Master Thyself

"Master Thyself" - 1 Corinthians 9:27 (Jeremiah 35:12-19) The people of Judah stood in stark contrast to the sons of Jonadab. Judah became disobedient to God and would be punished. The Rechabites (Rechab, grandfather) would be rewarded by always having a "man before God." They were a nomadic tribe descended from the Kenites (1 Chronicles 2:55). They had become attached to Judah and continued to associate with them, but they did not identify with their way of life. Some think that the Rechabites were absorbed into the tribe of Levi and that this is how God's promise was fulfilled. Although we cannot identify the Rechabites today, we believe that their identity will be recognized in the Millennium.

I. (Daniel 1:8, 12) Nobly (faithfully, righteously, honestly) Daniel refused to eat of this food.

A. He asks if instead of this (the food and drink offered to him), he and his friends could eat legumes and drink water.

1. Daniel, take the step of what is inside him, purity.

2. That purity leads him to be brave and the brave take great risks.

3. The chief of the eunuchs does not know the customs of Daniel and his friends, he was horrified at the idea, observing that his head was in danger if the plan did not work!

4. Because, after all, he was responsible for them.

5. Daniel was the one who had to defend his life in faithfulness to God, even though they were in bondage to Babylon.

6. (Romans 7:22-23) Tendency to good and tendency to evil.

7. In every person there are two natures, which they call the tendency to good and the tendency to evil.

8. God created man free, He only said to him: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.

9. Obeying is the best thing for the good of our lives.

10. It is man's will to act faithfully, which was Adam's duty and thanksgiving.

11. God has put us before good or evil: stretch out your hand to what is preferred.

12. Before your eyes is life and death and you will be given what you choose.

13. If we take care to obey what God has commanded us, we never fall into the power of evil impulses.

14. Knowledge alone does not make anyone good.

15. Morality is the knowledge of a code (rules, laws); religion (religion = (beliefs about divinity) is the knowledge of a Person; and it is only when we know Christ that we can do what we know we ought to do.

16. Jesus is the only one who not only diagnoses evil but can heal it and make what is evil become good.

17. Jesus offers us healing in His blood, by His death.

18. (1 Timothy 4:7) Angrily dismiss profane fables (which are not sacred or serve sacred purposes).

19. It is an exercise that aims (objective, end, motive) "piety" (compassion, mercy, love of holy things).

20. The apostle advises Timothy to cast aside profane and old-fashioned "fables."

21. He doesn't have to fight them (fight, battle) or spend a lot of time on them.

22. Rather, he is to disdain (despise) them, treat them with contempt.

23. Instead of continuing to waste time on myths and fables, he should exercise himself for piety.

24. The exercise involves reading and studying the Bible, praying, and talking to others.

25. (1 Corinthians 9:27) Instead, he disciplined his "body" and put it in servitude (bondage, self-servant labor, subjection), "lest," having proclaimed others, he himself should be rejected or disqualified (discredit, eliminated, incapacitated).

26. In the Christian life there is a need for self-control, temperance, discipline.

27. We must practice self-control in order to reach the end, what God called us to do.

28. The Apostle Paul was aware of the terrible possibility that after having "proclaimed others," "he himself would be disqualified."

29. For we must simply know that one who fails to exercise self-discipline has never been saved.

30. Thinking of false teachers and how they owe themselves to every passion and appetite; Paul lays down the general principle that if someone does not keep his body in subjection, this is proof that he was "never born again"; and that, even if he could preach to others, he himself would be disqualified.

31. We are talking about service, not salvation.

32. He would never be lost but might not stand the test of his service and be rejected for the prize.

33. Paul recognizes the awful possibility that, "having proclaimed others, he himself might be discarded by the Lord and 'cease to be useful to Him.'"

34. This verse should lead to deep self-examination on the part of anyone seeking to serve the Lord Christ.

35. The example of the Israelites who indulged in their own appetites and "became careless" about disciplining their own bodies and thus became disqualified and disapproved.

36. Discipline, leave your own appetites, for then you are careless to discipline and carried away by the flesh, the risk is disqualification and disapproval, by God Himself, for the service of His work; do not look at me and say that it was I, God is the one who disqualifies. Amen