While watching TV yesterday I heard a young man state that we can not know GOD or see Him. This he had been told in the grossest of errors by his religious form and as we saw yesterday this is under the Law of works. For the Bible says contrary to this as it is a book of revelation of Christ the LORD of All. And yet he was being interviewed as being a "Christian" and as such he should of have known his error in this claim. For those who are actually in Christ know both Christ and GOD as their LORD and Father as well as the Vine, husbandman and even husband and Master. As these are all a portion of Who HE is within them when we One with Them. This one of the secrets of scripture which we are required to know and understand. Now for Pastor Hoekstra and Grace. And then I will look into Seeing GOD with the use of the ESV translation and as always should the LORD GOD give me revelation I will add it without hesitation on my part.
"Tablets of Stone versus Human Hearts"
"You are manifestly an epistle of Christ . . . written . . . not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart." (2Corinthians 3:3)
"The old covenant of law was written upon "tablets of stone." This covenant of law passed away and off the grid with the nailing of the Lord Jesus to the tree. The New Covenant of Grace is written upon "tablets . . . of the heart and impressed on our minds." This is another vital contrast between the old now dead, as works (self-effort in and of the flesh) are dead and New Living Covenants. This difference again decides whether we draw upon man's sufficiency or upon God's.
The old covenant message of GOD's law was written on stones. It called man to holiness, as measured by the character of GOD. "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your GOD am Holy" (Leviticus 19:2). The message is magnificent. However, its impact would be limited (by design), since it was written on "tablets of stone." It was inscribed upon an inanimate object that was external, and made of the elements of the earth, to human lives. Consequently, it could not bring life or any provision for transforming lives. The law would function as a perfect standard, revealing our own unholiness and convicting us that we needed the help that only Christ in Jesus could offer. We needed some means to get the perfect message of the law (Holiness) into our innermost being. This is what the New Covenant of Grace accomplishes.
The New Covenant message of GOD's Grace is written in human hearts: "on tablets of flesh, that is, of the new heart." Grace not only forgives our failure before the law, but it goes to work to develop personal Holiness at the very core of our being. This was the promise GOD gave through His prophets of old, that He would put His Holy law into peoples' hearts. The book of Hebrews applies this promise to all believers in Christ in Jesus. "This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts" (Hebrews 10:16 from Jeremiah 31:33).
What hope we have through the Grace of our LORD Christ Jesus! Now, GOD brings His Holiness from an outside standard to an internal resource. The New Standard. Now, the LORD is making His Holy demands an internal part of our being. GOD is stirring Holy desires in us. GOD is developing Holy priorities within us and providing spiritual strength within us to walk in more and more of HIS Divine Godliness. "It is GOD Who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
Seeing GOD:
Genesis 32:22-23, 24-32 "That same night Jacob arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.
Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that He did not prevail against Jacob, He touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with Him. Then He said, "Let me go, for the day has broken." But Jacob said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me." And He said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with GOD and with men, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked Him, "Please tell me Your name." But He said, "Why is it that you ask My name?" And there He blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered." The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh."
Exodus 24:9-11 "Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the GOD of Israel. There was under His feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld GOD, and ate and drank."
Judges 13:21-23 "The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, for we have seen GOD." But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these."
Job 42:1-6 "Then Job answered the LORD and said: "I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question You, and You make it known to me.' I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
Psalm 141:8-10 "But my eyes are toward You, O GOD, my LORD; in You I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless! Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers! Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by safely."
Isaiah 6:1-5 "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two He covered His face, and with two He covered His feet, and with two He flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His Glory (heavy in respect)!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him Who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"Isaiah 33:17-24 "Your eyes will behold the King in His beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar. Your heart will muse on the terror: "Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute? Where is he who counted the towers?" You will see no more the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand. Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. But there the LORD in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor majestic ship can pass. For the LORD is our Judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our King; He will save us. Your cords hang loose; they cannot hold the mast firm in its place or keep the sail spread out. Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will take the prey. And no inhabitant will say, "I am sick"; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity."
John 14:6-7, 8-14, 15 "Jesus said to him, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen HIM."
Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father Who dwells in Me does HIS works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes (in) Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, this I Will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I Will do it.
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
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