will live a certain way.

Most Happy are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 5:3

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The Dream

Daniel 7:1-3

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.

Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.

This is understood as the parallel to Daniel 2.  Daniel 2 was Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, this is Daniel’s.  While Nebuchadnezzar saw the kingdoms, Daniel apparently sees the spirits of the kingdoms.  The four winds church the great sea, and four distinct beasts came up out of it.

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Matthew 13:3-8

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Proverbs 4:23 says to keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issuings of life.  Jesus, when confronting Peter after His  resurrection, after that Peter had denied Him, asked Him three times, “Do you love me?” (John 21:15-17).  Three times, He asked Peter if he loved Him the way He himself loved Peter, unconditional, undemanding love.

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Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.

1 Peter 1:22

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).  This is what we are aiming for.

We are called to love.  The verse at the beginning indicates our problem.  We cannot love without God (1 John 4:7).  Why?  Because our souls are corrupt without Christ.

We are called to love from a pure heart, because it is only out of pure, sincere motives, that we can truly open up and be open to others, without being hurt.  It is in the place of His perfect love, with no fear, that we are able to truly be brothers.  This is the mark of the authentic gospel.

And, this cannot happen without sincere, gospel faith.  It simply can’t.  When you walk by the Spirit you do not gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Galatians 5:16).  It is by faith that we come to know and believe in God’s great love for us (1 John 4:16).  It is in the secret place of Him that we are able to live.

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In particular, Daniel 2:31-45.

The Dream

Daniel 2:31-35

You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

This was the substance of the dream of the king.  Some of the major points of what the king saw are:

• A large statue.  Enormous, Dazzling, Awesome
• Head of pure gold
• Chest and arms of silver
• Belly and thighs of bronze
• Legs of iron, feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay

The entire statue exists at the time of Nebuchadnezzar seeing it.  It has four parts, and they all comprise the same statue.

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This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Galatians 5:16

This verse is Paul’s advice on how to avoid sin.  This is the simple solution to the issue plaguing the church today.

I call it the Million Dollar Question, that is, why are new testament believers not living according to their new creation nature?  We know why the world does, because it’s in ’em.  But, why does a Christian?

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