Spiritual reality is God's holy spiritual law, the Torah, encompassing His precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, ordinances, testimonies, and words. His Son paid penalties accrued against it and modeled obedience while His Holy Spirit supplies power to keep it in letter and spirit, producing growth and character. This self-contained inner code illuminates from inside, proceeding from the Father and Elder Brother Jesus Christ to guide through false doctrine toward escape and the promised inheritance in His Kingdom. Life builds genuine character through continuous testing that draws responses and bears true fruit, exposing sin rather than illusion. Spiritual beings influence events, as when God and satan prompted David's census to reveal his self-reliance for correction.

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Rahab's Spiritual Reality

Sermonette by Bill Onisick

Because of her resolute action on behalf of the spies, God granted Rahab into the line leading to David and Christ. The just do indeed live by faith.

Our Spiritual Reality

Sermonette by Bill Onisick

Neither virtual reality nor spiritual reality can be seen with the naked eye—the first requires equipment, and the second requires eyes of faith.

Loving God's Law: The Thread of Reality

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon by David F. Maas

The thread of reality refers to God's holy spiritual law, the Torah, which encompasses the entire instruction and counsel of God. This law includes precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, ordinances, testimonies, and words. God the Father sent His Son to pay the penalties accrued against this law and to provide a model for keeping it. God also gave His Holy Spirit to supply the power to keep the law in both the letter and the spirit, leading to spiritual growth and the development of godly character. As God's Holy Spirit displaces carnality, the DNA of new spiritual bodies is received at the resurrection. The thread of reality functions as an inner code that is self-contained. Illumination comes from inside as it proceeds from the heavenly Father and the Elder Brother Jesus Christ. In the midst of cyclonic storms of false doctrine, Internet misinformation, and disinformation, the thread of reality, dwelling internally as God's Holy Spirit and God's law in action, guides to a way of escape or a place of safety. Following the Elder Brother's lead while holding the fence wire of God's holy law around the perimeter of worldliness leads to the promised inheritance in the safety of God's Kingdom.

Testing Spiritual Character

Sermon by Martin G. Collins

We live in a society that thrives on illusions, yet a Christian's life is a time of reality building rather than illusion. God has promised to rebuild us until we have holy righteous character, with the goal of helping us become a perfect man with the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, not just a convincing illusion but a genuine reality. To live an illusion in the area of individual character is literally sin, and people who spend all their time in a fantasy world become so accustomed to falseness and deceit that they no longer seem able to distinguish true from false and right from wrong. Spiritual character in the Bible involves action, as character is action and action is character. The Bible is a collection of test narratives in which life emerges as continuous testing, with events drawing out responses that define a person's character. The special vocabulary of testing occurs more than two hundred times in the English versions of the Bible, and in stories of testing the link between action and character is very close. When God tested Abraham by commanding him to offer his son Isaac, Abraham's prompt and decisive obedience demonstrated his character in which faith was the dominant ingredient. Testing produces character and shows where we stand with our character in relationship to God. The true test of spiritual character and right standing with God is that we bear good fruit, not the illusion of fruit but truly good fruit. A person can live an illusion in their life that fakes out other people, but the fruit they bear will expose them. True Christians do not live illusions. We have the truth, and with truth comes reality. The way we perceive ourselves and those around us reflects our spiritual character. God spends our lives training us and getting to know what we are really like, letting us know where we stand in relation to Him by constantly testing our spiritual character. The final test of our character is our fruits, how we live, what we say, and what we do.

Two Realities

Sermon by David C. Grabbe

At baptism, we begin living in two realities simultaneously, one identified by the physical senses and the other discerned by the eyes of faith.

God and Reality

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

What God puts us through is designed to reveal reality to us. Accepting His doctrine without looking for loopholes will keep us true.

Spiritual Strongholds (Part Two): Faithful Trust

Sermon by Martin G. Collins

The disastrous defeat at the city of Ai and the ill-advised treaty with the Gibeonites were both the direct result of not consulting with God.

Truth and God's Governance (Part One)

CGG Weekly by David C. Grabbe

Jesus as not a typical revolutionary, seeking to overthrow a human regime, yet the truth He spoke was so radical that He was put to death cruelly for it.

Why Wasn't Jesus Christ Crucified at the Start of Passover?

Sermonette by

Jesus was crucified late on Abib 14, yet the Passover lambs were to be killed at the beginning of the 14th. The time of Christ's death is highly significant.

Beware the Second Flood (Part Two)

CGG Weekly by David C. Grabbe

Our minds adapt to what we focus on. We can damage or even destroy faith through abuse or neglect. Without being refreshed in what He says, faith weakens.

Seeing the Invisible

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

Imagination, coupled by the power of the Holy Spirit, helps us to understand the power and reality of the invisible. Faith as a concept is immaterial.

After the Resurrection

Sermon by Mark Schindler

The absence of the 100 pounds of aloes, the folded 'turban,' and the rolled away stone indicate that a thorough cleansing and purification had occurred.

Truth and God's Governance (Part Three)

CGG Weekly by David C. Grabbe

God puts people where He wants them and gives them the responsibilities that He desires them to fulfill. They can be either faithful or unfaithful leaders.

Hebrews (Part Eight)

Sermon/Bible Study by

Jesus Christ's priesthood is superior to the Aaronic priesthood because Christ tenure is eternal rather than temporal, guaranteeing both continuity and quality.

Glory and Oneness

Sermonette by David C. Grabbe

In Christ's Passover prayer, He states that the glory the Father had given Him had also been given to the disciples. Christ's glory is the key to being one.

Let's Get Real!

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

We exist as imperfect shadows of God. As we follow the example of Christ, the real Light that reveals God's way, we also move from shadow to reality.

Hebrews (Part Five)

Sermon/Bible Study by

The ancient Israelites resisted the gospel, refusing to mix it with actual obedience. What they heard never became a part of their lives; Egypt never left them.

Why Was Jesus Not Crucified as Passover Began? (Part One)

'Ready Answer' by David C. Grabbe

The gospels show Jesus observing the Passover at the beginning of the 14th. Should we use the time when He observed it or the time He died as our guide?

Maintaining Good Health (Part 13)

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

Commitment to a course of action is essential for physical or spiritual success. Faith motivates and sustains right action, protecting us from wavering.

Hebrews (Part Thirteen)

Sermon/Bible Study by John W. Ritenbaugh

Abraham, the father of the faithful, did not have a blind faith; it was based upon observation of God's proven track record of faithfulness.

Hebrews (Part Three)

Sermon/Bible Study by John W. Ritenbaugh

Jesus blazed a trail, giving a pattern for qualifying (through suffering and resisting sin) for our responsibility as priests, reconnecting man and God.

Living by Faith and God's Justice

'Personal' from John W. Ritenbaugh

Among the spiritual realities that a faithful Christian must understand is God's sense of justice. The deaths of Nadab and Abihu are a case in point.

A House Built on Sand

CGG Weekly

Harvard postgraduates, Yale Law School professors, and countless others support policies that to the average citizen seem an affront to common sense.

The Ninth Commandment

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)

We must embody truth as did Jesus Christ, absolutely refusing to bear false witness in our words, our behavior, and our cumulative reputation.

Truth (Part 3)

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

With the Spirit of God—the light of God—we see the true shape and form of things, and reality appears as something we can see clearly. We find truth.