James 1:1 "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting." Now do you see the difference? James is writing to the Hebrews in the dispersion wherever they were. Now if you will come back to Hebrews chapter 3 as we get ready to move on. This Epistle to the Hebrews is more than likely addressed to one rather substantial Hebrew congregation, and not just to the Jews out in the dispersion, but to a particular group. Now, of course, there is controversy. What group was it? Was it the Jerusalem church? We don’t think so. Was it the Alexandrian church, because Alexandria, Egypt always had a large Jewish community, a large Synagogue? And for that reason, remember, the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek was done by 70 Jewish scholars, not in Jerusalem but down in Alexandria. So, there is that possibility that it could have been addressed to a Jewish congregation in Alexandria. But, we don’t think so.
My own personal idea and we can’t find anyone else to agree with us to confirm it, but my own idea is that it may have been a place like Pella. Now Pella was one of the Decapolis cities of Rome located just east of Galilee in what today is Jordan. The reason we kind of pick on Pella in our own mind, several years ago we read an article in one of the archaeology magazines and later reported on T.V., where archaeologists had found potsherds. Now remember that is bits of clay out of which the pots and the kettles and so forth had deteriorated but those little pieces of clay are what the archaeologists can more or less reconstruct. You see they found potsherds in the ancient city of Pella that in the same piece of clay, not in separate pieces, but in the same piece of clay they would have the mark of the fish which, of course, designated the early church. But also, in the same piece of clay, a menorah which spoke of the Jews. So, we know that there had to have been Jews living at least in Pella and we're sure many other areas who were adherents of "the fish," the followers of Jesus of Nazareth and Peter’s preaching and so forth, but were still clinging to their Judaism and consequently the mark of the menorah.
So, we have to feel that this Epistle of Hebrews was written maybe to a Synagogue of Jews like that. We're not saying that it was Pella but we think it had to be a congregation on that order where you had Hebrews still clinging to Judaism and yet they have seen enough of Jesus of Nazareth and now here in Paul’s approach to the crucified, resurrected Lord that Paul is now admonishing these Jewish people to just simply come away from their Judaism, from all of their roots of their religion of the past and step into this Gospel of Grace and the New Covenant of which Christ became the Covenant by way of His last supper and the fulfilling of all righteousness. So maybe that will help a little bit to understand the approach of Hebrews.
It has no real Church language, per se, for example. When we say there is no Church language, you understand, never do we see and hear a Gospel of Christ having died for the sins of the world. Rather, we see Christ in His High Priestly role and as an Apostle. We don’t see faith in the death, burial and resurrection promoted as a means of justification. It’s just not in here. We don’t see any reference to pastors and deacons and bishops and so forth, like we do in Paul’s other epistles. So this is why we say that you cannot find true Church language in Hebrews but everything that is in Hebrews is for our learning as the other books of the Old Testament are.
My it’s just a wealth! Every time we go into another verse, here’s just a whole truck load of wisdom and knowledge for us today. And so this is the way we are approaching this Epistle of Hebrews even though it is written to Hebrew people and yet, my, what we can learn from it! So now let’s begin our study with verse 12.
Hebrews 3:12a "Take heed, brethren…" Take heed. Now that is a Warning! Take heed, brethren. Now again we think Paul uses that word brethren in the vernacular of the Jewish people as his brethren in the flesh, but also there were some true believers. Who he considered brothers in the spiritual sense. Now we're saying some, because not all of them were. And we will be looking at that a little further as we go back to Kadesh-Barnea as well. Alright, so he can speak to the group and include some of them as brethren either from the Jewish point or from the fact that they were Believers. So he says:
Hebrews 3:12 "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart (of immorality? No. An evil heart of drunkenness? No. An evil heart of anything else you can think of? No! But what?) of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Unbelief! Oh! it’s an awful word. Now remember the only sin that will send people to a devil’s hell is unbelief! They refuse to believe what God has said to believe for our conversion and then redemption leading to our salvation! So here again this is the whole point! Take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief. Remember we are never going to lose sight of the fact that that is what kept Israel out of the Promised Land when Moses took them up to Kadesh. It wasn’t anything else. Unbelief!
Now let us rehearse again. We know we covered this quite in detail. So we have to kind of remember that. But on the other hand, remember that when the children of Israel had received the Law and the Tabernacle and the whole religion, as we call it, of Judaism. They were now ready to go into the Promised Land. And what had God told them? "You won’t have to lift a sword." Today we would say, "You won’t have to fire a shot. I am going to drive the Canaanites out ahead of you. I will use hornets. Whatever it takes. I am just going to drive them out!" God said, "I am going to drive them out slow enough that you can occupy it without the vineyards growing up in weeds, or wild animals taking over. We will just push them out. And, you can come in and settle."
What an offer! Was God serious? Absolutely! He meant every word of it. Then we remember the first step of unbelief was, "Well can we send in some spies?" God didn’t tell them to send in spies. That was Israel’s idea. That was their first step of unbelief. They couldn’t take God at His Word that the Promised Land was there for the taking.
But they asked, "Well, let us send in spies." So, God in His love and His grace condescended and He said, "Alright, I will let you do that. Pick out one man from each tribe and they can go in." So the spies go in and they see the fruit of it and they come back with the fruit of it. The proof that it was a land flowing with milk and honey. Now we always have to explain that. That didn’t mean that the honey was coming down through the gullies. It didn’t mean that milk was running from the other side, but all the attributes of a country or a land that would promote the production of milk and honey was there. Then all you’ve got to do is just use a little common sense. What does it take to produce milk?
Well, we have to have grass and pastures and cattle. And that, of course, this gives rise to all the by-products of a dairy cow or of sheep. It brought in their cheeses. Now if we don’t think the Jews don’t like cheese, we haven’t been to a Jerusalem breakfast. Oh, all the cheeses are laying out. Well, you see that was all implied with that statement, the land of milk. That would require grass and forage and so forth.
Now then honey, of course, as most of us are aware that we don’t get honey unless we have bees and bees can’t make honey unless they’ve got what? Flowering things. Fruit trees and flowers and so forth and so when we hear the term "land of milk and honey" look at the big picture. It was a land that provided all the necessities of dairy cattle of some sort. It had all the things necessary for the production of bees and their honey which spread out into a land of beauty. Production.
Alright, and they brought back the fruits of it. But, what did ten of the twelve say? The majority report of ten of the spies was, "Can’t do it!" The minority report says, "Yes we can!" by Joshua and Caleb. But, what did the nation listen too? The majority. That’s why, when it comes to the things of God and the Spirit, the majority is usually wrong. We can’t follow the majority. And we always have to come back to the verse that the Lord Himself spoke.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXIV
Deuteronomy 1:23-25a "The saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: They turned and went up into the mountain, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. They took of the fruit of the land in their hands,…" Mark Twain reported in the 1860’s that it was absolutely barren and uninhabitable. He said, "We drove for miles and never saw a living creature, and we went up to Jerusalem, and it was just a heartache and despair, because there was nothing there." Now that was Mark Twain and he wouldn’t lie. But back when God showed it to Israel, it was a variable garden flowing indeed with milk and honey! Now reading on.
Deuteronomy 1:25-28a "And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God did give us. Notwithstanding you would not go up, (remember Moses is rehearsing all this) but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:" They rebelled! Saying: "And you murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hates us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven;…" Now that was a lie, but what would they rather believe, the truth or a lie? Well, the lie, and it’s the same way today. That’s what Paul means in Romans when he says, "All these things are written for our learning." See, we won’t find the plan of salvation back here, but we will find a pot of gold an a gold mine of learning. If we'll trust the Holy Spirit to reveal the hidden truths within the scriptures. And what’s the example? The world hasn’t changed one little bit. They’ll flock to the lie by the millions, NO billions but you hold up the truth and they’ll scorn it every time. They’ll scorn it, and many of us have experienced it. We try to bring truth into our Sunday School class, and they’ll just about kick it out the back door. Now, not all, but a lot of them will, and that’s exactly the way it’s always been.
So here’s Israel with the truth of God in front of them, but they would rather believe the lie of ten men. We mean it’s enough to make you weep, but that’s the human race the nature of the beast. Now, let’s just keep going on with verse 29.
Deuteronomy 1:29 "Then I said to you, Dread (fear) not, neither be afraid of them. The LORD your God which goes before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;" Now for goodness sake, what happened in Egypt? Well, the plagues. And God put a line around Goshen, an invisible line that the flies didn’t penetrate, and with the exception of the first few plagues, none of them touched Israel. When the death angel flew over, with the blood on the door post, not a Jew lost his life (a figure of Christ's cross). Not a one! So Moses is saying, "The same God that brought you out of Egypt by opening the Red Sea - and if He could open the Red Sea, He could certainly drive out Canaanites. But they just couldn’t believe it, and isn’t it so sad? I mean it’s enough to just break our heart if we'll really get into it.
Then they stood there in abject unbelief and said, "No God, you don’t mean what you tell us. When you talk to us, you lie." That’s basically what they’re saying, see? Now verse 31.
Deuteronomy 1:31 "And in the wilderness, where you have seen how that the LORD you God bare you, as a man does bear his son, in all the way that you went, until you came into this place." What’s he talking about there? He provided water out of the rock, He provided the daily manna, their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out, and everything was provided by God. And with that we’ll have to stop with verse 32.
Deuteronomy 1:32 "Yet in this thing you did not believe the LORD your God," Now we have to remember that in these two chapters, especially three and four, we are almost going to be repeating it and repeating it to the place that we will almost despair of it but it is a rehearsal of Israel’s rejection at Kadesh-Barnea to go in and take the Promised Land because of their unbelief. So the whole thrust of these two chapters in Hebrews is the horror of unbelief.
We always like to point out that it was only just a few weeks previous to the Kadesh-Barnea experience that Israel stooped to the level of demanding that Aaron make a golden calf. You remember that? And in the worship of that golden calf they went down into the very abyss of moral degradation and followed in the steps of the mythological pagan worship of the Egyptians. And, of course, God dealt with it. And yet it is amazing that when they get up to the gateway of Canaan at Kadesh-Barnea and they turned away in unbelief, God doesn’t remind them of the horrible sin of the golden calf. He doesn’t remind them of any other horrible sins that they may have been guilty of, all He is distressed with is - they could not believe what He had told them. They did not simply TRUST Him.
We see, that is the whole problem with the human race. Even today. It’s not the various sins that they are committing. It’s not the drugs, the idolatry, the pagan worship, the alcohol or the immorality. It’s unbelief! Because you see, trust is the opposite of unbelief and faith does everything that squashes these things that we consider as wickedness and sin. So it boils down to the same premise. The human race’s great dilemma is simply – unbelief! That from after the flood is mans downfall because there is also a record of a very small few who were counted as righteous. These men believed God, in other words they took Him at His word and took action based on that word. They trusted Him with a wholehearted trust.
Now the Epistle of Hebrews. Again as we have been rehearsing over and over it is written, yes, to the Hebrews, but it’s not a Book like Romans as we've mentioned, because we do not find the plan of salvation laid out in this Epistle of Hebrews like we would in Romans or even Ephesians or Galatians. But nevertheless, just because it’s addressed to Hebrews does not mean that we ignore it or neglect it. Hebrews is also loaded with things that are still apropos for us in this Age of Grace. It reveals the New Covenant in a way unlike the others. For it reveals Christ and His ministry to all as the New Covenant LORD.
Now, in my own personal opinion (I can’t find that even the great theologians agree) this Epistle of Hebrews is not written to the dispersed Jews in general. For example, turn back with us to the little Book of James, which is right after Hebrews, so it will be real easy to find. James chapter 1 verse 1 and this points up what we've been driving at. Paul does not address this Epistle to the Hebrews in like manner as James does his letter, because look what James says.
Deuteronomy 1:25-28a "And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God did give us. Notwithstanding you would not go up, (remember Moses is rehearsing all this) but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:" They rebelled! Saying: "And you murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hates us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven;…" Now that was a lie, but what would they rather believe, the truth or a lie? Well, the lie, and it’s the same way today. That’s what Paul means in Romans when he says, "All these things are written for our learning." See, we won’t find the plan of salvation back here, but we will find a pot of gold an a gold mine of learning. If we'll trust the Holy Spirit to reveal the hidden truths within the scriptures. And what’s the example? The world hasn’t changed one little bit. They’ll flock to the lie by the millions, NO billions but you hold up the truth and they’ll scorn it every time. They’ll scorn it, and many of us have experienced it. We try to bring truth into our Sunday School class, and they’ll just about kick it out the back door. Now, not all, but a lot of them will, and that’s exactly the way it’s always been.
So here’s Israel with the truth of God in front of them, but they would rather believe the lie of ten men. We mean it’s enough to make you weep, but that’s the human race the nature of the beast. Now, let’s just keep going on with verse 29.
Deuteronomy 1:29 "Then I said to you, Dread (fear) not, neither be afraid of them. The LORD your God which goes before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;" Now for goodness sake, what happened in Egypt? Well, the plagues. And God put a line around Goshen, an invisible line that the flies didn’t penetrate, and with the exception of the first few plagues, none of them touched Israel. When the death angel flew over, with the blood on the door post, not a Jew lost his life (a figure of Christ's cross). Not a one! So Moses is saying, "The same God that brought you out of Egypt by opening the Red Sea - and if He could open the Red Sea, He could certainly drive out Canaanites. But they just couldn’t believe it, and isn’t it so sad? I mean it’s enough to just break our heart if we'll really get into it.
Then they stood there in abject unbelief and said, "No God, you don’t mean what you tell us. When you talk to us, you lie." That’s basically what they’re saying, see? Now verse 31.
Deuteronomy 1:31 "And in the wilderness, where you have seen how that the LORD you God bare you, as a man does bear his son, in all the way that you went, until you came into this place." What’s he talking about there? He provided water out of the rock, He provided the daily manna, their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out, and everything was provided by God. And with that we’ll have to stop with verse 32.
Deuteronomy 1:32 "Yet in this thing you did not believe the LORD your God," Now we have to remember that in these two chapters, especially three and four, we are almost going to be repeating it and repeating it to the place that we will almost despair of it but it is a rehearsal of Israel’s rejection at Kadesh-Barnea to go in and take the Promised Land because of their unbelief. So the whole thrust of these two chapters in Hebrews is the horror of unbelief.
We always like to point out that it was only just a few weeks previous to the Kadesh-Barnea experience that Israel stooped to the level of demanding that Aaron make a golden calf. You remember that? And in the worship of that golden calf they went down into the very abyss of moral degradation and followed in the steps of the mythological pagan worship of the Egyptians. And, of course, God dealt with it. And yet it is amazing that when they get up to the gateway of Canaan at Kadesh-Barnea and they turned away in unbelief, God doesn’t remind them of the horrible sin of the golden calf. He doesn’t remind them of any other horrible sins that they may have been guilty of, all He is distressed with is - they could not believe what He had told them. They did not simply TRUST Him.
We see, that is the whole problem with the human race. Even today. It’s not the various sins that they are committing. It’s not the drugs, the idolatry, the pagan worship, the alcohol or the immorality. It’s unbelief! Because you see, trust is the opposite of unbelief and faith does everything that squashes these things that we consider as wickedness and sin. So it boils down to the same premise. The human race’s great dilemma is simply – unbelief! That from after the flood is mans downfall because there is also a record of a very small few who were counted as righteous. These men believed God, in other words they took Him at His word and took action based on that word. They trusted Him with a wholehearted trust.
Now the Epistle of Hebrews. Again as we have been rehearsing over and over it is written, yes, to the Hebrews, but it’s not a Book like Romans as we've mentioned, because we do not find the plan of salvation laid out in this Epistle of Hebrews like we would in Romans or even Ephesians or Galatians. But nevertheless, just because it’s addressed to Hebrews does not mean that we ignore it or neglect it. Hebrews is also loaded with things that are still apropos for us in this Age of Grace. It reveals the New Covenant in a way unlike the others. For it reveals Christ and His ministry to all as the New Covenant LORD.
Now, in my own personal opinion (I can’t find that even the great theologians agree) this Epistle of Hebrews is not written to the dispersed Jews in general. For example, turn back with us to the little Book of James, which is right after Hebrews, so it will be real easy to find. James chapter 1 verse 1 and this points up what we've been driving at. Paul does not address this Epistle to the Hebrews in like manner as James does his letter, because look what James says.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXIII
Deuteronomy 1:2 "(They're eleven days’ journey from Horeb (Mount Sinai) by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea." Do you see how plain that is? You don’t have to be a seminary graduate to understand that. Eleven days from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh. Now verse 3.
Deuteronomy 1:3-5 "And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, Moses spake to the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD has given him in commandment to them; after he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: on this side (east) Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, (or this Book of Deuteronomy which rehearses that which had been said before) saying," Now look what he says:
Deuteronomy 1:6 "The LORD our God spake to us in Horeb, (at Mount Sinai after they had received their instructions for the tabernacle) saying, you have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and to all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, (which is up toward Mount Herman on my map) unto the great river, the river Euphrates."
See, we don’t want someone to say, "Well, where do you get it that the Euphrates River is the east boundary?" See, that’s what the Scriptures say over and over. It’s the Euphrates River that would be their boundary and then down to the Red Sea and over to the Sea of the Philistines. Now let’s just compare before we go any further here in Deuteronomy, to the Scripture back in Genesis chapter 15. We don’t want any to think, "Well Moses was just being real normal, and all of a sudden his ambition got the best of him, so he concocted the idea that they could have the whole Middle East." No, this is what God deeded to them here in Genesis 15, and let’s begin with verse 18.
Genesis 15:18 "In the same day (that God came down and fulfilled a title deed with Abraham) the LORD made a covenant with Abram, (Abraham) saying, to your seed (his offspring, his generations down the road) have I given this land, (we’re not talking about something spiritual, no, rather good old physical earth) from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates:"
Do you see how plain that is? There’s no argument about that. God has given them everything from the River of Egypt, and we don’t think it’s the Nile. We think there was another river east of the Nile that sort of disappeared over time - but whatever, it was the River of Egypt all along the Mediterranean, up to the River Euphrates, and back to the Red Sea. But we want all to see that this is what God Himself deeded to Abraham. Now come on back with us to Deuteronomy and verse 8.
Deuteronomy 1:8 "Behold, I have set the land before you: (the Promised Land God has prepared through the sweat and tears of the Canaanites) go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them."
Do you see that? Now we want all to see what Moses is showing, that when the children of Israel left Mount Sinai with everything set to go into and occupy the land, that they now had the Levitical priesthood set up and had the tabernacle built with all of the floor plan that followed up later in the temple. Everything was now ready for God’s covenanted (like a deed restricted subdivision) people to enter into a place of bliss, joy, and no bloodshed. As long as they were obedient, God would bless them, and my, it was as promised, the Promised Land, and everything was waiting for them. Now read on in verse 18.
Deuteronomy 1:18 "I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do." Remember they’re under the Levitical Law, the tutor of condemnation and Law says, "Do this and I’ll bless you, do that, and I’ll bless you." Don’t do this and don’t do that was the Law! And so Moses rehearses all that. The burden or yoke which NO Hebrew was able to carry. Now verse 19.
Deuteronomy 1:19 "And when we departed from Horeb, (Mount Sinai) we went through all that great, and terrible wilderness, which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea." Now we wish everybody could just be familiar with that term. "Kadesh-barnea" (which means: holy desert of wanderings) was the gateway to the Promised Land, and God brought them up there in that eleven day journey and set them there, and said, "Go in and take it, it’s ready for you. You won’t have to raise a sword, you won’t have to worry about losing a single young man, because I’ll drive them out with hornets."
Deuteronomy 1:20-21 "I said to you, You are come to the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God does give to us. Behold, the LORD our God has set the land before us: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of our father has said to us; fear not, neither be discouraged."
Now stop a moment and think. What did neither God or Moses tell the children of Israel? What did He not tell them? He didn’t say a word about sending in the twelve spies! Did He? No. God nor Moses hadn’t said a word about sending spies to see if they can do it. But rather He said, "Take my word for it, and go in and take the land. There won’t be one item of opposition, just go take it." But what does unbelief say? "Oh! but wait a minute, aren’t you even going to let us check it out, and see if we can make it? You see that’s unbelief, but that is exactly what Israel did, and that’s where God’s anger began.
Now God agreed to it, and condescended, and said, "Ok, if that will make it easier for you, I’ll let you pick one man out of each of the twelve tribes and you can send them in and spy out the land." That was the biggest mistake that Israel ever made! Why? Because the majority report came back 10 – 2 and said what? We can’t do it. When it comes to the things of the Spirit, the majority are usually wrong! You can just mark that up, because the majority is usually wrong. Just look at Christendom today, as for the majority of their people they have become a works religion, a religion of idolatry because of it and don’t tell me that makes them right. So the 12 spies go in and search out the land, and Moses says in verse 22:
Deuteronomy 1:22 "You came near to me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come." But what had God said? "It’s all yours!" But what did Israel say? "How?" Isn’t that ridiculous? But you see this is unbelief at work, and so the first step down into more unbelief, "Okay let’s spy out the land first, and then we’ll go and take it." No, you see unbelief is a downhill slide on a banana peel, and it is almost irrevocable, and this is a good example. Now let’s read on in verse 23, and here you are going to see one of Moses’ weak points. Moses should have been able to stand up to these people and say, "Now look, our God has said it’s ours for the taking, we’re not to put spies in there." But Moses condescended and agreed and said:
Deuteronomy 1:3-5 "And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, Moses spake to the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD has given him in commandment to them; after he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: on this side (east) Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, (or this Book of Deuteronomy which rehearses that which had been said before) saying," Now look what he says:
Deuteronomy 1:6 "The LORD our God spake to us in Horeb, (at Mount Sinai after they had received their instructions for the tabernacle) saying, you have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and to all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, (which is up toward Mount Herman on my map) unto the great river, the river Euphrates."
See, we don’t want someone to say, "Well, where do you get it that the Euphrates River is the east boundary?" See, that’s what the Scriptures say over and over. It’s the Euphrates River that would be their boundary and then down to the Red Sea and over to the Sea of the Philistines. Now let’s just compare before we go any further here in Deuteronomy, to the Scripture back in Genesis chapter 15. We don’t want any to think, "Well Moses was just being real normal, and all of a sudden his ambition got the best of him, so he concocted the idea that they could have the whole Middle East." No, this is what God deeded to them here in Genesis 15, and let’s begin with verse 18.
Genesis 15:18 "In the same day (that God came down and fulfilled a title deed with Abraham) the LORD made a covenant with Abram, (Abraham) saying, to your seed (his offspring, his generations down the road) have I given this land, (we’re not talking about something spiritual, no, rather good old physical earth) from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates:"
Do you see how plain that is? There’s no argument about that. God has given them everything from the River of Egypt, and we don’t think it’s the Nile. We think there was another river east of the Nile that sort of disappeared over time - but whatever, it was the River of Egypt all along the Mediterranean, up to the River Euphrates, and back to the Red Sea. But we want all to see that this is what God Himself deeded to Abraham. Now come on back with us to Deuteronomy and verse 8.
Deuteronomy 1:8 "Behold, I have set the land before you: (the Promised Land God has prepared through the sweat and tears of the Canaanites) go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them."
Do you see that? Now we want all to see what Moses is showing, that when the children of Israel left Mount Sinai with everything set to go into and occupy the land, that they now had the Levitical priesthood set up and had the tabernacle built with all of the floor plan that followed up later in the temple. Everything was now ready for God’s covenanted (like a deed restricted subdivision) people to enter into a place of bliss, joy, and no bloodshed. As long as they were obedient, God would bless them, and my, it was as promised, the Promised Land, and everything was waiting for them. Now read on in verse 18.
Deuteronomy 1:18 "I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do." Remember they’re under the Levitical Law, the tutor of condemnation and Law says, "Do this and I’ll bless you, do that, and I’ll bless you." Don’t do this and don’t do that was the Law! And so Moses rehearses all that. The burden or yoke which NO Hebrew was able to carry. Now verse 19.
Deuteronomy 1:19 "And when we departed from Horeb, (Mount Sinai) we went through all that great, and terrible wilderness, which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea." Now we wish everybody could just be familiar with that term. "Kadesh-barnea" (which means: holy desert of wanderings) was the gateway to the Promised Land, and God brought them up there in that eleven day journey and set them there, and said, "Go in and take it, it’s ready for you. You won’t have to raise a sword, you won’t have to worry about losing a single young man, because I’ll drive them out with hornets."
Deuteronomy 1:20-21 "I said to you, You are come to the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God does give to us. Behold, the LORD our God has set the land before us: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of our father has said to us; fear not, neither be discouraged."
Now stop a moment and think. What did neither God or Moses tell the children of Israel? What did He not tell them? He didn’t say a word about sending in the twelve spies! Did He? No. God nor Moses hadn’t said a word about sending spies to see if they can do it. But rather He said, "Take my word for it, and go in and take the land. There won’t be one item of opposition, just go take it." But what does unbelief say? "Oh! but wait a minute, aren’t you even going to let us check it out, and see if we can make it? You see that’s unbelief, but that is exactly what Israel did, and that’s where God’s anger began.
Now God agreed to it, and condescended, and said, "Ok, if that will make it easier for you, I’ll let you pick one man out of each of the twelve tribes and you can send them in and spy out the land." That was the biggest mistake that Israel ever made! Why? Because the majority report came back 10 – 2 and said what? We can’t do it. When it comes to the things of the Spirit, the majority are usually wrong! You can just mark that up, because the majority is usually wrong. Just look at Christendom today, as for the majority of their people they have become a works religion, a religion of idolatry because of it and don’t tell me that makes them right. So the 12 spies go in and search out the land, and Moses says in verse 22:
Deuteronomy 1:22 "You came near to me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come." But what had God said? "It’s all yours!" But what did Israel say? "How?" Isn’t that ridiculous? But you see this is unbelief at work, and so the first step down into more unbelief, "Okay let’s spy out the land first, and then we’ll go and take it." No, you see unbelief is a downhill slide on a banana peel, and it is almost irrevocable, and this is a good example. Now let’s read on in verse 23, and here you are going to see one of Moses’ weak points. Moses should have been able to stand up to these people and say, "Now look, our God has said it’s ours for the taking, we’re not to put spies in there." But Moses condescended and agreed and said:
Friday, May 11, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXII
Hebrews 3:12 "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, (and when there is no trust, then it’s an easy step to do what?) in departing from the living God."
You’ve heard us say it, as we come back to Exodus chapter 23, "What is America’s number one problem?" It’s not politics, or economics, but rather it’s spiritual. We’ve lost our ability to trust, that's having faith! As a nation of people we no longer have any respect for the absolutes of this Book, and we’re suffering the consequences. Restore America back to the Truth and trust of our fathers, and most of our problems would disappear. But they will not because they will not believe what God says. Well here is the lesson for us now from Israel’s experience going into the Promised Land.
The Israelites came from down at Mount Sinai in the Arabian desert, and came up to Kadesh, and yes, this is where they were going to go first, was up through the fertile area of what we presently call the land of Israel or secularizing it, it’s the land of Palestine. But the Promised Land was everything from the river of Egypt, around the Mediterranean, past Mount Herman, and all the way to the Euphrates River, clear out to the gulf of Persia, and back around to the Red Sea, and back over to the river of Egypt. Now that’s the Promised Land, not this that they have today. The little strip of land now occupied by them and which all others are trying to push them out of.
According to the Bellfore Agreement of 1918 when Great Britain first agreed to give the Hebrews a home land, all of this is about what they had drawn out. We mean just about all of this, but not quite, but we see it wasn’t very long until they started having second thoughts, so they pulled all that away and made Jordan, and then they gave the Hebrews what we now presently think of as the land of Israel. But listen, the Promised Land is that whole middle east out to the Euphrates River, and we’ll show that in Scripture in just a little bit. Now coming into Exodus chapter 23, and verse 25.
Exodus 23:25-27 "And you shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. (and here we come with all the material and earthly blessings) There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in your land: the number of your days I will fulfill. I will send my fear before you, and will destroy all the people to whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs unto you." In other words, what does that mean? Hey, their enemies are going to run. They’ll be running out ahead of them. Now verse 28. God says:
Exodus 23:28a "And I will send hornets before you,…"
Now listen, we don’t care if the Canaanites were twelve feet tall, could they withstand a hive of hornets? No way, we don’t care how big they were. God said, "I’ll send hornets and just drive them out!" Can you picture it? God meant business, He said, "This is what I’ll do. I’ll drive them out and you won’t even have to lift a sword. All you’ve got to do is walk in behind them and settle down." Now let’s read on.
Exodus 23:28-29a "And I will send hornets before you which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year;…" In other words I’m not going to drive them out so fast that you can’t pick up taking care of their vineyards and orchards and so forth. We’ll go slow enough that you can take over and cultivate, and keep everything going.
Exodus 23:29b-31 "…lest the beast of the field multiply against you. By little and little I will drive them out from before you, until your increased, and inherit the land." (my what a promise God made. Now here come their boundaries) And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea (which is down here on the south remember) even to the sea of the Philistines, (which is the Mediterranean) and from the desert to the river: (which is the great river Euphrates) for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands; and you shall drive them out before you." Now with all this goodness being spread before them, here’s the admonition in verse 32.
Exodus 23:32-33 "You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me: for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."
Now let’s go to the Book of Deuteronomy for a moment, and Deuteronomy is sort of a book review, where Moses recaps everything that has happened. We always have a hard time deciding where to jump in because this is all good. If anyone would like to have an interesting evening of reading just read the Book of Deuteronomy. It is one portion of Scripture that is almost like a story, and not hard to understand. So let’s just jump in at verse 2, because here is where we were referring to. It was just an eleven day journey from Mount Sinai to Kadesh - we mean just 11 days. Then they could have started taking the Promised Land, could have occupied it and could have had all the goodness of it. But like we've pointed out before, instead of 11 days, how long was it until Joshua brought them in across the Jordan River? 40 long and arduous years! So they stretched 11 days into 40 years because of unbelief.
You’ve heard us say it, as we come back to Exodus chapter 23, "What is America’s number one problem?" It’s not politics, or economics, but rather it’s spiritual. We’ve lost our ability to trust, that's having faith! As a nation of people we no longer have any respect for the absolutes of this Book, and we’re suffering the consequences. Restore America back to the Truth and trust of our fathers, and most of our problems would disappear. But they will not because they will not believe what God says. Well here is the lesson for us now from Israel’s experience going into the Promised Land.
The Israelites came from down at Mount Sinai in the Arabian desert, and came up to Kadesh, and yes, this is where they were going to go first, was up through the fertile area of what we presently call the land of Israel or secularizing it, it’s the land of Palestine. But the Promised Land was everything from the river of Egypt, around the Mediterranean, past Mount Herman, and all the way to the Euphrates River, clear out to the gulf of Persia, and back around to the Red Sea, and back over to the river of Egypt. Now that’s the Promised Land, not this that they have today. The little strip of land now occupied by them and which all others are trying to push them out of.
According to the Bellfore Agreement of 1918 when Great Britain first agreed to give the Hebrews a home land, all of this is about what they had drawn out. We mean just about all of this, but not quite, but we see it wasn’t very long until they started having second thoughts, so they pulled all that away and made Jordan, and then they gave the Hebrews what we now presently think of as the land of Israel. But listen, the Promised Land is that whole middle east out to the Euphrates River, and we’ll show that in Scripture in just a little bit. Now coming into Exodus chapter 23, and verse 25.
Exodus 23:25-27 "And you shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. (and here we come with all the material and earthly blessings) There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in your land: the number of your days I will fulfill. I will send my fear before you, and will destroy all the people to whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs unto you." In other words, what does that mean? Hey, their enemies are going to run. They’ll be running out ahead of them. Now verse 28. God says:
Exodus 23:28a "And I will send hornets before you,…"
Now listen, we don’t care if the Canaanites were twelve feet tall, could they withstand a hive of hornets? No way, we don’t care how big they were. God said, "I’ll send hornets and just drive them out!" Can you picture it? God meant business, He said, "This is what I’ll do. I’ll drive them out and you won’t even have to lift a sword. All you’ve got to do is walk in behind them and settle down." Now let’s read on.
Exodus 23:28-29a "And I will send hornets before you which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year;…" In other words I’m not going to drive them out so fast that you can’t pick up taking care of their vineyards and orchards and so forth. We’ll go slow enough that you can take over and cultivate, and keep everything going.
Exodus 23:29b-31 "…lest the beast of the field multiply against you. By little and little I will drive them out from before you, until your increased, and inherit the land." (my what a promise God made. Now here come their boundaries) And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea (which is down here on the south remember) even to the sea of the Philistines, (which is the Mediterranean) and from the desert to the river: (which is the great river Euphrates) for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands; and you shall drive them out before you." Now with all this goodness being spread before them, here’s the admonition in verse 32.
Exodus 23:32-33 "You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me: for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."
Now let’s go to the Book of Deuteronomy for a moment, and Deuteronomy is sort of a book review, where Moses recaps everything that has happened. We always have a hard time deciding where to jump in because this is all good. If anyone would like to have an interesting evening of reading just read the Book of Deuteronomy. It is one portion of Scripture that is almost like a story, and not hard to understand. So let’s just jump in at verse 2, because here is where we were referring to. It was just an eleven day journey from Mount Sinai to Kadesh - we mean just 11 days. Then they could have started taking the Promised Land, could have occupied it and could have had all the goodness of it. But like we've pointed out before, instead of 11 days, how long was it until Joshua brought them in across the Jordan River? 40 long and arduous years! So they stretched 11 days into 40 years because of unbelief.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LXI
Exodus 23:20a "Behold, I send an Angel..."
Now, that is capitalized! So Who is the Angel when it is capitalized? It’s God the Son again! It’s the Lord, Yehovah, or in our New Testament Yeshua-Messiah. The Angel that redeemed me is the way Jacob puts it and there is only one Redeemer in scripture. So, it has to be God the Son! Here is another good example. Who is speaking? God the Son! Who is He going to send? God the Son! We have to remember that all through Scripture, God the Son can speak to God the Father but what are they? They are one and the same so far as all practical purposes are concerned.
The only difference that we have is in Christ’s earthly ministry when He speaks from the flesh and now He addresses or prays to the Father, what makes the difference? Well, now He is speaking from His humanity and indeed He can address God the Father as His Father. But, when He speaks from His position as Deity, then we think it was Martin Luther who came to the tremendous conclusion that it was God speaking to whom? To God!! So, don’t let that throw you - sometimes God the Son speaks concerning Himself.
So, here is another good one. Exodus 23 where God the Son is speaking to Moses and He says I send an Angel:
Exodus 23:20b "...before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared." What’s He talking about? Canaan! The Promised Land! How long has He been preparing it? Four hundred and thirty years! How do we know this? Because that’s what He told Abraham when He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. He said, "in 430 years I am going to bring you back to this land." He couldn’t do it any sooner. He couldn’t do it in 300 years or 200 years, He had to wait the whole 400 years for what purpose? The iniquity of the Canaanites had to be filled full. Then after that 400-year hiatus, the Canaanites had gotten so filthy, rotten, wicked that God could just push them out and let Israel enjoy the works of their 400 years of getting the land ready. We hope all will understand that.
It’s the Canaanites who had those grapevines that could grow those clusters of grapes that took two men to hold! The Canaanites did all of that. They had everything ready. We imagine they had some beautiful vineyards. They had some beautiful homes, beautiful pastures and places for cattle. They had it all! But now God is going to take it away from them because of their wickedness. Their iniquity had now hit the full mark. Let’s read on in Exodus.
Exodus 23:21 "Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him." In other words, it is speaking of how they were to respect the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Verse 22.
Exodus 23:22 "But if you shall indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto your enemies, and an adversary unto your adversaries."
The Hebrews are God’s earthly chosen or called out people! They enjoyed what kind of blessings? Earthly! Here’s a good example. God’s earthly people are being told that their earthly enemies would be driven away and that they could have everything for their own good. How’s God going to do it?
Exodus 23:23 "For my Angel (He’s speaking of Himself) shall go before you, and bring you in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off." God says, I will destroy them! I will move them out! Verse 24 is giving them warning. When you get there, they are going to leave some of their idols behind and some of their high places so He said:
Exodus 23:24 "You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but you shall utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images." Verse 25.
Exodus 23:25 "And you shall serve the LORD (your MASTER) your God, and he shall bless your bread, and your water; (What does that speak of? Material blessings! He’s not promising them eternal blessings in the heavenlies, like we are. They are being told that if they are obedient, they will immediately have material blessings. This is what we have to understand. All the material blessings that were common to the Hebrews have no validity for us because we are not an earthly people. We are a heavenly people! We are the heavenly Israel of God the apple of His eye and why? Because we trust in His faith to move mountains, to give New Life to a dead person, to cause those things that be not as though they are now, done. How are they now done by Grace, His working, not ours. We wish we could get that through people’s heads!) and we will take sickness away from the midst of you." Now, what is that? That’s material blessing! But in the spiritual its being reunited to Him, this gives us wholeness and oneness with Him.(Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24)
Exodus 23:26 "There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in they land; the number of they days I will fulfill."
Hebrews 3:7-12a "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost said, Today if you will hear His voice. Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers (now remember, Paul is writing to Hebrews so he’s referring all the way back to the forefathers of Israel) tempted (or tested is a better word) me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) (Now we have to take the next verse to pick up God’s number one controversy with the human race as well as the Hebrews, as we've pointed out before) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,…" Now he doesn’t mention any of the other sins of the flesh, but rather unbelief! Oh that’s what God hates more than anything, is a lack of trust. So looking at that last verse again:
Now, that is capitalized! So Who is the Angel when it is capitalized? It’s God the Son again! It’s the Lord, Yehovah, or in our New Testament Yeshua-Messiah. The Angel that redeemed me is the way Jacob puts it and there is only one Redeemer in scripture. So, it has to be God the Son! Here is another good example. Who is speaking? God the Son! Who is He going to send? God the Son! We have to remember that all through Scripture, God the Son can speak to God the Father but what are they? They are one and the same so far as all practical purposes are concerned.
The only difference that we have is in Christ’s earthly ministry when He speaks from the flesh and now He addresses or prays to the Father, what makes the difference? Well, now He is speaking from His humanity and indeed He can address God the Father as His Father. But, when He speaks from His position as Deity, then we think it was Martin Luther who came to the tremendous conclusion that it was God speaking to whom? To God!! So, don’t let that throw you - sometimes God the Son speaks concerning Himself.
So, here is another good one. Exodus 23 where God the Son is speaking to Moses and He says I send an Angel:
Exodus 23:20b "...before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared." What’s He talking about? Canaan! The Promised Land! How long has He been preparing it? Four hundred and thirty years! How do we know this? Because that’s what He told Abraham when He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. He said, "in 430 years I am going to bring you back to this land." He couldn’t do it any sooner. He couldn’t do it in 300 years or 200 years, He had to wait the whole 400 years for what purpose? The iniquity of the Canaanites had to be filled full. Then after that 400-year hiatus, the Canaanites had gotten so filthy, rotten, wicked that God could just push them out and let Israel enjoy the works of their 400 years of getting the land ready. We hope all will understand that.
It’s the Canaanites who had those grapevines that could grow those clusters of grapes that took two men to hold! The Canaanites did all of that. They had everything ready. We imagine they had some beautiful vineyards. They had some beautiful homes, beautiful pastures and places for cattle. They had it all! But now God is going to take it away from them because of their wickedness. Their iniquity had now hit the full mark. Let’s read on in Exodus.
Exodus 23:21 "Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him." In other words, it is speaking of how they were to respect the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Verse 22.
Exodus 23:22 "But if you shall indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto your enemies, and an adversary unto your adversaries."
The Hebrews are God’s earthly chosen or called out people! They enjoyed what kind of blessings? Earthly! Here’s a good example. God’s earthly people are being told that their earthly enemies would be driven away and that they could have everything for their own good. How’s God going to do it?
Exodus 23:23 "For my Angel (He’s speaking of Himself) shall go before you, and bring you in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off." God says, I will destroy them! I will move them out! Verse 24 is giving them warning. When you get there, they are going to leave some of their idols behind and some of their high places so He said:
Exodus 23:24 "You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but you shall utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images." Verse 25.
Exodus 23:25 "And you shall serve the LORD (your MASTER) your God, and he shall bless your bread, and your water; (What does that speak of? Material blessings! He’s not promising them eternal blessings in the heavenlies, like we are. They are being told that if they are obedient, they will immediately have material blessings. This is what we have to understand. All the material blessings that were common to the Hebrews have no validity for us because we are not an earthly people. We are a heavenly people! We are the heavenly Israel of God the apple of His eye and why? Because we trust in His faith to move mountains, to give New Life to a dead person, to cause those things that be not as though they are now, done. How are they now done by Grace, His working, not ours. We wish we could get that through people’s heads!) and we will take sickness away from the midst of you." Now, what is that? That’s material blessing! But in the spiritual its being reunited to Him, this gives us wholeness and oneness with Him.(Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24)
Exodus 23:26 "There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in they land; the number of they days I will fulfill."
Hebrews 3:7-12a "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost said, Today if you will hear His voice. Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers (now remember, Paul is writing to Hebrews so he’s referring all the way back to the forefathers of Israel) tempted (or tested is a better word) me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) (Now we have to take the next verse to pick up God’s number one controversy with the human race as well as the Hebrews, as we've pointed out before) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,…" Now he doesn’t mention any of the other sins of the flesh, but rather unbelief! Oh that’s what God hates more than anything, is a lack of trust. So looking at that last verse again:
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LX
After all, it would sound awful if you only had a record of giving $5.00!
But, you see, if all we are going to give for is to impress our fellow church members, forget it! It’s going to be nothing but wood, hay and stubble! It will go up in a puff of smoke! If we give to whatever it is, our church or anything else, and we are doing it to bring God the glory, then yes, it will be gold, silver and precious stones! BUT to give God glory means that God is doing it and is in it NOT us. Everything is based on motivation! And His direction anything else is of no worth, He has given His all from creation on. Even the air we breath He gave to us that we might live even though separated from Him by sin and physical death. Then He gave us His son that through our being identified as IN Him on the cross there dieing in death to sin and the spirit of the world. There crushing the head of the serpent, the spirit of the world and the prince of the power of the air. Then in His resurrection and ascension we are reunited to Him and now in His likeness. The great mystery hid in God from before the foundation of the world.
Same way with any other good works that we can do. Why are we doing it? What’s our purpose? And, if our purpose is honorable in bringing glory to the Lord, it is gold, silver and precious stones. but here again He has to be the originator of it. If the only reason we are doing it is to impress somebody else, it’s nothing but wood, hay and stubble! But, maybe it will save us some sweat or tears knowing that there is no use doing something if we are only going to do it to impress others. This was the bases of the Aaronic priesthood an external or materialism based priesthood of works as there was no room in it for redemption which brings salvation. But only condemnation and death by that condemnation, or guilt and its shame. As in all religions and religious cults, the priests have a secret, or many secrets held from the parishioners and many of those requiring mans sufficiency of doing this or that in a form of works.
We're now under Grace as the building of which we are a part. It counts for nothing unless we are first and foremost based on the salvation around Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Our confession is as it should be, we saw some time ago, then as verse 6 makes it so plain:
Hebrews 3:6 "But Christ as a son (or THE Son, the Preeminent One) over his own house; (that He’s building for eternity) whose house are we, (Now, we know that a lot of people like to take a verse like this and say IF we hang on. Well, we don’t think Paul ever uses that kind of language to impart that thinking, that IF we hang on and IF we have done enough. Rather it is a word of warning not to take these things flippantly. These things are graphic. They are important, but we are not going to lose our eternal salvation if we do not measure up to how we are building in this Spiritual house. Nevertheless, we have this admonition that) if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
The next verses are dealing with that gross time of unbelief in the life of Israel when they failed to go in and take the Promised Land. Scripture refers to it over and over and it is a constant reminder for us today, that there is nothing that God detests more than unbelief! Unbelief! It is awful and we don’t want us to leave this lesson without realizing that it is the worst possible offense against God.
We can bring it into the life of everyone. We have used the example more than once. If we know that we are saying something that is absolute truth. And there is not a hint of anything false about what we have said, how would we feel if somebody would come up and say to our face, "I don’t believe a word of it? You are lying!" Just think for a moment. How would you feel if anybody, we don’t care who it is, after we have said something that we know is absolute truth with no hint of error - doesn’t have to be spiritual, it could be anything. A witness to a car wreck at an intersection. Or it can be anything else that you can think of and you KNOW that you have spoken is truth. How would you feel if someone would just come up and call you a liar? If you are human, it’s going to make you almost mad enough to do something drastic! Isn’t that right? Of course it is! Because nobody wants their honor impugned in that way.
Think! When the God of Glory, the God of Creation, the God Who knows nothing BUT Truth has said something in His Word and puny men come along and say, "I don’t believe it." Do you think God’s going to take that lightly? We know that His Grace is greater than all sin, don’t get us wrong. But, this whole idea of the rest of this chapter is to impress on us how God detests unbelief! Let’s go back and read Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7 on down.
Hebrews 3:7-10a "Wherefore ( as the Holy Ghost (Spirit) says, Today if you will hear His voice, (If we are going to hear what God says, what is He going to expect? He expects us to believe it! So here is the warning.) Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation (testing) in the wilderness: When your fathers (remember, Paul is addressing Hebrews, so he’s going back to Israel coming out of the land of Egypt around Sinai and getting ready for the Promised Land. So when your fathers tested) tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation,..."
Now, let’s go back to see what the Apostle is talking about. Go to Exodus chapter 23 and we're going to assume that most of us have got a pretty good handle on Israel coming out of Egypt under Moses and Aaron. How they went straight to Mt. Sinai. There at Mt. Sinai God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Levitical Law. Gave him all the instructions for building that beautiful little tabernacle out there in the desert, gold like we wouldn’t believe! And then, after they had received the instructions and had built the tabernacle they are ready to head up to the Promised Land.
Here is a shocking thought! From Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea which was the border of the Promised Land was eleven days. Eleven days. How long did it take Israel to get there? Forty years and eleven days! They had a forty year detour. Why? Unbelief! Isn’t that sad? Just because of their unbelief instead of getting in and enjoying it after eleven days, they had to wait forty years in wanderings of unbelief.
Well, here it goes, Exodus chapter 23 verse 20. The Lord is speaking to Moses. This is back when they are encamped around Sinai and in chapter 25. He is going to give the instructions for building the tabernacle, so this is just shortly before they begin the work. God is already telling them what is waiting for them!
But, you see, if all we are going to give for is to impress our fellow church members, forget it! It’s going to be nothing but wood, hay and stubble! It will go up in a puff of smoke! If we give to whatever it is, our church or anything else, and we are doing it to bring God the glory, then yes, it will be gold, silver and precious stones! BUT to give God glory means that God is doing it and is in it NOT us. Everything is based on motivation! And His direction anything else is of no worth, He has given His all from creation on. Even the air we breath He gave to us that we might live even though separated from Him by sin and physical death. Then He gave us His son that through our being identified as IN Him on the cross there dieing in death to sin and the spirit of the world. There crushing the head of the serpent, the spirit of the world and the prince of the power of the air. Then in His resurrection and ascension we are reunited to Him and now in His likeness. The great mystery hid in God from before the foundation of the world.
Same way with any other good works that we can do. Why are we doing it? What’s our purpose? And, if our purpose is honorable in bringing glory to the Lord, it is gold, silver and precious stones. but here again He has to be the originator of it. If the only reason we are doing it is to impress somebody else, it’s nothing but wood, hay and stubble! But, maybe it will save us some sweat or tears knowing that there is no use doing something if we are only going to do it to impress others. This was the bases of the Aaronic priesthood an external or materialism based priesthood of works as there was no room in it for redemption which brings salvation. But only condemnation and death by that condemnation, or guilt and its shame. As in all religions and religious cults, the priests have a secret, or many secrets held from the parishioners and many of those requiring mans sufficiency of doing this or that in a form of works.
We're now under Grace as the building of which we are a part. It counts for nothing unless we are first and foremost based on the salvation around Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Our confession is as it should be, we saw some time ago, then as verse 6 makes it so plain:
Hebrews 3:6 "But Christ as a son (or THE Son, the Preeminent One) over his own house; (that He’s building for eternity) whose house are we, (Now, we know that a lot of people like to take a verse like this and say IF we hang on. Well, we don’t think Paul ever uses that kind of language to impart that thinking, that IF we hang on and IF we have done enough. Rather it is a word of warning not to take these things flippantly. These things are graphic. They are important, but we are not going to lose our eternal salvation if we do not measure up to how we are building in this Spiritual house. Nevertheless, we have this admonition that) if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
The next verses are dealing with that gross time of unbelief in the life of Israel when they failed to go in and take the Promised Land. Scripture refers to it over and over and it is a constant reminder for us today, that there is nothing that God detests more than unbelief! Unbelief! It is awful and we don’t want us to leave this lesson without realizing that it is the worst possible offense against God.
We can bring it into the life of everyone. We have used the example more than once. If we know that we are saying something that is absolute truth. And there is not a hint of anything false about what we have said, how would we feel if somebody would come up and say to our face, "I don’t believe a word of it? You are lying!" Just think for a moment. How would you feel if anybody, we don’t care who it is, after we have said something that we know is absolute truth with no hint of error - doesn’t have to be spiritual, it could be anything. A witness to a car wreck at an intersection. Or it can be anything else that you can think of and you KNOW that you have spoken is truth. How would you feel if someone would just come up and call you a liar? If you are human, it’s going to make you almost mad enough to do something drastic! Isn’t that right? Of course it is! Because nobody wants their honor impugned in that way.
Think! When the God of Glory, the God of Creation, the God Who knows nothing BUT Truth has said something in His Word and puny men come along and say, "I don’t believe it." Do you think God’s going to take that lightly? We know that His Grace is greater than all sin, don’t get us wrong. But, this whole idea of the rest of this chapter is to impress on us how God detests unbelief! Let’s go back and read Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7 on down.
Hebrews 3:7-10a "Wherefore ( as the Holy Ghost (Spirit) says, Today if you will hear His voice, (If we are going to hear what God says, what is He going to expect? He expects us to believe it! So here is the warning.) Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation (testing) in the wilderness: When your fathers (remember, Paul is addressing Hebrews, so he’s going back to Israel coming out of the land of Egypt around Sinai and getting ready for the Promised Land. So when your fathers tested) tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation,..."
Now, let’s go back to see what the Apostle is talking about. Go to Exodus chapter 23 and we're going to assume that most of us have got a pretty good handle on Israel coming out of Egypt under Moses and Aaron. How they went straight to Mt. Sinai. There at Mt. Sinai God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Levitical Law. Gave him all the instructions for building that beautiful little tabernacle out there in the desert, gold like we wouldn’t believe! And then, after they had received the instructions and had built the tabernacle they are ready to head up to the Promised Land.
Here is a shocking thought! From Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea which was the border of the Promised Land was eleven days. Eleven days. How long did it take Israel to get there? Forty years and eleven days! They had a forty year detour. Why? Unbelief! Isn’t that sad? Just because of their unbelief instead of getting in and enjoying it after eleven days, they had to wait forty years in wanderings of unbelief.
Well, here it goes, Exodus chapter 23 verse 20. The Lord is speaking to Moses. This is back when they are encamped around Sinai and in chapter 25. He is going to give the instructions for building the tabernacle, so this is just shortly before they begin the work. God is already telling them what is waiting for them!
Monday, May 7, 2012
The Epistle to the Hebrews part LIX
Colossians 1:14-16 "In whom (in the Son) we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: who (God the Son, the Man that we’re talking about in Hebrews) is the image of the invisible God, (He is the visible manifestation of the invisible God) the firstborn of every creature (do we get that? how is it possible?): for by him (by the Son) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: (here it is) all things were created by Him, and for Him:" Now we just shared an thought somewhere else which just seems to fit so here goes. When we can begin to see the spiritual side of what Jesus did at His last supper and then up through all that then took place. And when He said while hanging on the cross "IT IS FINISHED". What did He mean but this all the covenants God-Yehovah has established between Himself and Himself though they included a man God ended IN CHRIST. Then shortly after He started a New ONE sealed with and by His BLOOD, CHRIST is the New Covenant based on BETTER promises. The HIS doing all in all for HIS good pleasure. Man failed but God can never fail.
Hebrews 3:4 "For every house is built by some man; (Nothing happens without man putting his works of hands and fingers to whatever needs to be done.) but he that built all things is God." Remember, the God that we are speaking of here is the Man, Christ Jesus. Now verse 5.
Hebrews, 3:5 "And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, (We made that point in the last section - how that Moses never failed his commission. He was faithful in all that God has entrusted to him.) as a servant, (He was not the main player. He was simply a person that God saw fit to use, as a servant) for a testimony (witness or record) of those things which were to be spoken after;" Let’s go back to Deuteronomy 18 and we can see how this was all foretold way back in Israel’s beginning years as Moses is writing the Torah, the Decalogue or the first five books. The same verses that we looked at before, we think are appropriate. Verse 15.
Deuteronomy 18:15 "The LORD your God will raise up to you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like unto me; to him you shall hearken;" Moses is writing from his own position as the leader of Israel, but he is speaking of this future One Who is Christ.
Deuteronomy 18:16-18 "According to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the LORD (Moses said) said to me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, (That’s why Jesus had to come from the line of David and from the home of Joseph and Mary as He was born in Bethlehem.) like unto you and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him." Come back to Hebrews chapter 3. So, Moses was a faithful servant in everything that God had committed unto him. But this one is to speak to us as from the very mouth of God, so God speaks to us through His Son and these words are those recorded in the first four books which are in reality the end of the last days. (Psalm 72:6, Proverbs 1:23, Isaiah 44:3, Ezekiel 11:19, 36:25-27, 39:29; John 7:39, Titus 3:4-6)
Hebrews 3:6 "But Christ (See the comparison, over and over. Moses on the one hand and Christ on the other and how Moses just pales by comparison to the role of God the Son) as a son over his own house; (Moses was a servant of the Almighty Creator, so he couldn’t say that this is "my" house. He was merely the servant, but Christ as a Son over His own house, He is the owner! He is the total proprietor of this spiritual house that we are going to be looking at) whose house (Paul says) are we,..." What is the lesson? What kind of a house are we talking about? We are not talking about wood and stone and concrete. We are talking about something Spiritual. We are talking about a house being built in the heavens, for eternity! So as a son over his own house, whose house we are! Let’s pick this up in I Corinthians chapter 3.
We feel the Apostle Paul wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews and he is admonishing the Hebrews with the same basic doctrines that he has given to us. We cannot just separate the Epistle of Hebrews and say well, that has nothing to do with me because that was written to the Hebrews. No, this Epistle of Hebrews is full of information for us as Gentiles in this Grace Age as Believers become receivers.
I Corinthians 3:9 "For we are laborers together with God: (See that? We are a part and parcel of God’s building, the rest of the verse says it!) you are God’s husbandry, you are God’s building." We are a part of that which God is building for eternity! And, it is not wood, hay and stubble or gold, silver and precious stones, although those are used as examples of our building materials only to show that as we are laboring in this process of building the building that our labor is set up for rewards. So we are God’s husbandry, we are God’s building, but only in the effect that as a part of this building, we are now contributing to it with our works of faith and obedience. Then you come down to verse 12.
I Corinthians 3:12 "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;" We always divide those three elements as the first three cannot be touched by fire, if anything fire would enhance them. But, the last three would go up in a puff of smoke! That’s what Paul is saying, that as believers, as we are building in this spiritual building, over which God is the Master and Paul is the contractor, who laid the foundation, which is Christ Jesus, then, as we labor, our works will be manifest! Our works are not the works of self effort or self sufficiency but rather are the deeds directed by God done for His glory and not ours. Are we putting in wood, hay and stubble that will disappear in a puff of smoke, as the material Levitical Law which only dealt with the physical world? Or, are we putting in gold, silver and precious stones? That boils down to several factors, most of which, we think, is motivation. As we'll see later in Hebrews God is our sufficiency. These are but metaphors or a play on words for spiritual things which are to become more real than any physical thing now seen or touched.
Why do we do the so-called good works that we do? To get the acclaim of men? Whenever we think of this verse we point out the fact that our good works mean absolutely nothing if the motivation for doing them is wrong! We can do ever so much and if our motivation is wrong it counts but as wood, hay and stubble. We're not to work for any gift because when we put forth our own efforts a gift becomes wages due and stops God from being who He is GOD the self-sacrificing one and our sufficiency. We're designed to be a receiver and Christ is our benefactor that being so we're to be receptive of His beneficence or Him as we're the beneficiary.
Why? Why are we doing it? Why do we give? If we give just so we can impress somebody how much have we given. We have to go back to my childhood, but I can remember when the treasurer of our church at the end of the year would read off the contributions of all the various church members. What was the motivation for his doing that? To get people to give! We give as a way of showing who we are and they give to show who they are or to buy our way into a group or even the kingdom of God and God see's this as foolishness before Him.
Hebrews 3:4 "For every house is built by some man; (Nothing happens without man putting his works of hands and fingers to whatever needs to be done.) but he that built all things is God." Remember, the God that we are speaking of here is the Man, Christ Jesus. Now verse 5.
Hebrews, 3:5 "And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, (We made that point in the last section - how that Moses never failed his commission. He was faithful in all that God has entrusted to him.) as a servant, (He was not the main player. He was simply a person that God saw fit to use, as a servant) for a testimony (witness or record) of those things which were to be spoken after;" Let’s go back to Deuteronomy 18 and we can see how this was all foretold way back in Israel’s beginning years as Moses is writing the Torah, the Decalogue or the first five books. The same verses that we looked at before, we think are appropriate. Verse 15.
Deuteronomy 18:15 "The LORD your God will raise up to you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like unto me; to him you shall hearken;" Moses is writing from his own position as the leader of Israel, but he is speaking of this future One Who is Christ.
Deuteronomy 18:16-18 "According to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the LORD (Moses said) said to me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, (That’s why Jesus had to come from the line of David and from the home of Joseph and Mary as He was born in Bethlehem.) like unto you and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him." Come back to Hebrews chapter 3. So, Moses was a faithful servant in everything that God had committed unto him. But this one is to speak to us as from the very mouth of God, so God speaks to us through His Son and these words are those recorded in the first four books which are in reality the end of the last days. (Psalm 72:6, Proverbs 1:23, Isaiah 44:3, Ezekiel 11:19, 36:25-27, 39:29; John 7:39, Titus 3:4-6)
Hebrews 3:6 "But Christ (See the comparison, over and over. Moses on the one hand and Christ on the other and how Moses just pales by comparison to the role of God the Son) as a son over his own house; (Moses was a servant of the Almighty Creator, so he couldn’t say that this is "my" house. He was merely the servant, but Christ as a Son over His own house, He is the owner! He is the total proprietor of this spiritual house that we are going to be looking at) whose house (Paul says) are we,..." What is the lesson? What kind of a house are we talking about? We are not talking about wood and stone and concrete. We are talking about something Spiritual. We are talking about a house being built in the heavens, for eternity! So as a son over his own house, whose house we are! Let’s pick this up in I Corinthians chapter 3.
We feel the Apostle Paul wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews and he is admonishing the Hebrews with the same basic doctrines that he has given to us. We cannot just separate the Epistle of Hebrews and say well, that has nothing to do with me because that was written to the Hebrews. No, this Epistle of Hebrews is full of information for us as Gentiles in this Grace Age as Believers become receivers.
I Corinthians 3:9 "For we are laborers together with God: (See that? We are a part and parcel of God’s building, the rest of the verse says it!) you are God’s husbandry, you are God’s building." We are a part of that which God is building for eternity! And, it is not wood, hay and stubble or gold, silver and precious stones, although those are used as examples of our building materials only to show that as we are laboring in this process of building the building that our labor is set up for rewards. So we are God’s husbandry, we are God’s building, but only in the effect that as a part of this building, we are now contributing to it with our works of faith and obedience. Then you come down to verse 12.
I Corinthians 3:12 "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;" We always divide those three elements as the first three cannot be touched by fire, if anything fire would enhance them. But, the last three would go up in a puff of smoke! That’s what Paul is saying, that as believers, as we are building in this spiritual building, over which God is the Master and Paul is the contractor, who laid the foundation, which is Christ Jesus, then, as we labor, our works will be manifest! Our works are not the works of self effort or self sufficiency but rather are the deeds directed by God done for His glory and not ours. Are we putting in wood, hay and stubble that will disappear in a puff of smoke, as the material Levitical Law which only dealt with the physical world? Or, are we putting in gold, silver and precious stones? That boils down to several factors, most of which, we think, is motivation. As we'll see later in Hebrews God is our sufficiency. These are but metaphors or a play on words for spiritual things which are to become more real than any physical thing now seen or touched.
Why do we do the so-called good works that we do? To get the acclaim of men? Whenever we think of this verse we point out the fact that our good works mean absolutely nothing if the motivation for doing them is wrong! We can do ever so much and if our motivation is wrong it counts but as wood, hay and stubble. We're not to work for any gift because when we put forth our own efforts a gift becomes wages due and stops God from being who He is GOD the self-sacrificing one and our sufficiency. We're designed to be a receiver and Christ is our benefactor that being so we're to be receptive of His beneficence or Him as we're the beneficiary.
Why? Why are we doing it? Why do we give? If we give just so we can impress somebody how much have we given. We have to go back to my childhood, but I can remember when the treasurer of our church at the end of the year would read off the contributions of all the various church members. What was the motivation for his doing that? To get people to give! We give as a way of showing who we are and they give to show who they are or to buy our way into a group or even the kingdom of God and God see's this as foolishness before Him.
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