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A good man
📖 Acts 11:19-30
20 – Tue19Nov2024 – *A good man* - _Acts 11:19-30_ – THE CHRISTIANS OF ANTIOCH – _Romans 06:10-14_
_Acts 11:23-26 When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. (24) For *he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith*. And a great many people were added to the Lord. (25) Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. (26) And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch._
*Barnabas was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.*
This is a delightful testimony of Barnabas. Goodness is from the Lord. _Mark 10:18 So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God._ People have varying opinions of good and evil, but goodness is only from the Lord.
Our pursuit and desire is to be good in the sight of God first, and also before man. _II Corinthians 4:2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth *commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God*._
Barnabas was a good man. _Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way._ God orders our steps. It indicates that God has authority over us. He is our King and we are His subjects. We are always in His kingdom. God delights in us, when our steps are ordered by Him. Is this the substance of our lives?
Who is the back slider? _Proverbs 14:14 The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above._ Are we filled with our own ways? Is this how we conduct our lives? If our lives are filled with our own ways will we repent, seek His forgiveness and be led by His Holy Spirit to fulfil righteousness? _Romans 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit._
Barnabas was living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. _Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh._ We cannot please God by the flesh. He cannot delight in us if we strive to please Him with our efforts. _Romans 8:8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God._
Barnabas was a good man because He was living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and not trapped by the flesh. _Galatians 5:24-25 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (25) If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit._
This is a tremendous reality of appropriating what Christ did for us on the cross. As long as we are in this body, the old or adamic nature in us will seek to take control over us. This is where, by faith, we are crucified with Christ. _Galatians 2:20 *I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me*; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me._
*Unless we die with Christ only then can we live with Christ.* _II Timothy 2:11 This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him._ We must die and our life must be hidden in Christ. _Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God._
Many of us struggle here as the flesh often takes over and we fall into sin. Jesus gave us the victory. The death that Jesus died is the death to sin once and for all. _Romans 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God._ If His death, burial and resurrection had not happened, we would not have any basis to live victoriously over sin in the flesh.
Having done this great work for us, He offers us this victorious life. _Romans 6:11-14 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (12) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. (13) And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (14) *For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace*._
This was how Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit. He was also a man of faith because this interface is cemented by faith. The life we live is a life of faith that all that God has made available to us by His grace is a reality in us.
```Many know what God has given us in Christ but are not appropriating the wealth of God because we do not receive the treasures of God by faith.```
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