Because of what we have been looking into dealing with the corruption of humanity by the actions of the first Adam and just how devastating this has been for the past almost 6000 years. And how it appears to be even more so as we reach the end of the time of the Gentiles or the Messianic era of this dispensation of GOD's dealings with all humanity by the New Covenant of Grace. We are about to look at mans walking in gross "darkness." Which begins with our base scripture of Deuteronomy 29:29.
Walking in Darkness, the experience reserved for the wicked, as the Dark Way,
Deuteronomy 29:29 with 18:17-20 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
Deuteronomy 18:17-20 'The LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to My words that he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.'"
Deuteronomy 28:25-37 "The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away. The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you will grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless. A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see. The LORD will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. "The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away."
Psalm 35:1-8 "Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, "I am your salvation!" Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me! Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away! Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them! For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life. Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it—to his destruction!"
Psalm 82:5-8 with Proverbs 2:13 "They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince." Arise, O GOD, judge the earth; for You Who possess all the (Revelation 11:15-18) nations!"
Proverbs 2:6-19 "The LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the path of justice and watching over the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. So you will be delivered from the forbidden (religion of ancient Babylons adulterous) woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the path of life."
Proverbs 4:10-19 "Hear, my son, and accept My words, that the years of your life may be many. I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the path of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. For the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble."
Isaiah 59:1-8, 9-20, 21 "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor His ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.
Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: our transgressing, and denying the LORD, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Therefore Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Now the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, so will He repays, wrath to His adversaries, repayment to His enemies; to the coastlands He will render repayment. So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; for He will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives. "And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression," declares the LORD.
"As for Me, this is My covenant with them," says the LORD: "My Spirit that is upon you, and My words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring," says the LORD, "from this time forth and forevermore."
Jeremiah 23:9-12 with Zephaniah 1:17 "Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of His holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right. "Both the prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their evil, declares the LORD. Therefore their way will be to them like slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall, for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, declares the LORD."
Zephaniah 1:14-18 "The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on mankind, so that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath (stored within them) of the LORD. In the fire of His jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end He will make of all the inhabitants of the earth."
Matthew 15:12-14 with John 11:10 "Then the disciples came and said to Jesus, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?" He answered, "Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."
John 11:1-16 "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent for Him, saying, "Lord, he whom You love is ill." But when Jesus heard it He said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews are just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." After saying these things, He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." The disciples said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of His own death, but they thought that He meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him."
1John 1:5-10 "This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in His light, as He is the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word [Life, Light and Love, this to say Christ] does not abide in us."
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Saturday, December 16, 2017
The Secrets and Mysteries of GOD revisited, continuing with part 11
In the beginning of this part 11, I pulled from 1Corinthinans 3:9-4:7, which when broken up into its proper paragraphs looks like this beginning at verse 9, 10-15, 16-17, 18-4:3, 4-5, 6-7. In verse 9 we find this, "For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's (husbandry) field, God's (temple) building." Then is verse 16-17 we have this, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." Sadly many overlook this fact that God will destroy any defiled temple of mans flesh, so it behooves us to find out what is here meant. This is spoken of in the very next three verses [18-20] which states this, "Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written (by Job in 5:13), "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again (by king David in Psalm 94:11), "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are (useless, vain and) futile." Then I looked at our "human limitations and mans limited resources." Next in line is mans walking in gross "spiritual darkness" and then walking in [blindness and ignorance] darkness.
Spiritual Darkness, in some general references to,
Isaiah 9:1-7 "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; You have increased its joy; they rejoice before You as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his [the evil one's] burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, You have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His [rule] government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this."
Micah 3:5-12 "Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead My people astray, who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. Therefore it will be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them; their seers will be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they will all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us." Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height."
Matthew 6:22-23 (Jesus is speaking) "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"
John 1:1-5 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word is GOD. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him is life, and the life was the light of men. This light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
John 3:16-21 (Jesus is speaking) "For God so loved the world, that HE gave His only Son, that whoever believes Him (Deuteronomy 18:15-22, [18-19]) should not perish but have eternal life.For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved [redeemed] through [by] Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out [in] by God."
Romans 13:11-14 with Ephesians 5:8 "Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed [received our redemption]. The night is far gone; the day [salvation] is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."
Ephesians 5:6-14 "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the LORD. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore HE says (by Isaiah in 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, 60:1 and Romans 13:11), "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
1Thessalonians 5:1-11 "Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the LORD will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security (by Jeremiah in 6:14, 8:11, Ezekiel in 13:10)," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."
Spiritual Darkness, in some general references to,
Isaiah 9:1-7 "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; You have increased its joy; they rejoice before You as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his [the evil one's] burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, You have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His [rule] government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this."
Micah 3:5-12 "Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead My people astray, who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. Therefore it will be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them; their seers will be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they will all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us." Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height."
Matthew 6:22-23 (Jesus is speaking) "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"
John 1:1-5 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word is GOD. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him is life, and the life was the light of men. This light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
John 3:16-21 (Jesus is speaking) "For God so loved the world, that HE gave His only Son, that whoever believes Him (Deuteronomy 18:15-22, [18-19]) should not perish but have eternal life.For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved [redeemed] through [by] Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out [in] by God."
Romans 13:11-14 with Ephesians 5:8 "Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed [received our redemption]. The night is far gone; the day [salvation] is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."
Ephesians 5:6-14 "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the LORD. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore HE says (by Isaiah in 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, 60:1 and Romans 13:11), "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
1Thessalonians 5:1-11 "Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the LORD will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security (by Jeremiah in 6:14, 8:11, Ezekiel in 13:10)," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."
Friday, December 15, 2017
The Secrets and Mysteries of GOD revisited, part 11
Part eleven should deal with the mystery known as the calling out of the mystical body of Christ as found in 1Corinthians 15 but first I will look into that mystery of 1Corinthians 3:16-17, 18-4:3, 4-5, 6-7; and then chapters 13 and 14 before we get to chapter 15. Because the Holy Spirit had a sound reason and purpose for this arrangement when He had Paul wrote this letter. Now for 1Corinthians 3:16-4:7. Which states this, beginning and building on verses 9, 10-15 and then my targeted passages; "For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? (John 17 declares and establishes this and Acts 2 and after reveal this prophecy of Jesus the prophet of Deuteronomy 18:16-19 who introduces Christ again in the world) If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly (foolishness) with God. For it is written (by Job 5:13), "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again (in Psalm 94:11), "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of GOD. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the LORD God who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, Who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive His commendation from GOD.
I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?"
Much of the mysteries spoken of within the context of this passage of chapter 4 verse 1, have been covered elsewhere. Therefore I will look into a subtopic called, "of human limitations and man's limited resources." Then how these are brought about by mans walking in darkness.
Human Limitations:
Man Subject to Limitations;
Way hedged up, in Job 3:23 of 20-26.
Feet in stocks, in Job 13:27 of 20-28 and 19:8 of 7-12.
Time limited, in Psalm 90:10 of 7-12 and Ecclesiastes 8:8 of 1.9.
Boundaries of life, in Psalm 139:5 of 1-6 and Lamentations 3:7 of 1-18.
No power to change a hair, in Matthew 5:36 of 33-37.
No power to add to stature, in Matthew 6:27 of 25-33
Mans Limited Resources;
A little bread and a bottle of water, in Genesis 21:14 of 8-14.
A handful of meal and a cruse of oil, in 1Kings 17:12 of 8-16.
A pot of oil, in 2Kings 4:2 of 1-7.
Five barley loaves and two small fish, in Matthew 15:33-34 of 32-38.
An empty larder, in Luke 11:6 of 5-8.
GOD condescends to meet the limited resources and conditions of man,
Small offerings accepted from the poor, in Leviticus 14:21-22 of 21-32.
Two mites from the widow, in Mark 10:42 of 41-45.
A cup of cold water, not despised, in Matthew 10:42 of 40-42.
Faith, even as a grain of mustard seed, is mighty, in Matthew 17:20 of 19-21.
Two or three assembled in Christ's name have His promise of the divine presence, in Matthew 18:20 of 19-20.
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? (John 17 declares and establishes this and Acts 2 and after reveal this prophecy of Jesus the prophet of Deuteronomy 18:16-19 who introduces Christ again in the world) If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly (foolishness) with God. For it is written (by Job 5:13), "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again (in Psalm 94:11), "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of GOD. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the LORD God who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, Who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive His commendation from GOD.
I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?"
Much of the mysteries spoken of within the context of this passage of chapter 4 verse 1, have been covered elsewhere. Therefore I will look into a subtopic called, "of human limitations and man's limited resources." Then how these are brought about by mans walking in darkness.
Human Limitations:
Man Subject to Limitations;
Way hedged up, in Job 3:23 of 20-26.
Feet in stocks, in Job 13:27 of 20-28 and 19:8 of 7-12.
Time limited, in Psalm 90:10 of 7-12 and Ecclesiastes 8:8 of 1.9.
Boundaries of life, in Psalm 139:5 of 1-6 and Lamentations 3:7 of 1-18.
No power to change a hair, in Matthew 5:36 of 33-37.
No power to add to stature, in Matthew 6:27 of 25-33
Mans Limited Resources;
A little bread and a bottle of water, in Genesis 21:14 of 8-14.
A handful of meal and a cruse of oil, in 1Kings 17:12 of 8-16.
A pot of oil, in 2Kings 4:2 of 1-7.
Five barley loaves and two small fish, in Matthew 15:33-34 of 32-38.
An empty larder, in Luke 11:6 of 5-8.
GOD condescends to meet the limited resources and conditions of man,
Small offerings accepted from the poor, in Leviticus 14:21-22 of 21-32.
Two mites from the widow, in Mark 10:42 of 41-45.
A cup of cold water, not despised, in Matthew 10:42 of 40-42.
Faith, even as a grain of mustard seed, is mighty, in Matthew 17:20 of 19-21.
Two or three assembled in Christ's name have His promise of the divine presence, in Matthew 18:20 of 19-20.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
The Secrets and Mysteries of GOD revisited, part 10c x5
I believe that we are about to come to a close with our look into the natural or carnal man of 1Corinthians 2:14-16 that is attached to the mystery of verses 9-13 of this same chapter. Which by the way carries over into chapter 3:1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and speaks in this wise when combined as one thought, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges [to determine, investigate, examine, discern] all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?" (Isaiah 40:13) But we have the mind of Christ. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? (these names can be changed to this or that religious order, denomination or group and do no harm to the meaning and purpose of this passage) What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."
With this done we have many things to consider as we discern or judge the scriptures by the Spirit.
Social and Political Corruption of man, general references to,
Genesis 6:5-8 "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
Job 15:7-16 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in His holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in His sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!"
Psalm 14:1-3 "The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one."
Isaiah 1:5-6 "Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil."
Isaiah 59:1-8 "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor His ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace."
Isaiah 64:1-7 "Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make Your name known to Your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at Your presence! When You did awesome things that we did not look for, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a GOD besides You, Who acts for those who wait for Him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon Your name, who rouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities."
Jeremiah 16:10-13 "And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' then you shall say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and have not kept My [way] law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to Me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no (compassion) favor.'"
Micah 7:1-6 "Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house."
Mathew 23:27-28 (Jesus is speaking) "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
Mark 7:17-23 "When Jesus had entered the house and left the people, His disciples asked Him about the parable. Then He said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.) Then He said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Romans 1:24-25 "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen."
2Peter 2:4-16, 17-22 "For if GOD did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if HE did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when HE brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes HE condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if HE rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the LORD knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the LORD. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilement's of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."
There are many subtitles and topics attached to each area that I have covered, just as there are in all scripture. These can be uncovered by the use of almost any good study Bible such as the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, the Open Study Bible just to name a few. Now the next in line mystery is that of 1Corinthians 15 and the removal of the mystical body of Christ before the fiery wrath that purifies the world of rebellion and sin's curse on the earth carried in man. As we have seen much of this wrath is stored in rebellious defiled humanity who cling on to religions disparage of Christ as illustrated graphically in Revelation and the old testament accounts that we have just looked at.
For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? (these names can be changed to this or that religious order, denomination or group and do no harm to the meaning and purpose of this passage) What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."
With this done we have many things to consider as we discern or judge the scriptures by the Spirit.
Social and Political Corruption of man, general references to,
Genesis 6:5-8 "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
Job 15:7-16 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in His holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in His sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!"
Psalm 14:1-3 "The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one."
Isaiah 1:5-6 "Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil."
Isaiah 59:1-8 "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor His ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace."
Isaiah 64:1-7 "Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make Your name known to Your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at Your presence! When You did awesome things that we did not look for, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a GOD besides You, Who acts for those who wait for Him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon Your name, who rouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities."
Jeremiah 16:10-13 "And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' then you shall say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and have not kept My [way] law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to Me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no (compassion) favor.'"
Micah 7:1-6 "Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house."
Mathew 23:27-28 (Jesus is speaking) "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
Mark 7:17-23 "When Jesus had entered the house and left the people, His disciples asked Him about the parable. Then He said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.) Then He said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Romans 1:24-25 "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen."
2Peter 2:4-16, 17-22 "For if GOD did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if HE did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when HE brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes HE condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if HE rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the LORD knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the LORD. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilement's of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."
There are many subtitles and topics attached to each area that I have covered, just as there are in all scripture. These can be uncovered by the use of almost any good study Bible such as the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, the Open Study Bible just to name a few. Now the next in line mystery is that of 1Corinthians 15 and the removal of the mystical body of Christ before the fiery wrath that purifies the world of rebellion and sin's curse on the earth carried in man. As we have seen much of this wrath is stored in rebellious defiled humanity who cling on to religions disparage of Christ as illustrated graphically in Revelation and the old testament accounts that we have just looked at.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
The Secrets and Mysteries of GOD revisited, part 10c x4
Again I am looking more deeply into the corrosion of the church and gospel through the false doctrines of mans religions that run along side the true church that keep mans eyes blinded and ears from hearing GOD. As spoken of in Deuteronomy 18:15-22 where verses 18-19 speak more pointedly to the effects of disrespecting GOD and His messenger through the agency of Jesus who introduced Christ to the world of ignorant men. I have looked at verse 14-16 of 1Corinthians 2 which is a separate thought from the initial thought of verses 6-13 but because of their closeness they are plainly part of the whole, by way of pointing out the inherent weakness of man and his religions many systems of continued deceptions. Today's post will look at two more areas in this process, these are natural mans evil heart and its grossness. Later the LORD will I will look into Social and Political Corruption.
Characteristics of an Evil Heart:
Stubbornness, as seen in Ecclesiastes 8:11 of verses 10-13.
Madness, as seen in Ecclesiastes 9:3 of verses 2-6.
Depravity, as seen in Jeremiah 17:9 of verses 9-11.
Extortion and excess, as seen in Matthew 23:25 of verses 25-26.
Foundation-head of all evil, as seen in Mark 7:21 of verses 17-23.
Source of unbelief and covetousness, as seen in Hebrews 3:12 and 2Peter 2:14, of verses in Hebrews 3 of 7-19 and 2Peter 2 of verses 4-16.
Grossness, of mind,
Psalm 92:5-9 "How great are Your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; but You, O LORD, are on high forever. For behold, Your enemies, O LORD, for behold, Your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered."
Jeremiah 10:6-10 "There is none like You, O LORD; for You are great, and Your name is great in might. Who would not fear [reverence] You, O King of the nations? For this is Your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like You. They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. But the LORD is the true God; HE is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation."
Jeremiah 51:15-23 "It is He Who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and He brings forth the wind from His storehouses. Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish. Not like these is He Who is the portion of Jacob, for He is the one Who formed [fashioned] all things, and Israel is the tribe [scepter or a branch] of His inheritance; the LORD of hosts is His name. "You are My hammer and weapon of war: with you I break nations in pieces; with you I destroy kingdoms; with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider; with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer; with you I break in pieces man and woman; with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth; with you I break in pieces the young man and the young woman; with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team; with you I break in pieces governors and commanders."
Daniel 4:13-18 "I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus: 'Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind [heart] be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will and sets over it the lowliest of men.' This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you."
Matthew 13:10-17 "Then the disciples came and said to Jesus, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their [for them the] case the prophecy of Isaiah (6:9; 10, Psalm 119:70, Zechariah 7:11) is fulfilled that says: "'"You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive." For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."
Titus 1:10-16 "For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."
2Peter 2:4-16 "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if HE did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when HE brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes HE condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if HE rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the LORD knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the LORD. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness."
Jude 8-13 "Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The LORD rebuke you." For these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever."
Characteristics of an Evil Heart:
Stubbornness, as seen in Ecclesiastes 8:11 of verses 10-13.
Madness, as seen in Ecclesiastes 9:3 of verses 2-6.
Depravity, as seen in Jeremiah 17:9 of verses 9-11.
Extortion and excess, as seen in Matthew 23:25 of verses 25-26.
Foundation-head of all evil, as seen in Mark 7:21 of verses 17-23.
Source of unbelief and covetousness, as seen in Hebrews 3:12 and 2Peter 2:14, of verses in Hebrews 3 of 7-19 and 2Peter 2 of verses 4-16.
Grossness, of mind,
Psalm 92:5-9 "How great are Your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; but You, O LORD, are on high forever. For behold, Your enemies, O LORD, for behold, Your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered."
Jeremiah 10:6-10 "There is none like You, O LORD; for You are great, and Your name is great in might. Who would not fear [reverence] You, O King of the nations? For this is Your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like You. They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. But the LORD is the true God; HE is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation."
Jeremiah 51:15-23 "It is He Who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and He brings forth the wind from His storehouses. Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish. Not like these is He Who is the portion of Jacob, for He is the one Who formed [fashioned] all things, and Israel is the tribe [scepter or a branch] of His inheritance; the LORD of hosts is His name. "You are My hammer and weapon of war: with you I break nations in pieces; with you I destroy kingdoms; with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider; with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer; with you I break in pieces man and woman; with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth; with you I break in pieces the young man and the young woman; with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team; with you I break in pieces governors and commanders."
Daniel 4:13-18 "I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus: 'Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind [heart] be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will and sets over it the lowliest of men.' This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you."
Matthew 13:10-17 "Then the disciples came and said to Jesus, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their [for them the] case the prophecy of Isaiah (6:9; 10, Psalm 119:70, Zechariah 7:11) is fulfilled that says: "'"You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive." For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."
Titus 1:10-16 "For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."
2Peter 2:4-16 "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if HE did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when HE brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes HE condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if HE rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the LORD knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the LORD. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness."
Jude 8-13 "Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The LORD rebuke you." For these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever."
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
The Secrets and Mysteries of GOD revisited, part 10c x3
Our base passage of scripture is found in 1Corinthians 2 as follows from the ESV translation, 2:6-13, 14-16 "Yet among the mature (Ephesians 4:13, Philippians 3:15 and Hebrews 5:14) we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden (Deuteronomy 29:29) wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages (Genesis 1, with 1Corinthians 1:28) for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from GOD, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
For [or because] the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the LORD so as to instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ." For the past few days we have been looking into the term, "the natural person," and we will continue with this now with looking at, "evil thoughts and if possible, evil imaginations" both carry within them the thought of an evil heart and depravity. Depravity is at the heart or root of today's many problems that face us all.
Evil Thoughts,
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 "If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall [will] not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall [will] open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, 'The seventh year, the year of release is near,' and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall [will] give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall [will] open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'
Psalm 64:1-6 "Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers, who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear. They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, "Who can see them?" They search out injustice, saying, "We have accomplished a diligent search." For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep."
Psalm 94:8-11 "Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He Who planted the ear, does He not hear? He Who formed the eye, does He not see? He Who disciplines the nations, does He not rebuke? He Who teaches man knowledge— the LORD—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath."
Proverbs 15:21-29 "Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight ahead. Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath. The LORD tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow's boundaries. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, but gracious words are pure. Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live. The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous."
Proverbs 23:6-8, 9 "Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.
Do not speak in the [ear] hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words."
Proverbs 24:8-9 with Isaiah 66:18 "Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind."
Isaiah 66:18-24 "For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and will see My glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard of My fame or seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering {Romans 12:1-3) to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. And some of them also I will take for priests and for [who are not] Levites, says the LORD. "For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make will remain before Me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, declares the LORD. "And they shall [will] go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."
Jeremiah 4:14-18 "O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts lodge within you? For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims trouble from Mount Ephraim. Warn the nations that He is coming; announce to Jerusalem, "Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field are they against her all around, because she has [continues to] rebelled against Me, declares the LORD. Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart."
Matthew 9:1-8 "And getting into a boat Jesus crossed over and came to His own city. And behold, some people brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven." And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—He then said to the paralytic—"Rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men."
Matthew 15:15-20 "Peter said to Jesus, "Explain the parable to us." And He said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone."
Evil Imaginations,
Genesis 6:5-8; 8:21 "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
Genesis 8:20-22 "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."
Genesis 11:1-9 with Deuteronomy 31:21 "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth."
Deuteronomy 31:19-22 "Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise Me and break My covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give." So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel."
Psalm 38:9-12 "O Lord, all my longing is before You; my sighing is not hidden from You. My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off. Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long."
Proverbs 6:16-19 with Jeremiah 23:17 "There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers."
Jeremiah 23:16-22 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 18:15-22 carries a warning in verses 18-19 against such people) They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you.'" For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear His word, or who has paid attention to His word and listened? Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the intents of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. "I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. For if they had stood in My council, then they would have proclaimed My words to My people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds."
Ezekiel 8:7-13 "Then HE [YHWH] brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then HE said to me, "Son of man, dig in the wall." So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. And HE said to me, "Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here." So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Then HE said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'" HE said also to me, "You will see still greater abominations that they commit."
Romans 1:18-23 "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as GOD or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal GOD for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."
For [or because] the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the LORD so as to instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ." For the past few days we have been looking into the term, "the natural person," and we will continue with this now with looking at, "evil thoughts and if possible, evil imaginations" both carry within them the thought of an evil heart and depravity. Depravity is at the heart or root of today's many problems that face us all.
Evil Thoughts,
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 "If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall [will] not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall [will] open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, 'The seventh year, the year of release is near,' and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall [will] give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall [will] open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'
Psalm 64:1-6 "Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers, who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear. They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, "Who can see them?" They search out injustice, saying, "We have accomplished a diligent search." For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep."
Psalm 94:8-11 "Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He Who planted the ear, does He not hear? He Who formed the eye, does He not see? He Who disciplines the nations, does He not rebuke? He Who teaches man knowledge— the LORD—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath."
Proverbs 15:21-29 "Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight ahead. Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath. The LORD tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow's boundaries. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, but gracious words are pure. Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live. The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous."
Proverbs 23:6-8, 9 "Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.
Do not speak in the [ear] hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words."
Proverbs 24:8-9 with Isaiah 66:18 "Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind."
Isaiah 66:18-24 "For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and will see My glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard of My fame or seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering {Romans 12:1-3) to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. And some of them also I will take for priests and for [who are not] Levites, says the LORD. "For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make will remain before Me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, declares the LORD. "And they shall [will] go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."
Jeremiah 4:14-18 "O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts lodge within you? For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims trouble from Mount Ephraim. Warn the nations that He is coming; announce to Jerusalem, "Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field are they against her all around, because she has [continues to] rebelled against Me, declares the LORD. Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart."
Matthew 9:1-8 "And getting into a boat Jesus crossed over and came to His own city. And behold, some people brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven." And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—He then said to the paralytic—"Rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men."
Matthew 15:15-20 "Peter said to Jesus, "Explain the parable to us." And He said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone."
Evil Imaginations,
Genesis 6:5-8; 8:21 "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
Genesis 8:20-22 "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."
Genesis 11:1-9 with Deuteronomy 31:21 "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth."
Deuteronomy 31:19-22 "Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise Me and break My covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give." So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel."
Psalm 38:9-12 "O Lord, all my longing is before You; my sighing is not hidden from You. My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off. Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long."
Proverbs 6:16-19 with Jeremiah 23:17 "There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers."
Jeremiah 23:16-22 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 18:15-22 carries a warning in verses 18-19 against such people) They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you.'" For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear His word, or who has paid attention to His word and listened? Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the intents of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. "I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. For if they had stood in My council, then they would have proclaimed My words to My people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds."
Ezekiel 8:7-13 "Then HE [YHWH] brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then HE said to me, "Son of man, dig in the wall." So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. And HE said to me, "Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here." So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Then HE said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'" HE said also to me, "You will see still greater abominations that they commit."
Romans 1:18-23 "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as GOD or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal GOD for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."
Sunday, December 10, 2017
The Secrets and Mysteries of GOD revisited, part 10c x2
By way of reminder I am recapping the earlier discovery of and unveiling of the secret of Deuteronomy 29:29 and its link with the mysteries unveiled to Paul by the risen Lord shortly after his historic conversion from Judaism to the new law of Grace in the faith of Christ. All being written in a way that kept it concealed to carnal humanity for eons but now made known by the Spirit of GOD in man, as HE was in Jesus. The full purpose of His coming as the son of man. I am still looking at verse 14 of 1Corinthians 2:6-16, in which it states, "for a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of GOD." Today I want to look at "carnality," exposed by scripture before moving on to evil thoughts and evil imaginations and a few more.
Carnality,
Exodus 16:1-3 "They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
Numbers 11:4-9 "Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at." Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium [gum resin]. The people went about and gathered it and ground it in hand-mills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it."
Psalm 78:17-20 "Yet they sinned still more against Him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can He also give bread or provide meat for His people?"
John 6:26-34 "Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal." (Deuteronomy 18:15-22) Then they said to Him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom HE has sent." So they said to Him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? For our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" (Exodus 16:4, 15, 21, Numbers 11:8) Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to Him, "Sir, give us this bread always."
Romans 7:21-25 "So I find it to be a law [principle] that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law [principle] of God, in my inner being, for I see in my members another law [principle of sin] waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to GOD through Jesus Christ our LORD! So then, I myself serve the law of [faith in GOD's faithfulness] God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."
Romans 8:1-8 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, HE condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Galatians 5:13-15 "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another."
1John 2:15-17 "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will [plan and purpose] of GOD abides forever."
Carnality,
Exodus 16:1-3 "They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
Numbers 11:4-9 "Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at." Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium [gum resin]. The people went about and gathered it and ground it in hand-mills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it."
Psalm 78:17-20 "Yet they sinned still more against Him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can He also give bread or provide meat for His people?"
John 6:26-34 "Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal." (Deuteronomy 18:15-22) Then they said to Him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom HE has sent." So they said to Him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? For our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" (Exodus 16:4, 15, 21, Numbers 11:8) Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to Him, "Sir, give us this bread always."
Romans 7:21-25 "So I find it to be a law [principle] that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law [principle] of God, in my inner being, for I see in my members another law [principle of sin] waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to GOD through Jesus Christ our LORD! So then, I myself serve the law of [faith in GOD's faithfulness] God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."
Romans 8:1-8 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, HE condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Galatians 5:13-15 "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another."
1John 2:15-17 "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will [plan and purpose] of GOD abides forever."
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