A thought came to me while loading my computer this morning, How many out there have actually submitted or sanctified themselves to the LORD as He did Himself for us His house? Today I am all about our being in subjection to Divine Will. As there seems to be confusion in the camp and out of the camp of what is to be our submission to the plan and purposes, GOD's Will, law and word of our Father Creator. I will look into this under the led of my LORD as I will also look to Pastor Hoekstra and his teaching on Grace as seen of king David. And then I will look at our Submission to the Divine Will, making good use of the ESV translation while I do so.
"David Confessing the Lord as His God"
"I hear the slander of many; Terror is on every side; While they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life. But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." (Psalm 31:13-14)
"Living by Grace involves our looking to the LORD as the one who must work His ways in and through our lives. Another distinctive indication that David lived in this manner was his habit of confessing the LORD as his GOD. "I say, 'You are my GOD'."
Such confessions by David were not mere religious ceremony or as now meaningless platitudes, given in settings of ease and security. Rather, he made such confessions in times of threat and impossibility. When David voiced this particular confession, more than a few people were coming against him with a barrage of slanderous attack. "I hear the slander of many." To day we hear the same from the mouth of well meaning but naïve people who have a form of godliness but are lacking the true and right knowledge of Him and His word. This situation was so bad that fearful circumstances surrounded him. "Terror is on every side." As it was with Him it is even more with the house of GOD, slanderers are conspiring against Him. "They take counsel together against me." Their goal was a total victory. They were plotting in order to completely destroy him. "They scheme to take away my life." This has grown over the centuries because the worlds population has also increased and so has the number of people who have evil in their hearts.
David (like many of God's children) found himself in such embattled situations frequently. One of these many conflicts included cruel taunts that even accused David of being cast off by the LORD. "My enemies speak against me; And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together, Saying, 'God has forsaken him; Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him' " (Psalm 71:10-11). Now we can see how this applies to the Lord Jesus, as well. Because we have 20/20 hind sight of the Spirit as HE reveals Christ both within us and in the scriptures.
Another encounter was accompanied by a very distinct type of pain. David was under threat of death from the hand of Saul, the king he had faithfully served. The superscription from Psalm 59 documents this painful opposition. "A Michtam of David when Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill him."
One opposition brought David a unique measure of personal agony. This occurred when David's own son came to usurp his father's throne. "LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me" (Psalm 3:1-2). The superscription above this Psalm indicates that Absalom led this army of insurrectionists. "A Psalm of David when he fled Absalom his son."
In each of these cruel and painful betrayals, David confessed the LORD to be his GOD. "But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, 'You are my GOD' . . . O my GOD, make haste to help me! . . . Deliver me from my enemies, O my GOD . . . Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my GOD!" (Psalm 31:13; 71:12; 59:1; and 3:7).
Our Submission to the Divine Will:
The Result of Inward Law,
Psalm 40:6-8 "In sacrifice and offering You have not delighted, but You have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, "Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of Me: I delight to do Your Will, O my GOD; Your law is within my heart."
Prayer Essential,
Psalm 143:10-12 "Teach me to do Your Will, for you are my GOD! Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground! For Your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life! In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! In Your steadfast love You will cut off my enemies, and You will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am Your servant."
Establishes a Divine Relationship,
Matthew 12:38-42 "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But Jesus answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here."
Christ the Perfect Example of,
Matthew 26:42-46 and John 5:30 "For the second time, Jesus went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your Will be done." And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, My betrayer is at hand.""
John 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own. As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will but the Will of Him Who sent Me."
Tends to Spiritual Knowledge,
John 7:14-18 and Acts 21:7-14, Romans 12:1-2 "About the middle of the feast [the Feast of Booths] Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?" So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not Mine, but His Who sent Me. If anyone's will is to do GOD's Will, he will know whether the teaching is from GOD or whether I am speaking on My own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of Him Who sent Him is true, and in Him there is no falsehood."
Acts 21:7-14 "When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'" When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, "Let the will of the Lord be done.""
Romans 12:1-2 "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
Whole-heart Required,
Ephesians 6:5-8 and Hebrews 13:20-21 "Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the Will of GOD from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the LORD and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the LORD, whether he is a bondservant or is free."
Hebrews 13:20-21 "Now may the GOD of peace Who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His Will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
The Rule of Every-day Life,
James 4:13-17 and 1John 2:15-17 "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the LORD wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."
1John 2:15-17 "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the Will of GOD abides forever."
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