Acts 24:25b
"…Felix trembled, (that’s how much he considered it and he answered what? Paul, I’m ready to believe? No, but rather) answered, Go your way for this time;…"
What does that tell us? Felix hadn’t crossed it off. He hadn’t just adamantly told Paul - take off! I’ll never listen to you again. But he was postponing it. See? Postponing it, and that is just exactly what Paul is warning these Jews and Hebrews. Don’t postpone it for today, until tomorrow. See that’s the word throughout these chapters. Today, harden not your hearts as they did, and as Felix did. And see, every time that Felix would listen to Paul, what happened to his heart condition? Softer or harder? Well, harder. And now, read on and we’ll see what evidently happened to this man.
Acts 24:25b
"…Go your way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for you."
In other words, when we're more in line to step out of our wicked lifestyle and become a believer. When a more convenient season comes along, I’ll call for you. And then verse 26. On top of that, his wicked mind was looking for a bribe.
Acts 24:26a
"He (Felix) hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him; wherefore he sent for him the oftener,…"
So it wasn’t just once. Not even twice. Several times this Roman authority reasoned of righteousness and judgment to come. And every time, no doubt, his heart became harder and he says, "Well Paul, if you’re not ready to pay for your way out of here, then be gone." But now the reason we know that Felix never came to the place of redemption, he put it off and put it off, is because of verse 27. What’s the first word?
Acts 24:27
"But (he never responded) after the two years Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room; and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound."
And he did, you see, as far as we know, he came short. He never did step in to that which he saw was the right way and we think we see this throughout all of human history. How that mankind is either absolutely destitute of spiritual insight, or they play around like a cat with the mouse. Until finally, what happens invariably? That little mouse slips away. And man ends up where they did not believe it was possible a waiting their doom, eternally separated from God.
We had an old cat who had done that same thing just the other day. He had a mouse and played with it and played with it and I almost was getting frantic. Kill the poor thing! But, what do they do? They fool around and they fool around with it, and all of a sudden it gets away. Well, you see, that’s what happens to many people with God’s plan of salvation. They play around with it - oh, they consider it, they talk about it but they will never give in and accept God’s saving Grace and consequently, they come short of it. Well, that’s not God’s fault. God has done all He can do. And you want to remember, God never forces His salvation on anybody. It’s a matter of the free will, as God inspires us with the Spirit. He in fact requires us to surrender our free will into His will, so that by our obedience to Him by this action He is then able to see us and to hear us for this first real time. What we'll find out later is that we've gained more liberty than we ever had as a sinner, chained to Satan.
Alright, verse 2 here Paul continues the thought.
Hebrews 4:2a
"For to us was the Gospel preached, as well as to them:…"
Now don’t lose sight of our pronouns here. Who are the "them?" Israel at Kadesh-barnea. See that’s our whole idea of the lesson. Don’t forget Israel at Kadesh-barnea, when they had all the promises of God to go in and take Canaan without a drop of sweat or losing a drop of blood and because of unbelief turned away. Alright, Paul is using it again.
Hebrews 4:2a
"For to us (today in this Age of Grace under Paul’s Apostleship) was the Gospel preached."
Well, that’s easy enough to understand. We all know from Paul’s Gospel, that Christ died, was buried and rose from the dead, that that’s the means of salvation, our being identified in Christ during His taking of our place in this action. When we by way of inspiration of revelation see yourselves hung on the tree with Jesus then laid to rest, then raised the third day and then later to have ascended in Christ where we now sit in Him in the Holiest place on the very Throne of God at His right hand. The key is “IN Christ, IN Whom, and IN Him.” We have put away the world and the power of it to hold us, then daily we receive His Grace in our time of need.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXVIII
Now you know, we can almost stop with every word in Hebrews, can’t we? And we have been lately. What’s a promise? Well a promise is something that God has backed with His Omnipotence, with His Sovereignty and yes, with His Grace. And when God makes a promise, we can trust it. Because God will not lie. God will not play games. And so here again we have the evidence that God has given promises, promises, promises, not only to Israel but to the whole human race. So he says, let us wake up and be serious and take note:
Hebrews 4:1
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise (one of the promises of God) being left of us of entering into His rest that any of you should seem to come short of it."
What do you suppose he’s driving at? You know, so many of us had a criteria that we thought people had to go through to be genuinely saved. And unless they went through our circumscribed criteria, we had doubts. And we're sure that almost every group looks at some of these things this way. They’ve got their own idea of what God expects a person to do before God can save him.
And listen, God isn’t going to set up a whole bunch of restrictive rules and regulations for a sinner to go through before He’ll save him. God will save a person with, I suppose, so little going to him that most of us would say, hey, he could never be saved, and that’s exactly what Paul is saying. Now look at it again.
Hebrews 4:1b
"…lest, a promise being left us…"
Now if something has been left to you, what does that mean? It’s still yours. It hasn’t yet slipped away from you, it’s still there for you to cash in on. And so this is what he’s appealing. Lest some of these people have been wavering and yes they’re considering what Paul has got to offer, but they’re still being drawn by all the ramifications of legalism and Judaism. Paul says, God hasn’t given up on you. God hasn’t yet crossed you off. So why do you want to cross yourself off?
We know, many of us have heard sermons, I know we have, more than once, where a preacher will get up and he will just make a horrible example of someone who just stood out on a public square and shook his fist in God’s face and cursed God, and then they like to make a great big sensational event of it. And how that thirty minutes later, he was violently killed. Well, that may make good preaching, but it’s not Scripture. God never gives up on even a man who will shake his fist and curse God. You know why? Because even where sin abounds and that would be sinful, no doubt about it, but where that sin abounds, what’s even greater? God’s Grace! And so don’t you ever believe that kind of stuff that God gives up on a sinner. No, God never gives up until this soul departs. And so, this is again what Paul is saying, don’t you forget that God has not given up on you. There is still a part and parcel of His promises that are enough for you to latch on to and still escape that wrath to come. Alright, now let’s move on.
Hebrews 4:1b
"…let us fear, lest a promise being left (that’s still there to take a hold of) that of you (even the worst) should come (what?) short of it."
Now what’s the danger when someone tarries and lingers and fails to latch on to the promise of Salvation or the New Covenant? Well let us give you a good example. Come back with us to Acts 24, and we’ll just start with verse 24. Here, Paul, of course, is dealing with Felix.
Acts 24:24-25a
"After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ." (now verse 25.) And as he reasoned (Felix did. Just a rank unbeliever and as he reasoned) of righteousness, (in other words, God’s saving grace) temperance, and judgment to come,…"
What does that tell us? Paul laid out the whole picture. Paul didn’t refrain from telling him what his doom was going to be if he did not come into salvation. And so he reasoned of all these things that Paul had covered. The judgment to come.
Hebrews 4:1
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise (one of the promises of God) being left of us of entering into His rest that any of you should seem to come short of it."
What do you suppose he’s driving at? You know, so many of us had a criteria that we thought people had to go through to be genuinely saved. And unless they went through our circumscribed criteria, we had doubts. And we're sure that almost every group looks at some of these things this way. They’ve got their own idea of what God expects a person to do before God can save him.
And listen, God isn’t going to set up a whole bunch of restrictive rules and regulations for a sinner to go through before He’ll save him. God will save a person with, I suppose, so little going to him that most of us would say, hey, he could never be saved, and that’s exactly what Paul is saying. Now look at it again.
Hebrews 4:1b
"…lest, a promise being left us…"
Now if something has been left to you, what does that mean? It’s still yours. It hasn’t yet slipped away from you, it’s still there for you to cash in on. And so this is what he’s appealing. Lest some of these people have been wavering and yes they’re considering what Paul has got to offer, but they’re still being drawn by all the ramifications of legalism and Judaism. Paul says, God hasn’t given up on you. God hasn’t yet crossed you off. So why do you want to cross yourself off?
We know, many of us have heard sermons, I know we have, more than once, where a preacher will get up and he will just make a horrible example of someone who just stood out on a public square and shook his fist in God’s face and cursed God, and then they like to make a great big sensational event of it. And how that thirty minutes later, he was violently killed. Well, that may make good preaching, but it’s not Scripture. God never gives up on even a man who will shake his fist and curse God. You know why? Because even where sin abounds and that would be sinful, no doubt about it, but where that sin abounds, what’s even greater? God’s Grace! And so don’t you ever believe that kind of stuff that God gives up on a sinner. No, God never gives up until this soul departs. And so, this is again what Paul is saying, don’t you forget that God has not given up on you. There is still a part and parcel of His promises that are enough for you to latch on to and still escape that wrath to come. Alright, now let’s move on.
Hebrews 4:1b
"…let us fear, lest a promise being left (that’s still there to take a hold of) that of you (even the worst) should come (what?) short of it."
Now what’s the danger when someone tarries and lingers and fails to latch on to the promise of Salvation or the New Covenant? Well let us give you a good example. Come back with us to Acts 24, and we’ll just start with verse 24. Here, Paul, of course, is dealing with Felix.
Acts 24:24-25a
"After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ." (now verse 25.) And as he reasoned (Felix did. Just a rank unbeliever and as he reasoned) of righteousness, (in other words, God’s saving grace) temperance, and judgment to come,…"
What does that tell us? Paul laid out the whole picture. Paul didn’t refrain from telling him what his doom was going to be if he did not come into salvation. And so he reasoned of all these things that Paul had covered. The judgment to come.
Monday, May 28, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXVII
Romans 4:4a
"Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt."
He’s speaking of a religious person one who practices the works of the required demands under the Law. See, that is what we are dealing with in Hebrews. They were tied to their religion. What did their religion demand? Temple worship, the Sacrifices, keeping of the Feast Days. and yes, their tithes and offerings. All those things were part and parcel of their religion. But now, to him that worked the reward isn’t reckoned of Grace, but of debt. So anytime a religious person says, "I’m doing the best I can. I’m putting God in debt to me!" He owes me. Now, if somebody owes you, he’s in debt to you. We don’t care how you cut it. If he owes you, he’s in debt to you. Alright, that’s what the religionist (a bigoted person) is doing. He’s going to work, and work, and work and then point the finger at God and say, "Now, you owe me. You’ve got to pay off. You’ve got to let me into your heaven." But it isn’t going to work that way because the next verse says:
Romans 4:5a
"But to him that works not,…"
See now, Israel again back to Kadesh, and we can’t help but to go back there. Israel at Kadesh, how much were they going to have to do to enjoy the Promised Land? Nothing! Just walk in and enjoy it. Isn’t that something? And they rejected it because of unbelief. Alright now, here we come again.
Romans 4:5a
"But to him that works not, but believes…" That’s the other word for trust and faith. That when we believe what God has said and we believe Him who justifies the ungodly, not the person who is worthy of it.
Romans 4:5
"But to him that works not, but believes, on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
Let’s go back once again to Hebrews chapter 3 and we think that maybe we will slip into chapter 4. Alright, chapter 3 again verse 19. Boy, we want to hear it in our sleep.
Hebrews 3:19
"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."
So then, they entered not because of unbelief. Nothing else. Unbelief. Now see, had they been able to believe God and if they would have gone in as a nation of believers, do you see what God could have done? Oh, He could have blessed them. they would have entered His rest. They could have been a fabulous nation of people. But instead they had to go back out and die and their carcasses rotted in the wilderness, for forty years. Now,let’s look at the Nation of Israel with a better opportunity and that was when Christ came in His first advent. It’s almost a repeat. The Nation could have had everything. They could have had the Kingdom, and they could have had the King. He offered Himself. But what did they do? They crucified Him and God in His love and mercy came back and again, just like the forty years of wilderness, what did God do with the Nation of Israel through that forty years of the Book of Acts from His crucifixion until finally the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. We have almost a repeat performance. They rejected the offer of everything that only asked for their trust. And, as a result they went through the forty years of the Book of Acts which culminated then with the destruction of the Temple, the city and the nation.
He was God the Son. He was the Creator. He was the Sustainer. And He was also, of course, the Redeemer. Not just of the Hebrews but of all mankind. And consequently Paul uses the verse that He tasted death for every man, not just the Hebrew. But for the whole world.
As we’ve come through these first three chapters, this has been the emphasis, of Who God the Son really is and what He has done and how even we, as non-Jews, must understand. Now, as in chapter 3, the Apostle is using the horrible dilemma of Israel’s refusing to go into the Land of Promise at Kadesh-Barnea, in particular, when as we all now know the account, in unbelief. What God said they could do, Israel said, no we can’t. We guess if there was any one act of disobedience in all of Israel’s history that perturbed God the most, that was it. They could have fallen as they did at Mount Sinai into idol worship around that golden calf. They went into various other times of rank disobedience, but nothing pops up over and over in Scripture as an example of abject disobedience brought about by unbelief as Kadesh-Barnea.
We have to remind ourself and others that Paul is the master builder and as such he has built upon the foundation of Christ the cornerstone now crucified and resurrected as Lord and our redeemer bringing us to Newness of Life (spiritually a live in Christ) and through this life to our salvation and hope of glory. Paul as the master builder set the plumb line to the structure of which we have been placed by God into this structure or framework, of God's temple or the spiritual Body of Christ. Which had been held as a secret hid in God and which Jesus could only allude to during His earthly ministry to Israel. As He was bound under the covenants to stay within there framework and the Law (the law of commandment as given to Adam and the Levitical Law as given to Moses for the Hebrew only) and prophets.
So this is constantly brought up in Scripture, as an example not only to Israel, but to everyone of us, that there is nothing that God detests like unbelief. He can forgive a lot of things. He can, you might say, in His Grace, put up with a lot of the wickedness and the unbelief in other areas, but when it comes to abject unbelief of something that is so easily understood as our Gospel of His Grace and the New Covenant of Grace is, then the wrath of God is kindled. And so when we stop and realize that the vast majority of the human race is headed for the lake of fire, don’t blame God. A lot of people do. They say, "How can a Holy God send people to a place like that?" Listen, God didn’t send them. They chose to go. And how did they choose to go? By refusing to believe something so simple as Paul’s beautiful Gospel, that Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and all we have to do is believe it for salvation.
And so this has been the whole emphasis now, especially in chapter 3 and even as we come in to chapter 4. Don’t forget what Israel did at Kadesh-barnea, as they failed to believe what God told them. Alright, verse 1. So it starts out with one of Paul’s favorite words, "therefore." Because of what we’ve already covered in these first three chapters.
Hebrews 4:1a
"Let us therefore fear,…"
Now that’s not the kind of a fear that just simply sends us out of our common sense. It rather, is a fear that makes us stop and take notice. This is a fear that makes us stop and really listen to what God has said. And so he said:
Hebrews 4:1a
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise…"
"Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt."
He’s speaking of a religious person one who practices the works of the required demands under the Law. See, that is what we are dealing with in Hebrews. They were tied to their religion. What did their religion demand? Temple worship, the Sacrifices, keeping of the Feast Days. and yes, their tithes and offerings. All those things were part and parcel of their religion. But now, to him that worked the reward isn’t reckoned of Grace, but of debt. So anytime a religious person says, "I’m doing the best I can. I’m putting God in debt to me!" He owes me. Now, if somebody owes you, he’s in debt to you. We don’t care how you cut it. If he owes you, he’s in debt to you. Alright, that’s what the religionist (a bigoted person) is doing. He’s going to work, and work, and work and then point the finger at God and say, "Now, you owe me. You’ve got to pay off. You’ve got to let me into your heaven." But it isn’t going to work that way because the next verse says:
Romans 4:5a
"But to him that works not,…"
See now, Israel again back to Kadesh, and we can’t help but to go back there. Israel at Kadesh, how much were they going to have to do to enjoy the Promised Land? Nothing! Just walk in and enjoy it. Isn’t that something? And they rejected it because of unbelief. Alright now, here we come again.
Romans 4:5a
"But to him that works not, but believes…" That’s the other word for trust and faith. That when we believe what God has said and we believe Him who justifies the ungodly, not the person who is worthy of it.
Romans 4:5
"But to him that works not, but believes, on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
Let’s go back once again to Hebrews chapter 3 and we think that maybe we will slip into chapter 4. Alright, chapter 3 again verse 19. Boy, we want to hear it in our sleep.
Hebrews 3:19
"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."
So then, they entered not because of unbelief. Nothing else. Unbelief. Now see, had they been able to believe God and if they would have gone in as a nation of believers, do you see what God could have done? Oh, He could have blessed them. they would have entered His rest. They could have been a fabulous nation of people. But instead they had to go back out and die and their carcasses rotted in the wilderness, for forty years. Now,let’s look at the Nation of Israel with a better opportunity and that was when Christ came in His first advent. It’s almost a repeat. The Nation could have had everything. They could have had the Kingdom, and they could have had the King. He offered Himself. But what did they do? They crucified Him and God in His love and mercy came back and again, just like the forty years of wilderness, what did God do with the Nation of Israel through that forty years of the Book of Acts from His crucifixion until finally the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. We have almost a repeat performance. They rejected the offer of everything that only asked for their trust. And, as a result they went through the forty years of the Book of Acts which culminated then with the destruction of the Temple, the city and the nation.
He was God the Son. He was the Creator. He was the Sustainer. And He was also, of course, the Redeemer. Not just of the Hebrews but of all mankind. And consequently Paul uses the verse that He tasted death for every man, not just the Hebrew. But for the whole world.
As we’ve come through these first three chapters, this has been the emphasis, of Who God the Son really is and what He has done and how even we, as non-Jews, must understand. Now, as in chapter 3, the Apostle is using the horrible dilemma of Israel’s refusing to go into the Land of Promise at Kadesh-Barnea, in particular, when as we all now know the account, in unbelief. What God said they could do, Israel said, no we can’t. We guess if there was any one act of disobedience in all of Israel’s history that perturbed God the most, that was it. They could have fallen as they did at Mount Sinai into idol worship around that golden calf. They went into various other times of rank disobedience, but nothing pops up over and over in Scripture as an example of abject disobedience brought about by unbelief as Kadesh-Barnea.
We have to remind ourself and others that Paul is the master builder and as such he has built upon the foundation of Christ the cornerstone now crucified and resurrected as Lord and our redeemer bringing us to Newness of Life (spiritually a live in Christ) and through this life to our salvation and hope of glory. Paul as the master builder set the plumb line to the structure of which we have been placed by God into this structure or framework, of God's temple or the spiritual Body of Christ. Which had been held as a secret hid in God and which Jesus could only allude to during His earthly ministry to Israel. As He was bound under the covenants to stay within there framework and the Law (the law of commandment as given to Adam and the Levitical Law as given to Moses for the Hebrew only) and prophets.
So this is constantly brought up in Scripture, as an example not only to Israel, but to everyone of us, that there is nothing that God detests like unbelief. He can forgive a lot of things. He can, you might say, in His Grace, put up with a lot of the wickedness and the unbelief in other areas, but when it comes to abject unbelief of something that is so easily understood as our Gospel of His Grace and the New Covenant of Grace is, then the wrath of God is kindled. And so when we stop and realize that the vast majority of the human race is headed for the lake of fire, don’t blame God. A lot of people do. They say, "How can a Holy God send people to a place like that?" Listen, God didn’t send them. They chose to go. And how did they choose to go? By refusing to believe something so simple as Paul’s beautiful Gospel, that Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and all we have to do is believe it for salvation.
And so this has been the whole emphasis now, especially in chapter 3 and even as we come in to chapter 4. Don’t forget what Israel did at Kadesh-barnea, as they failed to believe what God told them. Alright, verse 1. So it starts out with one of Paul’s favorite words, "therefore." Because of what we’ve already covered in these first three chapters.
Hebrews 4:1a
"Let us therefore fear,…"
Now that’s not the kind of a fear that just simply sends us out of our common sense. It rather, is a fear that makes us stop and take notice. This is a fear that makes us stop and really listen to what God has said. And so he said:
Hebrews 4:1a
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise…"
Sunday, May 27, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXVI
II Peter 1:15-16a
"Moreover I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. (remember, Peter too is writing to the Jews of his day more than to us Gentiles. Now watch this, this is the verse that I had on my mind.) For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,…"
And we know that is exactly what the scoffers call this Book? We read again just awhile back, where someone was ridiculing the Bible as nothing more than a bunch of campfire stories concocted while the Israelites were in antiquity and they brought all these things to mind as they were sitting around their ancient campfires. But Peter says, "no, these are not cunningly devised fables."
II Peter 1:16b-17
"…when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father, honour and glory, (now he is speaking of the Transfiguration.) when there came such a voice to him from the excellent Glory, This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Now remember, that was on the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter, James and John were met with Moses and Elijah. And God spoke from Heaven. Alright now verse 18. Peter says, "This voice which came from Heaven, we heard!" Proof positive that God is real. He is the Living God as we saw earlier.
II Peter 1:18-19
"And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. (The Mount of Transfiguration. Now verse 19) We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your own hearts:"
In other words, Peter is speaking of a Spiritual enlightening, that we can grasp these things. We can believe them and we don’t have to doubt them because we understand that God has proven Himself over and over by fulfilling prophetic statements and more. The more is that He is still speaking to us through His Son, the day star which has dawned in our heart. But to whom does this apply, is the question or the mystery. Now verse 20.
II Peter 1:20
"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation,"
In other words, we don’t just take one little tidbit here and pull it out and do whatever we want with it. We have to compare Scripture with Scripture. We have to use the whole to see the part. In order to understand the parts or pieces and the layers as an onion. Yehovah means the ever revealing one or progressive revelation of who “I am.” (found in Exodus 3:14) He does this by speaking to us through His Son much like he did with Peter (Matthew 16:16, John 11:27).
II Peter 1:21
"For the prophecy (the Word of God,) came not in old time by the will of man: (they didn’t sit around a campfire and concoct these things.) but holy (or set apart) men of God spake as they were moved (or inspired) by the Holy Ghost."
That’s how our Book came together. This is not cunningly devised fables. It is the Word of God and consequently God expects us to believe it. Alright now then we're going to take us back, we used the verse some time ago. We're going to bring you back to Romans chapter 4. We are going to look at Abraham for just a second, because we're not losing sight of what we’ve been looking at in Hebrews 3 and we will again in Hebrews 4. How that Israel at Kadesh-Barnea, with the full opportunity of entering into the land of Canaan, a rest of sorts, as they didn’t have to work, and they didn’t have to fight. All they had to do was take it by what? Faith! Again by passing through the waters, might be good to point this out that they passed through waters twice and the spiritual meaning is? Believe it and move in and take it. But, they couldn’t do it. Alright now, Abraham is just the opposite. Now verse 1 of chapter 4 of Romans.
Romans 4:1-2
"What shall we say then that Abraham our Father, as pertaining to the flesh, (that is the Father of the Jewish race) has found? For if Abraham were justified by works, (see that is what all religion demands. Religion will always give you a set of works) he has whereof to glory; but not before God."
If that was possible, he could get to Heaven and say, "Look God, what I did, how I deserve to be here." But he’ll never be able to do that before God. Now verse 3.
Romans 4:3a
"For what say the scripture? (What does the Word of God say? The Word of God says) Abraham believed God,…"
It doesn’t say that Abraham went out and sacrificed. Doesn’t say that Abraham went out and did this or that or some other thing. All Abraham did was took God at His Word, plus nothing! He believed God, he trusted Him. Now then reading on:
Romans 4:3b
"…and it was counted unto him for righteousness."
God declared him righteous because he could believe. Now, it is no different today. The moment a sinner believes, God accounts him as righteous. But, at the same time God empowers him to live righteously. That’s where we get the ability and the power to live a saints life. You can’t do it in the flesh. It is impossible and none of us can. But God empowers us and if we draw on that power, then it is possible to depart from these things that the Bible calls iniquity and we, like Abraham, can walk as people of trust. Verse 4.
Romans 4:4a
"Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt."
"Moreover I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. (remember, Peter too is writing to the Jews of his day more than to us Gentiles. Now watch this, this is the verse that I had on my mind.) For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,…"
And we know that is exactly what the scoffers call this Book? We read again just awhile back, where someone was ridiculing the Bible as nothing more than a bunch of campfire stories concocted while the Israelites were in antiquity and they brought all these things to mind as they were sitting around their ancient campfires. But Peter says, "no, these are not cunningly devised fables."
II Peter 1:16b-17
"…when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father, honour and glory, (now he is speaking of the Transfiguration.) when there came such a voice to him from the excellent Glory, This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Now remember, that was on the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter, James and John were met with Moses and Elijah. And God spoke from Heaven. Alright now verse 18. Peter says, "This voice which came from Heaven, we heard!" Proof positive that God is real. He is the Living God as we saw earlier.
II Peter 1:18-19
"And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. (The Mount of Transfiguration. Now verse 19) We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your own hearts:"
In other words, Peter is speaking of a Spiritual enlightening, that we can grasp these things. We can believe them and we don’t have to doubt them because we understand that God has proven Himself over and over by fulfilling prophetic statements and more. The more is that He is still speaking to us through His Son, the day star which has dawned in our heart. But to whom does this apply, is the question or the mystery. Now verse 20.
II Peter 1:20
"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation,"
In other words, we don’t just take one little tidbit here and pull it out and do whatever we want with it. We have to compare Scripture with Scripture. We have to use the whole to see the part. In order to understand the parts or pieces and the layers as an onion. Yehovah means the ever revealing one or progressive revelation of who “I am.” (found in Exodus 3:14) He does this by speaking to us through His Son much like he did with Peter (Matthew 16:16, John 11:27).
II Peter 1:21
"For the prophecy (the Word of God,) came not in old time by the will of man: (they didn’t sit around a campfire and concoct these things.) but holy (or set apart) men of God spake as they were moved (or inspired) by the Holy Ghost."
That’s how our Book came together. This is not cunningly devised fables. It is the Word of God and consequently God expects us to believe it. Alright now then we're going to take us back, we used the verse some time ago. We're going to bring you back to Romans chapter 4. We are going to look at Abraham for just a second, because we're not losing sight of what we’ve been looking at in Hebrews 3 and we will again in Hebrews 4. How that Israel at Kadesh-Barnea, with the full opportunity of entering into the land of Canaan, a rest of sorts, as they didn’t have to work, and they didn’t have to fight. All they had to do was take it by what? Faith! Again by passing through the waters, might be good to point this out that they passed through waters twice and the spiritual meaning is? Believe it and move in and take it. But, they couldn’t do it. Alright now, Abraham is just the opposite. Now verse 1 of chapter 4 of Romans.
Romans 4:1-2
"What shall we say then that Abraham our Father, as pertaining to the flesh, (that is the Father of the Jewish race) has found? For if Abraham were justified by works, (see that is what all religion demands. Religion will always give you a set of works) he has whereof to glory; but not before God."
If that was possible, he could get to Heaven and say, "Look God, what I did, how I deserve to be here." But he’ll never be able to do that before God. Now verse 3.
Romans 4:3a
"For what say the scripture? (What does the Word of God say? The Word of God says) Abraham believed God,…"
It doesn’t say that Abraham went out and sacrificed. Doesn’t say that Abraham went out and did this or that or some other thing. All Abraham did was took God at His Word, plus nothing! He believed God, he trusted Him. Now then reading on:
Romans 4:3b
"…and it was counted unto him for righteousness."
God declared him righteous because he could believe. Now, it is no different today. The moment a sinner believes, God accounts him as righteous. But, at the same time God empowers him to live righteously. That’s where we get the ability and the power to live a saints life. You can’t do it in the flesh. It is impossible and none of us can. But God empowers us and if we draw on that power, then it is possible to depart from these things that the Bible calls iniquity and we, like Abraham, can walk as people of trust. Verse 4.
Romans 4:4a
"Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt."
Saturday, May 26, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXV
But, we know one thing. It’s something to make us think, because you see we are in the same dilemma in Christendom today. We know, that’s like we kind of enjoy getting into some different denominations once in a while. Because you see, twenty or thirty years ago, we would probably have thought that none of those had the truth. But they do! We're finding that almost in any group you’ve got a certain number of people who have a true salvation. They love the Lord, and they love this Book. In other groups that you probably think, oh, they are all Christians, they’ve got no love for the Book nor for each other. So you see, we can’t judge. There is no way we can determine how many of that group are saved. We don’t know. Only God knows our heart and whether we're wholly His, that is with our wholeheart trusting in His faith.
We think this whole experience at Kadesh is a sobering experience because they were all lost, because they refused to go in because of unbelief? Was their trusting become Faith by way of its being exercised, coming through the Red Sea all become vain? We don’t think so. But we can’t do anything but speculate. We would never say that they were all lost or that they were all saved or that half of them were. We would like to think some of them were. Because even in Israel’s history when the nation, for the most part, was going down the tube and they were succumbing to idolatry. Did they all? We don’t think so. Even when Elijah said, "You know Lord, I am the only one left." But what did God say? "No Elijah, we have seven thousand left." Even though the vast majority of Israel followed in the words of Baal, yet seven thousand remained true to Yehovah or in English Jehovah. (point of interest the Hebrew alphabet did not have the letter “J”. That is why we use the letter "Y".)
And so, all up through Israel’s history, we're sure there were always a percentage of people who were aghast at what their leadership was doing. They were aghast at the gross immorality of the majority of people who were following pagan gods and goddesses. Then you know what we have to think? We are in the same boat today. We are getting more and more where the majority is now rejecting everything Biblical. We are seeing it, as it’s a culture war in America today, we know it is. And here we are as believers, getting smaller and smaller percentage-wise, and one day God’s going to judge this nation like He has every other nation that turns against Him, so what’s our only hope? Our only hope is that the Lord will return before that day comes. Because it’s coming. We were just rereading the Church Age portion at the end of the book of "Enoch" about his vision of these later days as the LORD the Spirit had revealed it to him. Ya! know its spot on, no wonder Jesus quoted from this book throughout His earthly ministry to Israel.
Even though we have a percentage as Abraham had when he bargained with God over Sodom and Gomorrah. What did Abraham say? "Now, Lord if there’s ten in Sodom, would you spare it?" Yeah. But He didn’t have ten and so God destroyed it. So here’s the sobering thought: if these Israelites who came out of Egypt by faith through the experience of the Red Sea with water piled up on both sides and yet were able to come up here to Kadesh with nothing any harder to believe that we can see, than to walk into the Promised Land. Go in and take the land of Canaan. They couldn’t do it because of unbelief. And they wept. They cried all night and then, horror of horrors, what did they ask to do. Send us back to Egypt. Send us back to the slave yards. Oh, that is almost beyond human comprehension. But here again God had shown this all to Enoch as he has written of it before the flood.
So, here is the constant lesson in these two chapters of Hebrews. Don’t forget what can happen to people when their hearts are hardened by unbelief, and when they can no longer trust the Word of God. And see, we have said it, we think America can be, to a certain degree, a parallel of the Nation of Israel. We have been singularly blessed as a nation. No other nation on earth has enjoyed the Spiritual and material blessings that we have in America. But does that mean that God will never, never change blessing us? We don’t think so. We think the day is coming when God is going to have to come up and judge America for the responsibilities that we have walked under foot. They are the rules and the penalty for disobedience of this Grace Gospel and the New Covenant of Grace given to us to adhere to. Why? Because we're guilty of walking on the Blood of that Covenant and making a mockery of Him and it. We stand in the same condition as Israel, in denial of the Lord the Spirit and His Covenant.
And you know we're always rehearsing our Founding Fathers. My when they got at loggerheads, and they had some big problems to overcome, and don’t think they didn’t. Number one was, how can the small states maintain a representation, like Massachusetts and Vermont and so forth, against the big states like Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia. And, boy, it was a tough one to crack. But, we've said it over and over, and we read it in a secular magazines, not in any religious magazine, but in a secular magazines. What did those men do when they got to the place that they just couldn’t make any more headway? They dismissed and went into prayer rooms. They got down on their knees, everyone of them and they prayed, that the God of Heaven would give them wisdom. That’s our heritage. That’s where we’ve come from.
And then today, they ridicule the concept that our President would even think to pray in the morning. We hope people realize that’s what they are doing. They are ridiculing him for it. When our Attorney General, John Ashcroft, tried to have a Bible Study, they ridicule him for it. Well, that’s exactly the way it got in Israel. Just go back and read some of the prophecies of Jeremiah and so forth. But now, our question is, were they all that steeped in unbelief? We don’t think so, but the minority of the believers had to suffer the results of the majority in their unbelief. And so, this is the constant reminder now then, as we look at it again in verse 17.
Hebrews 3:17a
"But with whom was He grieved those forty years?…"
While they were dying off in the wilderness, one commentary puts it, that they moved from place to place and the bones were just about covering the ground of where they left, as they were dying by the hundreds for forty years. See?
Hebrews 3:17b-18
"…was it not with them who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but to him that believed not?"
It just repeats unbelief and repeats it and repeats it! The biggest tragedy for Israel, as well as for the human race in general, is unbelief. God says it and He expects us to believe it. And as we've said in an earlier part of this outline, He’s proven himself with fulfilled prophecy. No other book on earth can tell things a hundred years in advance, let alone 3 or 500. But this Book does. And it is being fulfilled to the jot and tittle and it will be fulfilled to the complete jot and tittle. And so here is why we can believe it. It has proven itself. Let’s see what Peter even calls it. In II Peter, chapter 1.
We think this whole experience at Kadesh is a sobering experience because they were all lost, because they refused to go in because of unbelief? Was their trusting become Faith by way of its being exercised, coming through the Red Sea all become vain? We don’t think so. But we can’t do anything but speculate. We would never say that they were all lost or that they were all saved or that half of them were. We would like to think some of them were. Because even in Israel’s history when the nation, for the most part, was going down the tube and they were succumbing to idolatry. Did they all? We don’t think so. Even when Elijah said, "You know Lord, I am the only one left." But what did God say? "No Elijah, we have seven thousand left." Even though the vast majority of Israel followed in the words of Baal, yet seven thousand remained true to Yehovah or in English Jehovah. (point of interest the Hebrew alphabet did not have the letter “J”. That is why we use the letter "Y".)
And so, all up through Israel’s history, we're sure there were always a percentage of people who were aghast at what their leadership was doing. They were aghast at the gross immorality of the majority of people who were following pagan gods and goddesses. Then you know what we have to think? We are in the same boat today. We are getting more and more where the majority is now rejecting everything Biblical. We are seeing it, as it’s a culture war in America today, we know it is. And here we are as believers, getting smaller and smaller percentage-wise, and one day God’s going to judge this nation like He has every other nation that turns against Him, so what’s our only hope? Our only hope is that the Lord will return before that day comes. Because it’s coming. We were just rereading the Church Age portion at the end of the book of "Enoch" about his vision of these later days as the LORD the Spirit had revealed it to him. Ya! know its spot on, no wonder Jesus quoted from this book throughout His earthly ministry to Israel.
Even though we have a percentage as Abraham had when he bargained with God over Sodom and Gomorrah. What did Abraham say? "Now, Lord if there’s ten in Sodom, would you spare it?" Yeah. But He didn’t have ten and so God destroyed it. So here’s the sobering thought: if these Israelites who came out of Egypt by faith through the experience of the Red Sea with water piled up on both sides and yet were able to come up here to Kadesh with nothing any harder to believe that we can see, than to walk into the Promised Land. Go in and take the land of Canaan. They couldn’t do it because of unbelief. And they wept. They cried all night and then, horror of horrors, what did they ask to do. Send us back to Egypt. Send us back to the slave yards. Oh, that is almost beyond human comprehension. But here again God had shown this all to Enoch as he has written of it before the flood.
So, here is the constant lesson in these two chapters of Hebrews. Don’t forget what can happen to people when their hearts are hardened by unbelief, and when they can no longer trust the Word of God. And see, we have said it, we think America can be, to a certain degree, a parallel of the Nation of Israel. We have been singularly blessed as a nation. No other nation on earth has enjoyed the Spiritual and material blessings that we have in America. But does that mean that God will never, never change blessing us? We don’t think so. We think the day is coming when God is going to have to come up and judge America for the responsibilities that we have walked under foot. They are the rules and the penalty for disobedience of this Grace Gospel and the New Covenant of Grace given to us to adhere to. Why? Because we're guilty of walking on the Blood of that Covenant and making a mockery of Him and it. We stand in the same condition as Israel, in denial of the Lord the Spirit and His Covenant.
And you know we're always rehearsing our Founding Fathers. My when they got at loggerheads, and they had some big problems to overcome, and don’t think they didn’t. Number one was, how can the small states maintain a representation, like Massachusetts and Vermont and so forth, against the big states like Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia. And, boy, it was a tough one to crack. But, we've said it over and over, and we read it in a secular magazines, not in any religious magazine, but in a secular magazines. What did those men do when they got to the place that they just couldn’t make any more headway? They dismissed and went into prayer rooms. They got down on their knees, everyone of them and they prayed, that the God of Heaven would give them wisdom. That’s our heritage. That’s where we’ve come from.
And then today, they ridicule the concept that our President would even think to pray in the morning. We hope people realize that’s what they are doing. They are ridiculing him for it. When our Attorney General, John Ashcroft, tried to have a Bible Study, they ridicule him for it. Well, that’s exactly the way it got in Israel. Just go back and read some of the prophecies of Jeremiah and so forth. But now, our question is, were they all that steeped in unbelief? We don’t think so, but the minority of the believers had to suffer the results of the majority in their unbelief. And so, this is the constant reminder now then, as we look at it again in verse 17.
Hebrews 3:17a
"But with whom was He grieved those forty years?…"
While they were dying off in the wilderness, one commentary puts it, that they moved from place to place and the bones were just about covering the ground of where they left, as they were dying by the hundreds for forty years. See?
Hebrews 3:17b-18
"…was it not with them who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but to him that believed not?"
It just repeats unbelief and repeats it and repeats it! The biggest tragedy for Israel, as well as for the human race in general, is unbelief. God says it and He expects us to believe it. And as we've said in an earlier part of this outline, He’s proven himself with fulfilled prophecy. No other book on earth can tell things a hundred years in advance, let alone 3 or 500. But this Book does. And it is being fulfilled to the jot and tittle and it will be fulfilled to the complete jot and tittle. And so here is why we can believe it. It has proven itself. Let’s see what Peter even calls it. In II Peter, chapter 1.
Friday, May 25, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXIV
Matthew 16:16-17
"And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. (now look what Jesus said in verse 17.) Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father which is in heaven."
So how did Peter understand that Jesus was the Christ? God opened his understanding! See? God did it! And so never forget that true trust becomes by way of inspiration or revelation, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God! Or we could say by the voice of God uttered eons ago. To see this look back at our word study listed just above. Its when we receive the illumination of revelation within ourselves that we know that we know.......and from within there is no changing or debate. We just KNOW!
Hebrews 3:15a
"While it is said, Today…"
Remember, I have been emphasizing this today so far as these people are concerned and so far as we are concerned is this Age of Grace. Where as that it isn’t limited to the Hebrews, and it’s not limited to the Gentile. It’s not limited to any one class of people but it’s for the whosoever will! Now verse 15 again.
Hebrews 3:15-16a
"While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard,…" In other words, when God spoke and said, "Go in and take the land. It’s waiting for you. I’ll drive the Canaanites out." Alright, to them that was the good news. That was all they needed to know, but they couldn’t believe it! Alright, so let’s finish the verse:
Hebrews 3:16b-17a
"…did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years?…"
Remember, when we first started here in this chapter, they came in eleven days, if we're not mistaken. Eleven days from Mt. Sinai (the mount of sin) to Kadesh and that eleven days stretched into what? Forty years! Why? Unbelief! Now we see for people today, unbelief is not going to be forty years, it’s going to be eternity lost and with no hope. Alright, so here is the warning.
Hebrews 3:15b-17a
"…Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned,…"
Remember what was their sin. It wasn’t the calf, the golden calf at Sinai. It wasn’t their gross immorality that they danced around that calf. But, what was their sin? Unbelief! God said they could take it and they said what? "No, we can’t." What did the spies say? "Oh, we are like grasshoppers in their sight. The cities are walled, and we can’t take them" And yet, they had the proof of the pudding when they brought back the grapes and everything else. And yet, in unbelief, they couldn’t buy what God had said. We can’t comprehend it. We just cannot comprehend it. But, see, this is the way it has been all the way up through human history. God told Adam and Eve in simplistic terms, "Don’t eat of that tree." That’s all, everything else was theirs. But, in a step of unbelief, the deceiver deceived, what did they do? They ate. And that brought sin and death into the whole human experience.
So, all of these things are just examples so that we can learn from them. It wasn’t their sin, as so far as their action. It was their unbelief, but what prompted their unbelief? Their lawlessness, they were sinners. Now remember, Israelites were just as much the offspring of Adam as we Gentiles. They’ve got the same old Adamic nature as we do, and that old Adamic nature is covetousness and lawlessness, and so it precipitated their unbelief. Now, we're going to just have to speculate here, and we certainly don’t claim to have all the answers. But we like to throw the question out just to make people stop and think. Now of all these children of Israel who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership, as they walked through that Red Sea, did any of them stay behind and say, "Well, I’m scared to death the water will come crashing down." Not that we know of. So what did that take to go through the Red Sea? Trust! Simple trust, when one stepped out they all stepped out moving forward as a unit.
Because, anybody with an ounce of sense would know that when that Red Sea water parted, and it must have parted a long ways, because three to four million people couldn’t go through a little canyon of a hundred or two hundred feet and do it in 24 hours. So that Red Sea must have opened, we think, for miles. Well, however much wider it was the higher the water had to be piled. Right? God piled it! You know He did! With invisible walls and dams to hold it. So what did it take to walk down between those walls of water? Trust. Had to. And they came up on the other side as redeemed, bought back people. Every one of them! Thereby being baptized into Moses' ministry by walking through on dry ground, passing through the separated waters. This is a simple illustration of a spiritual reality or Truth.
Alright, now then we follow them on down to Mt. Sinai and they come under the Levitical Law (not the ten commandments as they are a moral code of conduct with the Beatitudes) and even in spite of the golden calf experience, here they come under Moses’ leadership/ministry. The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and they encamp at Kadesh. Then the nation says, "We can’t do it," with the exception of Joshua and Caleb and Moses, of course. Now our question is. Were all those Israelites lost? Some of them? What do you think? You can’t give us an answer, because we don’t think any of us have got one. But, it is sobering to think about. Or were they all saved because they came out of Egypt by Faith. We don’t know. We haven’t the answer.
"And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. (now look what Jesus said in verse 17.) Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father which is in heaven."
So how did Peter understand that Jesus was the Christ? God opened his understanding! See? God did it! And so never forget that true trust becomes by way of inspiration or revelation, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God! Or we could say by the voice of God uttered eons ago. To see this look back at our word study listed just above. Its when we receive the illumination of revelation within ourselves that we know that we know.......and from within there is no changing or debate. We just KNOW!
Hebrews 3:15a
"While it is said, Today…"
Remember, I have been emphasizing this today so far as these people are concerned and so far as we are concerned is this Age of Grace. Where as that it isn’t limited to the Hebrews, and it’s not limited to the Gentile. It’s not limited to any one class of people but it’s for the whosoever will! Now verse 15 again.
Hebrews 3:15-16a
"While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard,…" In other words, when God spoke and said, "Go in and take the land. It’s waiting for you. I’ll drive the Canaanites out." Alright, to them that was the good news. That was all they needed to know, but they couldn’t believe it! Alright, so let’s finish the verse:
Hebrews 3:16b-17a
"…did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years?…"
Remember, when we first started here in this chapter, they came in eleven days, if we're not mistaken. Eleven days from Mt. Sinai (the mount of sin) to Kadesh and that eleven days stretched into what? Forty years! Why? Unbelief! Now we see for people today, unbelief is not going to be forty years, it’s going to be eternity lost and with no hope. Alright, so here is the warning.
Hebrews 3:15b-17a
"…Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned,…"
Remember what was their sin. It wasn’t the calf, the golden calf at Sinai. It wasn’t their gross immorality that they danced around that calf. But, what was their sin? Unbelief! God said they could take it and they said what? "No, we can’t." What did the spies say? "Oh, we are like grasshoppers in their sight. The cities are walled, and we can’t take them" And yet, they had the proof of the pudding when they brought back the grapes and everything else. And yet, in unbelief, they couldn’t buy what God had said. We can’t comprehend it. We just cannot comprehend it. But, see, this is the way it has been all the way up through human history. God told Adam and Eve in simplistic terms, "Don’t eat of that tree." That’s all, everything else was theirs. But, in a step of unbelief, the deceiver deceived, what did they do? They ate. And that brought sin and death into the whole human experience.
So, all of these things are just examples so that we can learn from them. It wasn’t their sin, as so far as their action. It was their unbelief, but what prompted their unbelief? Their lawlessness, they were sinners. Now remember, Israelites were just as much the offspring of Adam as we Gentiles. They’ve got the same old Adamic nature as we do, and that old Adamic nature is covetousness and lawlessness, and so it precipitated their unbelief. Now, we're going to just have to speculate here, and we certainly don’t claim to have all the answers. But we like to throw the question out just to make people stop and think. Now of all these children of Israel who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership, as they walked through that Red Sea, did any of them stay behind and say, "Well, I’m scared to death the water will come crashing down." Not that we know of. So what did that take to go through the Red Sea? Trust! Simple trust, when one stepped out they all stepped out moving forward as a unit.
Because, anybody with an ounce of sense would know that when that Red Sea water parted, and it must have parted a long ways, because three to four million people couldn’t go through a little canyon of a hundred or two hundred feet and do it in 24 hours. So that Red Sea must have opened, we think, for miles. Well, however much wider it was the higher the water had to be piled. Right? God piled it! You know He did! With invisible walls and dams to hold it. So what did it take to walk down between those walls of water? Trust. Had to. And they came up on the other side as redeemed, bought back people. Every one of them! Thereby being baptized into Moses' ministry by walking through on dry ground, passing through the separated waters. This is a simple illustration of a spiritual reality or Truth.
Alright, now then we follow them on down to Mt. Sinai and they come under the Levitical Law (not the ten commandments as they are a moral code of conduct with the Beatitudes) and even in spite of the golden calf experience, here they come under Moses’ leadership/ministry. The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and they encamp at Kadesh. Then the nation says, "We can’t do it," with the exception of Joshua and Caleb and Moses, of course. Now our question is. Were all those Israelites lost? Some of them? What do you think? You can’t give us an answer, because we don’t think any of us have got one. But, it is sobering to think about. Or were they all saved because they came out of Egypt by Faith. We don’t know. We haven’t the answer.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXXIII
Romans 10:14b
"…and how shall they believe in Him of who they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?" We know the Greek has a better definition, we think its, proclaimer. Someone that proclaims the Truth. How can they hear without a proclaimer? Now verse 15.
Romans 10:15-16a "And how shall they preach, except they be sent? (now Who is involved? Well, God. The Holy Spirit, see?) as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach (or proclaim) the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel…."
Regardless of what good news it was. Now, remember, when Abraham believed God, He didn’t believe the Gospel as we understand it. He didn’t believe that Christ would die and be buried and raised from the dead. How could he? It hadn’t happened. But, he believed what God said. And what did God tell him? "Leave Ur and I will make of you a great nation." And, Abraham, in Romans 4 says, believed God! That’s all! He believed God! And what did God do? Called him a righteous man. Just on the basis of his trust. That’s where we get our little cliche "Faith + Nothing!" It all began with Abram/Abraham. It dropped out of sight for centuries, but now in the Age of Grace, it comes back again. And we, like Abraham, are saved by trusting His faithfulness + nothing! So, how do we hear it? Well, we have to have someone proclaim it. We have to have the Holy Spirit behind it. Alright, now then, verse 17. Here is the answer to our dilemma. This is the place for the key upon which Jesus said that His Church would be built and Peter received the inspiration by way of revelation, the faith of Christ. (Galatians 2:16 and Philippians 3:9; Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16, 3:22, Revelation 14:12)
Romans 10:17
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
So by trust in the Truth, or just, taking God at His Word, comes our hearing. We’ve got to hear it to understand it. That’s why we’ve got this Book. That’s why God gave it to us. That’s why we don’t have to put your Bible on the shelf and say well, "I’ll just wait for the preacher to tell me." No! You may have to have someone explain some of these things to you which is pertinent but we’ve got the Word of God in your hand. Search the Scriptures, and see if these things are true.
Lets stop here a moment and look at the word "hear":
Strong's Greek number G189 with a base G191 we'll look at the base word: akouō
Thayer Definition:
1) to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf
2) to hear
2b) to attend to, consider what is or has been said
2c) to understand, perceive the sense of what is said
3) to hear something
3a) to perceive by the ear what is announced in one’s presence
3b) to get by hearing, learn (Matthew 11:25-30(29)
3c) a thing comes to one’s ears, to find out, learn
3d) to give ear to a teaching or a teacher
3e) to comprehend, to understand
Part of Speech: verb
One more word for us to consider Word of God: rhēma
Strong's Greek number G4487 form the base of G4483
Thayer Definition:
1) that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word
1a) any sound produced by the voice and having definite meaning
1b) speech, discourse
1b1) what one has said
1c) a series of words joined together into a sentence (a declaration of one’s mind made in words)
1c1) an utterance
1c2) a saying of any sort as a message, a narrative
1c2a) concerning some occurrence
2) subject matter of speech, thing spoken of
2a) so far forth as it is a matter of narration
2b) so far as it is a matter of command
2c) a matter of dispute, case at law (Jeremiah 31:34)
Alright, so verse 17 again.
Romans 10:17
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
And it’s only the Word of God that can bring salvation to the human race. And again, I guess we should use that verse that we've referred to many times over in Acts. Acts chapter 16, and Paul is up there in the area of Northern Greece - today’s Macedonia, which is in the news again every day. He’s up in Northern Macedonia, in the city of Philippi. Now verse 14, and we think it is apropos for every believer to pray the same thing that we do, on the basis of this verse. Lord, give us Lydias. Alright, here it is.
Acts 16:14
"And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, (see, she had a certain amount of religion, but she didn’t have salvation) heard us; whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul."
Now analyze that verse. Had not the Lord opened her heart, even a man like the Apostle Paul - would he have gotten through to her? No way. Great preacher, evangelist,and missionary that he was, had the Lord not opened her heart, she would have been just as lost the next day as she was the day before. But, God intervened and opened her heart. Let’s go back to Matthew 16. Alright and here we have Jesus dealing with the Twelve. And, we have Peter’s confession of his trusting by an inward knowing. Matthew 16 verse 16.
"…and how shall they believe in Him of who they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?" We know the Greek has a better definition, we think its, proclaimer. Someone that proclaims the Truth. How can they hear without a proclaimer? Now verse 15.
Romans 10:15-16a "And how shall they preach, except they be sent? (now Who is involved? Well, God. The Holy Spirit, see?) as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach (or proclaim) the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel…."
Regardless of what good news it was. Now, remember, when Abraham believed God, He didn’t believe the Gospel as we understand it. He didn’t believe that Christ would die and be buried and raised from the dead. How could he? It hadn’t happened. But, he believed what God said. And what did God tell him? "Leave Ur and I will make of you a great nation." And, Abraham, in Romans 4 says, believed God! That’s all! He believed God! And what did God do? Called him a righteous man. Just on the basis of his trust. That’s where we get our little cliche "Faith + Nothing!" It all began with Abram/Abraham. It dropped out of sight for centuries, but now in the Age of Grace, it comes back again. And we, like Abraham, are saved by trusting His faithfulness + nothing! So, how do we hear it? Well, we have to have someone proclaim it. We have to have the Holy Spirit behind it. Alright, now then, verse 17. Here is the answer to our dilemma. This is the place for the key upon which Jesus said that His Church would be built and Peter received the inspiration by way of revelation, the faith of Christ. (Galatians 2:16 and Philippians 3:9; Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16, 3:22, Revelation 14:12)
Romans 10:17
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
So by trust in the Truth, or just, taking God at His Word, comes our hearing. We’ve got to hear it to understand it. That’s why we’ve got this Book. That’s why God gave it to us. That’s why we don’t have to put your Bible on the shelf and say well, "I’ll just wait for the preacher to tell me." No! You may have to have someone explain some of these things to you which is pertinent but we’ve got the Word of God in your hand. Search the Scriptures, and see if these things are true.
Lets stop here a moment and look at the word "hear":
Strong's Greek number G189 with a base G191 we'll look at the base word: akouō
Thayer Definition:
1) to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf
2) to hear
2b) to attend to, consider what is or has been said
2c) to understand, perceive the sense of what is said
3) to hear something
3a) to perceive by the ear what is announced in one’s presence
3b) to get by hearing, learn (Matthew 11:25-30(29)
3c) a thing comes to one’s ears, to find out, learn
3d) to give ear to a teaching or a teacher
3e) to comprehend, to understand
Part of Speech: verb
One more word for us to consider Word of God: rhēma
Strong's Greek number G4487 form the base of G4483
Thayer Definition:
1) that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word
1a) any sound produced by the voice and having definite meaning
1b) speech, discourse
1b1) what one has said
1c) a series of words joined together into a sentence (a declaration of one’s mind made in words)
1c1) an utterance
1c2) a saying of any sort as a message, a narrative
1c2a) concerning some occurrence
2) subject matter of speech, thing spoken of
2a) so far forth as it is a matter of narration
2b) so far as it is a matter of command
2c) a matter of dispute, case at law (Jeremiah 31:34)
Alright, so verse 17 again.
Romans 10:17
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
And it’s only the Word of God that can bring salvation to the human race. And again, I guess we should use that verse that we've referred to many times over in Acts. Acts chapter 16, and Paul is up there in the area of Northern Greece - today’s Macedonia, which is in the news again every day. He’s up in Northern Macedonia, in the city of Philippi. Now verse 14, and we think it is apropos for every believer to pray the same thing that we do, on the basis of this verse. Lord, give us Lydias. Alright, here it is.
Acts 16:14
"And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, (see, she had a certain amount of religion, but she didn’t have salvation) heard us; whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul."
Now analyze that verse. Had not the Lord opened her heart, even a man like the Apostle Paul - would he have gotten through to her? No way. Great preacher, evangelist,and missionary that he was, had the Lord not opened her heart, she would have been just as lost the next day as she was the day before. But, God intervened and opened her heart. Let’s go back to Matthew 16. Alright and here we have Jesus dealing with the Twelve. And, we have Peter’s confession of his trusting by an inward knowing. Matthew 16 verse 16.
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